Another Realty West Tenant Chimes In.

I received this message from a woman we will call "Susan" less than a day after posting my thoughts on Yelp! Right on "Susan" and thanks for keepin' it real. Feel free to send any other complaints or photos if ya got em.

--i could have written your blog from august - november of 2006 from oak street rather than albion. i've lived as a tenant of rw since 2004 and that's only b.c i am afraid to move out. they charged me $500 PER pet for a deposit - yet my neighbors only have to pay $50 total for their 2 huge pets. among other things. there is still a pile of wood in the garden in the back yard that they never removed, illegal removal of asbestos from our basement (my neighbor is an enironmental engineer for ucsf so he knows and had a fit,) and the wonderful pals i made at 8am pounding monday-saturday. fpr 6 months.i know spanish and would chat and the only english they learned was 'Susan! no more loud today!' at the end of the day. the scaffolding that was put up in october finally was taken down in february. there is hope.
i feel your pain.

The Basement Eviction

See The Video "Dear Landlord"

Giant Pile Number 3 and Our Stolen Property

This pile sat in our backyard for the duration of the deck remodel. About six weeks....which is record time for Realty West and something they should be proud of. Only six weeks! Of course all of these piles happen towards the end of summer....the best time of the year to use the backyard. When they were done their workers pulled down our basketball hoop, breaking it in two and then threw it away with their trash. Jerks!

The Back Stairwell Danger Zone

This is where the staircase is supposed to be attached to the building. It was like this for over a year! This picture does not even do it justice.

Check Out Our Mold!

Do I even need to say anything! I will anyway. This is after the one year apartment remodel. Apparently Realty West does not employ licensed plumbers. This is directly underneath the bathroom of an apartment that was remodeled less than a year ago. It began flooding the basement as soon as the new tenants moved it. This was pointed out by me personally to the building manager and the construction site manger during subsequent projects but never fixed.

Giant Pile Number Two

This time they put it right on top of our garden. It sat here for about two weeks before they moved it to its proper spot...the other side of our backyard. Notice Heather in the background trying to keep the pile out. Thanks again Realty West of San Francisco!

Scaffolding Two Months Later

The Birthday Scaffolding

The landlord insatlled this shade creation device to protect our skin from the suns harmful UV rays while we are inside. While we are outside it sheilds our eyes from the crap that is the side of our building. They put it up on September 2nd with no warning to the tenants. 3 Tenants in this building have September 2nd Birthdays! Needless to say our party was incredibly dangerous. The scaffolding did add a fun 3rd dimension to the party and luckily nobody died. It was up for over 6 months! Cool.

The Top Floor Renovation

I cannot count how many time I was awakened by the workers stomping up the stairs at 7am! I am serious here...7am! I complained to the management quite a few times. One morning when they started up power saws at 7:15 am I went upstairs and unplugged all of their equipment. They yelled at me, I yelled back, etc, etc....In their defense that was the last time they started before 8am.

Check this out!

Don't worry kids that water came from the ceiling not the toilet. Apparently the construction crew burst a pipe upstairs flooding both of our bathrooms.

The First Giant Pile

The Piss Bucket

This is a bucket filled with piss! Realty West does not provide their workers with a proper bathroom so they are forced to create their own. The bucket was a great idea but smelled awful and sat in the basement for over a month before the dumped it into our garden. Looks like they drink beer while the play with power tools also. Awesome!

The Attempted Break In

Shortly after our building manager Max told us the squatters were "harmless." My roommate and I were up late (3am late) playing video games. We were currently (maybe even luckily) addicted to Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas. While sitting in the living room we heard our doorknob turn quietly and our door slowly open. I stood up and slowly walked around the corner to see a young hispanic man standing in my kitchen. He immediatly apologized and claimed he was drunk and in the wrong apartment. No big deal...except that it was 3am. We locked the door and went back to our game. About 30 minutes later (yes we were still awake...what losers) we heard the doorknob shake I walked quietly to the door and waited. It shook again and I opened it to find the same kid trying to get into my apartment. I grabbed him by his shirt and drug him next door and down the hallway. There were about 6 other men there at the time (drinking Coronas and listening to music) and I explained that this had to stop and they needed to control their friend or I would call the police. The next day I phoned Max and demanded this come to an end. Only after someone tried to rob us would he take my complaint seriously and shortly after that the squatters were gone and the construction began.

The Squatter Parties

During the "One Year Apartment Remodel" the empty apartment next door was used by a group of Hispanic Men in their 20's and 30's to sleep and eat but mostly party.....LOUDLY. At all hours of the day "Maraichi Music" blaring through our walls and loud drunken yelling going well into the evening. Or building manager at the time "Max" at first denied that they were there. Then he told us they were some personal friends and that they were "Harmless guys. Really nice guys." A few days after this conversation they had the loudest party yet. Left the front door open the entire next day so that anyone could see the apartment was filled with empty Corona bottles and random messes here and there. Dumped on the sidewalk directly in front of our door: a few giant platters of eaten shrimp tails. I cannot tell you how bad this smelled but will mention that is was only there for 3 days. Max finally came out and cleaned it up himself. What a guy!

The One Year Apartment Remodel

3 months after we moved into our apartment or neighbors moved out. So begins the story (from our perspective) of Realty West Property Management of San Francisco. The apartment sat empty for about 6 months, during which time it was squatted in by a group of Hispanic Men in their 20's and 3o's. Once the construction began it was all jackhammers and saws for about 3 days. The apartment sat gutted for over 4 months. The back door unlocked for anyone to enter at any hour and throw a large piece of concrete or hang from the rafters etc, etc...Then came the final push with another 4 months of on again off again construction. Never a notice or warning just a few workers with power tools doing odd jobs until....a new construction crew takes over. This crew seems a little more legit (i.e. not illegal immigrants) and works harder to finish the job. The Result: a nice new apartment to seduce some other poor souls into the hell that is Realty West of San Francisco.