AP Management

These guys are slum lords. I knew when we sat down to sign the lease that it was a mistake — the amount of stuff they will charge you for is ridiculous. Instead of a pet deposit, we pay $ 50 extra in rent per month, to sublet a room, you must pay $ 75, to get out of the lease, you pay $ 400 to find your replacement, or $ 700 if they find your replacement. You can only rent year to year, unlike many other places where you can rent month to month after the first year. Maybe all these fees are typical for rental companies, but the apartment is crap.
They remodeled our unit just before we moved in, and apparently it was an improvement, but they did a piss-​poor job of it. There was thick dirt covering every floor and everything in the bathroom when we moved in. Red and white paint is all over the fake hardwood floors, it looks like a five year old did the caulking in the bathroom, a door handle fell off within the first month, the dishwasher leaks water all over the floor, and the heater doesn’t work. The worst part is the noise. I can hear someone walking in a unit more than two units away. I can hear the woman who lives below us talking on the phone. The guy next door can hear my housemate’s cat meow through the wall (the cat hardly meows and he’s not loud when he does). The woman downstairs can easily hear every sound we make. Since AP Management bought up this apartment building, they ripped out all the beautiful vegetation in the front and put a sad-​looking palm tree in its place. No one is allowed to plant anything in the soil, so there are about 50 potted plants placed there by the tenants who have lived here for years and are trying to replace the loss of plants.
I can’t wait until our lease is up. I’ll be surprised if we get our deposit back, even if we clean it spotless. It seems to me this is the kind of company who will charge you as much as they legally can, just because they can. Don’t give them your business. I wish I hadn’t.

Of all the property managers I’ve dealt with in the past, AP management isn’t the worst, but definitely second worst. I’ve lived on one of their properties now for near two years and that was long enough.
Like everyone else said, they can’t get work done to save their lives and I can’t seems to get them to repair the window which has been leaking so long that mold has started to grow. I have a feeling that they are going to try and blame me somehow for mold damage in the near future. And when they do get something done, they fail to communicate anything.
The repairman is a really nice guy, but I just feel the company is not giving him very clear directions. I have a feeling they have a problem with communication across the board.
On top of that, Maintenance such as spraying for bugs, trimming general garden areas, and the interior paint jobs/​construction jobs are pathetic.
I’ve decided that finding a decent place to rent in Berkeley is impossible and will be moving to San Francisco. I’ll be paying more (slightly since ap management wants to rape students of money) but at least I will be getting decent maintenance, from what I see with my friends there.

After reading these reviews I have to say I understand, concur, and agree with the basic rating. I’ve lived in a building for over 20 years that has been managed by a few different companies; AP and the one they split off from, North Berkeley Properties, have been the recent ones. None of them could be called good, although NBP had a humane person working for them before he left, but the current AP can be nasty… as outlined in some of the narratives above. Beyond their abjectly arrogant treatment of tenants, particularly (but not limited to) long-​term ones who don’t line their pockets up to «market value,» their judgment in hiring maintenance and repair people is very poor. They seem to specialize in hiring less and less competent work crews with each job. They’ve nickel-​and-​dimed every sort of work, even leaving the front door unlockable for days or weeks at a time instead of just hiring one good person to hang it right the first time. Recently they’ve been replacing water pipes in the building. The first crew they hired botched the job so outrageously that even AP had to replace them… but they’ve replaced them with pipefitters of similar low skill level. The outrageous number of water shut-​offs on a continual basis is not to be believed; at the present time we’ve had no hot water in the building all day and all night twice this week so far, and it threatens to continue. The Rent Board can’t do anything about this. It seems nobody can. Writing about them here is a last resort… at least it can let prospective tenants know what they’ll encounter.

RUDEST STAFF EVER! They hung up on me twice in 5 minutes without even listening to me. I didn’t call in with an attitude, but I certainly got one when I spoke to their receptionist. They will get none of my business and I will tell my friends not to live in their properties. Good riddence to bad staff!

