North Berkeley Properties

I think real estate Unilocal reviews are not to be trusted in general since most people don’t give Unilocal reviews to property managers… unless they are feeling hopeless and super angry. You don’t just recommend a real estate manager being like «oh yeah you should try this» to someone.
But especially because of this, I feel compelled to write a review for all the property managers I’ve had a good experience with, and North Berkeley Properties is definitely one of them: professional, reliable, and tech-​savvy.
I just signed another lease with them and they were very efficient. (Got almost everything done online), and they manage all of their properties very well — I’ve had no complaints with the previous apartment. They keep everything up to date (bathrooms/​kitchens especially).

I have just signed my lease with NBP, i have never had such an easy and pleasant time viewing and finding an apartment. My roommate and i desperately needed a june move in and they worked with us! I am so excited to spend the next year in this beautiful apartment. Already I know this is going to be a very wonderful living experience! THANK YOU NBP!
Best,
Dela

The folks at North Berkeley Properties are professional, efficient, and honest. We went to an open house of theirs in Elmwood (Berkeley) in April before signing a lease with them in May. At the open house, we chatted with the current tenants who spoke very highly of NBP, and, if 2821 Hillegass is any indication of their other units, they take a lot of pride in their properties– beautiful, manicured, safe.
In our interactions with them, they were both pleasant and concise– a combo that makes interactions run very smoothly. My fiancé and I have met a lot of rude, dodgy, and even duplicitous property companies during our apartment hunt– I guess we weren’t really surprised with the market the way it is– but NBP has been nothing but professional. They also very clearly went out of their way to help us navigate a bit of a tricky situation with our lease.
Next time I’m in the market for an apartment, I will definitely start with them.

Their building I lived in 2109 Shattuck, was great. Noted though, their offices are downstairs in this building.
Living in 2109 was good and they were great with maintenance requests.
There are a lot of scumbag real estate companies in Berkeley. But, from my experience, NBP was solid.

Completely unprofessional staff who obviously only care about making a buck.
Our apartment was completely dilapidated and they didn’t give a s***. Water was leaking in through the windows every time it rained (which is a lot in Berkeley) and they refused to do anything about it — even though it was obviously causing mold. We would bleach it and it would be back the next day.
There’s a complete nut-​job who lives at 1930 Vine St who is verbally abusive to numerous neighbors, including me. North Berkeley Properties won’t do anything about it despite receiving several complaints.
There was also a break-​in during my tenancy where people ripped apart the on-​site washers for the change inside. On that note, one washer or dryer is always broken (though it rotates on a weekly basis).
The only plus side was the proximity to Cheeseboard Pizza.
Stay away from this company.

North Berkeley Properties has managed my building for the past 12 years. They are frequently horrible at communication. For example, they often want to use space I rent from them for staging work at any of the buildings they have in my neighborhood (there are 6 within 1 block). We have agreed that they will let me know a day in advance (so that I can plan) and will credit me the time. But they have not done either, and they do this repeatedly. They simply «take back» the space whenever they want, even though I pay rent on it. Credits haven’t happened in well over a year, even though they owe me for no less than 6 instances of use ranging from 3 days to two months.
Second, they have a problem with heat in my building. Bay area weather fluctuates, where one week, its 80s and there’s no need for heat, and the next it’s 50s outside. Their heating system is about 10 days behind in adjusting to what is happening, where if the temperatures drop, the heat comes on 10 days later. If you call them, they don’t call you back. They may or may not send someone to check the heating system. But they won’t let you know about it either way.
This has been a consistent problem for 20 months, for all units in the building. At one point, 6 months into this problem, their office person told me they were keeping heat at a lower level, to keep the boiler from making noise which would disturb the basement tenants whom they didn’t want to move out. This was after 6 months of winter temperatures with little or no heat, where my apartment was at 55 – 60 degrees inside (there is no insulation) consistently for the whole six months. The NBP person said, «well, I guess we should turn up the heat now that XXX tenants are moving out.» In other words, NBP listened more to the tenant who didn’t like hearing the boiler, in one unit, than to the many apartment dwellers who were without adequate heat.
Since then, the same NBP woman recently told me that maybe I should take the 20 months of email and notes to them about this problem, and get the rest of the tenants and go to the city to get the 10% per month credit for all our units x20, since the property manager we have is not listening regarding this problem.
Recently, with fluctuating temperatures, we have a week of cold, where it’s 58 degrees inside, and then a week of warm, where the heat comes on full blast unnecessarily.
NBP’s lack of communication, cheapness in providing basic required amenities, and cynical remarks all lead me to conclude they are borderline slumlords who are just in it for the money and will get away with whatever they can to save money.
NOTE: This review was posted in 2007, and today Miranda at Unilocal emailed me to let me know that she removed it because the first paragraph of the original review pushed back on another reviewers review. I’ve taken out that paragraph.

