Sven Luxury Apartment Rentals LIC — Local services in New York

I moved out in August after a 15 month lease in a 2Bth 2BR (63R). A major concern about renewing the lease was the heat. I had the opposite problem of a lot of folks in the recent ratings and must have been close to a recycler/ mechanism where the heat was coming from as one of my rooms (used as an office) was constantly in the 80's, and the other bedroom would be in the high 70's. The living room was a little more tolerable, but overall one of the rooms was pretty much unusable for a little more than half of the year, see photos below, only included a couple, but always near or above 80F.

Sven has a very difficult problem on their hands, and in some ways I feel bad for the folks that are simply just trying to do their jobs while having to deal with this pretty bad selling point. However, I think we have to call a spade a spade here and point out that leasing/ property management aren't being entirely forthright about the issue with prospective/renewing tenants. When you see reviews with a response "our on-site engineering team continues to monitor building systems and has made adjustments in response to your feedback", this makes it sound like the problem is solved. Or "we respond/ address heating issues on a same day basis". This is an intentional mincing of words and is tantamount to lying by omission/implication. I was given the same line for the entire last winter (even look at the reviews from over a year ago) and although someone always came up, then marked the ticket as resolved, it NEVER was actually resolved. Maybe they're doing a little better with trying to change some central building temperature more frequently in an effort to bring as many units as possible into an acceptable (but not ideal) range as often as possible, but looking at the reviews as well as a friend I have who's still finishing his lease there, the actual issue is clearly not resolved and from my learnings dealing with Sven is unlikely to be truly resolved anytime soon.

I think if you're a prospective tenant, this risk needs to be addressed directly and in writing and you should accept nothing short of that since Sven folks are proven swindlers at this point. They will say almost anything to try and get you to rent/ renew. If they truly believe that the temperature won't be an issue going forward, despite all these reviews, and it having been a major problem in the past, they should be able to put their money where their mouth is and give you an assurance/ contingency plan/ something in writing that will make you comfortable with the situation. It's more than reasonable at this point.

Lastly, a new property manager has come in, and I think they're much more responsible/ reasonable than the previous one, but the last one was atrocious. He'd book meetings to come up or go to the leasing office way too much and constantly miss/ move them last minute. He'd miss emails all the time, never follow up on emails, etc. He'd say things that would really just seem like delay tactics/ never come true. The prime example is that the water in my apartment had visible blue gunk in it... FOR MONTHS. My favorite push back from him/management was, "well if there was something wrong with the water I'd have to tell you legally, and we're not reporting the results of any test (despite them previously taking samples and saying they'd test it?) so your water must meet all standards". Imagine hearing that while holding one of the cups of water in the photos below in your hand. It feels terrible. I don't think the new property manager would be that absurd but I do think there is an air of, when the problems too hard/ would take serious work... too bad so sad and you just have to deal with it.

All the reviews that are the result of a tour... what's that about... ignore those... all the ones that are a couple lines, or "just moved in and am loving it" ignore those. Maybe consider weighting by helpfulness. This building is a one, at most two stars for obvious structural reasons and how they're...

Update : This is not a good place to live. I wrote that one of the elevators was not working for the people who live on the 51st floor. Based on the response, they claimed it was fixed. But it is not fixed. It is still not working. I talked to the people who live on the 51st floor, and they all said they either asked the doorman to push the button from the front desk or walked up to the 51st floor. I asked the doorman to push the 51st floor one day and he sighed and asked what floor I deliver food to, and I told them I lived here, but he asked me with an annoying tone the same question. I told him the same annoying tone that I was the resident, and he just hung up on me. Not related but I was smoking outside the building and one of the staff asked to go to the corner and smoke or across the street with an annoying tone, too. Fine. I will follow the rule as long as you fix the elevator. SMH.

Old review: I have lived here for 7 months now, and I was thinking about renewing the lease, but I am not going to, and I don’t recommend you move here.

First, when I moved in, my card key somehow didn’t work on the elevators. The amenities floor seemed to be working, but my floor (51) didn’t. I don’t care if I’m exposing my floor, since the management should know. I thought it was an issue with all the elevators, but it’s been 7 months, and now I know that one elevator is not working. I complained in the first month, they checked my key, and they said it was working, but it wasn’t. When I discovered that one elevator was not working, I told the manager that it was most likely the touchscreen panel that was the issue. He asked me if I was sure, since changing the screen panel is expensive??? It’s been 7 months, and nothing has changed. Every time I get into that elevator, I automatically say "f*." And now I think they know about it, because the keycard is not supposed to work on other floors, but somehow on that elevator, the 50th floor works. They are basically asking people living on the 51st floor to use the 50th floor and walk up to the 51st.

