FirstService Residential

By far the worst property management company. No response with anything. If you are considering, do not use.

I am shocked by the level of incompetence of everyone at FSR that my roommates and I have encountered– dealing with them is an endless nightmare. There have been multiple failures on the part of the building management, and very little done to resolve any of the issues.
After lease signing, we were given a welcome package with instructions for paying our rent through Clickpay (online portal). We moved in on October 24. Our first rent payment was due on December 1, 2015 (We paid first month rent upfront at the lease signing for November). On November 16^th, we contacted our building manager (BM) with questions on how to pay rent – specifically on paying through the portal. Our BM responded saying: «Paying must be done through click pay,» and assured us that we could each pay our separate portions of the rent through the portal. She then resent the instructions for setting up our Clickpay accounts.
However, on November 24^th, we tried to register our Clickpay accounts in anticipation of paying rent on December 1, and got the following alert:
«Unfortunately the information you have entered does not match the information in our system. Please enter the information only for the resident (s) named in the lease.»
We then contacted BM again, to see what the problem was, and to see we could address it.
At that time, BM contacted Clickpay. Clickpay said that our unit was currently showing a different leaseholder name in their settings, and then on November 30^th confirmed that our information had not been submitted by FSR.
At that point, I emailed BM asking her:
1. If it would still be possible to pay through ClickPay for Dec 1
2. If we could possibly have the late fee waived for this month if we have to pay by check and send it to the PO box
3. If it is possible for us to pay through separate checks, or does it have to be the rent in full paid by one check
BM responded saying that she would double check with accounting about Clickpay, but failed to respond to any of my other questions. I called her and she didn’t pick up so I left a message. I also called the ²⁴⁄₇ Customer Care hotline for FSR, and they didn’t offer any solutions, but unsuccessfully tried to connect me to an assistant property manager. Then, I tried to call reach this assistant property manager myself, and there was no answer so I left a message.
At that point, I emailed BM again, asking her to please confirm that we would be able to pay our rent through Clickpay on December 1^st, as at that point our checks would be late if sent by check through mail, and we wanted to avoid having to unfairly pay a late fee.
BM finally responded as follows:
Nov 30
Yes click pay will work. I will follow up to make sure.
We will also remove the late fees.
I am sorry for this inconvenience.
Unfortunately, this response still did not answer any of my questions, and falsely implied that Clickpay would be working for the December 1 rent payment. When I asked for clarification, she finally specified that she meant that Clickpay would work «eventually» (though she still failed to answer my other questions). I then sent our rent checks to the PO Box address.
On December 11^th, I contacted BM again to make sure that our details had been submitted to Clickpay, as I had tried again to register with no luck, and we were under the impression that we would be able to use Clickpay for paying rent on January 1^st.
BM responded asking which building and unit we were referring to.
She then contacted Clickpay again in the same exact manner as in November, and Clickpay responded that our names were not in the rent roll update from 11/​23, and asked if we moved in recently. BM responded saying that we DID move in recently, even though at that point it had been almost 2 months since we moved in.
Eventually Clickpay notified us that the issue had been fixed– BM didn’t say a word. However, that’s not where our problems end. Once we signed in to Clickpay, it showed that there was a huge outstanding balance. I spoke with BM and here were her reasons:
1. FSR charged us a late fee (despite BM assuring us that it would be waived)
2. FSR was missing one rent check, despite the fact that this check had been deposited (and didn’t even notify us that they «lost it»)
3. FSR erroneously charged us a «return check» fee
4. FSR charged us rent for 24 – 31 of October and we were notified that we were expected to pay rent for that week (we paid first month rent upfront at the lease signing before moving in). You’d think that they would tell us once a couple months had gone by that that amount was outstanding, but nope!
The levels of incompetence and lack of communication blow my mind.

The property manager recently told me that the «Board» denied cleaning the common area carpet. I never received a confirmation or anything in writing from this management company showing that they even went to the board. The only thing this company does on time is CHARGE YOU MAINTENANCE fees ($ 500 monthly-​for terrible service). I live in a co-​op in Brooklyn and I would advise anyone considering a building managed by this company to stay away. CAVEAT EMPTOR!

This is the worst company on earth. I have never dealt with such unprofessional, disrespectful, rude, incompetent bunch of people in one place. We have been trying to move into condo that we recently purchased in jersey city and the manager of the building is outright nasty. We submitted all documents and fees but she will not approve our move in. Don’t these people realize that they are displacing people because of their lack of competency. People have to move in and move out when they buy/​sell their own place. The manager of our property was giving us all lame excuses why she wouldn’t approve the move in. She never responds to emails and phone calls. Shame on you!

