Beal Properties

4/2/2016

I live at 510 W Briar Pl, and I've been here for about 4 months. Although some of the tenants in my building are a little on the sketchy side, for the most part the people are friendly. It's a dog friendly building, and most people who have dogs are responsible about noise level and monitoring interactions. I live on the 5th floor, so it's pretty quiet, and my direct neighbors are great. The elevator was a little wonky when we first moved in, but they have since fixed it. It's a major perk to have an elevator in the building. There are only 3 washers and 3 dryers, so I would recommend them adding to these, but I've never had a problem with not being able to do my laundry when needed. The apartment itself is spacious and has a good layout, and compared to other buildings in the area is a good deal for the price. Having parking on site is a major bonus for us, and the price, while steep, is comparable to other prices in the area.

The management group has actually been really easy to work with for us. Any issues we've had in terms of adding a parking space or an issue with another tenant have been dealt with promptly and effectively. We have also had everything we needed fixed repaired within a day or two--Mike the maintenance guy is on site and great, and his wife is very nice. I kind of feel like maybe you get what you put in? We are always very polite, clear, and thankful when dealing with both the management group and maintenance in our building, and we've gotten the same courtesy back.

6/22/2016

I would highly recommend NOT renting from this management group. I have only lived in one of their Lakeview apartments for 3 months and have had nothing but issues that the management group is avoiding dealing with. Sewage came up into my bathroom and after 5 days of having "fixed" the plumbing, maintenance still has not come back to clean my bathroom. Now I have a rat in my kitchen that I've had to wait to days to get an exterminator to come for. I've contacted their office about compensation or a pro-rated months rent and they are being evasive and unwilling acknowledge the inconvenience they've but me through.

Avoid this management group!!! The apartments aren't worth the rent price and they aren't willing to fix their poor quality.

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  The sewage that came up in a Lakeview apartment that after fixing 5 days ago, Beal still has not come in to clean.

  The sewage that came up in a Lakeview apartment that after fixing 5 days ago, Beal still has not come in to clean.
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  The sewage that came up in a Lakeview apartment that after fixing 5 days ago, Beal still has not come in to clean.

  The sewage that came up in a Lakeview apartment that after fixing 5 days ago, Beal still has not come in to clean.

5/14/2016

Since I recently found out these hacks changed their name again, it is only fair to place my previous review of Apartments Management Group here under Beal Properties...

I can only assume that any of the 4 or 5 star reviews for this place were paid for or were made by close friends of the jokers that "manage" these properties.

One star is beyond what these absolute amateurs deserve.  We moved in to 917 W Dakin 202 under Zale Properties and had a nice experience.  There were a couple of issues that we brought to their attention the first couple of days we moved in and we were told the issues would be handled.  

About a month or two in, we found out Apartments Management Group had purchased the property.  We let the new company know the issues we were told would be handled and it fell on deaf ears.  The biggest issue was that our balcony door was on 1 of the 3 hinges as the other two were rusted off.  This allowed water to enter when it rained.  The water would pool right around the corner of the door and it has since caused the wood to buckle severely. We first notified the office on 6/24/2015 and never heard a word back until we started calling regularly 7/22 and 7/30 when we were told someone would come by to "check it out".  

Timeline to this point:
6/24 - Told Apt Mgmt Group about door
7/22 - Another follow-up to maintenance
7/23 - First told the door was ordered, then told someone checked it out, then told they decided they needed to replace the door...???
7/30 - No reply about status, then told someone would be back "today or tomorrow" to check the door again

By this point (August), we started to notice browning around the door which we could only assume was water damage.  Eventually, we saw mold start to form where the brown marks had once been.  We sent pictures and once again clarified our concerns and all we kept hearing back was that that it was being worked on.  We may as well have been communicating by telegram.

Rest of timeline:
8/11 - Still no reply after several follow-ups (calls and emails)
8/13 - Told the door would be replaced but unsure when
8/17 - "sending a company in to estimate
8/19 - No reply and then eventually find out the person replacing the door would be in "tomorrow"
8/24 - Send pics with browning/mold due to their neglect
8/25 - Told the door was ordered and it would take 7-14 days
9/2 - Told water damage would be fixed after door installed
9/14 - No word on door and then later told it would be replaced 9/15

By this time, the floor around the corner where the water pool was completely warped and there has got to be more mold beneath that.  It looks like a skate park for mice.

The bottom line is these people are complete hacks.  All they needed to do was reply and address our issues from the start and this all could have been avoided.  They neglected our issues time and time again.  There is no circumstance in the world I would recommend someone move into one of these complete piece of trash properties.  These people should be avoided like the plague, or like mold...

