ECI Group Review

Do not apply at this place Edunio and Rick Martinez tell the most lies they are not professional they do not know any of the company correct information they tell you what ever to get you to apply and when it's time for them to keep there word its nothing what they said. The apartment is nasty and not maintained. They have a bunch of illegal immigrant living in the complex and some of the home like a two bedroom has 8 and 9 people living it. Nasty and liars here go some where else to rent

The most unprofessional management team I've ever encountered. Maintenance doesn't give 2 flips, and management doesn't hold them accountable for any of thier work. Its incredible really, my toilet flap does not go down after I flush, they treat this problem like they are from another planter and have never seen a toilet. I'm on my 7th maintenance request for the same issue, during a pandemic. Horrible, yet they want your rent and won't provide basic service.

I lived in Chatsworth apartments for almost 5 years but I can garauntee you after today I will NEVER be back while ECI owns it. Since I moved in here in May I have been dealing with a roach problem. I was willing to work with the leasing office to fix it in the beginning but it is now September. Even though there has been lass activity since spraying I still see roaches everyday and I have plenty of pictures to prove it. Last week I had finally had enough and spoke to the community manager Leroy about moving which HE made the suggestion. As the move date got closer Leroy did not return my phone calls and when I was able to get to the office after leaving two messages that same day his response to me is he couldn t get in touch with his boss Mary and that he didn t have time to deal with me, then he closed the door on me. I got in my car and drove to the ECI office and spoke to Emily who then dumped me off the Lisa (who also never called me back). I finally had to call the office for a resolution and Mary s response to me is that I have to pay to get out of an apartment that clearly has a roach problem. Moral of the story ECI does not call its tenants back, they try to get you to remain trapped in a roach infested apartment and even though they screwed me over into this DUMP I m still the one who gets screwed. Thanks for nothing! If you want my advice don t rent any apartment that ECI manages.

One of the best companies that I've worked for! Excellent corporate employees especially Adrian danila!! Great mentor and exceptional leadership! I wish many companies had a leader like him!!

Horribly maintained. Lack luster senior management. No integrity.

You will NOT get what you ve paid for at The Columns at Club Drive. The mis-management of this organization is unlike anything I d ever experienced. The office staff for the most part was decent but had no power and were made to look very bad in the end. Mary, the regional manager refused to speak with me or return any calls or respond to the certified letter sent. She instead sent statements via the community manager Jean Carlos, after which they both went back on their word. In the very short 6 months I live there I truly was never comfortable. Two break-ins occurred, of which one I heard directly from a tenant moved to another apartment after their apartment flooded. Gates worked for at best a quarter of the time I was there although the break-ins appeared to be an inside job. Wouldn t say its infested but I ve never had roaches, never stopped seeing them while I was there.

In January 2018 my apartment flooded twice, both events were horribly managed by the company, property and their vendors. I was never reimbursed for the utilities I had to pay when the complex/vendors chose to you my power rather than the outlet that they paid for 10 feet from my front door. In February 2018 I had a leak in the second bedroom ceiling. This was reported on a Wednesday or Thursday and was said to be fixed by the substandard maintenance staff, the leak continued for three days with a hole in the ceiling and wall. Mold and mildew issues persisted through the day I vacated. I was told on multiple occasions I would be released from my lease without penalty, only to have the community manager go back on that at the direction of Mary the regional manager. They attempted to bully me into signing a document not only barring me the original releases we d agreed upon and not allowing me to write a review, but also preventing any legal action being taken against them. They proceeded to report improper notice and early termination fees in the amount of $3,096 to collections after I refused. I am pursuing legal action.

Steer clear of this place at all cost!! Google ECI Group and read the unsolicited or fake reviews before you rent from these unethical slumlords.

Spent a year in The Columns at Pilgrim Mill in 2017. A few things that I noted.
The apartments were nice. Nothing super fancy-no granite, no stainless, but they do cost a couple of hundred dollars less per month than some of the more updated locations.
Management was good in my book, they did a good job communicating, and kept things in pretty good shape.
The one thing I saw in another post that I 100 percent agree with is the complete lack of parking. You can "buy" a reserved parking spot-if you are going to be coming home any time after about 5:30 on a regular basis, you'll want to buy one. Otherwise you'll end up parking a long, long way (300+ yards up two hills. ) away from your building. At night, when it's raining, that sucks. When I mentioned it to management, the only response is that they put in the number of spaces required by the county. Which is fine, but you'd think a company that designs apartments could look at a plan like this and know there are not enough spaces when they're building it. Other than that, it was fine... I left under regular terms on my lease end, and had no unexpected deductions, so that was good too.

This company is of great respect. I have seen throughout the years, how this company have increase the value of living to the community. Resident can't always get new carpet when they just had new one installed less then 6 months. They care for their residents as well for their staff.

If you're a person of color this community will harass you until you move. Racism is alive and well at the columns at bear creek

I am in 100% agreeance with Rach Elle. Everything stated in their review is truthful. DO NOT move here.

