Raj Properties

Beware of Raj Properties. Unprofessional con artists who will skirt the edges of the law to take you for everything you’ve got. Do not sign any contracts with this company. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you would like to know more.

Deserves 0 stars.
Rude, unprofessional, and con artists. Should have never signed up with them — AND JUST FOR A PARKING SPOT.
Pulled the classic «you should have read the fine print. This random requirement that no one mentioned to you must be fulfilled or you don’t get your security deposit back.»
I lost $ 100 from a security deposit, the agent had the audacity to say it was my fault for not looking over the agreement when no one had even mentioned it and I clearly asked «What is the process to return the spot?» when I signed up. No mention.
First of all why even have a security deposit for a parking spot other than to try and scam people out of their money.
Horrible agents. Never working with them again.

I honestly don’t really know where to start with this one. I currently reside in 2515 Benvenue Ave and the on-​site manager is a real handful. He lives on the first floor and will literally shout and harass the tenants in this building, mostly for minor or no reasons at all. Both my roommates and I have experienced this verbal abuse at least once since we’ve moved in, and we have only been here for a year. We have never once hosted a party or been late on rent, but he continues to harass us in the stairwell or parking garage when we see him. He will walk up to us and just start shouting at us and accusing us for being disruptive.
This manager clearly has anger management problems and his constant harassment of tenants makes us feel unsafe living this building. The call box outside the building entrance is broken so we can’t buzz guests in and have to let them in ourselves. I had a group member come over for a project meeting and he was able to get into the building as someone was leaving. The building manager proceeded to block him from going to my apartment until I came down to get him. When I went downstairs to grab him, he started screaming at me to be quiet and demanded to know why I «CLEARLY WANTED EVERYONE IN THE BUILDING TO KNOW I WAS RUNNING DOWNSTAIRS» when I was literally just going downstairs by myself to get my group member (the manager’s demands). When I argued back to him that he can’t talk to his tenants this way, he shouted that he didn’t care. When I threatened to file a complaint against him, he literally screamed «SHUT UP AND GO TO YOUR ROOM.» This man fails to manage the building and doesn’t do his job of keeping the tenants feeling secure. He abuses his power and always shouts «DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I’M THE MANAGER. LISTEN TO ME.» He makes the tenants feel afraid to run into him or even live near him!
As a tenant, I am beyond frustrated with my building manager’s lack of integrity and failure to do his job. I feel really cornered by Raj Properties because despite receiving multiple complaints about this manager from several different apartments, they have done absolutely nothing to try to remedy the situation. I feel Raj Properties is very disorganized and constantly cycling through their employees (at least four different workers have come and gone and helped us over the last year) that none of the messages left by the tenants actually ever get to headquarters. I really wish Raj Properties didn’t own so many of the buildings surrounding campus. It’s almost unfair to the students that are forced to do business with this company in order to find housing near campus. I really hope something is done about the building manager before he actually hurts one of the tenants.
Update:
Emailed a formal complaint to
and received a voicemail from a lady named Monica claiming to be from «Raj Properties HQ.» When I called back a few hours later, no one picked up so I left a voicemail and call back number. Never received a call back. She never reached out to my voicemail.
I also received an abrupt, unconvincing email response from another employee Veronica. I added a screen shot of it as a photo. Months later and no follow up. Once again, Raj Properties has failed its tenants. It’s a shameful disgrace of a real estate company. The one thing I give them credit for is for consistently being terrible, so when I assume the worst, I’m rarely surprised.

If I could give 0 stars I would. They are unprofessional, rude and scam people. We have been trying to get our security deposit back for 5 months. Every time we call there is some new requirement for them to issue a valid check. They know you can’t cash a check made out to 3 people who don’t share a bank account, so why did they issue that 2 months after we moved out? My roommates are out of the country — it’s not possible to get us together in person. They were terrible landlords while we were there and don’t maintain the property as they should. They raised our rent and then rented like apartments for less. All around terrible. Their employees are clueless. Check them out online too — they’re involved in some shady stuff.