I lived in one of their properties for a year, at 2609 Ellsworth. It had a really spacious living room, small kitchen and mediocre bathroom. Dealing with them wasn’t that bad. I had minimal interactions with them the year I lived with them. They returned the security deposit fine. They didn’t deduct for the small stuff which was cool.
The manager was cool. Getting repairs was prompt, although we had only minor problems.

Never, EVER sign a contract with North Berkeley Properties unless you have no other choice.
I’ve had to experience pounding on the doors at 9am to fix a nonexistent shower door and a broken closet pole (sound familiar?).
Not only that, but this by far takes the top award for incompetence. Apparently, NBP does not know how to read money amounts on checks, as they apparently have ‘records’ that I have not paid the full amount of my rent for two months. But let me tell you this: if that was the case, then why does it say that the full amount was deducted from my bank account? The irresponsibility of NBP time and time again has left me VERY dissatisfied and VERY angry, especially now that they are accusing me of not paying the full amount of rent. Not only that, but they are apparently going to charge me ‘late fees.‘
In that case, they are about to experience the anger of a 5’2″ petite Asian girl when I have a word with them about this matter.

alright, they allowed us to get that part of our deposit back. Took long enough though

SO AFTER WAITING A MONTH AND TWO WEEKS, they finally changed my closet pole.
BUT LET ME TELL YOU EXACTLY HOW HIGH MY BLOOD PRESSURE MUST BE, STILL, FROM THIS FRUSTRATION.
They basically put in a SHOWER pole as my closet pole. After hanging about 5 articles of clothing, the WHOLE THING COLLAPSED. There wasn’t even anything SECURING OR HOLDING the pole to the wall, just lodged there VERY unsuccessfully. This is ridiculous and COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. SERIOUSLY?! So pissed right now.

By far the worst landlord I have ever had.
Some of the lowlights:
1) NBP towed my vehicle from the spot I paid for in my parking garage, but refused to pay the $ 200 tow fee and threatened to take it out my security deposit
2) NBP called PG&E and changed the recipient of gas and utility bills from us as tenants to NBP. Two months later, NBP tried to charge us $ 70 for the two months that it received the PG&E bill.
3) Employees are disrespectful, unfriendly, and refuse to identify themselves on the phone? What the heck?!