Horrible company. I recently moved into a building managed by First Residential and have been trying to get a response regarding the refund of my move-​in «deposit» which is supposed to be refunded after you move-​in. No one responds and I am still waiting for an answer as to when I will be getting my money back. Very unprofessional service when you have a question but they hound us on getting all the paperwork in on time and asap.

Avoid this company at all costs. These people are professional crooks.
My unit has an electronic key for the entrance door that never works, leaving me trapped outside for up to 15 minutes (bare in mind I work late and get home by midnight).
I have been trying to contact the management company for minor repairs and they keep referring me back to the super who never answers my calls which is why I contact them.
Due to construction next door and across the street I now have a rodent problem, while I was in my kitchen cooking I physically seen a mouse slide under my front door and have been trying to get a referral to an exterminator and door seal (which i feel should be standard). Needless to say they won’t even assist correctioning the issue by installing a door seal, nor will they even refer me to an exterminator, so now I’m on my own.
Honestly the only reason these people are in business is because people need a place to live.
Very unhelpful staff!

I am beyond upset with the people at FirstService Residential.
My boyfriend and I signed a lease in July for ⁹⁄₁ and asked if the building would be move-​in ready on ⁹⁄₁ SEVERAL TIMES and were assured that it would be by the leasing office. Then once we were told it wouldn’t be ready on ⁹⁄₁ they REPEATEDLY said that they were shooting for move in on the 10^th or 11^th the LATEST. As it now turns out, we will not be able to move in until the 15^th and we are living in a tiny hotel room (with no refrigerator or kitchenette) for what till be a total of 17 days. They are paying our hotel stay but have yet to agree to pay for our food expenses even though we are forced to eat out EVERY MEAL which is expensive in NYC/​Queens. If we are in a hotel until the 15^th, we will be deserving of an allowance for 17 days of eating out 3 meals a day. We have no means of preparing food in our room and they have yet to agree to any allowance at all.
Also, it is very difficult to get our building manager on the phone and we actually have gone 11 days in the hotel without hearing any updates from anyone at First Service Residential. I hope to have better service once we are moved in and it is business as usual for them, but this process of being displaced has been a bit of a nightmare.

I have had nothing but stellar interactions with this management company. My property manager in particular, Taylor Katz has always been extremely responsive to any issue I’ve presented and handled all of my concerns in an extremely timely manner. I’m talking like emailed me back in 20 minutes! All of the other staff I’ve dealt with has always been very pleasant, attentive and helpful. I’ve lived in NYC 7 years and of the 3 management companies I’ve had, FSR has been the best by far! So grateful for it!

I’m a real estate broker and this company is definitely on my top 3 or worst management companies to deal with.
I’m currently working on a condo rental application at 214 North 11^th Street where i am representing the prospective tenant. First the website
they use to submit application totally suck. And none of the attendants of the helpline number provided were able or willing to help with technical issues related to submitting the application online.
The application processor named Celia Beda is definitely the worst i’ve ever encounter in my 4 years of my real estate career. She loves taking her time reviewing applications and loves to fully use the 72 hours timeline for application review (which she automatically set the clock for every application review or documents missing) just to «power-​trip» on people dealing with her. She does take her time reading and replying to emails tho, but she takes 3 days to reviews applications that takes less than an hour to submit, which doesn’t make sense at all.
She is rude and have no sense of understanding a pregnant woman (that is close to delivering) who also happen to be an unit owner and who is requesting a special attention to be given to our rental application due to the fact that she may become unavailable very soon when she goes into delivering. She is also very mean toward an elderly lovely women that has been a veteran in the real estate industry for over a decade and can totally teach her some lessons about how to deal with customers paying you.
Another aspect, i don’t get is that with all the exorbitant fees they charge to review applications, they should be working faster than what they currently doing and treating customers a little nicer than they currently are doing.
I work with a lot of Real Estate developers with intentions and plans to build condominium buildings in NYC, and i will never ever recommend this company to any of my developers, nor to any future rental or sales clients (with intention to rent or buy in a building this Company manages) i may have.
I will also make sure that anyone that i know that is also a real estate broker like me know of their bad services, so they can avoid dealing with them.
If could give this company «minus 6 stars», i would without a blink. This is so disgusting having people like this serving hard working property owners that spend their hardworking money to purchase apartments within buildings FirstService Residential manages.
This is definitely a wake-​up call for the executives of this company. If you really wants Douglas Elliman management to take over all buildings you’re currently managing, maybe just hand it over to them so customers don’t have to live through this living hell of simple application reviewing and processing.
SHAME ON YOU ALL!!!