Would give zero stars if I could. Agents here told me to wait three weeks before turning in my application. So I did. When I turned in what they requested (overnight delivery of applications materials), they waited a week to process any of it and then told me they had only one space left and then said «sorry first come first serve». Well then why did u tell me to wait three weeks!!! They told me then to come to the office and claimed they didn’t receive my paperwork until the day before, which is impossible since i sent it overnight delivery A WEEK ago. And if that is true then obviously they have horribly inefficient systems for processing perspective renters. Renee would call me and ask the same questions over and over and over again and the questions were completely unnecessary to begin with (have u been to the office in person? Over and over again. Yes! I have! Why does that even matter if u have my materials and fees? Answer: it doesn’t matter, they just love to pester you with stupid inane questions). So I said fine I’ll take whatever you have. However they IGNORED my move in date shown clearly on my application, and said I could move in two months before then and only then. WHY on earth would u drag me all the way to your offices, have me pay for overnight delivery of materials, only to ignore what I put on the application? Now I have wasted all the time I could have had looking and applying for something else because these people don’t know how to read the very first page of an application. These people are children who don’t know how to run a business. Dealing with them is like dealing with kids in junior high, best way I could describe it. Run far away from this place.

Apart from being rude and sketchy, the people at Raj Properties don’t care about the safety of their tenants. THEIR SMOKE ALARMS EITHER DON’T WORK, OR ARE NONEXISTENT. People have almost died in apartment fires in Berkeley due to their smoke alarms not working. Not to mention someone (one of their sex slaves) did die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
MAKE SURE YOU BUY YOUR OWN SMOKE ALARM BECAUSE THE ONE IN YOUR RAJ PROPERTIES APARTMENT WON’T WORK!

I’be been with them for quite a while and they’ve definitely been helpful. I have problems at times but with a call, they will resolve the issue pretty quickly. I trust the management there as well as the new staff in 2015.

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I don’t know how they became a business. They poorly train their employees and are the most immature, disrespectful adults I’ve ever encountered. They promised my roommates and I a certain price for an apartment and only AFTER they got our personal documents, they raised the price. I asked to speak with the manager and I thought she would be a little less dumber than her workers, one being Kelly, but unfortunately, the manager was worst. She refused to let me talk to her boss and showed no respect for me or my roommates mother. Even though i informed them they falsely advertised a price, they were too money hungry to give us that price. Do not rent from Raj because they are some illegal shit.

I wanted to give Raj Properties the benefit of a doubt and decided to sign a lease with them this upcoming year 2015 – 2016. I went in to the office and had all the forms ready, and everything went fine. I met up with the office clerk, Kelly. She was really nice, but extremely unresponsive and forgetful.
Only after leaving 5 emails, and 4 messages after being transferred between 3 different office ladies did she finally respond with the approval for the lease and a date to view the place that I HAD ALREADY SECURED.
On the day that we had agreed upon, the four of us show up to the place. After 10 minutes of waiting, I call in the office and Kelly picked up and I reminded her that we had a viewing scheduled. She then asked, «ok so how can I help you?» After I explained our appointment again, she said «With Kelly, me?» After being put on hold for 5 mins, she told me the tenants cancelled this morning and she forgot to call me.
We scheduled another day to view the place. Lets hope she shows up.
But the reviews are true. Terrible communication in the office (I left messages with 2 ladies who obviously never delivered them).

My friend recommended Raj properties to me. Everybody here in Raj is wonderful and effective. We had a great time talking to them. Definitely my top choice as a real estate agency. Go to Raj and check them out!!! Highly recommended!!!

We had great trouble moving out. The staffs are hostile to me and my roommate.

i will give negative star if i can!!! one single suggestion!
stay away from this company!!!
it is the most terrible company i have ever meet!!!

Raj improved so much since I moved here last year. They hired new people and did some serious organizing and I can honestly say my experience with them has improved A LOT. The ladies at the office are always helpful and polite. The maintenance workers are also really nice and they fix everything within one day (from my experience). The management is very easy to reach and I’ve never had trouble getting help if anything was wrong. There is also a laundry room in the apartment building on University Ave. and it makes my life a lot easier.
My experience with Raj has been very positive and I would recommend them especially for college students!

Raj properties is efficient with addressing issues and making amends. The management is helpful and understanding. Would recommend living here.

Great apartment. Clean and spacious.

