“Didn’t care about my safety or the safety of the home. Agreed to fix issues when I moved in but never did. Was very legitimate safety issues. Called. Left messages. Sent letters. Didn’t care. Totally disregarded my humanity, and safety with no response to my losses but when I had to move tried to hurt me financially and in finding a safe home. Debra does not care about people just about money.”
“Misty has always been super responsive to messages but honestly nothing ever comes out of what we discuss. Our rent was raised more than the agreed-upon terms, we’ve had cockroaches for almost an entire year, and in the last six months, we’ve spent over a month without hot water and heat. Routine maintenance is never addressed.”
“Hateful woman & a liar. Seriously one of the rudest people I've ever met, ignoring maintenance requests, and price-gouging long-term tenants in good standing. Slumlord and only cares about money, and not the fact that she is responsible for housing people.”
“There are so many things wrong with the house, to the point that the City of Lexington left a long list of required repairs. When I asked the building manager (Jey) about a repair schedule, he didn't seem to care about being cited by the city. Instead, he said something about "new windows". Meanwhile, my ceiling is caving and the hallways, porch, and yard are full of junk. I moved here because of the location, but soon found it wasn't worth it. 9 months into the lease Jey tried to add an additional $50 for parking that had always been free. I was told it was the "other management company that mishandled things'" and that I was still on the hook. Also, my upstairs neighbor has ordered large cases of prepped meals that have sat unopened in the hallways until they rotted so badly that the other tenants were vomiting in their apartments. I've avoided making maintenance requests because Jey gives me the creeps, doesn't respect anyone else's time, and ignores COVID safety precautions. Another tenant had to help me move an air conditioner (that we found just sitting in the hallway) into my window so that my apartment would stay below 90 degrees last summer. This was after a service request with no response for days. I have a dog, and every day was dangerous for both of us. Since moving here in 2021, he has never worn a mask upon entering my apartment, nor cared when I was once quarantined and tried to enter with a random contractor. After knocking on my door continuously to wake me up, he then harassed me to be allowed entry (with no prior notice or emergency situation) in order to let the cable guy "look around". I then watched through the peephole as he knocked a few times and then entered my neighbor's apartment (a young woman living alone), assuming she wasn't home. She was home. She had been asleep and was awakened by 2 strange men walking into her apartment. It made my skin crawl worse than the rotten meat. If it had been me, I would have gone into self-defense mode, so I guess he lucked out on that one. The best (aka worst) part of renting with Urban Vigor/Jey Marks is that the building manager is also a "managing" partner", and all communications go directly to Jey. In fact, when I tried to complain about my neighbor's rights being stomped on, I was told by Jey's assistant how important Jey was in the company, and basically to get over it. In order to hold him accountable, the company doesn't even have a way to complain about the many ways I feel unsafe here. Since that is the case, my only course of action is to file a legal complaint and warn as many people as possible. DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!”
“UPM is the worst management company I have ever dealt with. I have lived in the apartment for seven years, the last five of which they have "managed." I pay my rent on time every single month. Their office staff is astonishingly rude and unprofessional. Maintenance is essentially non-existent; they have raised the rent twice in the last six months, claiming "below market value." However, their units are ALSO "below market quality." The building is falling apart, they employed maintenance personnel who blatantly steal from apartments. They do not screen their tenants except financially. Out-of-state fugitive with pending Rx Fraud charges? Come on over, UPM will not even bother with a ten-second Google search on you. Drug dealers welcome! Do not bother with a "noise complaint" because they will tell you there is nothing they can do. (Untrue, btw). But you can be dang sure they will look into your income, and as long as you can pay the deposit and first month, you are GOLDEN. After that, you will become just another revolving door tenant ripe for eviction. They will not care, they will just evict you to move another trash tenant in and get their deposit and month 1. The apartment has not been painted in seven years, carpet is at least that old, appliances are sh*t. Outside maintenance is mostly non-existent. Overgrown bushes, trees, and parking lot is filled with trash and potholes. Snow removal is non-existent. Broken furnace? Tough. Coldest night of the year? Tough. Avoid this "business" at all costs.”
“We moved into this ”house” on October 1, 2021. The place was absolutely filthy, we had to scrub the floors, walls, and baseboards before moving our things into the house. Immediately, we had issues with the furnace. Lexington Code Enforcement states that a property owner must maintain a 65° temperature in EACH living space, from October 1-May 15. Many times we woke up and the house was below 60°. Recently, (last week of January 2022) we woke up to the thermostat reading 46°. There was an impending ice storm on the way. We put in 10+ maintenance requests to PERMANENTLY fix the issue. We texted, emailed, and even sent multiple letters in the mail to our landlord, to no avail. She ignored us. She left our group chat THREE times. She was combative and apathetic and has clearly gotten away with this. Lexington Code Enforcement gave them 5 days (until February 5) to fix the issue. They disobeyed this order and we were within our legal rights to move out. We were interviewed by LEX18 for this. We have ample proof and the furnace issue is not even the only thing. We were illegally charged $100 a day for a security system we had permission to install. The lease states, “The tenant may have a security system and pay a one-time $75 fee and give the landlord access to the code.” We offered this to our landlord and maintenance multiple times and we were rejected. We obtained a lawyer who guided us through this process so as to not break any laws, otherwise, we would be lost and FREEZING inside of that trash dump on Park Avenue with the YELLOW DOOR. I do have pictures but no links to them. They’re saved onto my phone.”
“I had a major plumbing issue at The August Apartments on Victoria Way. I lived on the bottom level, and every night when my upstairs neighbors let out their sink water, it came rushing up into my sink and got all over my dishes. Their used soapy water and bits of food would get in my dishes and fill up both sides of my sink. It happened for the entire 6 months with no resolution until I finally just broke my lease and left. With so many COVID variants going around, it’s just not sanitary or safe to have a stranger's germs all over my stuff.”
“Horrible. Smooth talker, car salesman type. Liar and does not care about the state of the conditions that tenants live in. Bellefontaine is filled with bugs, drugs, and poor maintenance. Please DO NOT RENT FROM THESE SLUM LORDS.”
“Place was filthy, damaged and pest-ridden when I moved in. Backyard overgrown, rent was nearly 50% higher than similar houses in better condition in the same neighborhood. Lock to the laundry room was on backward, had to remove the knob to gain entrance, mold and mildew everywhere, strong odor of cat urine dominated the house. Bathroom floor sagged, and everything in the house is the lowest quality available. Had to install cabinet handles, (some missing) and scrub the entire house prior to living there. Some mysterious error on the lease caused me to be forced to sign it again which added a month to my year lease. When I moved out, I was shorted nearly my entire security deposit without explanation. All I know was that I was charged $70 to patch two spots on the wall, (because I removed command strips and it pulled painted wallpaper from rotted wall) and $20 for missing cabinet handle (which was never there to begin with). Out of $1700 deposit, I only got $660 back. No comment or explanation. I also cleaned up backyard, and hauled away several loads of brush and trash.”
“The building had several fires in the three years we lived here. During one where the whole building was evacuated, the fire department said the apartment complex would be contacting everyone to let us know what was going on and when it was safe to return. They never did. They also constantly try to blame us for trash in the common areas that aren’t ours and leave threatening letters on our door demanding that we deal with it. Recently they blamed us for leaving trash by the compactor but never gave us a notice that we owed any money. We received an email with no information telling us we were overdue to pay and that we needed to give them an unspecified amount of money. When you try to clarify and ask questions about any of this, they will blatantly ignore you. They also do SEVERAL inspections a year and did not follow any covid precautions when entering resident units during the outbreak.”
The Lexington Tenant Review 