AYA | Fully Furnished Apartments for Rent — Local services in New York

Edited to add: AYA responded to this review offering help, but we were in contact throughout all this. It's not something I'm just now bringing to their attention. The offer is disingenuous and insulting.

TLDR: AYA takes advantage of people new to NYC and is the most unreliable company I've ever worked with. Cannot recommend strongly enough against.

Let's start at the beginning: The leasing agent (Marc) was an hour late and told me to meet him at the wrong address. When I told him I wasn't viewing that property, he told me to just look at it. Turns out, he was even later for a showing at that building and was just trying to lump me in with another potential renter. He then made me sit through six more showings at the same building before taking me to one of the two properties I was actually supposed to see. We didn't go to the other because he hadn't gotten permission from the tenants before telling me I could view it, and it turns out the one I did see wasn't actually available. I had two other showings scheduled for properties in Manhattan and had to cancel because Marc had wasted so much of my time. He told me another woman had signed for my eventual unit that day, and only one room was left, so I would have to sign immediately. Since I had cancelled other showings, this was the only available unit I had seen in person, and I begrudgingly signed. Throughout the leasing process, Aya agents were almost impossible to get in touch with and were extremely rude and condescending. Absolutely unprofessional.

A month later, I moved in. No women had signed, and one bedroom was still open. A window was broken in that room, and it took over a month to fix, despite repeated calls to management. The three men I was living with were extremely messy, and since I had been anticipating not being the only woman, I was just really uncomfortable with the setup. I reached out to Aya and asked if I could switch units. After two follow ups, Java finally scheduled a call, and then didn't answer when I called at our scheduled time. I left a voicemail, but he never called back. About a week later, I got an email from Danielle that housekeeping was complaining about how disgusting our apartment was, and we would all be fined if it didn't get better. It is illegal for their company to enter our apartment without notice, which we didn't get for cleaning services. I reminded her of that and that I had also complained about how messy the men were, and she told me that in order to not be fined myself, I would have to periodically send her photos documenting the men's messes - absurd in its own right, but especially considering the lack of communication they had shown me. I again asked to switch units and was ignored.

Then, the pandemic hit. Hating my living situation anyway, I temporarily moved home. My lease was set to end in July - (Marc had told me upon signing that every tenant in the apartment had signed in July, and it would help him out a lot if I signed through July instead of June. That was a lie. The others that had signed at that time only signed through April.) and I was planning on coming back then.. At the end of May, I started getting "Urgent" emails from Java, telling me that I needed to move out as soon as possible because they were giving my unit back to the building owner. With less than a week left in May, I told him I couldn't be out by June 1 but would try to be back and out by July 1. When I finally returned, Aya had illegally changed the locks on my unit so I couldn't even get in to pack. Since I couldn't get in my apartment on my only non-work day to pack, so I told the property managers that I couldn't be out by July 1. They insisted I had to be anyway. They had also turned off my wi-fi and packed up all of the furnishings they provided. When I brought up the absurdity of this, I was ignored. I then had over $300 withheld from my security deposit for not being able to finish packing before I left, even though I told them the time frame they gave me to pack was impossible.

These people are slumlords. Do...

I had lived in an AYA rented room for three months, and the amount of issues I have encountered regarding the state of the apartment, amenities, maintenance, breaches in contract agreement, and customer service from AYA management is astounding.

The rooms are falsely advertised on their listings; they purposely use photos and descriptions that make rooms out to be larger than they are in reality. For tenants who did not have the time to view their rooms before moving in, and were given a virtual tour were blatantly mislead. My roommate was shown a room on a FaceTime tour that was completely different from the one she arrived to. The room she moved into was smaller and more expensive, she was stuck upon arrival as she had no other choice, coming from out of town.

The electricity in our apartment is incorrectly wired; when someone in a separate apartment flips their lights on/off the lights in our rooms also flip on/off. Our heating unit was in need of maintenance, and despite multiple communications with AYA management, no solution has been presented. Our heater intermittently shuts off leaving our apartment freezing upon waking up/returning home from work.

When AYA realizes a tenant is in dire straits, and has not found an alternative living situation they are coerced into taking an offering of AYA rooms in the building, or renewing their lease, last minute. The prices on these rooms and renewals are increased because the tenant has no other choice; there is absolutely no control set on the price of rooms. AYA is required per their own contractual agreements, to give tenants a minimum 24 hours’ notice before showing their room to prospective tenants. This has never been the case; my roommates on multiple occasions have been surprised by AYA employees showing their rooms without any notice, breaching their privacy policies. I had an AYA agent show up to my apartment unannounced, they requested to enter, I denied them entry as I was in the midst of something private, and they STILL entered the apartment, despite my verbal denial of the request.

