Bluesquare Property Management & Realty, LLC

Update 2014: I recently spoke with Meg at BlueSquare who informed me that during the time of my issues with the property manager, the company was undergoing an acquisition and things may have fallen through the cracks. She apologized for my negative experience. The best part is that, since I had appropriate documentation of the issues, I was able to receive a refund of my security deposit. The outcome was acceptable for me. Thank you Meg.
2013
As a tenant, dealing with Blue Square Property Managment in Philadelphia, PA was frustrating and stressful. I agree with Natalie B., Jayne Y., and Alex A. who wrote below before my input.
When I was shown one of their unit, the carpet had a large red stain on it, aluminum foil was in the oven, nail holes in the walls, window blinds were dirty and one was broken, and more. The person showing the property told met the carpet would be replaced and all other items would be cleaned, repaired or replaced.
Move-​in day. I went to the office to sign the lease and taking possession of the keys. I then drive over to the unit only to find that nothing was different from the day I iniitally viewed the unit. I called the office to inform them of what I found and they told me to note everything on my move-​in form. I did as instructed, I noted my observations and submitted a completed copy to the office.
During my time renting from this company, on two separate occasions I reported mice sightings in the unit. There was construction going on in the area, so the property manger said the unearthing may have disturbed the mice. She said they would send someone out to inspect — no one ever showed up. I had to take matters into my own hands. I was pissed since I had a new born in the apartment and was concerned about his safety.
Another incident that took place while there — the main toilet stopped flushing. Since it was after hours, I called the emergency maintenance line. All they did was take a message. The next morning, I called the property manager and she tells me she will call maintenance and someone will be out to fix the problem. The phone calls from me to the office went on for one week before anyone came out to the unit to figure out what was wrong. They couldn’t fix it that day, so the wait was extended before it was actually fixed. It was an inconvenience to have to run down the stairs and interrupt the my housemate, every time I needed to use their toilet. I was paying rent for what… to be inconvenienced? Unacceptable!
Three years later and now it’s time to move out. I submitted an email to the property manager informing her of my intention to vacate the property. I sent this email three months prior to my intended move out date as the lease specified — submitted in March for move out in June. I was informed that the last month deposit that I paid would cover the last month rental of the unit. Cool. Well, June came and I get an email from the accounting office telling me that my rent was late. I inform her that the property manager was notified of my moving out in June. Obviously, these people did not communicate within their own office. I ran into this lack of interoffice communication issue on numerous occasions during my three years renting from them.
When I turned in my notice to vacate, the property manger informed me that a move-​out inspection HAD to be done prior to vacating the property. It was the last week in May when I called to actually schedule the inspection, at which time I was told that it HAD to be done in the morning. I scheduled the inspection for10:30am with one of their office staff. I was relocating to CA, so I made flight arrangements around this scheduled inspection. Well, no one showed up for the scheduled inspection after I waited all day in the unit. When I called the office to inform them that no one showed up, the property manager was crass, unprofessional and threatened to assess fees against me if the keys were not turned into the office by 4pm that day.
A month later, I receive an email from the property manager with a list of their inspection assessment. They incorrectly and boldly charged me for items that were in disrepair even before I moved in (see second paragraph) — all of which was noted on my move-​in document as instructed. My security deposit was withheld. I feel I was unfairly treated, so I am fighting for the return of my deposit.
I’ve rented from numerous property management companies in different states and citifies and I have to say that this is my worst experience of renting apartments/​houses. Their practice is full deception and unprofessionalism. I would not recommend this company, not even to my enemies. Despicable conduct! I would give a minus star rating if the option was available.