Do not rent an apartment from AP Management !! Like everyone said, they are very frustrating to work with. I get confused sometimes on whether I should call AP Management or Premium Properties, but they both suck! They both always tell me different things. When I try to make repairs, it takes literally 3 months or more for something in your apartment to be fixed. They show you up and when you call back asking why no body came, they reschedule you for another appointment and the cycle repeats. When a repair man FINALLY comes, he comes without equipments or materials and end up leaving again. The point of a repair is to COME WITH THE MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT durrrrrr.
I currently live in the apartment complex on Channing and Shattuck. DO NOT LIVE THERE. the walls are paper thin! I can hear the house next door, which is literally 50 feet away from the apartment complex. When the neighbors cough, sneeze, burp, or fart, I can hear it crystal clear. Trucks come and go every morning at 6/​7am and I’m woken up a million times a day because they idle or honk or whatever. When the apartment upstairs flushes their toilet or runs water from the shower/​sink, the walls creek for 10 minutes straight and it’s FREAKIN LOUD.
If you’re gonna keep increasing the rent each year, how about you improve some of your weak infrastructure!

they absolutely SUCK.
i lived in one of their properties a few years ago in south berkeley and my complaints about AP Mgmt echo every other complaint on here already so no need to repeat.
i did, however, email AP management to let them know about their Unilocal reviews in the hopes that they might start to change their ways. surprise surprise! the email provided on their website doesn’t even work.
NEVER USE THESE PEOPLE! THEY ABSOLUTELY SUCK!!!

AP managment is unprofessional, unkind, and very frustrating to work with.
For awhile, I was able to tolerate their:
*lax response to apartment repairs (They almost never call you back and it took 2 months to get a sink/​garbage disposal repair. This was pre-​existing when we moved in, however, after it was fixed we were threatened with a letter that this «might have been our fault» and next time we would have to pay for)
*disorganized business (they lost my rent check at least twice), but my last situation with them has propelled me to write this review, which I will publish after I move because I am afraid that they are so unprofessional as to see this review and find away to get revenge by taking it out of my deposit money.
Here is what happened:
I was living in an apartment on northside when they purchased my building and systematically started revamping the apartments once the old tenants leave and charging ridiculous amounts of money.
For instance: my 2 bedroom costs 1625 a month. Another 2 bedroom in the same building just got bumped up to 2700. Yes, over 1000 more a month.
Now, in so far as how this has effected my personal experience with them, I seriously believe I am being targeted by the management to move out of my apartment so they can make something close to the $ 1100 profit they probably will when I move out and give up my rent control.
I am currently going through a bit of a financial rough spot, and I wanted to get a third roommate to move into our apartment to cut down on costs. I didn’t think it would be a big deal because the 2700 2 bedroom had 4 people moving in. I called and asked Franco (the apartment manager, I think) if this was ok. He said (hesitantly) yes, but it would be a 10% increase. A few days later, I proceeded to write a craigslist posting so I could enjoy my summer free from the 39 hour work weeks I was going to have to take on to pay for my place. I schedule people to come see the place, everything is looking great…
and then, of course, AP managment strikes (I really should have known)
I get a call a week later from the rent control guy asking if I told Franco that the rent board informed me that AP managment HAD to let me have a roommate. I said «of course not, why would I call and ask if it was ok if I already knew it was.» I was a little angry that the manager would lie like that. Matt agreed with my logic (and said he thought that Franco was a little crazy) and said that my manager was furious. I was no longer allowed to have my extra roommate.
Notice: I did not get a call from Franco, but I had to hear about it from my rent control manager. I have no idea how long it would have taken for them to call me
So, I was really saddened by this, so the next day I called to see what had happened, and these are the answers I got:
Franco: «It is two occupancy so I will only allow two.»
Katie :“Ok sir, I understand that, but can you tell me why you changed your mind?“
Franco: «It is up to me, and I do not have to allow it, so only two»
Katie: «I understand that sir, but can you please tell me if I did something to cause this? I thought after we spoke last week I could have another roommate?»
Franco: «I do not have to tell you why.»
Katie: «ok. (takes deep breath, trying not to yell) I’m not saying you have to, but can you? I don’t understand why the other 4 bedroom can have four people»
Franco: «Well, you’re not paying market value… and I do not have to allow it»
ok, seriously? They are not taking an extra 10% a month because that’s how bad they want me out?! If I could afford to stay, I’d keep my rent control my whole life so they could never make a huge profit off the apartment.
*Update: When I moved out, they increased the rent on my place by $ 900
PS: Just to give more proof they are singling me out, I asked if I could have a pet because I’ve seen that two other people that live in the building have cats and Franco said «No, no pets allowed.» He claimed that they were the older tenants cats and they couldn’t retroactively ban the animals, but this is not true as one of the newer tenants moved in and was allowed to have a cat. Why are other people in my building allowed to have cats and allowed to have roommates? Oh yeah, they are paying more…
PSS: Their website says «Despite our success, we have chosen to remain small. This allows us to continue to deliver the high level of personal service and impeccable quality to our tenants. «
they are buying properties left and right and DO NOT CARE about their tenants what so ever. Don’t rent from them, please.