Here is a summary of my BBB complaint against them. In general, do yourself a favor and stay away, no matter how nice and accommodating they may seem at first. I should probably have filed a complaint with Berkeley rent control, but it’s far past the time for that and I simply don’t want to deal with the scum that work at this company any more. Without further ado:
My main problems with North Berkeley Properties:
1. They have lied to me. First, we were promised that there would be no lead paint in the apartment by the agent we were signing a lease with. This turned out to be incorrect — lead paint was found on the first day. Second, when I informed the receptionist that I would be filing a BBB complaint due to another issue, she told me that they were already listed with positive comments. I could not find a listing for them and thus had to create a new one, so this was another lie.
2. Most of the employees I have had contact with are very rude. Before the lease was signed, everything went smoothly and they were helpful. However, as soon as problems and questions arose after signing, they were very difficult to talk to. The receptionist, Lia, always has an attitude when asked questions about anything. When I told her about something broken in the apartment and called it a «problem,» she responded that she did not like my negative attitude. When I called her to ask if they had received my payment, her response was «it’s too hard to find out, we receive too many checks.» I believe it is her job to help me, so these responses are simply rude and unsatisfactory. I have had them hang up on me and transfer me to other employees that were probably not even there because they did not pick up the phone. Often times they don’t pick up the phone after you call them back after these episodes. I found it nearly impossible to get anything out of them without physically coming to their office, which is of course a hassle. I have also not received responses to voice messages and emails from several other employees including the agent we signed the lease with and the manager.
3. The apartment is in poor condition, it takes too long for them to come to make repairs, and they perform maintenance outside too often. Firstly, our apartment has paint peeling, doors that do not close (and one that needs considerable force to close), and issues with the bathroom faucet making noise when the water is not turned on full blast. These are all issues that should have been fixed before the apartment was rented out. Second, maintenance requests take too long. We have been without power in our apartment for a full day before, had issues with the heater that were not resolved for a long time, had a faulty stove which took about a week to replace, etc. On each occasion I had to call them several times before anyone would come, and repairs have never been completed in a reasonable amount of time. Third, we have water turned off for hours at a time once or twice just about every month for them to do repairs. This is completely unacceptable. The repairs should be done once and quickly, so that residents are not left without running water. The repairmen are also often outside of the building working on something else at relatively early hours (8am and sometimes earlier), often making noise.
I have found North Berkeley Properties to be rude and unhelpful, and a very poor property management company. I will not be doing business with them again and recommend that others avoid them as well.

Give me a supersized jack and cut me off at the knees, and I could have made this situation right.
Scouting an apartment from the right coast for a shotgun move out here, I found the NBP website easy to navigate and full of pictures. Correspondence was quick and easy, and they were more than obliged to rent me an apartment sight unseen. It was against my better judgment, of course. But life doesn’t wait for nobody, right?
So I got there, all giddy for my return to the Yay Area, flung open the door of my new «1 bedroom» and proceeded explore every pore of the place. First off, a kitchen/​living room/​dining room, bedroom and bath is a junior 1 bed. False advertising! And let me tell you, gorgeous hardwood floors and an expert paint job are about as effective as a layer of honey on a radish.
Every room of the apartment sank towards the outside wall. I noticed this when dropping my water bottle and watching it roll, gathering speed towards the corner. That’s just the beginning of the laundry list of issues: windows askew, mini-​person sized appliances, a sink so low that I could kneel at, warped mirrors. My very own carnival house!
Extra star for not asking any questions and returning my deposit promptly when I broke my lease.

my personal experience with nbp was disappointing and frustrating. while the actual apartment was quite lovely, no one at nbp ever went out of their way for me and in fact, after my apt was burglarized, they nearly went out of their way to address the issue.
if nbp bends over backwards for the next person, good for them. but personally speaking, they were the worst property management company i’ve ever had to work with (including my apts in new york — now that should tell you something).
i’m not sleep deprived or depressed and leave positive feedback when it’s due. you can have a neat apt in a cool ass neighborhood, but if the management company treats you as if you — the tenant — is their last concern, it isn’t worth it. in my opinion (since Unilocal IS an opinion-​based website), one can find a better place to live managed by a company that actually gives a crap. like all opinions on Unilocal,decide for yourself.

Used to rent from these guys in what is considered a nice part of Berkeley until recently. Used to be pretty good… not sure what happened. They didn’t consider any repairs an «extreeeeeme emergency», including not having heat or a hot shower in the dead of winter. It typically takes a week for them to fix anything at all… even if you have to take your showers at the Y for two weeks. Also, units are way overpriced.

Wow, it’s shocking what passes for «rentable» these days. Unless you want to live in a dump and deal with an unresponsive (and holier than thou) staff, I would quickly, quickly, quickly look elsewhere.

Great searching tool. Excellent descriptions and decent prices. I highly recommend checking out their website if you are looking to rent in the east bay. Their prices are acutally a comparatively lower than most of the other management companies in the area.
I’ve changed my review after watching NBP go downhill. I tend to check out what is for rent at least once a week and go to a few open houses and I was shocked to see what NBP is allowing to be rented. One extra star for not being lakireddy.
Also based on other reviews they have violated Berkeley Rent laws. All these complaints need to be filed with rent control.