Review of Park Avenue Properties in Charlotte, NC

We get many requests and reviews from services and companies every month, one of our latest ones was for Park Avenue Properties, which was less than satisfactory. After doing a bit of research, we found that this property management company is not recommended by many of their tenants.

Our first stop was on Yelp where Park Avenue Properties has a 1 star rating. From top to bottom, we found that the largest issue tenants have had with this company is their unprofessionalism, communications skills, maintenance, and regard for for their tenants, which is rated at zero.

Unprofessionalism

Various reviews mention that this company is not well organized. When speaking to employees over the phone they get harsh attitudes and that's when they can even get someone on the phone, which we will address in the communications section.

"Never have I had to commit so much time to emails/phone calls with a company, only to be left hanging, waiting for call backs, writing 3~4 emails to get a response, waiting days for said response. When i did get a response, it was short and sometimes even rude. When I asked to speak with her Manager, I was told no." -Adam S. 6/23/14

According to reviews, in terms of organization, the company does not do a good job of ensuring that vendors make repairs and instructing them on how to proceed with conducting repairs legally. Reviews also state that this company does not keep track of properties and their owners, whether or not they are for sale, whether or not they already have leased tenants before they offer it up to prospective tenants, which is unprofessional.

Tenants have stated that the company does inspections, yet the houses they get are not move-in ready. The company subcontracts all of their repairs, inspections, and showings.

"This company fakes inspections and leaves owners and renters in the dark because they don't get up out of their office cubicles and actually KNOW the properties they are renting or selling."- SPM V. 4/09/15

Financially it seems many tenants have had a problem with getting their security deposits back.

"THE LAZY PEOPLE OF PARK AVENUE PROPERTIES STILL KEEP WITHDRAWING RENT OUT OF OUR ACCOUNTS! We haven't gotten our security deposit back even though we left the home in IMMACULATE condition (we vacuumed, cleaned all the windows, and got all the trash out)."- Caroline K. 4/06/2015

"Our security deposit was returned after the allowable one month period (illegal) and was returned only after my asking where it was. Also, it was $5.00 short"- Adam S. 6/23/14

A review from a member of the armed forces stated that this company attempted to damage their military career and told the owner of the property apparent lies, it read:

"The 3rd property manager was also telling the owner of the house false statements and in turn the home owner tried to get my military career damaged. I moved out because I am deploying and now they are telling me my girlfriend who is now my wife is responsible for the last month's rent. We were told prior to move in that she WOULD NOT be held responsible for any monies if I left. Also did I mention the owner of the house is crazy and threatened to shoot me? I have been sending emails to the VP Jennifer Stoops and she has not returned any e-mail. I want my deposit back and they are not doing anything. I would recommend never rent anything from them. They are screwing over members of the armed service and they do not care."- Josh F. 7/08/14

Maintenance

This is arguably the worst set of complaints this management company has received. It seems, that a large portion of complaints come from their maintenance department, which is run by a person mentioned as Carrie and the supervisor, Deborah. One tenant mentioned having lived in the unit for just 5 weeks and already having 10 maintenance requests.

"I have lived in my unit for 5 weeks and in that time have had over 10 maintenance requests."- Brianne D. 4/23/2015

All of these maintenance requests required many follow-ups and bouts of unresponsiveness to resolve. Another tenant also stated having been given a home unit that was not move-in ready and having had horrible experiences with maintenance. All reviews have maintenance issue in common, especially when it comes to responsiveness and whether or not requests are scheduled and followed through on. Another tenant wrote:

"Carrie at maintenance gave a key to their repair vendor and told them they could walk in whenever they pleased without notifying us prior, which is against the law and a violation of our lease. We told her boss, Deborah, this, and she said that we shouldn't care when they come as long as it gets done. "- P.M. 7/01/15

Its evident by our findings that whenever a complaint was made regarding "Carrie's" or whoever is in charge of maintenance, the supervisor "Deborah" either did nothing, or responded with even worse regard. This review in particular is disturbing. No management company has the right to give a key to a vendor and tell them to access the unite whenever they please, without offering prior notification to the tenant. And we've never seen a management company do this before. The supervisor's response was also very unprofessional and opens this company up for lawsuits and lease violations.

Part of the review read,

"We don't know what the issue is between maintenance and their vendor, but the vendor says Carrie doesn't send work orders and Carrie tells us she has, but both call us liars when nothing gets done, and thats the bottom line." - P.M. 7/01/15

Various other reviews noted having an issue between maintenance and vendors, stating they both had discrepancies regarding work orders. We don't now exactly what the issue is regarding maintenance, however, we do think that if all reviews have complaints about maintenance, and the company has done nothing to replace or restructure the staff in this department, there is a supreme lack of responsibility on the part of the company.

Communication Skills

Tenants stated in reviews that they had difficult times receiving replies from the company. Maintenance took 3 days or more to respond, if they responded at all, and all repairs required months of follow-ups before being taken care of. When complaints about maintenance or staff surfaced, the tenants could not get in contact with supervisors and executive level employees to resolve these issues.

"They put so much red tape to communicate with them that eventually it takes up so much time that people get discouraged and don't deal with them." -SPM V. 4/09/15

Reviews stated that communication between maintenance and vendors was subpar. Vendors often stated not having received work orders for repairs, while maintenance stated they were sending them. Communication between employees was also criticized, stating that they did not aptly communicate issues regarding tenant queries, complaints, and requests.

"First, they provide no service, never answer the phone, or return messages."-I.M.U 6/26/15

"Horrible service!!! I can never get a hold of anyone in that office.
I feel bad for both the tenants and the landlords. Bad service on both ends!!!I agree 100% with all of these other horrible reviews,and clearly they are for all the same reasons! They need to clean house, and get some people in there that care about customer service."- Shelley A. 5/08/15

We are aware that Park Avenue Properties asks that tenants offer reviews on Yelp, Google, and City Search. This company does not do first come-first serve service. Instead, charge $55 per applicant, gather as many apps as they can and send them all through the verification process; you may be paying $55 for an application for a property that is already in the process of being leased, because they do not hold the property in the interim of verification and selection. This is very unprofessional and rare, most property management companies do not do this.

It appears that many tenants are upset; management does not seem to be responding to this. In fact, one review stated that they were just one of 250 families their airline was moving to Charlotte, after enduring unprofessional experiences with Maintenance and unresponsiveness from the Vice President of sales, Jennifer Stoops, the tenants told the airline to do business with another company. That's 250 sales lost because of unresponsiveness, lack of communication, rudeness on the part of maintenance and all of these other issues. Companies must be aware that overtime, this mistreatment of customers catches up. As with the review from Josh above, it seems Jennifer never returns emails or calls; this would be why so many sales have been lost according to reviews.

DISCLAIMER: The reviews we checked into were on Yelp, and we did so after a request from various Charlotte residents who used this company and were fed up with the treatment they were receiving. These excerpts are all from actual reviews, and this business has a 1 star rating on Yelp, we have not checked on reviews from Google or CitySearch. Tenants who contacted us had supporting documentation for their complaints and asked us to research reviews for this company.