Worst service I’ve ever had to deal with. We may not be able to move into our new place before our current lease is over because of them. Even though we had over 2 weeks of overlap at first we are now running out of time because our firstservice rep keeps restarting a 72 hour review for a single document «missing» even though we had uploaded it 3 times!

very happy not dealing with FS residential any more… ohhh. wait… still waiting for my security deposit… after i was told i was going to receive a couple of weeks ago… still waiting…

Our condominium has had FSR for a few months now, and as a unit owner (and I’m not a board member) I am completely pleased. Every neglected issue that I know of from our previous manager has been taken care of. Our assigned manager, Boris, is unfailingly polite and quick to respond to emails and phone calls. It’s easy to get access to minutes and records for the building. FSR gave us not only our agent’s contact info, but also the name and phone of his boss, and they have a ²⁴⁄₇ emergency number. What a pleasant difference from our previous manager!

I’m a real estate broker and deal with hundreds of leases each year. FS Residential is literally the worst management company on this earth.
The only good things about them is that they don’t try to steal your money indirectly. All of their ridiculous fees are disclosed.
They are wholly incompetent however. Their application process for the properties they manage is ridiculous. Their agents who process applications are literally the most incompetent people I’ve ever encountered.
They never meet timelines, and are never helpful in any way.
They are wholly useless, and nothing more than parasites. Stay away at all costs.

I’ve lived in NYC for 3+yrs and FirstService Residential is the only building company I’ve worked with. Coming out of a few leases with old school family landlords, I was nervous to take on a lease with a massive company but it ended up being totally fine.
The building itself was awesome– everything in my apt was brand new and the neighborhood was a great fit for my lifestyle. I had a super that lived onsite and was such a ball– we actually became friends. There were a couple of times when I needed maintenance done on my unit (tough window to close and a broken valve on my heater) and my landlord offsite came right away. He was always reachable by phone and would come morning or at night to fix the problem– really easy process.
The people I worked with at the office were just as helpful. If I emailed the property manager I always received a polite message back in a matter of hours regarding my questions. It was also really nice to have the ability to pay online automatically from my checking account or to place it on a credit card to get extra travel rewards too :)
Overall, moving in and moving out has been a seamless transition. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with these folks again– they’re reasonable and professional.
Work with them and they’ll work with you!

Absolutely the worst property managers I have ever dealt with. They have failed each time to address my valid concerns about my apartment building, from leaky plumbing to incompetent superintendents, to getting me my second key fob in a timely manner.
They are disrespectful as they often don’t respond to emails, unorganized because my email gets forwarded to 4 or more people before anything is ever accomplished, and absolutely careless.
***It dumbfounds me that it took over 2 months to get professional cleaners to remove the horrific stench on the second floor of my apartment building after a ROTTING CORPSE was finally removed. Everyone in the building was livid and we had to finally talk to news stations and get interview time to get them to listen. If I could give First Residential negative stars I gladly would.

In all my life, in any area of business I have ever been involved in, I have never seen such incompetence, underhandedness, mismanagement and outright rude people all grouped together under one banner.
They don’t have the courtesy to return phone calls or emails.
Their business model is to ignore you for long enough until you either give up or just move.
If you have designs on moving into a building run by FSR, the best advice I can give you is RUN.

