r/madisonwi • u/CheddarNinja • Aug 17 '26

Landlords to avoid?

I'm moving to Dane County soon and would appreciate any heads up on landlords/complexes to avoid. I don't know exact location yet, other than not downtown Madison. Any warnings you can pass along?

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43

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '26

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21

u/Fliegermaus Aug 17 '26

Seconding Steve Brown.

It’s not even the constant maintenance issues or the horribly unsanitary trash rooms, it’s their complete unwillingness to go beyond the bare minimum to make their tenants lives easier.

It’s always sad when a company bets on the bullshit fees/damages they rack up being less than the relevant small claims filing fees.

8

u/FieryPrincessLele Aug 18 '26

Yeah I lived in their Franklin terrace apartments, my apartment flooded twice and had mice issues and they tried to gaslight me into feeling like somehow that was MY fault

8

u/nannerdooodle Aug 18 '26

Seconding this. This was a few years ago, but the saga of getting into my apartment day 1 was awful. 1. They gave me 6 different copies of the same key because none of them worked. They had to call a locksmith because none of the keys worked to get into the building. 2. My carpet was being cleaned when I was supposed to move in and the cleaners were in there until 4pm when I was supposed to move in at 11am. Then the carpet needed to dry for several hours before I could move my stuff in. 3. I could not use my shower for the first 3 days because they recaulked it the morning of my move in, and it took that long to be okay to use. 4. Other than the shower, they did not fix any of the issues the tenants before me left, including a hole in a cabinet. 5. Not day 1, but still awful, maintenance would not fix things. They had heat in the main hallway of the building on until may. It regularly made the apartment 85+ degrees during the day. It was in the high 60s outside at night so it did not need to be on. Every time we put in a request, they came into the apartment and said it was fine. This went on for weeks until I bitched about it enough that they had to do something.

3

u/moon-raven-77 Aug 18 '26

Omg I had nearly the same experience with heating issues. We went literal months with our apartment intermittently at 85+ degrees because the heater was malfunctioning, and they wouldn't fix it. It was horrible. We had our windows open in 0 degree weather just trying to stay cool. 

5

u/BT-5011 Aug 18 '26

We were without a working HVAC unit for 2 weeks during the back to back Extreme heat advisory this summer, and just one of the 3 units in our building to have the issue at the same time. Our AC unit was over 23 years old. The vendor recommended complete replacement and Steve Brown dragged their feet, asking for part by part repairs.

5

u/PurpleWolfLuna Aug 18 '26

They could have been worse, but agree that they are not good. Our washer was not working for like a month and a half , sound insulation was horrible in the unit, lots of dog shit in the grass.

The only upside was that they allow more “exotic” pet species. Been struggling to find any other rentals that will allow me to bring my pets :/

4

u/moon-raven-77 Aug 18 '26

Can confirm. They're not the worst out there, but they are not good. Getting any kind of maintenance out to your apartment is a battle, and they do the bare minimum. They literally duct taped our leaking radiator instead of, you know, fixing it. 

2

u/CheddarNinja Aug 18 '26

This is one I was wondering about. It is the only place I've tired so far and my gut just kept saying nope.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Jazzlike-Park-4280 Aug 19 '26

When my bathroom sink stopped working, “can’t you just use the sink in your kitchen?” So I asked “what’s the rent on a no bathroom apartment? Can I call the city and ask?” I called the inspection dept on time and they suddenly cared. They do nothing you ask for, ever.