Unless you are moving from a place where running water and a roof are considered to be luxury items, DO NOT MOVE HERE.

6/28/2016

Julie and Erin are the worst here. I had to move out my building due to constant trespassing, poor security, drugs in the hallways and being sexually harassed. I have contacted them both several times and they never respond. I had to terminate my lease early and gave her valid proof about the circumstances but she never responded. I wanted to do this amicably and I even found another tenant! Yet, Julie still refuses to talk to me. Horrible company. DO NOT lease from them. They are using several units as AIR BNB! Not a safe building at all!

8/12/2016

If I could give a 0 star rating I would. Truly the most unprofessional people I have ever had to deal with. It would take me 10 pages to explain all the issues I had living in their property for 1 year. Complete frauds and thiefs.

5/10/2016

My apartment was broken into 16 days ago while I was asleep. Not only did it take 36 hours for them to put plywood over the window but we still don't have the window fixed! I've sent a letter to them and I have called but they are ignoring me. I was new to the Chicago area and they took advantage of my roommate and I. This is the second home invasion and the first one wasn't even reported to them by their own building engineer. Someone please help! No idea what to do but these people are Monsters who don't care about their tenants. Zero stars if I could.

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  Day 15 of plywood...

  Day 15 of plywood...
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  Still broken and the board isn't even attached at the top

  Still broken and the board isn't even attached at the top

7/26/2016

BEWARE!! If you are looking at available units in 947 - 957 W Cornelia, LOOK ELSEWHERE! The units are fixed up in haste, the building is crap but most of all, THE MANAGEMENT COMPANY IS THE WORST. Construction workers hired by this company caused significant problems to my unit due to several errors they made in the unit below. After bringing these concerns to the management company EVERY DAY FOR A WEEK, the building manager responded by screaming at me (cool for a grown man to do right?) and telling me that my concerns "were not his problem". He tried to insist that I get an external company to resolve the issues that their own workers caused. When I tried to escalate the problem I was simply told that the owner "doesn't make time for tenants" and they refused to provide me with their name or information. I was promised that I would be reimbursed for the significant inconveniences that they caused me, and to VERY little surprise they never followed through. If you are a young renter/professional they will treat you with absolutely no respect. It is really against my nature to go online to complain, but I am hoping to forewarn future renters of the headaches living here will cause.

4/26/2016

The building is not kept up as far as the physical structure (faucets, doors, outlets, etc.). The laundry room smells like mildew and floods constantly. All of the washers run with extremely hot water no matter what setting and laundry is $4 load. The police have had to be called several times on the neighbors across the hall for ridiculously loud domestic disputes at all hours. The elevator is constantly broken, often has swastikas scrawled inside. ALL packages get stolen. There is a note everyday from a sad tenant asking to please return their package. The windows in the bathroom are permanently dirty and there's water damage everywhere in the apartment. People wander in and have even gone to sleep in the lobby because the door is broken periodically. Yes it is inexpensive for the area, but at $860 for a very small studio it shouldn't be this bad.

6/17/2016

I just moved into one of their apartment in Lakeview. I have been very happy with their services. I needed to adjust my current lease and change some things with my co-signer and they were very accommodating. My manage for this building, Hal, is also very helpful. I moved here in June and didn't realize the apt didn't have AC. He installed an AC within 48 hours for a great price. The people have all been very friendly, sometimes hard to get ahold of, but they have busy schedules.

1/28/2016

Horrible slumlords. One day I came home to find everything in my apartment covered in heavy dust. They were gutting the apartment directly above mine and had not posted any notice or gotten the necessary permits. I lost a lot of personal property and my dog was seriously ill from breathing in this crap. I called and they said they didn't have to explain anything to me. They continued the demolition and living there became unbearable . I asked to be let out of my lease and they refused. I got a lawyer that specialized in tenants rights. We reported all the violations and things got worse. I came home and they had put glue in all of my locks. It was pure hell. Buyer beware.

1/6/2016

I would give them 0 stars if that was a possibility.  I would rather be homeless than ever again rent from Beal Properties (who renamed themselves several times to avoid bad reviews-- Apartments Management; Green Bay LLC, etc.).

