Beal Properties, LLC — Attraction in Ypsilanti

Stewart Beal has contacted me on several occasions via phone and email asking me to remove this add. Terrible Landlord and STILL the worst experience I've had. __

This was beyond what one should expect in cheap housing. The windows were not the proper size and the one in the bedroom was propped up with pieces of wedge wood. On those -15F days and nights, the breeze would roll through and I even had to clear some snow off the windowsill. The floor was uneven and the carpet was worn through and torn up in some places before I even moved in. I lived in a garden level apartment that was basement turned apartment- and the thin gross carpet, that smelled of cat pee upon move in, was simply rolled out on top of the foundation cement. The whole apartment was dirty and falling apart.

Maintenance issues- It turns out when you don't actually keep up the property, it's going to have maintenance issues, and while Beal was quick to respond to a call and promise he would "immediately take care of it [him]self", those promises fell through. After a long day of work I came home to my bathroom flooded with other people's waste. Someone in an upstairs apartment had flushed something that clogged the whole system and all day, while the apartments above me were using the bathroom, it was coming out my toilet and bathtub. I immediately called Beal and he told me they would try to have someone there in the next 24 hours... which didn't happen. But that in the meantime I could pay for my own hotel or just drive the 5 miles to the nearest 24 store to use the bathroom. This was just one of many issues that Beal never responded to.

While I had two dogs who I cleaned up after, my upstairs neighbors had 3 which were never cleaned up after and I received 3 $100 fines for dog waste. I also received 1 $100 fine because a raccoon was repeatedly dumping over the house garbage cans BECAUSE BEAL DID NOT AND WOULD NOT GIVE US LIDS FOR THE CANS. On top of that, after 8 months, when we finally got lids, they were the cheapest generic lids they could find and they didn't even fit.

The house I was living in caught on fire while I was at a conference in another city due to an upstairs neighbor. Beal called me to let me know and to let me know that he was not going into the apartment to get my dogs out. Luckily my boyfriend was able to get there and get my dogs to a safer place. The red cross came and was attempting to find me emergency shelter and Beal, who was legally responsible for finding each of the tenants a new place to stay, suggested that he refund the rent I already pay and we cut ties, or that I could move into a unit that didn't allow dogs and just leave mine at the shelter or pay a dog boarder for the next two months of my lease. As the firemen were wrapping up and red cross was still figuring out how to house everyone Beal ran to get his truck, climbed up on the house to remove his sign so that no one would no it was his house, and then left without so much as checking in. Doug, who works for Beal, was great though.

Talked Beal into letting me move into a 1br that would let me keep the dogs, and was only able to stay there because I agreed to pay the same rent I was already paying (Even though he moved me into a place that was $150/month cheaper and one bedroom less). And when I say moved me I meant got Doug to give me the keys, but told me I had 3 hours to recover anything I could from the house that was burnt up and (because I lived on the lowest floor) had 2 inches of standing soot filled water. But I wasn't able to move into the new place for two more days- so I moved what little I could save in 3 hours to the hotel the red-cross was paying for and then two days later had to move it all over again.

Lastly, I moved out two months ago, but had to wait until now to write a review because I was worried about not getting my security deposit back. I was promised the entire deposit, but had to call and email a total of 5 times without response before he finally felt pressured enough to send it. It was printed more than 7 weeks after...

I'd like to say "you get what you pay for", but I've had much better apartments for less. My apartment wasn't ready for move-in; they actually asked me to wait a couple more days because of this - which I couldn't do since my last lease ended the day before and they were being generous enough to let me stay the day without a fee.

I have been here 4 months and they still have not painted the walls other than the entrance-way (which they only painted from knee to head). It is in your lease to clean the carpets before you leave and the tenant before me did not - when I spoke with Lisa at the main office and she said, "I would suggest documenting the condition the carpet is in now with photos. Have it cleaned now for yourself. And as long as you are leaving it in as good of condition as documented by the photos, you will be fine. Sound reasonable?" No, this is not reasonable. They came in the next day to clean it after I told her that was unacceptable as that only passes the problem onto the next person.

