ComplaintsforEmpire Property Management Group LLC

• Initial Complaint

  08/01/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I’ve been renting my apartment from empire for two years with nothing but non stop disgusting uninhabitable living conditions. First it was mice and mice droppings. The unit they rented me had many many mice holes and holes in the walls the mice were coming through which should have been fixed before they decided to take anyone’s money. The next problem is there has ALWAYS been roaches in my unit, not matter how many times they have sent an exterminator it persists. The third and final problem is they did not replace ground wiring in my unit for 30 years and so it’s gone bad and is now causing my sink to electric shock me. I am now going to file a lawsuit against them. I will not take any more apologies. And YES this company will discriminate if you are a single mother.

  Business response

  08/24/2023

  Tell *** ******** has been a tenant with us since October 2021 and we have been treating for pests in this building regularly since even before *** ******** moved in as is the case in many buildings in this area of Allentown unfortunately. As we know, effective pest control relies heavily on the cooperation of all of the residents of the property to prepare properly prior to the technician's visit and to maintain a clean living environment. It is also imperative for all residents to cooperate and allow access to their units at the time of the technician's visit so that treatments can take place. 
  
  Preparing for the technician's visit includes  moving belongings away from the walls and emptying cabinets as much as possible so that the technician can get into those areas with his spray and traps. After the treatments, it is important that a thorough vacuuming is done so that the dead bodies of the pests are removed as they can become food for the ones that still remain. Keeping food secured in air tight containers and removing garbage as well as cleaning regularly are all important factors in helping to control and eliminate the problem. 
  
  Over the many months of treatment, there have been as many times that *** ******** has not allowed access to her unit as she has allowed access  making  it that much harder to combat the problem. In addition to simply not responding when attempting to confirm dates of treatment with her or declaring that there was no further need for treatment as she was not seeing any more activity, the lack of assisting in the preparation for the technician's arrival or proper maintenance of her unit all combine to make it that much more difficult to solve the problem. 
  
  *** ******** is not the only tenant in the building and is certainly not the sole cause of the problem and I don't mean to imply in any way that she is. She is one of many in the building that contribute in the same manner to the problem. The owner and our management company have been working to eliminate the problem at the source and will continue to do so until it is resolved. I appreciate *** ********'s dedication to keeping us informed of the matter and would greatly appreciate her assistance as much as she is able to provide toward helping to resolve the problem. 
  
  With regard to *** ********'s complaint about the electric, it would appear that maybe *** ******** has a misunderstanding of how electricity works and how the grounding of the system is done. My master electrician took the time to personally explain to her how it works and show her how the bonding of the ground for the building and the grounding of electric  panel prevented the shocking that she described. As a precaution, the city had us perform a thorough inspection of the electrical system following her complaint and cleared the building of any electrical concerns. Neither the Master Electrician, nor the city's electrical inspector had an explanation for the shock *** ******** described receiving so, unfortunately, I am unable to address that directly.  After our investigation we were unable to recreate the scenario she described. And after numerous attempts and verifying safety measures were in place, we were confident there was no problem. 
  
  To address the accusation of discrimination against a single mother is to give it credibility and that is the farthest thing from the truth. So I will not. We comply with all Fair Housing Rules and Regulations. 
  

• Initial Complaint

  07/25/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  ******** ** ***** sold us a property that she had managed for years knowing that the tenants were drug dealers. Their had been 4 raids from end of 2021 until February 2023. She failed to disclose this to us and we proceeded to purchase the property. We have had failed attempts at evicting the tenants due to lease being in place. When we pressed the issue with her, ******** dropped us as property management clients from her company Empire Property Management. We moved to another property management company and she has withheld all rent paid by tenants and all security deposits for our properties. She then invoiced us fake bills claiming that she did outstanding maintenance on the properties after she had already dropped us as clients. She was not suppose to do any maintenance on our properties over $300.00 without prior consent from us. We now know she did they to keep all of the rents and security deposits. ******** or anyone from her team refuses to return any emails or calls.

