SMC East Bay,

1669 12th St o, Oakland, CA 94607, United States

"I have a RAT problem. And I’m dealing with it as best as I can. But when a dead RAT comes into the basement and dies it STINKS. I need the rat to be removed ! I have been requesting for the removal of this stinky rat for over two weeks. No one has come and it is still there! I keep my windows open and a fan going but the smell is unpleasant and offensive. I don’t know why management can’t get into the basement and just remove the stinking Rat."

"Normally don't have a problem, but now they have created one. It is near impossible to get in touch with a person, and we have a serious issue. They have rented the apartment next to me to a person with serious mental health issues. I try to be understanding, and I can tune out her screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs for 5 hours a day, but she vandalized my apartment last night. The situation has been escalating, and I fear violence towards another tenant is inevitable. Still they do nothing. Exercise great caution and do your due diligence before renting from them."

"Slumlords. Has had our building living with a serious rat infestation for over a year. Sealed the rats in the building and despite this are showing the vacant unit. Rats are living in our walls & attic, chewed through my walls. I have a child, we've rented with SMC/Sullivan for over a decade, never paid late. They haven't given us a rent credit or fixed structural issues with the building, never clean gutters, the roof was badly damaged, weeds were growing on it, parts of the roof & drain rotted off, stairs are falling apart, dry rot they also refuse to repair. Had us living with an insane tenant that woke us up constantly and threatened all of us for asking her to stop smoking which is against the lease, we have asthma and other health issues. This tenant was hoarding, almost burned down the building smoking & lighting candles in her hoard. She threatened to bomb and shoot up the house, was chainsmoking and dealing out of the unit with a dozen squatters, after 2 years they were only recently removed, leaving us other units with the rat colony they helped facilitate. SMC never hired a proper clean up crew or hazmat, they painted over the surfaces, did not have protective gear for their maintenance men cleaning out the hoard. I went without a working heater most of my time here. You can see where they sloppily paint over black mold. There was a leak in my kitchen sink that damaged the wood, they wouldn't replace it, part of my kitchen wall was buckling and falling off from a combination of rats, age, shifting and the stomping from the other unit. I have cracked windows from their negligence that aren't being replaced. I've had to do yard maintenance and upkeep their landscapers are supposed to do like weed pulling and digging out sharp objects, there's a rotting shed they won't remove that rats also hide in. I urge you to not lease with them. There's an entire tenants organization full of people with similar grievances I've gotten flyers from. They are negligent & unprofessional; they don't care about the properties or tenants, or public health & safety. The maintenance men are hard working, good people the company clearly exploits and underequips. The front office people are devoid of ethics or integrity, they lie and drag their feet to do anything important and try to chastise us for being disgruntled, we're living in squalor and were terrrorized by another tenant for 2 years that several units complained about. SMC would sooner let rats eat us all alive than give us proper conditions or rent reversals, they are trying to trick unsuspecting people into leasing with an active infestation. I can only imagine how other buildings or single homes with no witnesses are ran or readied for leasing. Don't find yourself stuck with them and fighting for basic upkeep and dignity."

"I have rented through three different management companies in the East Bay, and SMC is the best by far. Repairs have happened quickly (same day or next day) and we have not been charged for them, the tenant portal is easy to use, and communication was great when we were applying. It sounds like others have had different experiences, and I will say that our unit was recently renovated when we moved in, which probably makes a big difference, but again, there are much, much worse management companies out there."

"We had a rodent problem in our attic and roof and SMC sent 3 different contractors, all but the last provided short term solutions. One of them even cleaned our attic but left the attic door open (in the kitchen) When they left we had to clean up all this rodent feces dust from our kitchen plates. Eventually the last guy knew what he was doing. Saw what the last 2 contractors did and said they didn't do squat about the problem. They contract the lowest quality/cheapest companies. Also, they raised our rent each time we wanted to add someone to a lease (rent went from 3k to 3,850 within 2 years. Also, they are currently hoarding vacant properties until rents increase again. The same properties listed a year ago are still available. Every review talks about how they don't get back to people, which is weird considering how many properties they have vacant. You'd think they'd want to fill those with what they can get. But they can wait til they can charge 5000 for a 3 bdrm again."