I've been renting from Penny Realty for over 5 years now. I've been in the same unit and like any typical renter, have been consistent with on time rental payments. I'm rather easy going and don't rush to call the property management company the moment an issue arises. I feel that I've been an excellent tenant and have adapted well to problems that have come about from this company.
I've had a seamlessly ending number of issues the entire time I've been renting from this company. I have been very level-headed, logical, unemotional and understanding over these years. However, today is the day I am deciding to take action to let potential San Diego long term and short term renters to know that this company is extremely unethical and provides 0 service to its tenants.
Instead of going into unnecessary and ranting details of the issues I have faced with this company over the years, I've decided to create a bulleted list to summarize the numerous problems that I as well as my neighbors have faced with this company and their units they rent out:
Toxic Black Mold- Toxic black mold growth in a neighbors unit that led to a hazmat team to come out and completely gut the unit. My neighbor was left homeless for months as the cleaning happened. Penny Realty provided 0 financial or emotional support or assistance to my neighbor as he had to move out everything he owned and couch surf for months until he could move back into a safe home.
Collapsing Stair Cases- During the rainy season, an entire stair case leading up to my neighbors unit collapsed. She was forced out of her home, similar to the black mold situation, and had to couch surf until her until was physically accessible. She was provided 0 financial assistance or support from Penny Realty. Thankfully, no one was under or on the stairs when they collapsed.
Rat Nests- While driving to work one day, I noticed an odd smell coming out of my AC. I decided to brush it off and thought maybe it was something outside. As days went on, I realized that the smell wasn't going away and that it intensified when the AC was running. I decided to investigate. To my shock and horror, I found that a rat had made a nest inside of my cabin air filter in my truck. I decided to investigate the garage I parked in everyday and sure enough, there were rats. As I moved things out of the way, I came to realize that the ground was littered with rat feces.
Spider Infestations- If you are like me, you are probably terrified of spiders. I despise spiders more than anything else. Living in this unit for as long as I have, I have come to accept that I will most likely encounter a spider every couple of weeks. It took the trauma of having to wake up in the middle of the night to a giant brown spider crawling across my arm for me to realize that this complex was infested. This explained all of the random red bites that would appear on me and girlfriend over the years. I now spray my room every night with peppermint oil to deter spiders from crawling on me. I also have glue traps all around my bed.
Rusted Metal- Living so close to the beach, you learn that rusting of metal is inevitable. However, when your screen doors, windows, sinks, door knobs, garage door and handrails are all rusted, you have to wonder if things ever get replaced. I've scratched myself countless times on rusted metal all across my home. My living room window has been rusted shut for 6 years. I fear trying to open it up due to the broken glass pane found in the window. The sinks are deteriorating from rusting and little pieces fall off every day.
Busted AC Units- Ok, I admit that this one isn't as bad, considering that AC is a major luxury in San Diego rental units. However, I felt that I should mention it since the insulation in my unit is nonexistent and has caused me to depend on my AC. There is no such thing as room temperature in my complex. I've gotten used to paying $200+ electric bills just to be comfortable in my home. The unit breaks down constantly and getting it repaired by Penny is always like asking them to give up a limb. Believe it or not, it actually can get pretty hot in San Diego during the summer.
Leaking Ceilings- During the rainy season, I have come to expect leaks in my ceiling. My ceiling is littered with water spots from the botched roof job that was done a couple of years ago. On that note, a dangerous roof job that lasted several months and wasn't communicated to any of my neighbors. My next door neighbor had to move out of his unit because of the incessant leaking. For some reason, I have an electric wall outlet on my ceiling, and when it rains, it leaks profusely. Dangerous, to say the least.
Unreliable Garage Doors- Luckily, my unit has a garage. However, every time I hit the clicker, I'm saying a prayer that it opens up. I've had multiple instances where my truck is stuck in my garage and I can't get to work because the external opener has been broken every since I have moved into this unit. I've had to work from home and have had to Uber to work to make meetings.
