Ben Bay Realty Company of Williamsburg

STEER CLEAR OF BEN BAY!
Looking for an apartment in NYC is hard enough especially when are trying to work within a budget and you have a dog and Ben Bay Realty did nothing to help relieve that stress. In fact, they added to it. It is very clear that the company doesn’t care at all about maintaining it’s clientele or even satisfying them. All they care about is collecting money from you as quickly and as easily as possible.
My «agent» virtually unreachable because she was always busy, except when I was supposed to drop off money. In that case she had plenty of time to call me 4 and 5 times a day to make sure I was going to pay them. After waiting 6 weeks I was able to pick up the keys for the apartment only to find a filthy apartment with code violations and a missing refrigerator. I had never been told that I was going to have to supply a refrigerator and my agent had not seen the apartment after the previous tenants had moved out. I was asked to sign a «rental agreement» before I was allowed to see the place and given the keys. I also later came to realize that I was expected to pay for gas and electric for the illegal basement apartment.
When I informed the brokerage that I was not taking the apartment because they would not cure the situation I was told that they were not refunding my fee because I had taken the keys and signed the rental agreement. They hid behind a legal technicality and failed to do what they knew was right. I wound up paying a fee for nothing and incurred more debt because of their unethical practices. I would advise you to stay away from Ben Bay.