Propact Management

Wow. I gave this guy the benefit of the doubt on his claim that the bad reviews are just because of inexperienced college students, but on day one I’m finding that the reviews are valid.
I moved in and put something smelly in the bathroom & closed the door so the smell wouldn’t pollute the rest of the apartment. It turns out that the bathroom door was locked and none of the keys on my keyring fit it. An annoyance, but something that can be dealt with… until I start talking to the landlord. I haven’t even been in the place a day and he’s already trying to push his responsibilities off onto me. He insists it’s my fault and that I need to hire a locksmith to take care of it and the only way he’d pay for it is if the lock is broken, then hanged up on me.
My expectations for an average landlord are that I should have a key for a locked door in my apartment, and that the landlord would complete a conversation when something as significant as not having a restroom comes up.

One word: shady.
Don’t rent from these conniving people.
We were interested in renting a property in College Area from Propact. We went and visited the house, loved it, and spoke to Mike and Rena on the same day about applying to rent. We submitted our applications along with the $ 30 rental application fee for each of the 6 people in our group, totaling $ 180 in application fees. About a week later, we got the call that they had chosen to rent the house out to a different group because our group was «too large» for the 4 bedroom house, even though they had previously confirmed in a face to face conversation that a group of 6 was perfectly fine. We were also told that our application fees were nonrefundable. Essentially, they lied to us and told us that a group of our size was fine just so that we would apply and they could take our application money. They knew from the very beginning that they were NOT going to rent the house out to us, yet still had us apply for it and pay them the app fees.
When I called Rena to discuss this with her, she claimed she «didn’t remember» ever having that conversation with us. I cited a California tenant screening law that states rental application fees are to be used for running credit and background checks only, and must be returned if proof cannot be provided that the money was used accordingly. I told her we were happy to let them keep the $ 180 we had paid them if they could provide documentation that the money had been used for screening us. Her attitude quickly turned sour. She accused me of being rude and talked to me as if I were a clueless, dumb college student. After threatening them with these laws, they quickly agreed to return our money, which just goes to show they KNOW they are in the wrong.
Last but not least, instead of meeting with us one last time to refund our money, they left the $ 180 in an envelope on their front porch for us to come pick up. Completely unprofessional. After reading the rest of their awful Unilocal reviews, we couldn’t be happier that we chose to rent from somebody else.

Very disappointed by Mike and the way he takes advantage of college students.
Last year I lived near SDSU with 4 other roommates and rented from Mike. I was not in town when my roommates found the house, so I had not met him or else I would have quickly run the other direction.
When my roommates moved in, I was just returning from being out of the country. I moved in on August 7^th, 2013. I quickly did a run-​through my house and presented some issues I had with the condition of the house, but he said it was too late to let him know, because I could have done the damages since I’ve been moved in.
When a handyman came to fix something that was initially mentioned when we moved in, once he left, I noticed something drastically different in our kitchen. I mentioned the problem to Mike, who said he’d call the handyman to see if the guy had done the damage– of course he was going to deny it! Mike said he’d take it out of our deposit because it wasn’t the handyman’s fault.
We were not provided with a garage key, our front door wouldn’t lock (only the screen door), and our trash can was cracked and could not be used (which we had to pay for if we wanted a new one). This was only a few of our issues, all of which he took no responsibility for. I understand if these things happened through the year, but this was from the initial move in date.
Lastly, we were hoping to receive our deposit the way we originally gave it to him– under one person’s name. Differently, he wrote all 5 of us on one check, making it impossible for us to deposit unless all 5 of us had the same bank. Now that all 5 of us don’t live together anymore, we had to find a way to all meet up, sign a paper stating we agree it should be written to only one person (which is weird because only one person was written on the deposit check when it was given to him). It took him over 21 days to receive our deposit, which meant, by law, we should have received it in FULL, but we didn’t. He even charged us for a «missing towel» when we weren’t even provided towels to begin with!
Very poor communication skills, extremely overpriced properties for the quality, poor maintenance, and poor professional skills.
I really hope things improve so college students can receive a stress free housing situation!

Would give 0 stars if I could. Wanted to rent from them in OB. My girlfriend and I both paid for the credit check, which I believe was 50 $ each. We didn’t get the apartment and they never ran out credit, keeping 100 $ of our money. Renter beware.

This company is very unprofessional and takes advantage of SDSU students. They charge everyone an application fee, but really pocket the cash. It is illegal for them to do this, and everyone that has been charged the $ 30 fee should get their money back. We confronted them about what they are doing and agreed to give us our money back because they know what they are doing is wrong. DO NOT rent from them. They are so rude, mean, take advantage, and are crooks. I can’t even explain how terrible they are. They should be sued for what they do.

I don’t even want to give one star…
Don’t rent from them, we did and it was the last time we ever rented from anyone. He will for sure try to scam you. And is a slum lord, mold in a lot of the apartments!!!