ECI MANAGEMENT LLC - lived at the Columns at Pilgram Mill Just moved out after 17 months. Rented because we were building a house. Had to extend our 13 mo lease by 4 months because the house wasn't ready. They increase the rent by $260 a month for the additional 4 months and when we only provided 46 days notice they charged us an extra one month rent to go month to month and then prorated us for pet fee, utilities, and 27 days we were NOT there. Plus they were able to rent the unit because we vacated 10 days before our lease expired.

No parking available unless you pay for reserved spaces. There are literally not enough spaces to accommedate the number of apartments if each apartment has two drivers. You come home late on a weekend you'll park outside the complex or get your vehicle stickered.

They are very quick to repair things and email you "how did we do" for your feedback. They don't email about regular maintenance. They fail to email you notice of when your 60 day end of lease is coming up so they can stick it to you in extra fees. If your rent is one rate ou will pay an additional $25 - $80 a month in additional fees for water, trash, pet, pest control, etc. I've never been fee'd so much in a rental situation before.

There are literally doggie poop stations everywhere but the doggie poop is everywhere and not enforced so you cannot walk anywhere without dodging poop. The children cannot run without being in poop.

The grounds are horrible. The management changed three times while we were there except an older lady that was nothing but rude and knew everything - although she was wrong most the time.

Gutters hanging off the building. Nasty stairwells. Grounds were not landscaped nicely. This was the worst apartment complex we ever lived in. Black mold in the windows - all of the windows. I could go on but why was you time or mine. Don't rent here unless you have no option. Live in yor car.

I moved into The Cliftwood the first week of June 2017. I have loved being here and the staff are fantastic. I love all the people here that I have gotten to know so far. The company sponsors social gatherings once a week that always have a good showing. The place is beautiful and I will truly miss being here. It's warm loving and friendly atmosphere.

this post is in regard to the recent snow storm that has impacted myself and other residents at the Columns at Akers Mill.

the way ECI Management failed to prepare for this storm is completely unacceptable. i don t blame the complex staff at all, i hold ECI 100% responsible.

the roads within the complex were not at all prepped for the snow and ice, and as a result there are cars stuck in the middle of the parking lots and blocking other residents in. i had to park 4 buildings down and walk up the slippery parking lot to make it to my house. this is not only an incredible inconvenience, but also complete disregard for the safety of myself and my neighbors.

ECI should have known to salt the roads so residents aren t trapped in the complex, especially those of us who live on the inclined areas. many people work or had stuff to do this weekend, and the hazardous roads and negligence on ECI s part put residents and resident property at great risk.

on top of that, ECI had the audacity to threaten towing of abandoned vehicles, although the ice buildup is something they should have prepared for and taken care of. why are we paying so much money to live here? the ice is just one item on a long list of failures on ECI s part with regard to maintaining this property.

i will be calling ECI s main office tomorrow, and i have sympathy for the complex staff who will likely be blamed for their employer s negligence. the staff could only have done so much with the resources provided by ECI, which were subpar at best.

Had a unbelievable and traumatic experience at the leasing office, The new property manager Wendy at Column lake ridge was very unprofessional, rude and used profanity on the resident. Very unpleasant experience. I have been living here for 2 years and never had any issues with anyone. I have filed a formal complaint with the ECI Group management company and I am hoping for a reply, resolution and apology.

Eci management recently purchased our apartment complex in Athens Georgia (Timothy woods). Since they have purchased it pest control hasn t been coming, the lawn management company has changed to a cheaper company, Any maintenance request gets ignored by the front office and when you ask the maintenance workers directly about the appointment they have no clue what you are talking about because the front office. I currently walk through kudzu Hanging over our sidewalk to get to my apartment and kill bugs in my apartment. Before they purchased our apartments we had none of these problems.

I just spoke to a manager at ECI about the bed bug problem I have been having and she would not let me get a word in on the phone and kept on saying I brought them in the complex then HUNG UP ON ME!

Her name is Mary Book and she over sees SquareOne in Sandy springs. I have never gone through a situation like this in my life with such rude people. I would like to think that this isn t ECI as I have lived in and ECI complex before and loved it but instead that they just hired the wrong people.

Do not rent from ECI! I am currently battling ECI Groups about a security deposit that is owed back to me. I never missed a rent payment, l eft the apartment in perfect condition, and they still refuse to return my security deposit back to me and have $800+ worth of flagrant charges they are saying I owe. ECI Groups are stealing 1,045.00 from me!!

This is the worst company we have ever rented from. Lisa Jacobs is the corporate manager over the complex we lived in for a couple years. She won't return phone calls even when it's an important matter regarding a rent payment that ECI didn't submit properly and my bank confirmed this. She also doesn't resolve any matters that have been brought to hear attention and her attitude is awful towards tenants and staff.

Great company to work for. They have great benefits from health, 401k, life , vision, and dental insurance. ECI has a strong management and construction foundation that dedicates to serving the communities. ECI is expanding as a company throughout the southeast.