This is the worst management company I have ever had to deal with in my life.
Our heat never worked in our apartment and they never fixed it even after bothering them about it after living in the same apartment for 2 years. Also, they never once cleaned the carpets in the hall way which was disgusting because people kept having parties and their guests throwing up in the hallway which was never cleaned once since I lived there for 2 years.
My housemate also had a gate remote that he returned to the secretary and she claimed he never returned it to them. They were supposed to give him a reciept but never did and then charged us $ 30 for the remote.
The checklist they gave us when we gave them our 30 day notice said that we could either leave the carpets the way it was and have their cleaning people clean it or we could pay someone to clean it and provide a reciept. We did just that and they still charged us for over $ 100 for carpet cleaning. They also charged us for $ 90 for extra cleaning but failed to provide a reciept for these «charges,» the secretary claimed that anything under a certain amount they legally don’t need to disclose which is BS because any charges they make to your account, they need to provide documentation.
So we ended up with $ 200 in over charges for stuff we had already paid for or returned. After trying to contact our agent for over 2 weeks we went into the office to get it taken care of because we were tired of waiting. We tried to explain the situation to the secretary because she had not been returning our calls or emails and all she did was give us attitude. She said «well whatever, I doubt they will care about your $ 200 bucks anyways, we are a million dollar business, besides its not your money its your parents.»
Psh, excuse me, you don’t know me. Bitch get off your high horse, you are just a secretary, your job is just to answer phones and make the coffee. I have talked to others that has had AP management and she is equally a bitch to everyone else.
After we tried to talk to the secretary, my dad sent the owner a letter explaining the situation about the over charges and to clear up the situation. Now my dad is also in the real estate and property management business, owning his own businesses, so he knows what he’s talking about. He pointed out to the owner that the forms they were using for move out and security deposits were not the proper forms that are required by the state as well as his businesses «AP Management» and «North Berkeley Properties» were not legally registered property management firms that need to be registered within the state’s real estate database.
We recieved a letter from AP Management’s owner saying «Look I don’t have time to discuss with you why my business is legit but it is. We decided to take off the charges for the carpet cleaning and the remote but you also stayed 1 day over your lease so we charged you $ 300 for an extra days worth of rent, you actually owe us ~$ 120 but don’t even bother cause you’ll SCREW UP my books»
In fact we didn’t stay over a day over, but moved out on our 30^th day. I would NOT suggest every going with this management company unless you want to deal with difficult people who run a shady business.