  Business response

  08/04/2023

  Thank you so much for the opportunity to respond to this complaint. 
  It is true that *********************** did purchase a property that Empire had previously managed prior to this purchase however, ******************************* did not sell it to him, he did have his own Agent. ******** was the selling agent representing the seller not ************* in the transaction. It is also true that ************** had decided to keep Empire on as the property manager after his purchase was complete. I cannot speak to the validity of the drugs or the raids he speaks of in his complaint as we are not privy to that information as Property Managers. The city does however, have an ordinance that we must enforce called a disruptive conduct ordinance. If a tenant is reported to have participated in disruptive conduct three times within a twelve month period we are required to file for an eviction from the property based on those reports- however, no tenant in this property had been served with such to our knowledge. We do follow all fair housing laws and follow the lease that both the landlord and tenant agree to at signing. As per our management contract, we did provide ************** with a 30 day notice to end our services at that time. A letter had been sent with a 30 day notice that management would be terminated at the end of the following month on May 31st this same letter was sent to approximately 40 other Empire Property Management Clients as we had made a decision to downsize our clientele list. On June 1st a conversation was had with ************** about what he would like to see done over the next 30 days. Our organization handled all day to day business for ************** - From collecting rents, paying bills, communicating with tenants & vendors. When we spoke we asked if he wanted us to stop projects and start to close out the property as of that day or work until the last of the 30 days in order to complete as much pending work as possible before he transferred to the new management company. He stated that he wanted as much work to be done on any pending projects as possible therefore maintenance over ****** would be taking place. He wanted us to also continue to show and attempt to lease his vacant unit. There are no fake bills, only invoicing for the work that ************** requested.
  We had communicated with the representatives from the new property management company and they had been introduced to us by ************** on June 7th as the people who would be taking over Management. We sent ************** and this organization copies of ledgers as well as copies of any payments made to us in excess. On June 13th, we sent copies of all leases and a rent roll for all properties, nothing else was requested at that time. June 29, the new management company requested keys to the buildings and those were provided by a team member via lock box codes and keyless entry codes the following day on the 30th.  
  ************** and both representatives of the new management company have followed up since June 30th and have been told that our accounting team is working to getting security deposits released ASAP. We have offered to answer any questions they have in the meantime and hope to have all funds released as soon as we can. However at this time - ************** holds a deficit with our organization due to the work he requested us to complete on a property that he purchased on his own accord. All of the bills that are itemized on the statements presented come with invoices/backup to show the specifics of the billing if there are any questions that he may have. 
  Thank you again for the opportunity to respond. 

• Initial Complaint

  02/12/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I was a tenant at ************ in Easton, PA managed by Empire Property Management from February 15, 2022 to January 6, 2023. I ended my lease early due to numerous issues, which are listed below. I emailed the property management office asking for a meeting to discuss my concerns, which was ignored. - Opening date pushed back 4 times from November 2021 to February 2022 - In February, opening pushed back another 2 weeks to February 15, 2022. I had to move into a hotel. - Landlord refused to reimburse for all expenses during this time. Were reimbursed for hotel charges only. Would not reimburse for storage, additional moving charges, or meals. - Staff did not notify me I could move in until after 5 pm on February 14. Staff was ordered by management to ignore calls/emails from tenants until the property passed inspection. - My apartment didn't pass inspection, so I had to move into a different apartment. Was notified at 8:00 p.m. February 14. - Communication with Empire is through the email address [email protected] or through text numbers that cannot be responded to. Do not have a contact person's name, number, or email. - Elevator onsite was not functional for 9 months. - Numerous maintenance requests cancelled or reported as completed when ignored. Final maintenance request ignored for 2 months and fixed after vacating. - Repeated fire alarms due to issues with electrical system at all hours. - Only kitchen drawer does not open fully as it hits the oven door handle. After waiting 6 months, issue was listed as a "design flaw" - Illegally charged me $73.15 for maintenance charge after the maintenance person could not duplicate the issue with my heater. This was eventually credited. While my request is to be reimbursed for the remaining $740.38 of moving expenses caused by Empire’s delay in opening, my major concern is bringing these issues to light so future tenants may be spared my experience.************************* ************ *******************

• Initial Complaint

  02/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I moved in to an apt rented by this management company on Jan 27 2022. I was called by them April 3 2022 to advise me that I had a second electric meter at my home that I would need to put under my name and that by the way the time I didn’t know I had a second meter that I would have to pay them another electric bill. So I changed the bill to my name but requested the meters to be united because I am a low income household and have a program that cover most or all of my electric bill. Months pass by and they don’t fix the meter. Now they send me messages threatening to file for non rent payment even though section 8 housing pays them every first of the month. They finally sent an electrician to fix it and apparently now my letter usage tripled since then. I’ve called the PUC and *** electric company to see how I can resolve this but they can’t do anything at this point. Another thing they charge me for is my neighbors garbage. This may sound like a landlord tenant inquiry but the management company is the one who rented me under false pretense and also snuck in outrageous fees. I’ve called them trying to resolve but they keep threatening to take me to court over their shady practices.