Broken & Leaking Appliances- This is what has put me over the edge and has finally caused me to go public about my complications with Penny Realty. I constantly have leaking toilets (and toilets that make high pitched screeches), washing machines and dishwashers. This is one of the few things I can't fix on my own and heavily rely on. I need my appliances to work. The most recent issue that has caused me to take action was the flooding of our laundry room. Our washing machine has flooded for probably the 14th time since I have lived here. Getting this repaired is always like pulling teeth. As I write this, the room is flooded and the washing machine is not functioning. This time though, they changed the lock on the door without telling anyone in the unit and have completely blocked all tenants from doing laundry. We have been unexpectedly locked out of our laundry room by Penny Realty. None of our keys work and we all have piles of dirty laundry that we have to deal with somewhere else this weekend. To say this is frustrating and majorly inconvenient is an understatement.
The unit issues aren't the real problem here though. The problem is the lack of care, respect, pride and understanding that comes from Penny Realty. Instead of them seeing these problems as things that impact people's lives, they see them as pesky complaints. If I didn't love my community and love my neighbors so much, I probably would have been long gone years ago. I've outlived 3 property managers since renting from Penny Realty and none of them seem to care about the people that rent from them. We are just nuisances to them. The silver lining in all of this is that I have built bonds with my neighbors and we know that we can all rely on each other if something happens to one of us due to lack of care from Penny Realty.
I ask that Penny Realty change their culture and outlook on long term renters. We aren't the money makers for them like the short term/vacation renters are, but we are also the heart of San Diego, and your business. It's so cliche for a property management company to be bad. I challenge Penny Realty to prove that wrong. I challenge Penny Realty to do what is right and put people over profits. I challenge Penny Realty to communicate with their tenants and care about their tenants, so we don't feel that we have to write these profusely long, negative reviews about them. This is the first time in my life that I sat down for over a hour to write a review about anything, but I am doing so to let the community know that this property management company is not the one you should do business with until they make some drastic changes.
Penny Realty, Inc. Reviews
I've been renting from Penny Realty for over 5 years now. I've been in the same unit and like any typical renter, have been consistent with on time rental payments. I'm rather easy going and don't rush to call the property management company the moment an issue arises. I feel that I've been an excellent tenant and have adapted well to problems that have come about from this company.
I've had a seamlessly ending number of issues the entire time I've been renting from this company. I have been very level-headed, logical, unemotional and understanding over these years. However, today is the day I am deciding to take action to let potential San Diego long term and short term renters to know that this company is extremely unethical and provides 0 service to its tenants.
Instead of going into unnecessary and ranting details of the issues I have faced with this company over the years, I've decided to create a bulleted list to summarize the numerous problems that I as well as my neighbors have faced with this company and their units they rent out:
Toxic Black Mold- Toxic black mold growth in a neighbors unit that led to a hazmat team to come out and completely gut the unit. My neighbor was left homeless for months as the cleaning happened. Penny Realty provided 0 financial or emotional support or assistance to my neighbor as he had to move out everything he owned and couch surf for months until he could move back into a safe home.
Collapsing Stair Cases- During the rainy season, an entire stair case leading up to my neighbors unit collapsed. She was forced out of her home, similar to the black mold situation, and had to couch surf until her until was physically accessible. She was provided 0 financial assistance or support from Penny Realty. Thankfully, no one was under or on the stairs when they collapsed.
Rat Nests- While driving to work one day, I noticed an odd smell coming out of my AC. I decided to brush it off and thought maybe it was something outside. As days went on, I realized that the smell wasn't going away and that it intensified when the AC was running. I decided to investigate. To my shock and horror, I found that a rat had made a nest inside of my cabin air filter in my truck. I decided to investigate the garage I parked in everyday and sure enough, there were rats. As I moved things out of the way, I came to realize that the ground was littered with rat feces.