I know it’s just one floor, but imagine paying the same amount for the lease (of course, each apartment has a different price, but that’s not the point) and still having to walk up after long day of work. This happens too frequently.

Another issue is that they have a central AC and heating system. Even though it was 80 degrees during the first winter season, once the central system turned off the AC, you can’t make the air cooler, which is very annoying. They’re proud of some sort of eco system, but they should adjust it based on the weather conditions.

I’ve let these issues go since I have to live here until next summer/fall, but today really pissed me off. I was surprised by a lockout fee of $50. I forgot my key, so I asked the doorman about it. He said, “You know the lockout fee is $50, right?” I’ve lived in four different apartments in NYC so far, and this is the first time I’ve had to pay a lockout fee. This is a horrible money-making policy. I understand that it can happen and may annoy management, but we’re human—we may forget from time to time. They should have a policy where they charge the fee only after someone repeatedly locks themselves out, not the first time.

Overall, this is not a great place to live, and I suggest you don’t lease this apartment unless you’re okay with walking up every day while everyone else enjoys the elevators and are willing to waste money on a lockout fee.

P.S. Oh, by the way, 1-2 elevators are always breaking, and some people have been locked in the elevators for 1-2 hours. I was stuck in an elevator for around 20 minutes. Why don’t I get a fee for being locked in? And I have one more thing about people's privacy, but it is legal issue, so I do not write it today since I am not that pissed...

If there’s negative stars I would give negative…..Believe me, this so called luxury building is just A LIE and a piece of TRASH when you really live there. I am so glad that I finally moved out and I am here to share my awful experience to warn others: STAY AWAY!

We moved in when it’s still a new building and just at the beginning 1-2 weeks, we have issues of multiple equipment in our unit. Their explanation is: even new things can have problems Eh 🙄 On a not rainy day, our 15th floor was flooded lol. What an amazing experience 🙄 Even though you pay their expensive amenity fees, you still need to pay extra for pool reservation (yes their tiny poor pool needs reservations to go in) and party room reservations. And reservation fee is also expensive. What a luxury building! Our elevators has issues at least twice in past one year and people got stuck inside. Very dangerous! And they never apologized! They never informed us ahead of window cleaning and I was scared to death when I was in bed and saw someone outside my window! Imagine if I was naked! There’s a strong odor of the refuse room in the hallway of 16th floor and they never really solve it even though we have complained about it so many times. That’s why I call the building TRASH. It just smells like it! They don’t allow us to control AC and set limits for temperature. Ridiculous because units facing north and south can be very different! We are facing north and we are freezing in winter and they don’t allow us to turn the heat upper. We have to buy a heater so we won’t get cold. What a luxury building haha🙄 But they often switch AC between cold and heat frequently to save energy when there’s a small temporary change in temperature. I mean, it’s not energy efficient at all and really bothering! Their washer and dryer is “energy saving “ so they are extremely time consuming and low efficient. It would take a whole day for you to watch clothes and might eventually find them wet. We informed them of move out inspections and they told us that they would do it tomorrow. Then guess what? They have no response for more than one week! And now our lease has already expired, they never send us any update on our deposit and inspection result! Wow so you think you guys can ignore us as we already moved out? Here’s something I heard from past residents. They have strict policies about damages can can lead to deduction of your deposit, even those normal tears and wears! They want you to return the room to the status before you live. I mean, how’s that possible to have no sign of living? And as you guys are luxury, why can’t you just repair those normal tears and wears yourself? I haven’t got my inspection report yet, will keep updated. They dramatically raise your rent fee in their renew lease. They raise 700/month for our 1b for 12 month lease. I mean , don’t they suppose to get some deals for old residents? Maybe they just need quick money and don’t care about keeping their residents. Another thing, they charge you $50 for lock out. They will earn 50 just by opening the door for you. I guess they are just crazy about money and want to make the building so luxury and expensive 🙄🙄

Please carefully read my review before you decide to move in. Don’t waste your money on this trash building. They offer referral bonus to residents so be careful when some current residents try to sell this...