  Business response

  04/03/2023

  Thank you so much for the opportunity to respond to this complaint. 

  Upon move in there were two meters that serviced this unit. We were able combine the meters shortly after the she moved in, but both serviced her apartment and her apartment only. She is responsible for both. 
  Once she called and told us about wanting to be on the budget plan with *** we combined the meters only only a couple weeks ago and it was brought to our attention that one bill was very high. Upon looking at her bill it appears to be so high because it was never paid and is carrying a very large balance. We are certain that all electrical is appropriately allocated to her unit and that the meters are correctly combined at this point.

  Unfortunately we no longer manage this building and at this point it would be between her and ***

  I am happy to remove any sweep violation as well that the tenant feels was charged unjustly- there is only one from January for 12.50 which I can certainly remove from their account. 

  If there are any further questions they are welcome to reach out to us here.

  Thanks 

  *************;

  Empire Property Manager

  Account Manager 

• Initial Complaint

  11/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My neighbors have access to turn my water off when ever they feel like it, I've called my landlord they say It's nothing they can do this has been an ongoing issue for a few months now I have no water in my house and I have a 6-month-old baby and a 13-year-old child here I've had to stay in a hotel because of this before. My rent is paid along with my water bill, which is included in my rent

  Business response

  12/19/2022

  Hello, 

  This has been resolved and this should be removed. As per our conversation with the tenant I CC'd her on this email. If you have any questions please let me know.

• Initial Complaint

  08/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had moved out of an apartment and was being charged 2000 dollars for the property left in the apartment but was also charged twice for the same thing. I tried contacting the property Managment and they told me to get a lawyer. They did not want to correct the error or give me an explanation of how they came up with the amount I owe. I was given a breakdown for what was being charged but nothing further was given.

  Business response

  10/12/2022

  Hello, 
  

  
  

  I am following up on your contact about complaint ******** - I do not have the initial complaint in order to properly respond however I do know the resident contacted us upset about the move out charges associated with his account. I have attached their move out inspection that shows all items that our team needed to handle due to the condition the unit was left by *** ****** when he moved out. as you can see we had large quantities of items - Pest issues - Coloring on walls and many other issues. We believe the charges posted to his account are accurate and while he may believe these items could have been handled for cheaper he did provide any of the estimates he received nor did he choose to have these issues handled by these contractors prior to losing possession.

• Initial Complaint

  08/18/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  July 25th, 2022 we put in a maintenance request because a start of a foul odor. It was ignored until Tuesday August 9th after the fact we had the fire dept check on 8-8-2022 for any type of gas leak. The smell was so bad it was pouring out of the apt and was told not to stay there as per fire chief. on 8-9-22 Empire property came out looked in drop ceiling found nothing. on 8-10-22 another gentleman came out from empire tried cameras but only saw insulation and smelled a foul odor in the crawl space and left. on 8-12-22 Empire finally started to gut the apartment behind us that a guy was evicted and in his drop ceiling area found what they believe was a bag of raw meat, assuming chicken that was stuck up there. Since then nothing has been done as far as proper clean up to help rid this smell. We just came back to the apartment but as the sun baked on the roof and we need to close up apt to go to work the smell starts up again. I have spent money on deodorizers, cleaning supplies etc. They need to remove the insulation and spray vinegar or bleach on the bacterial wood. This is a very sad practice and no word of my rent being prorated for the week we could not live there. I now everyday have to come home boil vanilla or cinnamon on the stove with water and light candles to help maintain sanity.. I continue to resend maintenance requests in and only do they check back every few days as i continue to complain that it is not got getting better. This os not fair to the any tenant and shows very poor business skills to people who pay their rent and need to live in apartments when problems are not rectified.