Stay away! Would give 0 starts if I could.
For two months I’ve been renting an apartment from them, here’s what I’ve been through already:
What is wrong with the building. Kitchen exhaust fan is extremely old and barely works, food waste disposer stopped working on the first week and they want to charge me for it (mind you that it wasn’t brand new, in fact it looks very old. It doesn’t make sense to charge me for if it has been used for who knows how long), intercom doesn’t work, and there are loud pipe noises (they come and go in the mornings and evenings) from the bathroom that you can hear in the entire house. I did not notice these things before I moved in and thought that Raj couldn’t be as bad as all of Berkeley students talk about, but it is.
Customer service is terrible. You can forget about them taking the effort to fix anything in your house. I’ve been trying to have them set up my intercom so it calls my cell when you dial my apt #, a month has gone by and nothing has been done.
Ridiculous fees. In their contract, they have writing allowing them to charge you fees for late rent ($ 100), not giving notice of leaving 3 MONTHS a head of time, and others.
Office is disorganized. I was dealing with one of their staff about moving in my apt and she said that she would hold it for the following two weeks so I can fill out their application with my roommates. When the two weeks was up and I went to the office, she wasn’t there and I spoke with another of their staff. She informed me that the apt which was promised to me was then rented to someone else. Can you believe that? After one hour of them calling their corporate office and them telling me that an oral deal is not valid not giving me the right to the apt, it turns out that it wasn’t rented to anyone at all. There was a problem in miscommunication among the staff.
And apts are not cheap, $ 2550 for a two bedroom. They raised it $ 500 from the last tenants which is absurd.
Well, this covers most of the problems I had with Raj so far. They won’t help you in anyway or be understandable of your situation. They will charge you fees and not care about your customer satisfaction. Nothing good to comment about Raj. At this point, writing a review about my experience is all I can do.
Why do I keep renting from them? Because I have a contract and housing in Berkeley is very competitive. Don’t rent from Raj if you have a choice.

The one star for the apartment being relatively cheap when I lived there. However, ⁰⁄₅ to the property staff. Staff were incompetent, most of them didn’t know what was going on with the operations. A lady named Terese lied to us for a month and withheld our security deposit until we threatened to sue her. I am pretty sure she is still withholding many tenant’s deposits as of today.
Stay away from this place even if it is cheap. The apartments are old and the terrible management staff makes this place disgusting.
you would think they would try to make this place better after being caught for sex trafficking. but nope.
OH YEAH, once THEY LOST $ 100 of my payment, so I had to pay an extra $ 100. I never paid by cash again. They fined my roommates for losing their checks.

DONT DO IT! ITS A TRAP! The absolute worst. Terrible. My goodness, these people are just disorganized and they pretend to give good customer service when really, they have not a grain of good service to offer.

Absolutely HATE Raj Properties!!! They are the worst people on earth. Super stingy about the money!!! They f*cking charge me 90 dollars on security deposit for something I didn’t do… Two of my roommates’ parents straight up arguing with them because of their unreasonableness. Also if you have a place to park your car, don’t park at their garage. They just have all the ways to get all your money. If they see you still have 1 cent left in your pocket, they will take it! DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!!!

From 2006 – 2008 I lived in a poorly constructed apartment unit on Piedmont and Haste. The owner of the buildings is a creepy sex trafficker/​slumlord!
Pluses:
–good location
–maintenance responded quickly to problems with the apartment
–did not have any problems with them once I terminated my lease
–followed the terms of rent control board
Deltas:
–Extremely high rent ($ 1680/​month for a tiny 2 bedroom on Haste and Piedmont, increased to over $ 2000 for my unit the year I terminated my lease in 2008.
–office staff was unfriendly and refused to deal with financial issues (such as neglecting to send the yearly rent control check to me) because their head office was located in Bakersfield. Extremely suspicious of all of their tenants. Unorganized (gave me incorrect keys to my apt and was really suspicious when I asked for an exchange) and each staff member each gave me different information about the same subject.
–Head office located in Bakersfield=not a local group despite owning two other property management companies in Berkeley!
–my apartment reeked of mildew and rotting wood during my whole lease, and the fact I got sick many times during my stay there (and rarely got sick after I moved out) makes me wonder if the condition of the apartment contributed to my health problems.
My experiences here were not as bad as my other peers’ at their apartments (see Carleton Apartments on telegraph and the buildings around Berkeley that advertise a phone number on a banner), but they could have been better. It is hard to find a legit management company in Berkeley that doesn’t exploit their tenants, but they are out there!