So sad, but all the reviews posted here… ALL THE NEGATIVE reviews live up to what this company does.
The owner, repeatedly called by his name on all the reviews, lies to you, deceives you, cheats you, changes the terms of the lease in the middle without notifying you, and plain and simple: Does what HE wants, when he wants, and thinks he can get away with it.
This landlord deceived me, and the story would be so long to tell, I would go beyond my character limit and it would take 5 pages of Unilocal posting to tell it. So stick with the other people’s experiences. DO NOT RENT a property managed by him. You will regret it, unless you have $ 2,000 to spare that you will never see and you are ok with.
A cheater, con-​artist, a liar, a person that does NOT keep true to his word. When he says «Don’t worry, just sign here and if we have to amend it or cancel it tomorrow we will do it and it’ll be OK’ that’s BULL… Don’t believe any word he says.
Oh yes, did I remind people just like other reviewers he does things that are ILLEGAL?
I have seen good landlords, humble to earth landlords and good hearted men. Propact is NONE of this. He just wants your money through deceiving property management tactics. And if he threatens you: GET A LAWYER. Don’t be afraid when threatens you because chances are «he won’t act». He cannot walk his talk. Like a barking dog that barks but doesn’t bite.
Stay away from Propact Management for your rental services, as an owner of a property and as a renter. Live a happy life, and move in under management by a real and productive management company.
Unilocal Review score: –10

In 2010, my former landlord, Mike Milstein, added an ILLEGAL clause to the end of his leases stating that anyone who «breaks a lease» (moves out before end of lease, or finds a subleaser, or renter to take over lease) must pay Mike a $ 250 fee. Even if he approves the sublet, subleaser or transfer of lease.
Not only did my lease NOT include this illegal clause when I signed in 2006, but I contacted a lawyer who said it is against the law in the state of California for a landlord to charge any type of additional fee for a tenant moving out, whether it was the end of the lease or not.
I found a replacement for my roommate, Mike approved the new girl, and everyone signed a brand new lease. Then, a week later, when I told Mike that I refused to pay his illegal $ 250 fee (which wasn’t even part of my 2006 lease in the first place), he threatened to CANCEL the new girl’s lease (illegal), kick both girls out of the apartment (illegal), and keep my entire security deposit even though he had already signed off on the condition in which I left the apartment (illegal).
After contacting a lawyer, Mike called me and tried to play nice. He agreed to «only» charge me half of the fee I didn’t owe him: $ 125. (Oh how generous!)
I told him it was worth $ 125 just to get him out of my hair. And I expected my full security deposit back, and the new girl’s lease to be honored. He agreed.
I still have all our correspondence saved, the original lease, and the letter from my lawyer, even though it’s been years.
Propact’s practices are illegal and I do not recommend that anyone ever do business with them.
(I’m happy to give more details if anyone is dealing with isuses with Propact and wants to send me a private message.)

I lived in one of many homes managed by Propact Management in the SDSU area last year. My roommates and I moved out of the home at 6250 Pontiac St. and got our entire $ 2400 deposit back except $ 50 for some touch up cleaning. The landlord even visited us while we were in the process of moving out to let us know what we had to do to ensure we got the majority of our deposit back. He was extremely helpful in the process. This year I wanted to live by myself and I rented a single apartment in the SDSU area again from Propact Management. My experience was that things are and have been in the past fixed quickly, the disposition of the security deposit was fair and timely, and that the owner of the company is easy to deal with.

Unfortunately, Propact Management gives landlords a bad name.
After having rented from 3 different properties in Ocean Beach over the past 12 years, the last 4 with Propact, we found their business practices to be sub par. Personally, I have always received my FULL deposit back after vacating a rental property, leaving it exactly the way I found it.
My wife and I were at this apartment for close to 4 years, we paid our rent on time every month. We notified Propact that we would not be renewing our lease and left on July 14, with no intention of attempting to collect for the 2 weeks we left the apartment vacant. It is true, however, that Propact will only rent 1 year leases, obviously to their best interest, from Aug 31 to July 30, zero flexibility. Our neighbors shared the same sentiment.
In the beginning, we let Mike know of the blinds that didn’t work or the screen that were bent, torn and dirty, but after several attempts to fix, we simply gave up. In retrospect, we should have sent emails instead of calls and texts to solve these problems, because ultimately, we paid to fix them. Heck, who knows if they are fixed now. We should have methodically taken pictures of the property upon arrival.
Needless to say, we were shorted over $ 500 from our deposit, and feel we were taken advantage of. When Mike sent the deposit return check, which we asked for in advance because of our early departure, he sent it to the apartment with which we rented from Propact. We gave them a forwarding address TWICE.
Finding a place to live can be very difficult, especially when you find a place you like. You most likely will not have a chance to choose your Landlord, but all we can do is share our story with the hopes that you will have a choice, and not choose Propact.
Happy Home Hunting!

It’s actually ZERO stars! The other comments are FACT. He does take advantage of college students AND hardworking professionals. First off, all his leases are 1 year long from July to July. So if you’re moving in mid-​year like say September 2011, you’re signing a 20-​month lease from Sep/​2010-​July/​2012. It’s ridiculous!!! He says they’ve put a lot of work into remodeling the apt and they don’t want to repeat the process. I had perfect credit but my roomie only had decent credit, so he wanted to charge us double the deposit — RIDICULOUS! It was a run-​down North Park apt anyways and he wants to charge us twice the deposit AND sign a 20-​month lease. F off! I tried to reason with him but he’s been giving us bull**** even before we signed the lease. Luckily, we don’t have to deal with this pompous douche. No wonder the previous tenants said management was a twat and couldn’t work with him. LOOK elsewhere. You’ll be better off!

Worst management company I have ever dealt with. He does not honor the agreements that were set forth in the contract and tries to take advantage of you especially if you are a college student. There are many other respectable management companies in San Diego. Don’t make my mistake.

Some apartments at 4857 College Ave are very nice. But the management is terrible. Mike the manager is unprofessional and rude.