  Business response

  08/29/2022

  Hello,

   Thank you so much for the opportunity to respond. This was a very unfortunate situation- as motioned the prior tenant adjacent to you purposely tried to damage the property with the foul smell. This is the first instance that we have ever experienced this kind of retaliation, so there was not an experience for us to lean on previously. We did remove the first bag and when you had mentioned that there was still an odor we did send our technician as well as the supervisor to continue to investigate. At that time, a second bag was recovered. We cleaned the area and are confident that we have found the source. 

  Again, we are very sorry for your experience, but the actions of others unfortunately put us all in a very compromising situation. All that we can do is act swiftly and efficiently when these things happen

  Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to better remedy this situation

  Kristina

  Empire 

• Initial Complaint

  03/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I recently moved to PA in February and was told Empire was a great company to help look for apartments. Ive now seen over four apartments/ houses managed by Empire since mid-February. Safari, who works for Empire, left me a voicemail stating they just realized I do not qualify for any of the listings they have because I do not make the minimum income requirements. I was thrown back by this new information after an entire month of searching for apartments through them. When I asked what the conditions were, Samari said my income needed to be three times the amount of the rent.Further, in my conversation, she said I needed to make over $700.00 a month minimum on top of the voucher I already have to make their requirements. It just doesnt make sense. When I asked if there was a website where I could go to read this for myself, I was told repeatedly, This is Empire's POLICY. I make well over the $700.00 minimum for their requirements, but she told me as per policy, they didnt consider what I made as income. When I asked if they had a list of things they thought to be qualified income, guess what? There isnt any. BUT, IT IS IN THEIR POLICY. When I asked for their policy to read and go over (to make sure I know and understand the rules and regulations), she said they dont have anything printed or a website where I can read it myself because their policy is constantly changing. How does a business have a policy, but they dont have a physical policy for the consumer to go over and read? I paid their application fee, Ive submitted all proof of income. Why was I not informed immediately during my application process or even after paying their application fee? How could they be so disrespectful of my time?! I have two kids, one being an infant, that I have to bring to these listings to check out these homes I've been applying for - how dare they?! How is this even professional?! I am still waiting to receive a call back from the company's supervisor.

  Business response

  05/04/2022

  Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this complaint. 

  We have been able to work with the complainant and get all misunderstandings cleared up.

  Thank you 

• Initial Complaint

  11/22/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 11/09 of this year I stated to my property management that I have no heat. I currently still have no heat and its almost two weeks later. I have my three children in my home and its going to keep getting colder

  Business response

  11/29/2021

  November 29. 2021

   

  Dear ******* *******, 

  Thank you for sending over the grievance from our tenant, ******* *******, and allowing us the opportunity to respond to her concern. 

  I understand her frustration and spoke with her last week regarding the delay in getting this resolved and she understood that we are dealing with vendors having a shortage of workers and that it is taking longer to get estimates for work because of it. She is currently using space heaters that we provided her and while they are not a permanent solution, they are helping temporarily. 

  We discussed that the owner has approved conversion of her gas heat system to electric baseboards after having received estimates for both. The work to do the conversion is scheduled to take place on 11/30/2021. ******* has been notified and will be making the unit accessible for our technicians to complete the job. 
  

  She requested our assistance in providing notice of the conversion for LIHEAP which we were happy to provide. 
  

  I believe her concerns are being addressed and should be fully resolved by the end of the month. I will be reaching out to her once the heat is restored to be sure everything is working as intended and that she is satisfied. 
  

  Thank you 
  Marjorie F***** 
  Account Manager 
  

  Customer response

  11/29/2021

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I understand that I have kept in touch with the property management as to what is going on, yes I needed to know what was going on. Yes, they provided two space heaters for a two floored apartment that I cannot run both heaters at the same time, it causes the breakers to trip no matter where I put them in my , so it really is only one heater.  I'm very upset, if I wasn't able to pay for my heating and it was shut off, someone could call Social Services on me and I could possibly get my children taken away because of no heat and its winter. Now this isn't my fault and it has been three weeks and that God forbid is still a possibility on my end.  That is a too long of a time for there to not be heat in my apartment with young children in it. One room never had heat in it when I moved in and nothing was done about it, I let that go because it is my room and I just used a space heater. 
  
  Regards,
  ****************************
  

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