Eljay Realty Company

It’s companies like Eljay that make me wish Unilocal had a zero stars option. This is hands down the most corrupt, untrustworthy realty company I have ever had the experience of dealing with.
For starters, they made us put down first months rent and 3 security deposits for a one bedroom apartment because it was our first apartment in NYC. Fine. We’ll get to that later.
While living in the building, the elevator and laundry in the building on E 90^th St were almost always out of service, and calls to the management do little to resolve it. We at one point had a mouse in the apartment on the third floor, and again calls to the super and management did nothing. There were multiple problems with the plumbing in the building, with water leaking from the bathroom upstairs into our bathroom, and ruining the walls. As well as our kitchen sink leaking into the apartment below us. Our toilet was extremely old and ran constantly, and got clogged constantly. At one point we were without a functioning toilet for almost a week, before someone finally came to snake it.
After living there for two years, the move out process was atrocious. My roommate and I had converted our one bedroom apartment into a two-​bedroom by putting up a fake wall (something that was allowed by management), which we paid almost a thousand dollars for. When the realtor, Fran, began showing our apartment* after we decided not to renew our lease we heard her describing the apartment as a two bedroom. This raised a few flags since the apartment was clearly a one bedroom (the wall didn’t even go up to the ceiling), we already had an appointment to have it taken down, and again we had paid $ 1000 for it. I contacted the management company who after many many negotiations finally agreed to pay us $ 400 (this number is important) for the wall. When it came time to collect that money before the move out, the company was nowhere to be found. They would not return any messages, emails or texts whatsoever. It took me physically showing up at their residence to get the check for the wall.
*Sidenote: When you decide not to renew your lease, the month leading up to your moveout the management company shows your apartment M-​F from 5 – 7 pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 11 – 6. People are literally ALWAYS in your apartment, and the realtor will barge into your room and apartment without knocking to show it.
Before moving out we had our apartment professionally cleaned, and made sure the apartment was left in better shape than we had moved into.
The management company has 60 days to send you your security deposit back, which my roommate and I thought was weird when they never asked us for a forwarding address. We contacted them a few times, and then a few days shy of 2 months after we moved out they called to ask for it. We received our security deposit with $ 400 (number sound familiar?) taken out for the most made up reasons, such as «oven cleaning,» «trash removal,» and «toilet unclogging.» We had it PROFESSIONALLY cleaned and there was not a single thing left in the apartment. When we moved in, there was furniture and games still left in it! I contacted the company again to find out what was going on with this, and Mark answered and said that was very strange and he would look into it. This was now 3 months ago, and Eljay has ignored all further attempts at contacting them.
I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT DEALING WITH THIS COMPANY.

WARRING! Do not pay them anything because they won’t even look at your application! I called multiple times before I applied and they kept telling me that there is no pending application on the apartment. After I paid the $ 100 fee –IN CASH (they only take cash of course), they kept telling me that someone will get back to me every time I called. Of course noone got back to me until this day. My next step is to report them to the police!!! Such a scam!

Brokers and Renters Beware!
This is the worst company to work with hands down the most unprofessional and uneducated firm in New York City.
They are unresponsive and will take your application fee and pocket it and never call you again. Save yourself the stress and trouble and take your business elsewhere.

Please do not rent from these dishonest and unethical crooks!!! I’m not sure how the owner or of any of his employees sleep at night with all the lies and deceit. Some highlights (or lowlights): 1) They enter the apartment without notice, whether you’re home or not (I was accidentally locked out by the repair guy… fun stuff when returning home with a full bag of grocercies). 2) Upon moving out, They will show the apartment 7 days a week, in the evening, host an open house all day long, regardless of your schedule, and they don’t call in advance. 3) If repairs were done (rarely) it took a minimum of three phone calls and usually a month later. 4) The two washer/​dryers never work…5) The shower was really a bathtub after 2 minutes. 6) Due to my lower credit I was asked to provide a sizeable security deposit (many months); it seemed exorbitant but I did it anyway. AFter 60 days nothing. I called and sent a letter… no reply. Called again. They continued to avoid me. So I mailed a certified letter threatening a lawsuit and four days later received my security deposit, well, 75% of my security deposit. They unethically kept over $ 1,000 for trumped up repairs (all lies). 8), the building maintenance is non-​existent (elevator didn’t work for a week because snow got into the elevator shaft… seriously). Eljay is your typical slumlord.
If you have any other renting options, please consider other alternatives. It was by far the worst renting experience of my life.