Ramshaw Real Estate

My experience with Ramshaw is really bad. The appliances int he house were old and under-​maintained and hence my electricity bill always came twice of what people around were paying. You can forget about the deposit, you’re not going to get anything back. We were charged for things like toilet being blocked and apparently had to be broken open (300 $?!), but it was infact in perfect condition when we handed the apartment back. They take advantage of the fact that once you move out, if you’re no longer in the city, you can’t come back to disprove their ridiculous claims.
I would avoid this company unless I wanted to burn a hole in my pocket again.

One star is too generous for this company. I’d live in a box before I’d rent from them again. Unless they are your last option because not a single other leasing company in town has a place, never, ever, ever use them.
And if you do, get everything in writing ahead of time, especially when it comes to move-​in/​move-​out issues. Take pictures of the entire place before you move your things in. They give you little room on their own intake form, so be prepared to include a Word document or something and bring it in by hand and document who you give it to — -note the most minor of issues.
We paid a $ 720 security deposit. I knew we’d get hit for a set of blinds and some cleaning — which, by the way, it’s not worth cleaning your apartment on the way out. Our place was spotless… certainly cleaner than when we moved in (kind enough to leave us a dead cockroach in one of the closets) — and we still got hit for cleaning charges.
The people who lived in our place before us had been there for several years and so had painted some of the rooms different colors. Ramshaw asked us if we’d like them re-​painted. We said no because we liked the colors… and hey… saves Ramshaw some time and money. And for a company that’s quick to fist tenants in any way they can, that’s a good deal for them.
Our lease was signed with a note on there, initialed by both me and my girlfriend, and the Ramshaw associate who walked us through the lease — that said the prior tenants painted the place and that we were okay with it remaining as is. What we did not do, however, was get in writing the fact that even though we saved them money and time by not re-​painting it, that we would not be charged or responsible for bringing it back to it’s original plain white color.
So for this oversight on our part, and lack of full disclosure from Ramshaw’s associate, they saw fit to charge us over $ 560 for painting. Our initial refund was $ 99. Upon arguing my point, Ramshaw was generous enough to give us another $ 250. How nice of them. Their argument was that this was more than fair since the company they hired to do the work had to put on two coats of paint. Maybe they should look into different laborers. That’d take too much time and effort, though. College painters could have done this for a fraction of the price.
So they kept over half our deposit. Two tenants in our complex who’d been there for over 10 years, told us to expect this, and that they’d seen plenty of others get shafted like this. And how lucky for Ramshaw that Champaign is a college town, so when tenants move out they leave the state and don’t or can’t fight the battle and thus just eat the gruel that Ramshaw serves them upon exit.
Lesson learned on our part. It was pointless to keep arguing with deaf ears, so we walked with the $ 349.
I can’t say this enough… never…use…this…company. They’re known locally for being one of the worst. That came to me from business owners and the general public alike.

They built and managed the condo complex where I unfortunately bought a unit. They left us broke, with maintenance issues, and monies unaccounted for. I wish I had remembered before I bought that this is the company we rented an apartment from on campus for our daughter in the early 2000s that hadn’t been cleaned when we got there. It was a Saturday & no one would answer our call so we spent 8 hours cleaning it. Then they wanted to keep the damage deposit when she moved out.
Do not recommend in any way/