Townsend Management

I highly recommend against Townsend Management of DeKalb. This company bought out my previous management company (Autumn Creek) halfway through my lease. In 6 months, it became obvious that this is a very poorly-​run business. I have lived in DeKalb for a while, and can vouch for either Mason Properties (a previous landlord), or CLA (current).
Townsend Management took over all of the properties from Autumn Creek in December 2013. This was a pitiful exchange of management. A notice on the closed office door said to visit the new Townsend office. Townsend’s webpage at the time wasn’t working properly. I called Townsend, there was a message that the office was closed for two weeks for the holidays. They just made a major purchase of a lot of properties, and they took a two week vacation! I left a message that I would meet with them after their break to make my payment, they replied that I should drop off a payment at their office. They actually wanted me to drop off a check at the office of a company that I had never met, that just opened in a new strip mall.
Just after their purchase, we received a letter stating that we owed $ 1090, more than a month of rent. They stated that it was an overdue amount from before the management change. I brought all our receipts to the office to show that everything had been paid. I was told to leave the records and the office manager would go through them. After not hearing back, I made an appointment. The manager kept insisting that we had to pay, even after going through each of our receipts, month-​by-​month. Finally a lawyer dealt with them, eventually dropping the bill.
The next problem came when DeKalb said that the water would be turned off in several days if a late water bill was not paid. We lived in a duplex which shared a single meter with the neighbors. Under AC, the water bill would be mailed to the neighbor who would bring the bill and pay his half of the payment to Autumn Creek. AC would then pay DeKalb, and bill us for our half. Townsend dropped the ball when the neighbor brought the bill and his payment to Townsend. Townsend kept his money and did not bill us. After DeKalb’s notice, a phone call to Townsend was not productive. The employee kept stating that we should have had the bill in our name. I tried to explain that only one name can be on the bill, but she just kept saying that it was our fault, and they had nothing to do with it. I then brought a copy of the neighbor’s bank statement showing that Townsend cashed the check, which finally made one of the employees listen. Once they realized what happened, they sent me a bill for my half of the water bill, not including late fees. I assumed that Townsend was going to cover the fees since the whole fiasco was their fault; however they then deducted those fees from my security deposit. I paid the bill the next day, and the manager told me that Townsend would no longer be the «middle man», that I would have to work something out with the neighbor for now on. Thanks to their refusal to manage their properties, I wrote a check to the neighbor for the final water bill only to find out later that he didn’t pay it. Townsend added that bill from my security deposit too.
It took 15 months after we moved from that property, to get a good portion of the security deposit back with the help of a lawyer. They kept nearly all of the security deposit based on the above mentioned reasons, as well as for cleaning and painting the entire place. I made the mistake of not taking photos when moving in, or out. Other than normal wear and tear, there were no problems with the carpet. The lease we signed with Autumn Creek did not state that there was a mandatory steam cleaning charge.
Do not rent from Townsend! This is a company that should not be in business anywhere, especially in a college town where many young adults are living on their own for the first time. If already with Townsend, take many photos and save all of your receipts/​e-​mails.

Horrible, rude, liars. Steer clear. If you already live in one of their buildings, BE THERE when they do the final walk-​through and GET SIGNED PAPERWORK, THEN AND THERE if they tell you you’re getting a full refund. TAKE PICTURES of the condition of the apartment. Basically, get as much paperwork on file to protect yourself as you can, because they rest assured they WILL screw you out of your security deposit. So glad to have nothing more to do with them.

Townsend Management is probably one of the worst leasing companies in the Dekalb area. My two roommates and I signed a 1 year lease, and that one year couldn’t have been short enough. First, when we moved in NOTHING was clean. The kitchen needed a deep cleaning right when we moved in, the tile floors were filthy, and we weren’t able to walk on the carpeting without shoes on, unless we wanted the bottoms of our feet to become blackened by the filth from the company not steam cleaning like they were supposed to. The sliding door on our balcony didn’t latch correctly, which was a safety concern, as well as a energy problem. After their «handyman» couldn’t figure out how to fix it, we figured out that all you had to do was stuff paper in the latch hole to get it to lock. One bedroom came with blinds that were broken, and it took them over a month to get them fixed. Every other maintenance issue took over 48 hours for them to even get us a date or time they could come and just look at the problem, not to mention how long it would take to actually fix it. The washer and dryer downstairs was disgusting, so everyone from the first floor would constantly be using the 2^nd floor washer and dryer, which left little time for anyone to get their laundry done. When we moved out, I spent 2 days cleaning my room and the main parts of the apartment (including behind the fridge and oven, and inside the oven, fume hood, etc.). They then charged us for steam cleaning the carpets at $ 180 (which wasn’t done before we moved in), $ 35 for some supposed «wax drip» which I would have cleaned had it actually been there (and why would it even cost 35 dollars, when it could have been scraped up for free?) and then $ 25 for «damage» in the hallway (there was no holes, no scrapes, and the paint was NOT anywhere near new when we moved in). When winter came, they snowplowed, but only down the main ailse of the parking lot, which left many cars blocked in by the snow (and who thinks to bring a snow shovel to an apartment when the landlord is supposed to take care of ALL building and parking maintenance) After promising us our security deposit back within 30 days of checkout, we finally received it after TWO MONTHS after checkout (and repeated phone calls and visits), and were only awarded ⁵⁵⁰⁄₈₂₅ we paid. Overall, I wouldn’t rent from them again, their properties are dirty and parking lots have tons of broken glass. The inside of the building smelled of urine all times of the year, which was disgusting, and something I had to warn guests/​family members about when they would visit.