Spider Infestations- If you are like me, you are probably terrified of spiders. I despise spiders more than anything else. Living in this unit for as long as I have, I have come to accept that I will most likely encounter a spider every couple of weeks. It took the trauma of having to wake up in the middle of the night to a giant brown spider crawling across my arm for me to realize that this complex was infested. This explained all of the random red bites that would appear on me and girlfriend over the years. I now spray my room every night with peppermint oil to deter spiders from crawling on me. I also have glue traps all around my bed.
Rusted Metal- Living so close to the beach, you learn that rusting of metal is inevitable. However, when your screen doors, windows, sinks, door knobs, garage door and handrails are all rusted, you have to wonder if things ever get replaced. I've scratched myself countless times on rusted metal all across my home. My living room window has been rusted shut for 6 years. I fear trying to open it up due to the broken glass pane found in the window. The sinks are deteriorating from rusting and little pieces fall off every day.
Busted AC Units- Ok, I admit that this one isn't as bad, considering that AC is a major luxury in San Diego rental units. However, I felt that I should mention it since the insulation in my unit is nonexistent and has caused me to depend on my AC. There is no such thing as room temperature in my complex. I've gotten used to paying $200+ electric bills just to be comfortable in my home. The unit breaks down constantly and getting it repaired by Penny is always like asking them to give up a limb. Believe it or not, it actually can get pretty hot in San Diego during the summer.
Leaking Ceilings- During the rainy season, I have come to expect leaks in my ceiling. My ceiling is littered with water spots from the botched roof job that was done a couple of years ago. On that note, a dangerous roof job that lasted several months and wasn't communicated to any of my neighbors. My next door neighbor had to move out of his unit because of the incessant leaking. For some reason, I have an electric wall outlet on my ceiling, and when it rains, it leaks profusely. Dangerous, to say the least.
Unreliable Garage Doors- Luckily, my unit has a garage. However, every time I hit the clicker, I'm saying a prayer that it opens up. I've had multiple instances where my truck is stuck in my garage and I can't get to work because the external opener has been broken every since I have moved into this unit. I've had to work from home and have had to Uber to work to make meetings.
Broken & Leaking Appliances- This is what has put me over the edge and has finally caused me to go public about my complications with Penny Realty. I constantly have leaking toilets (and toilets that make high pitched screeches), washing machines and dishwashers. This is one of the few things I can't fix on my own and heavily rely on. I need my appliances to work. The most recent issue that has caused me to take action was the flooding of our laundry room. Our washing machine has flooded for probably the 14th time since I have lived here. Getting this repaired is always like pulling teeth. As I write this, the room is flooded and the washing machine is not functioning. This time though, they changed the lock on the door without telling anyone in the unit and have completely blocked all tenants from doing laundry. We have been unexpectedly locked out of our laundry room by Penny Realty. None of our keys work and we all have piles of dirty laundry that we have to deal with somewhere else this weekend. To say this is frustrating and majorly inconvenient is an understatement.
The unit issues aren't the real problem here though. The problem is the lack of care, respect, pride and understanding that comes from Penny Realty. Instead of them seeing these problems as things that impact people's lives, they see them as pesky complaints. If I didn't love my community and love my neighbors so much, I probably would have been long gone years ago. I've outlived 3 property managers since renting from Penny Realty and none of them seem to care about the people that rent from them. We are just nuisances to them. The silver lining in all of this is that I have built bonds with my neighbors and we know that we can all rely on each other if something happens to one of us due to lack of care from Penny Realty.
I ask that Penny Realty change their culture and outlook on long term renters. We aren't the money makers for them like the short term/vacation renters are, but we are also the heart of San Diego, and your business. It's so cliche for a property management company to be bad. I challenge Penny Realty to prove that wrong. I challenge Penny Realty to do what is right and put people over profits. I challenge Penny Realty to communicate with their tenants and care about their tenants, so we don't feel that we have to write these profusely long, negative reviews about them. This is the first time in my life that I sat down for over a hour to write a review about anything, but I am doing so to let the community know that this property management company is not the one you should do business with until they make some drastic changes.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this.