- The ceiling of our apartment leaked at a rate of 1 gallon/hour and they flat-out REFUSED to fix it. They only fixed it once we mailed pictures of the damage with our rent check.
- The back door of our apartment was rotted wood and wouldn't latch properly. Still refused to fix it despite receiving pictures of the problem.
- We also had mice and an ant infestation.
- Your lease states that YOU are responsible for the furnace.  If the furnace breaks or needs repair, it is THE TENANT'S RESPONSIBILITY.  WHAT?!  If that's the case, then shouldn't I be allowed to take it with me when I leave?
- Storage area in the basement flooded and ruined everything in storage.  
- They would wait to cash rent checks for a month or flat out lie that they never received them.  Towards the end of my time living there, I started sending all checks certified with tracking numbers and documented every detail. Often checks would have to be hand-delivered to their office.
- Office staff is rude, unhelpful, and would lie.
- Maintenance staff was uselss, and entered our apartment several times while we were gone and without prior notification in non-emergency instances. Back stairs were NEVER shoveled-- we had to do it ourselves.

6/2/2016

Believe all the horrible reviews and stay away. If you have already paid your application fee, I would still suggest taking that loss and not signing the lease. They are a corrupt company who will find ways to get money out of you any way they can. They took over our building halfway through my first year, then changed our lease to an 8-month lease without telling us. We now have two weeks to find a new place or renew again. They did this so they could raise the rent price sooner, which they have. It has also taken 6 months + for them to fix things that have broken or were rotted out. They don't seem to care that they are extremely unethical and take on more buildings then they can manage. I would strongly recommended finding an apartment with a different management company, even if it might not be the apartment you want.

2/23/2016

The office staff was always very nice and prompt in corresponding with any issues. But they're just a typical management company. There will always be a problem with any apartment and no management company is perfect. Just please update the laundry facilities at your 947 W Cornelia apartments. I lived there for a year and there were broken machines throughout my residency that never got fixed despite letting multiple building janitors know.

7/20/2015

This is not a very good company to rent with. Although most of the apartments are older, they're primarily in very popular and trendy areas with a slightly lower price than others. Unfortunately, the slightly lower price point isn't worth it and you'd be better off paying more for service that's far better than what's offered here.

The service is inadequate for several reasons. First, it's next to impossible to reach the management office by phone or email. They don't answer their phone or they'll take forever to get back to you if at all. Second, each building is run by a manager. The managers generally keep the buildings clean but they are just like the management office, they're unresponsive, so if you need a repair done you're going to have to call them numerous times.  Usually you'll have to fix the problem yourself which makes me wonder why I pay even close to what I paid when I lived with them. It was very aggravating and I'm generally easy to please.

In the end, I was happy to move out once the time came. I was able to find an apartment with a company that provides far superior service and features a more modern and unique array of options.  I give Beal 2 stars simply because the building I lived in was kept up for the most part and the apartments weren't horrible, but the service was too far below par for me to recommend them.

12/2/2015

Run. Run screaming. These people are glorified slum lords. RUN. The management is indifferent. The service is incompetent. It borders on dishonest. RUN. RUN. RUN. Any company is better. Any management company is better.

Beal flirted with rebranding, but apparently people saw through it and they reverted back to Beal.

I wish I could find one positive attribute to say about this company, but there just isn't one. Not one. RUN.

1/27/2016

The first few months were okay. The last few months, not so much. Once they found out I was not going to renew the lease it was like Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Daniel the janitor kept hounding me asking if I was going to resign the lease, the last time we spoke on the phone he told me if I did not renew then I would need to be out of the apartment by the 1st. That is what I did and now the company does not want to give me my security deposit back. I have never seen the landlord, I have actually never seen anyone from this company other than Daniel the janitor. Even when I moved in I was only given 1 set of keys (by Daniel) and that was it. When I asked for the second set they told me I would have to come by the office to pick it up in person even though the office is only opened Monday through Friday 9 to 5 which is also when I work and they were not even willing to work with me. Oh and fyi, the washers and dryers are 2 dollars each and they also don't work! I originally put up a positive review when I had just moved in but now I have to change it because I would hate for someone to work with this company due to my review. These apartments are extremely overpriced for nothing. The kitchen is not updated, the windows are old, the bathroom has tiles that are falling in and the heat does not keep anything warm in the winter. They also had the nerve to try to raise the rent from 1320 to 1500! That is why if you look on craigslist all of their building are up because no one wants to rent from them. Barbara is a character, she's nice when she thinks you want to renew but once she finds out you don't then that's it. The response time to email went from same day to almost a week! And if I did not email her and follow up I would still not have my response. Long story short, do not rent from them. There are a ton of beautiful places in Evanston and they do not own any of them.

11/15/2013

Run away from this place as fast as you can!!!

In January 2011, I found this place with the help of a friend when I was in a bind and making a quick move from out of state. I only saw pictures and figured it would do as I was making my transition to the city. I was wrong.