15−25−35 Oliver Street, Bay Ridge (Brooklyn), NY 11 209.
Despite four police reports and many other complaints against them, the violent and disruptive tenants are still living at this pretend «high-​end» apartment complex. They not only continue residing there, but they keep multiplying. Originally, three moved in, and two years later; there are six of them in the same two bedroom apartment, just like in the projects! The fact that these people are still in the building clearly proves, how incompetent and useless this management company is.
These tenants’ «rap sheet» includes but not limited to:
1/​VIOLENT, BLOODY BEATING OF A TENANT IN THE HALLWAY OF THE APARTMENT COMPLEX IN JANUARY 2014. (1 police report) Many tenants, not surprisingly, moved out after they witnessed the assault. THE FIRST SERVICE BUILDING MANAGER KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON BUT SHE PREFERRED TO STAY MUM!
2/​THREATENING TENANTS WITH PHYSICAL HARM ON TWO OCCASIONS.
(2 police reports)
3/​Crawling around the fire escape peeking into windows. (1 police report)
4/​Throwing burning cigarettes and other trash out the window onto the cars parked below. On one occasion, they threw a coconut out the window. No kidding! A real coconut. First they tried to crack it, by banging it against the pipes, when they got frustrated they chucked it out of the window. (General management memo, complaints from car owners)
5/​Flooding and damaging the apartments below them four times in eight months. (Maintenance records)
The school has child services keeping an eye on the female member of this bunch for neglecting her autistic daughter. And there are many other serious issues too with these people and everybody can guess those without them being spelled out…
Their landlord appears to be extremely money hungry. He loves to keep these people in the building because he charges them a really high rent. He also knows that the whole apartment complex is scared of these people and they will not speak up or complain. This landlord is also «a sponsor,» and happened to own around 40% of the apartments. This means he does whatever he wants. He pretty much rules the whole complex, and First Service Residential allows this to happen.
This place is really big on superficial things, things that a naïve, prospective buyer/​renter would see and fall for, at first sight, like: the manicured courtyard, holiday décor, hallway renovations… They do fail, big time, on the truly important things such as: proper screening of the tenants, having consequences for violent and unruly tenants, or keeping this sponsor in line. The coop by-​laws are a mere formality at this place, it is a big joke that they even make you sign it with the rental agreement. They pick and choose to reinforce rules whenever it is convenient for them. And the sponsor always allowed to make his own rules.
We payed $ 1,950 a month for a non-​renovated apartment, to live in the same building with the kind of people described above. As an added bonus; our «luxury Shore Road» dwelling (in particular our kitchen) was overrun with cockroaches and water bugs. It was simply disgusting! (Our neighbor across the hall used to battle bedbugs.) Needless to say; we tremendously regret moving in here. We lived over 15 years in Bay Ridge and by far this was the worst place, ever! We wasted two and a half years and thousands of dollars in moving costs because we, stupidly, picked this horrible place over other nicer and better apartment options. (None of the other apartment buildings could have been possibly worse than this dump.)
If you are smart, you learn from our horrible mistake and stay away from this place and every single property that is managed by First Service Residential.

Changing their name from Cooper Square Realty to First Service Residential doesn’t change the fact that they were a company that hired incompetent employees. Because of one Louis Giano, my closing date delayed, my renovations stalled and my parking space spot pushed back. Because he failed to respond. He failed to advise and acknowledge certain documents were overlooked. *sigh* not only was he unable to assist on anything but he was rude about it too.

BEWARE & take all negative reviews below seriously as they are accurate examples of how you will be treated when this management company buys your building & begins their vendetta to get you out.
The building we moved into 4 years ago was acquired by First Service Residential a year & a half ago. Our rent was promptly raised by $ 250 and extravagant renovations began on our lobby — on our increased dime, of course. The paint on every surface of both the lobby and all stairwells was stripped without proper ventilation. The subsequent fumes were overwhelming and untreated despite our complaints. We were told the fumes were «natural» and the product was used by workmen all over the city. — HOW HELPFUL! All of our complaints regarding this were directed back at us for being «ungrateful» about the renovation. Glad it was on the dime of all the tenants that also suffered from the toxic fumes that circulated with closed windows.
Nevertheless, we stayed one more year and were recently presented with our lease renewal with another $ 200 increase. This time we contact them listing not only the unhealthy construction conditions but the frequency of both the heat & hot water being shut off for stretches of time, asking for a smaller rent increase than listed. The response we received was, «You clearly are unhappy with the improvements we’ve made in the building. Please confirm you will not be resigning for another year.» They are TRUE MONSTERS.

I would give them zero stars if I could! The absolute worst management company ever! The big bullies and kings of tenant harassment in the Upper East Side at 85 East End Ave, corner of 83^rd St. Do NOT rent here or any of their buildings if these people are your management team. Watch out!
If you read Mr. Klehammer’s reason below for doing a non-​lease renewal; he doesn’t even have the courage to cite the ridiculous reason aside from, «tenants are supposed to follow the rules». I personally invite him to cite these reasons publicly. And perhaps, he should go back to managing Section 8 people where he came from, since clearly this is how he treats tenants with impeccable track records who dare complain about non-​service.
Update: Thankfully the property Manager of 85 East End Avenue Mona Agress was fired this past January, 2014. 2 more to go! Read about her firing at
March 2014 Update: there is another female tenant and her family who is going through round 2 of harassment in this building as well– this time in housing court for another free market tenant! I guarantee you, when it is lease renewal time for this family, they will be getting a non-​lease renewal notice, because they demanded service. I would love to hear what Mr. Klehammer’s excuse will be this time.
Welcome to the neighborhood!
Read more of the sordid, salacious details of this BANNED Unilocal review, that was officially taken off this site; specifically due to a complaint by the VP of Rentals, Robert Klehammer for it’s truthful and damaging effects at:
Consider yourself forewarned.
Ps. Ivana R’s review about the abusive, harassing Super of this building is a plant. Her mother moved out about a year before this review was even written, and she never lived in the building and would only come for visits; therefore never even had access to the gym where the Super, Dwayne Doucette would «watch» female tenants.