So although all of my previous grievances are still unresolved I did get my full deposit back in a timely manner. I feel that that has earned an additional star. Maybe time does soften the strife I dunno.

Everyone has their one review where they say, «This is place is the reason I made a Unilocal Account.» For me, this place is AP Management. I’ve been anxiously waiting to share my experience with AP Management to the community at large and today:
They are terrible.
In my experience with three different apartment managements, AP Management has been the worst. I should have seen the warning my new neighbor gave me the day I moved in: «This apartment complex use to be run by some awesome people, but then they sold the place to AP Mangement and now well…»
AP Management failed me and my roommates in so many ways. Hallway lights would burn out and not get replaced until weeks later. The water was consistently turned off to some pipe error. That was just the beginning.
Starting in February, AP Management began renovating the apartment above us. This meant construction work. Construction would start everyday at 6:00am and end at 5:00pm — including weekends! AP Management NEVER informed us that this construction would be taking place, NEVER offered us any compensation such as lower rent, and they NEVER even apologized for the disturbance. In addition, part of the construction work involved tearing down the old kitchen above us and throwing it off the balcony into a scrap pile. About 5% of the stuff thrown off the material landed on our balcony instead. Once again, AP Management NEVER offered to clean this up for us and we had to pick up pieces of wood with nails sticking out of them and throw them into the scrap heap ourselves.
The AP Management was even horrible AFTER I moved out. I had accidentally had a package delivered to my old AP Management address. I had mail forwarding setup but somehow it wasn’t working. I became worried because I had just started a new job in June and was afraid that some of my work documents might not have been delivered to me. I walked over to the apartment and had someone let me in where I examined the mailbox. Sure enough, it was seemingly full.
I called AP Management the next day to see if I could borrow my old apartment mail key to obtain my mail. My roommate did this a week after we moved out and so I thought a few more weeks wouldn’t hurt, especially since my roommate told me that they would not lease the apartment out until August because it was still under renovations. I was told that I would have to come in during the hours of 10am-​4pm and someone would accompany me to the mailbox.
I told them I would call them back because I work from 9am-​5pm and it would require me to check with my manager if I could come in late. I called back after I got the go ahead from my boss; however, when I called a different woman answered the phone and said the person I spoke to on the phone before didn’t know what she was doing and that the apartment had already been leased out. She informed me that the renovations were complete and that the new tenants had been living there for a week, which was odd seeing that I saw the mailbox was extremely full the night before. She said she had no power to open the mailbox for me and that I would have to rely on the «good willingness» of the new tenants to turn my mail in to the post office. I was going to ask some more questions so I could get more details but the woman on the phone HUNG UP ON ME.
I was pretty frustrated and decided I would not deal with them anymore and go straight to my apartment and ask the new tenants for my mail. When I arrived at my old apartment, I was instead greeted with a door without a doorknob. I push the door open and the WHOLE PLACE is still under construction. The refrigerator was in the living room and a wall was missing. The lady on the phone had totally LIED to me.
I angrily storm all the way over to the AP Management office, which was closed. However, I see two men inside and I knock on the door. They open it up and I try my best not to explode. I tell them about my situation, tell them I was lied to, and tell them I want my mail. Their response? We don’t manage this building! They tell me AP management owns that building. I am stunned. I look up at the door which clearly states «AP MANGEMENT OFFICE» and back at them. They realize that I’m not stupid and proceed to lie to me that some guy named Zach is in charge of the building, he is currently not there, and that he is very difficult to reach. A blatant lie since I know the manager of the building is someone else. I give up and walk home disgusted and angry.
This is the experience you can expect from AP Management. If you wish to be treated inferior, lied to, and live in an apartment complex where they will not raise a finger to help you then you have come to the right spot. And if you’re a student, expect even worse. As nice of a place it was, I would never live there again. As for my mail, I had to call the post office who broke into the mailbox to retrieve my items. Thanks USPS.