When my rent was a day late, I received threatening phone calls stating that I was being evicted, and I was rudely informed that whatever circumstances I was going through, they didn't care and it "wasn't their problem".

My neighbors have always been loud and obnoxious, but I attempted to ignore that. However, we quickly found that packages could no longer be delivered to.our address because there was a their in the building. It took them almost an entire year and several tenants' mail being stolen before they addressed that issue.

In September of 2011, the already rickety elevator broke. Someone actually got stuck and had to be rescued by the fire dept!! There was a note posted 2 weeks later that the management was "working on getting the problem fixed and it would be working again soon." That was 6 months ago, and I've recently been informed that not fixing it is illegal in the city of Chicago.

In December of 2011, our maintenance man was fired and a new one came in. Shortly after, someone broke into the building and stole the master set of let's to each unit and began letting themselves in, thus ransacking apartments and leaving everyone frightened. When I asked when my.lock would be changed, I was told to do it myself because it was unclear when they would "get around to it."

And finally, last month I was out of town for a week. When I came back, I walked by the laundry room on the first floor and it was burned to a crisp. The smell was unbearable and needless to say, I no longer had a facility to do my laundry. The maintenance man's wife was kind enough to give me a key for the building across the street so I could do laundry there, however there were no questions asked when she handed that key over. Seemed strange. And to this day, no one has been officially notified as to what happened, cause of fire (it was speculated electrical/faulty building wiring), etc.

This building is at 635 W. Barry. The ONLY good thing about this property is the maintenance man's wife, a sweet young mother of two who does just about anything to help us out. She's the only reason this place gets a star at all. Otherwise, I'm glad to be getting out of this slumlord-run hell hole.

5/11/2011

These people are scam artists.  Make sure you track EVERYTHING you send to them.  You can send your rent three years early, and they'll still claim it's late.  One time I sent my rent in a week early, they claimed they didn't receive it, but three weeks later when I sent a replacement one (after repeated calls to go in and hand them a check or rent money), it magically was received the next day, along with my check from three weeks prior.  When I called them out on it, and asked what the post-dates were for each envelope sent, I got hung up on.  

When you call the office and talk to the wench working there, she'll tell you it's your fault and promptly hang up on you.  They love to raise their rent to obscene levels, charge $4 to do a load of laundry and are just horrible HORRIBLE people to rent from.  As proof of how horrible, the lease extension they sent me had a whole page devoted to all the complaints that had been filed against them (rotting doors, broken windows, just to name a few).  

Unfortunately, they are sneaky now and do not even refer to themselves as Beal Properties.  Apparently each building has their own name (i.e., Diversey Building, LLC, Mildred Building, LLC).  They answer the phone as "building management" and you can never get them to say Beal.  If you have to call 773-862-5200, or send rent to the Damen address, you have the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with them.  Be careful if you use Apartment Finders, as many of the buildings they show are owned by Beal Properties.

7/10/2013

I lived at 1220 North LaSalle for 7 months. Beautiful, affordable apartment in a great area. The on-site management is great and kept the place nicely clean and painted. If you ever had an issue all you had to do was text the on-site person and you typically got a quick response.
Any time I ever called the office on Damen, I was sent to a woman's voicemail who NEVER picked up her phone.
Any time I ever dealt with anyone in the office, they lacked in basic customer service. No smile, no please and thank you.

3/4/2013

By far, this is the worst management company I have ever been with.  Beware that they have changed their name to Rentals Management and, currently, they are known as Apartments Management.  apartmentsmanagementgrou…  

Issues with them include:
Entering apartment without notice, janitor/on-site person Julia smoking in back stairwell of non-smoking building, phone threats to cut our locks on our bikes which were locked in courtyard (no written rule against it), exterminator showing up without notice, repeatedly calling company and Julia for broken door knobs (I was locked in the bathroom for an hour until my roommate came home), mice, electric issues, with no response for weeks.  She had also promised someone would come (so I would make arrangements with work) and NO ONE WOULD SHOW.  

I just found out that our 2BR with dining room at 813 W. Waveland is going for $1575 and we paid $1185 30 days ago.  They might turn it into a 3BR by eliminating the dining room.  No renovations to justify the price hike.

THE LAUNDRY ROOM IS DISGUSTING.  It smells of sewage (I actually called 311 three times).  It isn't a finished basement - just a cement floor with six terrible washer/dryers at $1.75 per load and a WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED in the back part of the apartment building by the laundry area.

ALL apartments have the same front door key - super unsafe and weird.  

Please do not live here.. even if it is cheaper, it will cost you so much more in the end.  Terrible, terrible building management.