The lease AYA has with the current building I am living in states the apartment we are occupying is a 3 bedroom. AYA without the consent, or notice of the building landlord built a makeshift 4th room to increase their profits. The room does not have any source of heat, and is improperly insulated, it is unbearably cold in that tenants room during the winter.

I have been living in NY my entire life and have NEVER experienced a “living” agency to be so neglectful, and to take such advantage of its tenants.

SEE BELOW FOR RESPONSE TO AYA’s REPLY TO COMMENTS:

1st Response;

You’re correct, I was able to view the apartment I moved into in person, however my roommate was not. She was given a virtual tour of a different room, and upon moving in she realized the room she was occupying was not the one showed on the tour. She contacted the agent who had helped her, and the agent seemed confused and was unable to bring clarity to the matter.

2nd Response;

I think saying “you always do your best” to address property-related concerns is a gross misrepresentation of what actually goes on. Yes concerns were addressed, but only after constant and unrelenting requests from myself to your staff. Minor issues took weeks to fix, staff members were unable to accurately communicate with each other what the problem was, and in some cases had trouble understanding what needed to happen. A simple filter change of a heating unit took weeks. I have the text messages and emails saved if again, you need supporting evidence.

3rd Response;

I have not ONCE received a 24hr notice. The invasion of privacy by agents persists, despite many communications with AYA staff. I had to file a claim to the BBB for grievances against the agency. I have the evidence to support these communications, and the lack of respect paid by AYA to tenants privacy.

4th Response;

Two of my roommates rent had been increased $100+/mo upon renewal of their lease. They had no choice in the matter, as they had...

IF YOU DECIDE TO RENT WITH THIS COMPANY READ THIS FIRST!

I originally wrote a review giving Aya 1 star due to their terrible communication skills and lack of initiative to my relocation request to another apartment. I decided to remove that previous review because I kept getting emails from management regarding it.

However, I will not remove this review. I moved in June 15th 2020. The room came furnished with bedding. Today, I decided to remove all layers of bedding to clean and discovered the most dirty, stained, and disgusting mattress. I use my own bedding on top of the existing bedding that protects the mattress so I never cleaned that part of the bedding because it is covered well and never dirty.

I emailed Aya to only be accused by Danielle of making my mattress dirty.

Here is here response:

" Hi Makeda,

Thank you for your email. Your move in date was June 15th, We clean and sanitize the rooms including the mattresses prior move in, we don't provide members with dirty mattresses.

Please make sure to sanitize and clean it, I can have Charlie there with you on one of his visits to give you cleaning tips on how to take care of it if needed.

Kind regards, Danielle"

The mattress was never replaced during COVID. The problem with this company is the lack of comprehension and listening skills. You have to be a special level of arrogant to make such preposterous statements.

UPDATE -- 1/20/21: New bed received by management after I stated I will update my review to this new one... a few hours later.

CON #2

You can't choose who your roommate will be nor can you choose to live in an apartment with women only. Men have different ways of using the bathroom which can become unsanitary very fast.

I emailed Danielle regarding relocation because the boy I live with is truly disgusting and refuses to change his habits even when asked. Her response was:

" Hi Makeda,

Thank you again for your email. Notes can make him nervous and feel uncomfortable since he just moved in. There is a basic way to leave the apartment clean and neat for the others to live in peace.

Sit with him and communicate with each other so he won't do it again, on our end we can't send him an email telling him to clean the toilet seat after use, this is inappropriate.

In order to relocate, you can contact Kelly. As far as I know you had a discussion in the past about relocation so she should be able to help.

Kind Regards, Danielle"

The reviews regarding everyone being priced differently for the same room size in the building is true. All the negative responses regarding this company is true.

IF YOU DECIDE TO RENT WITH THIS COMPANY BECAUSE YOU ARE DESPERATE AS HELL!!!!!!! PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING:

Check and take pictures of EVERYTHING prior to moving in because they are NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

Take pictures of the flooring, walls, mattress, and condition of the furniture in the room as well as the entire apartment. My room had scratches on the wood prior to me moving in.

You can't choose who moves into the apartment. If you are not comfortable with living with men....you have no choice.

The biggest con of not being able to choose is that you can't feel out the prospective tenant...because you will know when something is off with someone.

Safety is an issue as their are no background checks....I was living on the other-side of a drug addict. Aya did nothing to properly remove this person and continued to move people into that apartment. He was a danger to everyone in the building. He broke the front door and offered drugs to a tenant in that unit. Police were called but he was still allowed to live here despite being a...