Old World Properties

My husband and I rented from here for 1.5 years. The property manager was pretty responsive to maintenance and service requests even on weekends, but would be what I thought was condescending when we called, maybe he has a lot of tenants that call for dumb things though.
I gave him 3 stars mainly because of what he did when we moved out. Like most landlords he deducted for things that he felt were in worse condition when we moved out than when we moved in. However, when we moved in, he asked us to complete a move in checklist which we diligently completed. He never actually fixed anything we put on there, but whatever. Then when we moved out he deducted for things we had included on this list! We called him and called him out on it and he agreed to give us back additional money for those deductions. Then he didn’t actually send it until we called a second time requesting a follow up.
He loves to keep your deposit so if you rent from him make sure you complete the move in checklist and keep a copy for yourself so you can get your money back. Even after we got additional money back I felt he kept a large amount of deposit without cause but we couldn’t prove it.

The best… there is no better company in Richmond. I have rented from some quite shady characters, but Mr. Downing is the best. He’s right on top of repairs, and keeps all of his personally owned properties A+ condition.
Old World Properties would be my land lord if I were to ever rent in Richmond in the future.

My apartment from them is nice enough, it’s got a modern kitchen and renovated bathroom, etc. which is more than you can ask for in a lot of cheap Fan apartments.
But the real issue is if you need anything fixed… The city came by to turn the gas on when we moved in, but said the heater’s closet didn’t meet code, so they refused to turn gas on until it was sorted out… Took from August all the way to mid-​November to correct the problem, we were using a space heater for three weeks. Also, when opening one of the windows on a particularly warm day this winter the pane slid and broke. So we covered it up… it took FOUR months before we got a new window. We lived with a cardboard window for 4 months in the winter even after 3 letters to them! We like the apartment well enough, its home to us; but dealing with Old World Properties can definitely make you want to pull your hair out.

I don’t even think Old World Properties deserves one star. We had to take them to small claims court to get out deposit back because they took ALL of it for cleaning fees (such as dust on the blinds and bathroom fan – not even lying). The broker, Henry Downing, lied through his teeth from everything from the photos he took to us leaving our forwarding address. Be advised – stay away from this rental agency. We have heard from numerous people that they have had issues with getting their deposit back.
We got ¹⁄₃ back of our $ 1500 deposit through small claims. Rent somewhere else… it’s not worth it and their property is shoddy anyway.

I lived in a house in Carytown rented by Old World Properties for 3 years. The house was a streal ($ 795 for 2 bd/​1 bath in Carytown with a big fenced yard). Not much went wrong in the 3 years I was there, but when it did, the landlord was always very fast to get it fixed.
My only complaint would be that I think they took a bit much of my deposit when I moved out. I painted the house (I was there for 3 years and sick of matte white walls). I used neutral colors and they would have needed to paint when I left after 3 years, anyway, but they still charged me. I also planted a dogwood tree, tore up an ugly, overgrown bush in front of the house, and planted a banana tree, elephant ears, and a bunch of other pretty plants in front to spruce the place up. I think I actually added to the value of the house. I knew they would take some money out, but I think keeping $ 1300 of my deposit was excessive.
Regardless, I was very happy with them while I was there, and I would definitely check them out again if I moved back to Richmond.