Although they haven't painted any of my walls, they managed to paint all of my windows shut (except one, that was painted open without a screen...) and complained when I told them to come back and fix it because I refuse to fix their mistakes. I have asked for a shelf for my cupboard because it doesn't have one - let alone I only have 3 cupboards. Oh, and did I mention I only have 1 silverware drawer? I'ts not even wide enough for a separator, I had to be creative. The kitchen just needs to be redone in total. The "new tile flooring" is so uneven the maintenance man tripped.

The only good things I can think of - 1) it's not terribly priced for a dog, although I've seen much cheaper, $50 a month is steep when you think of a 12 month lease. 2) Beal has been pretty responsive. Whether they fix something or not is a completely different topic, but they do respond. Even if it is typically excuses and "oh, no, I didn't receive your email - can you send it again?" Anyone ever hear of a read receipt? Obviously not them. Nice try.

Look for something else. If you're going to spend roughly $7,000 on an apartment this year... there are much better apartments worth your hard earned money.

Update: 8/26/14 Beal contacted me 8/11/14 to ask me to remove this post as he would not like such a blunder on the companies reputation. He asked what he could do to get me to take this down - I told him to fix what I listed... it's been 3 weeks and nothing has changed.

Update: 2/14/15 Beal had his maintenance people re-roof this house after 3 months of having a tarp on it. It took them 1 month to complete the job and it wasn't done correctly. When it snowed 16" a few weeks ago, they did not plow until after the storm had ended. We were snowed in for 2 whole days until he sent out three people, 2 with snowblowers and 1 with a shovel, to remove the snow. He doesn't salt the driveway, he complains when we ask him to do anything, and has been very demeaning and rude. He has too many properties to manage and he's in way over his head. Figures since he has to bribe people to give him a good review since he can't...

I currently reside in a Beal property. During the winter months of our lease, our heat went out due to a broken boiler. We were told it would be fixed in up to 5 days. As 5 days past and the Michigan winter carried on, we experienced extremely cold living conditions. In the lease, Stewart Beal is responsible for providing water and gas. Beal's solution was to provide space heaters which in turn resulted in an almost tripled electric bill that is our responsibility. As we are college students and financially on a strict budget, we are struggling to pay. We asked Beal on multiple occasions if he could reimburse a small portion of the electrical usage to assist us in paying for the excess cost that we incurred. He refused and was quite rude in his response. While we understand the financial burden of the boiler during those months, we were merely requesting some financial compensation (be it a reimbursement or even a portion of our rent being waived for that month). We received neither.

In our time with Beal properties, we have had the pleasure of experiencing a stink bug infestation, a broken bathroom sink (that Beal refused to replace for a considerable amount of time), screenless windows, wasp nests, and holes in the wall.

The place was toured as a 3 bedroom apartment; however, the bedrooms in the attic are not considered bedrooms by housing law so each time a city inspection occurred, we were told that someone would come by in the early morning, remove our beds, and move them outside into the cellar. This was not disclosed to us prior to moving in.

My roommates and, on two separate occasions, have been walked in on at our home by Beal workers and tourists WITHOUT WARNING. The lease clearly states that it is law for residents to recieve a 48hr notice that someone would be entering the apartment. On both of these occasions, the step to notify my roommates and me was completely disregarded and there were strangers wandering through our house in the morning. When we approached Stewart via email about this, he said he apologized and said "...the person that was supposed to notify you didn't, it's as simple as that." The situation was never addressed after that.

Contrary to their slogan, Stewart Beal does not "mean business," but instead means fixing things until they are no longer fixable and the tenant is forced to live with the downfall.

We appreciate all that we have had in our apartment as we love living here; however, the things we have faced are hard to oversee, especially in this time of financial...