LC Lemle Real Estate Group

I have to agree with the negative reviews below. The company is quite pretentious for offering some of the lower-​cost rentals in the area. As with anything, you get what you pay for. There were consistently signs written by tenants asking for whoever stole their packages to please return them.
The worst part is the maintenance director, Brian. Upon moving out they gouged me for a large portion of my security deposit (which they waited over 2 months to return) for things that were clean. It’s a real scumbag move on their part as they probably know it’s not worth the tenant’s time to take them to court or something like that.
Do yourself a favor and pay a few more bucks in a different building.

I read through the negative reviews, and I honestly do not agree with them. I found the office staff members I dealt with to be extremely pleasant. I worked with Christian, who I believe is the leasing manager. He is a stand up guy. The others I came across were extremely pleasant as well. The maintenance staff have been great, they are really attentive and take their job seriously. I’ve actually gotten the chance to shoot the breeze with them a few times, they are pretty cool guys, to boot.
As for the apartment itself, I am pretty satisfied. LC Lemle doesn’t advertise their properties as ‘luxury rentals’ by any means. They are quite transparent in the fact that their buildings are pre-​war walk ups. I agree that the heaters are loud as hell in the winter, and the pipes aren’t the greatest. However, speaking from personal experience, it could be much, much worse.

F this company. They’re the type that give landlords a bad name. I lived in a Lemle apartment for 4 years. During this time, I had numerous incidents of ceiling materials coming through my ventilation duct in the ceiling, cockroaches, and to top it off, when I moved out, they charged me for tiny holes that I used to hang picture frames. *really really tiny* holes — the kind that the lease agreement says you *won’t* be charged for. F them.

I am shocked to see that this company has negative reviews. I have only positive things to say about my experience with LC Lemle. The properties are in great conditions and the staff is AMAZING! Alex, who works at the front desk, was so helpful throughout the entire process. He helped with all the paperwork and was extremely friendly. I asked him numerous questions and he was never to busy to answer them. Katherine, the leasing agent, was also very friendly and helpful. Out of all the real estate groups in the city that I went to this one is by far the best. I would recommend this company to anyone who is looking for an apartment.

I don’t know what the other reviewers are expecting from a leasing company in NY. This is light years ahead of my other leasing experience.
The building is clean, bug-​free (knock wood) and well-​maintained. My apartment was gut renovated when I moved in, and they’ve always been quick in responding to maintenance requests since then.
Not sure where the other reviewers live, but our walls are pretty standard — I can’t hear when my neighbor listens to music (which I do sometimes hear when I go out in the hallway). Regarding the noisy pipes — pipes in NY are old and make noise… you could always request that the super bleed the pipes. My only complaint is that you can only make maintenance appointments between 830 – 5, so I needed to go into work late.
Everyone in the office has always been nice to me — I can’t imagine what the other reviewers are requesting that would get such rude responses. Treat others the way you’d like to be treated?

Do not rent from these people to say they are slumlords does not even begin. They treat their tenants with nothing but disrespect and a rude attitude. Don’t be fooled by the great looking apartments because trying to get a maintenance appointment is a sick joke. There was recently an emergency in my apartment which transgressed into being an emergency for the building. After calling the emergency number they had the audacity to tell me that if they couldn’t get a hold of the super I was out of luck and they couldn’t help me. What good is an emergency number then??? Luckily I have a family member who came to the rescue or I would have lost everything.
They were doing maintenance in the building and sent out a notice that a building manager would be present with the handyman at all times. LIES. I caught a no name handyman in my apartment with no management in sight. He even had a copy of my keys! When I called to speak with someone about this they told me that the maintenance ran long and I couldn’t expect someone from management to be able to stay that long. They are liars and cheats and as I said previously slumlords at best. DO NOT rent with them if you expect respect and decent service.