Blue Square Property Management is one of the most unresponsive and incompetent companies I have ever dealt with. I moved out of an awesome apartment after one year because they wouldn’t take care of it. I could go on for days about how awful they are, but I’ll try to summarize.
Pam was my property manager when I moved in. I was worried when I met her, because she forgot that I was picking up my keys that day, and she had trouble finding them because she kept all of the keys together in a huge pile. It was their only set, too. Eventually, their maintenance person made another set… but he made two copies of one key instead of one copy of each. So I had a feeling that getting repairs was going to be a nightmare.
The knob in my shower was broken when I moved in. It was cracked, so I couldn’t turn it to adjust the temperature. I asked the maintenance person to replace it, and he even came over a few times to look at it. But he was late to meet me every time (at least 30 minutes to an hour late), and had excuses every time as to why he couldn’t fix it. Either «all the stores are closed» so he couldn’t buy a new knob (it was 6 PM. Home Depot closes at 9), or he «probably had to just replace the whole shower» (nope). I finally just replaced it myself. It took all of 5 minutes and I have no handyman skills at all.
The owner of the restaurant downstairs approached me shortly after I moved in for Blue Square’s contact information. Apparently, my apartment was leaking. I wasn’t seeing anything on my side and they had a plumber take a look at my apartment, but I never heard anything after that. The floor of my shower did have some interesting caulking pattern on it, like it had been cracked and they caulked over it to seal it. This concerned me, so I brought it up to Pam, but she said that the apartment was rented «as is». It wasn’t leaking at the time so I thought it might be okay. Pam was moderately responsive with emails and calls in the beginning, but over time it got really hard to reach her.
About six months later, more things started breaking. Both my oven and air conditioner broke, some water stains appeared on my ceiling (and what looked like mold!), and my shower started leaking because the door couldn’t stay closed and the caulking came loose (big surprise there). I made and gave a proper copy of my keys to maintenance and let Pam know that I’d be on vacation for 2 weeks, and they were welcome to enter my apartment and do whatever they needed to do. They had already known about the problems for a few weeks at this point, so I expected some progress when I returned. When I returned to my apartment and saw that nothing had changed, I contacted her about the repairs, but she didn’t know what was going on or even that there were issues. Maintenance suggested that they rip out and replace the shower, and she gave me the excuse that that will cost a lot, so the owners needed some time to get the money together. Really? What are you doing with my rent? She even told me to call their appliance contractors to tell them to call her because she was driving at the time. Seriously? That’s YOUR JOB. What makes you think I work for you?
About a month later with no progress, I was informed that I had a new property manager, Thomas. He reached out to me almost immediately to ask if my four repairs still needed to be fixed, but that was the extent of his usefulness. After that, he pretty much disappeared completely. Since the first time he emailed me, he had only answered one call and, like Pam, had no idea who I was or that my apartment needed repairs.
Their «24 hour» maintenance line is useless too. They don’t actually know anything or anyone and just leave messages for who you’re trying to reach. This doesn’t help if the person you’re trying to reach doesn’t answer their voicemails. I asked to speak with Thomas’ manager because he wasn’t responding, but they needed a specific name before they could leave a message.
When I gave notice that I was moving out, a third person started contacting me, Teri. I think she was my new property manager, but I never confirmed this. She was great — very responsive about repairs and the moving out process, and every interaction with her was pleasant. It’s a shame she wasn’t around earlier. I recieved my full deposit back without any issues.
2 of the 3 property managers were completely incompetent. If you rent with Blue Square, expect to chase both your property manager and maintence people down multiple times before they respond. After that, it’s still hit or miss whether they’ll actually follow through or if they’ll follow through correctly. I suggest staying far away.

As soon as Bluesquare took over management of 1419 E Columbia Ave, 19 125, They took action and Improvements were immediate. They cleaned the premises of debris that had been there for months that the previous MGT company ignored. My pilot light on my gas heater was defunct and within hours the response was more than satisfactory. Thanks Teri for making the place more habitable and safer.
JBBARRETTNC

I agree with Alex A. who wrote a review before me. They are completely unresponsive. How many times do I really have to call for someone to pick up? It’s very uncomfortable to do because honestly, I don’t want to bother people like that. On the other hand, I want our security back!!! It is so frustrating. Especially when our security is past due. In our lease, it says if there is no clear explanation with what is deducted from our security, management owes everything back to tenant.
Not going to go into details, just want to reiterate how DIFFICULT and FRUSTRATING it is dealing with this group.
If I could give them 0 stars, I would too.