Dutch House — Local services in New York

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Because of construction and management issues, other tenants and I faced significant cold drafts during the winter, probably poor insulation, and exceptionally high heating bills. No tenant should deal with these issues, but it's particularly surprising because this is a new building with not-inexpensive rent.

If you're considering signing a lease here (especially without a rent concession), hopefully you find this detail helpful.

Early Issues / Postal Service

I was one of the building's first tenants in June 2022. As other reviewers have noted, there were major issues early on -- The building wasn't registered with the post office, so instead of making deliveries to our mailboxes, the U.S. Postal Service kept all of our mail and packages at the post office in Long Island City for several months. You'd have to go down to the post office on certain days to retrieve your mail. This was a nightmare especially if you didn't work from home or had time sensitive mail (e.g., bills, prescriptions).

This issue probably could have been avoided through better planning by building management. Even after the problem was identified, management didn't resolve it until two months later.

Drafty Windows

Overview: Probably because of construction issues, several other tenants and I faced extremely drafty windows that weren't fixed for two months during the winter. We ended up with very high heating bills. I have not received reimbursements from the building management.

In early December 2022, my apartment was very cold, and I noticed a strong draft around my living room window / patio door. After I submitted a maintenance request, window techs came, closed a small vent, and told me there was no draft. When the draft persisted, I filed another request. The window techs returned near Christmas to tell me they didn't have the parts to fix the window. I complained to management, who promised that a new repair company would fix the issue. The window wasn't fixed until February, over 2 (cold winter) months later.

2.A. Widespread Window Installation / Insulation Issues

Around this time, I learned that about 9 other units in the building had identical window draft issues, and that this was a widespread problem resulting from poor construction / supervision. I spoke to other tenants who were also dealing with strong drafts, repair delays, and unhelpful building management.

I also learned that the floors are likely not insulated properly. Although I kept my thermostat at 70 degrees, the temperature in the apartment would be in the low 60s, and using a thermometer gun, I discovered that my floors were in the high 50s.

The super--who is very kind--offered to seal my window with plastic insulation tarp. As you can see from the photo, the tarp billowed (highlighting the draft) and helped stop some of the cold air. But it wasn't great to look at, blocked access to the patio, and didn't completely fix the draft issue.

2.B. High Utility Bills & Energy / Heating Inefficiency

Though I kept my thermostat at 70 degrees, my apartment was still very cold, and my heating bills were about $150.

More importantly, ConEd has repeatedly informed me that I use almost 100% more energy than comparable homes. (I'm pretty sure this is because of the heating inefficiency, not because of my appliances, because I used less energy than comparable homes before winter came.) Another tenant informed me that his heating bill was over $700 because of the drafty window and poor insulation.

2.C. No Reimbursements from Management

After I bought rugs to insulate the floors in December, I asked the building management for concessions or subsidies to help cover the costs of carpets, the heating bills, the loss of use of my patio, and the general crappiness of being in a very cold apartment, but they repeatedly denied my requests.

I don't want to deal with another winter in this apartment, and I will not be...

Before I moved in, I never knew the construction noise from the building next to it will wake u up at 7am EVERY SINGLE DAY. It’s so hard to have enough sleep and even if you want to take a nap in the afternoon, the construction noise doesn’t stop until 5pm or so. The building is definitely doing nothing about it and I don’t think they will be doing anything in the future either. If you have ears and but not earlids, please consider other places.

The construction quality is very poor. As said in all of the other comments, the windows leak wind. My thermometer has recorded 54 degrees in my bedroom during the winter nights. I survived last winter with sealing films and will survive the future ones by not living in this building. My electric bill during the winter was around 300 dollars per month for a 1-bedroom. Do they power the AC with uranium?

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, I thought microwaves were introduced to common first-world households in the 80s. This building was clearly not notified on that part: there is no microwave in the kitchen and the entire building shares a single microwave in the common room, which gets closed at 11pm. Interestingly, one of the main conveniencies of a microwave is to cook something quick when it’s late at night. For example, after 11pm.

When I first moved in, I smoked cigarettes on my own balcony twice. The second time, my neighbor sneakily took photos of me but forgot to turn off their flashlight. The management warned me and I stopped smoking anywhere near the building. My complaint regarding the involuntary photography was never responded. However, the hallways are almost always filled with cigarette smells from other tenants and “warning” posters from the management that failed its combat against aforementioned smell. It seems they only care if you are seen smoking, instead of whether you actually let that second hand smoke inside and become other tenants’ problems.

The first floor was planned to be a dog spa of some sort. Its construction noise reaches 70 db for second floor tenants since they were basically drilling on the concrete. It stopped but it’s not finished and could continue at any...

Horrible management. They will never fix/repair things if it costs $. You will end up moving out due to no repair. Management even ask you to pay for repair which was already broken before I moved in… what on earth… when you moving out, you will end up not getting your full deposit back because this management will charge you on things those not your responsibility to fix or charge… this place is joke… do not even think to move in or sign up lease unless you okay with living with broken things which will never be fixed or repaired. Or if you okay with pay for repairs out of your pocket. People who already moved in they are all looking their first year lease ends to move out due to ridiculous management. So most of the units are empty, management is even asking tenants to recommend friends to move in for reward money. They are desperately looking for people move in to fill the empty units while they never do their job in maintenance or repair. All the good reviews below, those are from management people. Back then a lot of units moved out in short period time right after their first year lease finished. Management people posted fake reviews on their own to fill empty units. You will see so many good reviews posted in very short period time when the management desperately needed to fill those units moved out due to their horrible maintenance problems. You would better stay away from this place. People in this apartment is recommend their friends just because current promotion that this horrible management is throwing now for money rewards. They are just the ugliest and worst management office in NYC. Please stay away for...