I’ve lived in LC Lemle buildings for years and due to some to some previous reviews, I’d like to clear up some confusion. J Lemle was the old real estate company. The name did not change, but they split into two, LC Lemle and Copperwood. I’ve lived in New York my whole life and I’ve stayed with J Lemle/​LC Lemle over the last several years because they are legitimate, very professional, above-​board landlords. I’ve had to move once or twice while with them, and they’ve always renovated the apartments, putting brand new appliances in all of them. They seem to invest a good portion of their revenue into upkeep for their apartments, which is a lot more than some landlords do in the city. Also, whenever I’ve had a problem with my apartment, they’ve always been quick to respond and send help to quickly remedy the issue. Since the split earlier in the year, I haven’t noticed any dip in their management capabilities. I’ve had some very bad experiences with landlords in the past and I can all but guarantee that you won’t with LC Lemle.

Having lived in seven different apartments in my life (you’ll see I gave one of them 5 stars by the way), I wanted to provide a review of my experience living at 505 E 88 Street, a building then owned by J Lemle, which I understand is now owned by LC Lemle. I’m not sure exactly what changed in ownership, but there must be some similarities given it’s still under Lemle name. I lived there during 2011-​12.
The pros:
–My unit was a gut reno. It was beautifully appointed with hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances (some GE), a marble bathroom, a granite counter-​top, smartly designed kitchen (tall cabinets) and closets (yes, plural) with lights. Everyone always commented on my beautiful apartment.
–Tough application process. I appreciated that I had to be interviewed in order to get into my apartment. Made me feel safer in the building.
The cons:
–The management company. I had to give myself a pep talk before I’d call or stop by the office. I’ve never been treated so rudely by an organization, whether in an email, on the phone, in-​person or just in the paperwork. Generally speaking, the way the communications from them were written was even offensive. I felt as if I was being treated as if I was guilty of doing something because I was told I would be fined for a number of things, that I hadn’t even done, in aggressive language, always in caps, and often bolded, underlined, etc. It just set a bad tone. I didn’t like living like that — having a question or needing to get a maintenance issue fixed was never easy.
–The building is dirty. It needs a deep clean. Very often dead and/​or alive cock roaches in the laundry room and garbage areas. If anything of mine dropped on the floor while doing laundry, I just threw it away. I’d signed up for the exterminator and they didn’t show up (although twice they randomly knocked on my door, which is a good thing!) The hallway had punch holes that weren’t fixed and when they were, they were patched with paint that didn’t match; sometimes lights went out and weren’t fixed for a while. The hallway carpet clearly hadn’t been shampooed in a very long time. Even a deliveryman commented on the smell of the elevator to me once, and my friends/​family did as well.
–The elevator had gone out about 4 – 6 times in a year (scheduled and unscheduled) and when that happened, you couldn’t access to the basement or the trash/​laundry room (because the bottom staircase had a locked door and tenants didn’t have a key), sometimes for days. Not being able to take your trash out for a long period was been a problem for me, and when I had a business trip/​work long hours and was planning to do laundry, it was been an inconvenience.
–There were other items I noticed like supers changing often and not a live-​in super (as advertised) until right before I moved out. Maintenance requests often weren’t responded to, never mind updates on the request. The intercom didn’t work properly until right before I moved out (though I called weekly for months when I first moved in and always heard excuses) — even when it was updated, I was never able to speak to someone who buzzed my apartment or see them, so I could only assume it was someone there for me and buzz them in.
–The walls were so thin I couldn’t sleep at times. My next door neighbor worked out in her apartment at 6 – 7 am and my downstairs neighbor played music until 1 am sometimes. I could also hear my downstairs neighbor snoring if I woke up in the night and I could hear phone conversations and arguments on the weekends. Not a comfortable living situation.
–The listing for my apartment said something like «Dogs and cats welcome.» I called to inquire about the specifics when considering getting a dog and was told that the weight limit is 15 pounds and you have to pay an extra month’s security deposit for a pet (so for me, this would have been ANOTHER $ 2095). Then, «Bet that will make you think twice about getting a dog.» And then she laughed!
Overall, while I loved my actual apartment, the building and management issues made it unbearable. It was worth it for me to pay more somewhere else.
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My review is for 2011-​12. The company slightly changed its name and possibly management since then.