Landis Properties

Renting from Landis properties was my only truly negative experience at Berkeley. My roommate and I lived in a Landis Property apartment, and disliked it tremendously. We leased a 1 bed/​1bath apartment, and initially loved the floor plan since the living room was private and had a door which blocked the entrance, so we made it into a bedroom, and we each had our own rooms. But we had no clue at the time about the numerous problems with the unit that we faced.
The buildings are extremely poorly maintained. There are no elevators since the building is very old. We were living on the 3^rd floor, which included climbing 6 flights of stairs to get to the apartment. It was so exhausting because we lived on a property which was on Piedmont Avenue and Dwight Way, so we already had to climb a huge hill to get back home. Who wants to climb 6 flights of stairs after that?
The apartment itself was incredibly subpar. We had hardwood floors which were so old they had scratches and black marks all over them. There were heaters in the bedroom and the living room which you might think is a plus, but they only worked when Leela turned them on which was… practically never, so unless you had your own portable heater you’d have to freeze to death in the evenings. However, whenever the heat was running, our hardwood floors would magically lift up forming bumps on the floor which made it very difficult to walk. The floor in my bedroom lifted up so much, I couldn’t open my door all the way, and the maintenance person (Clark who was super nice!) had to cut out the wood and replace it with a new patch.
What my roommate and I hated about the heaters the most was that you could only have 1 heater on at a time. So if the heater was on in my roommate’s room, I couldn’t put the heater on in my room or else there would be a short circuit, and a blackout would happen. Even if a hair straightening iron or a hair dryer was being used you couldn’t have more than 1 heating device on or else a blackout would never fail to occur.
The mold was the worst part about this apartment. There were large patches of black mold all over the bathroom ceiling, on the windows, and even inside the toilet and sinks. There is no exhaust in the bathroom, there is a window though. My roommate and I kept our window open for ventilation and in spite of that the mold grew bigger and bigger. And when you keep the windows open, huge bugs flew into the apartment because there were no screens, which was something my roommate and I really hated.
We called Leela numerous times to fix this problem, and she always blamed it on the fact that our windows were closed, when they were actually open. I guess nothing can really stop mold from growing in these units, the landlords just don’t want to accept that. There was so much mold, it was honestly terrifying. When maintenance finally came to «fix» our mold problem, they scrubbed off the mold while patches were still present, and then painted over those patches. So it was still there, just covered in paint, hidden. And then it grew again and we had to deal with Leela again to have maintenance come and they repainted it. So our ceilings and windows were covered in layers of paint and mold… how incredibly gross and toxic.
The laundry room was in the garage, and the garage literally looked like two caves. I watched cars struggle to pull out of the garage every day, and occasionally their cars would hit the wall on the side because it was so narrow and low. But, the laundry room looks like a crime scene. The walls are white with huge patches of rust and black mold. And there are creepy dirty carts in the middle, so you really want to get there in time to pick up your laundry or else another resident will come and put your laundry in those carts, which will make you want to do laundry all over again.
The management is very difficult to deal with. Leela is extremely inconsiderate, and difficult to talk to. My roommate and I struggled the most with having her understand the extent of our apartment problems… and I don’t think we were ever successful with that. She also increased rent for an already overpriced place.
So please do yourself a favor, and DO NOT lease with Landis Properties!

absolutely atrocious. Landis Properties (Leela) is rude, disrespectful, impatient, and self centered. She only cares about her money and will make excuses upon excuses to not fix problems or will only make minor superficial repairs when the problem could easily be fixed the right way with the right tools and a little bit of effort. I would not rent with her again.

Buildings are kept up well. Safe — good locks etc. — and managers actually fix stuff quickly, and aren’t unreasonable about paint/​wear/​deposits. Flexible on rent if you get paid on a weird schedule, too, which is different from most property managers.
Some people who write negative reviews here have unreasonable expectations of property managers and expect them to be like their parents, I think … these are apartments that you rent, not a boarding house. They’re professional, they do what they need to, and totally competent.
Plus, the square-​foot price is totally competitive with average rents, not overpriced at all given the size of the apartments and the fantastic location, so i have no complaints at all.

I am really shocked at all the negative reviews here. To be fair, I didn’t live in any of the Southside «student slum”-type buildings referenced in previous reviews, but my experience with Landis properties was nothing but pleasant (and that’s nothing to sniff at in Berkeley, especially near campus).
I rented from Landis for two years. My building was older, but was kept in good condition, and the common areas were always clean. There were a few inevitable little maintenance problems, but they were always dealt with the same day. The deposit was huge, but I got it all back without a fight, and I am not super crazy vigilant about taking care of my apartment or anything. I guess I didn’t have that much interaction with Leela, but she was always super sweet — I’m very shocked to see anything different.
The renters’ market in Berkeley sucks — I’d take this over Raj any day. For whatever it’s worth, I would (and probably will) rent from Landis again.

I would advise against renting at 2525 Durant for any reason except for its location and proximity to campus. The landlord (Leela) deliberately takes advantage of the tenants and tends to make things more difficult than they need to be. She is not very polite and seems to care only about «her responsibilities» and was not very helpful when I was moving in. Moving in was more difficult than it needed to be. I called her and simply asked what to do about delivery of packages and she screamed on the phone that «this is not my responsibility» instead of simply telling me that the building manager (Jerry Cornelius) would be able to help. I had my bed, desk, chair, and bed frame shipped to the apartment and was out of town when they delivered and she did not provide me with any sort of information. When she misplaced a roommate’s rent check (who dropped it off in this makeshift box in the hallway), she called me and yelled at me as if it was my fault and problem. I was not involved in the situation at all.
The apartment itself is extremely old, dirty and musty with the hallways smelling and looking like an old motel. The toilet was not properly cleaned upon my arrival at the apartment with mold growing on the inside. A water pipe leaks through a moldy patch on the ceiling above our toilet and it is disgusting. A guy came in and redid the ceiling but that didn’t last long. The pilot light for our oven kept going out at least once a week and I would get home from class to find the whole unit reeking of gas. Windows on the first floor are so flimsy I could easily break though without any tools if I wanted to. There are no bars or other safety features on the windows and I have seen homeless people walking around in the back. The laundry room is poorly lit and it smells of mold. Oh and one small thing: half of the building didn’t have hot water for SIX MONTHS. I was fortunate enough to be on the other half of the building but who knows, I could have been the next unfortunate tenant. People I know had to go to Unit 3 or their friend’s place to shower every single day for six months.
Construction workers kept entering our unit unannounced and the landlord is absolutely horrible about providing decent apartment entry notice. She gives you a range of days when people might enter the unit instead of giving a strict 24 hour notice (which is what she is supposed to do). So I would come home after class and to my surprise, I would find construction workers all over my apartment unit with the front door wide open and my belongings (including laptop, headphones, iPod, etc) completely on display for anyone to potentially grab. If anything had been stolen and I had gone to court, I would most likely have lost the case because I would have too much to prove: I would need a receipt proving I actually owned the item, proof it was there before the construction workers, and proof that it happened while they were working. This is just an example of how her unwillingness to obey law could make your life difficult.
Also, when it came to moving out, she kept nagging us to let her know in February that we were moving when many places only have a 30 day notice. I did not see anything in her contract about providing her with notice earlier than 30 days but she bullies you into making a decision early so that she can rent the unit to someone else. Not knowing my rights, I eventually capitulated and gave her the «moving out» form and I am currently stuck in a limbo where I do not know where I will be living next year simply because she refuses to comply with common practice. I have to hope that apartments with 30 day notices (most of them) will open up in May so that I can move out of this place. She also does not allow subletting (clearly stated in the contract)!
The two good things about this place other than location: 1) the apartment is well heated for the most part and heat is included in the rent so we do not have to pay extra for that and 2) if you are polite and she is in a good mood, Leela will fix most issues in the apartment (most likely due to fear of lawsuit).
My one piece of advice to anyone still willing to rent here: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. Do not let her bully you into doing what she wants and do only what is required by law and your contract.
UPDATE: Also, Landis Properties (or Leela) read Unilocal and both her and her husband have been giving me the cold shoulder ever since I posted this review and so I have bumped my rating back down to 1 star.

Generally ok to work with, but the landlord can sometimes be very rude and

I had a very good experience with Landis Properties — Leela was fantastic! She’s a really honest and hardworking person.

A truly terrible experience. Landis Properties treats tenants like 5-​year-​old children and cannot take feedback on their business. Over the duration of my one-​year stay in the apartment, I had no issues with the landlord, mostly because my roommate dealt with the management. However, when it came time to move out, I was found it VERY difficult and frustrating to communicate with the landlord. She yelled at me over the phone, threatened to take all damages out of my deposit (instead of splitting with my roommate), and hung up on me before I could even apologize for questioning why she had not collected my keys during our final inspection (which I did not think was rude or offensive as she claims??).
In general, the apartment complex that I lived in was dirty and old. The laundry room looks like a crime scene out of a movie, and the entire building perpetually smells of mold. The only upside is that it is close to the UC Berkeley campus, if you are a student. Otherwise, save the overly expensive rent and rent somewhere nicer — in terms of management and apartment’s condition. Trust that I will never ever live in property managed by this group ever again.