I love it. Mainly cause i work here and they pay me

We have lived at The Columms at Allen's Creek for over 5 years. The staff is awesome and super friendly. The maintenance guys are always quick to fix any request I put in. They are always organizing social events for the community to come out to. I have never had any problems. I would highly recommend living here!!!

I love my apartment, very clean & quiet place to live. Front office staff very professional & efficient. Maintenance issues always handled in a timely manner. This community is beautiful & surrounded by so much nature. So happy to be here @ The Columns of Bear Creek New Port Richey, FL.

We have lived in The Columms at Allen's Creek for going on 4 years. We are very happy here. All of the staff is wonderful and kind! They take care of any concerns quickly and efficiently. The grounds are always kept up and very pretty.

The staff is awesome and everything was taken care of as promised. If you have a problem than it is with the element that chooses to live like slobs and be entitled. Management can do everything when people are being abstructive. The people who work in the office and maintenance are working people to and are not a Corp. I think Rayetta and Steve were awesome and so were the maintenance crew. I wish you will guys. Thanks for everything.

2nd update: I spoke with a Ms. Mary Brooke I believe, but we ended our conversation with an agreement that a credit adjustment would be applied to my account and I would delete all of my negative reviews. I spoke with her last week on Tuesday and I have yet to see an adjustment made.

Update: I have yet to hear from anyone at corporate. I tried calling today and it was pointless. All I was told was that they would email the property management. I had to leave work to come to the leasing office to talk with the assistant manager who is pretty much bullying me to pay the fees I was trying to avoid on top of additional fees that she is going to aparentlybfile for today. On top of that she emailed me with a prorate and stated that my move out date was October 19th even though my lease is not up until January 9th. She is telling me there is nothing she can do when I know that she can but is refusing to help me. She even refused to get me in contact with the property manager. At this point I'm going to contact my lawyer to see what my options are since property management and corporate dont seem to care for their residents.

I live at The Columns at Peachtree Cornors in GA. The only problem I've had here is with the leasing team, including management. Granted, the grounds could be kept up a bit more. Before I had moved in or even signed the lease, I told them I wanted to see my apartment when it was ready. It literally was not ready till about 2 days before my move in. When my husband and see the apartment I was pretty much close to tears. There were baby roaches everywhere. I had been told the apartment was just cleaned but clearly that was not the case. The master bedroom had a portion of the wall that had a hole, the size of a softball, that was clearly just taped over and painted. Now, I'm not expert, but even I know that it was not properly filled. I mean to make my point to the leasing agent I kicked it to prove how hollow it was. In order to save the lease they showed us an apartment in the newer building which was more of what we were looking for. Luckily for them I signed the lease right away bc I had no time to find another place to live. The other problem I had was that no one went over the actual lease with us which made it apparent that the agent was new. My favorite part was also the fact that we were told last minute by her that we needed rental insurance, oh and gas had to be turned on as well. Again, this is failure on her part for not reviewing the lease with us. Now that I am nearing the end of my lease I'm happy to say I'm apartment hunting. During thie past few weeks I noticed through my bank account that my rent payment had not gone through. I quickly reached out because of course I want to avoid any late fees. I've never missed a payment mind you. Miriam, who I believe to be one of the managers, told me my account was fine. I tried to explain that it did not go through and I wanted to submit it again but am not able online. I needed my account to be reset. Something I know that can be done since this is not my first experience with the caferental they use for their payments. She just left me a voice mail and wrote an email stating my account was pretty much fine, to give it time. So I let it go. Now surprise, surprise, my account is showing that it's late and I have about $160 of late fees piled on. So I contacted them to once again explain what was wrong but all I get is "you have to pay it all or else." I could understand if I was a frequent offender. But the fact that I reached out for assistance ahead of time and the fact that I've never been late means absolutely nothing to this place. So customer service gets a 1 star from me only because zero is not an option. The communication between leasing staff is horrible. They clearly have no idea what they are doing. At this point I'm left with contacting corporate. Maybe someone will be willing to help me there.

New to Florida and haven't rented an apartment in over 40 years. We have had a very nice experience here at Allen's Creek. All repairs were done in good time. Staff is very friendly and helpful. The outdoors are kept clean and tidy. So glad we picked this apartment until we purchase a home.

AVOID! They are NOT tenant friendly. Trust me, we are a professional family and we rented this place because it is beautiful. Don't be fooled, they don't care. We had people arrested right out in front of our house, and we have an issue now where we fear for our safety and they won't let us out of the lease. They are GREEDY and do not care. STAY AWAY!

I am so desperate and I am in total agreement with all the "Negative Complaints" on this company as it refers to the Nasty , trashy , property I am currently residing... I have been part of the ECI Family since 2012 I lived @ the Columns at Sweetwater in Douglas County living there to here is like "Night and Day" The Columns at Lake Ridge is a "high priced dump"...I have lived at this property since 2016 and have been in distress and constantly complaining since day one. Pet friendly community with the majority of the pet owners being "slobs" and if this is you that do hot clean up after your pet, this is for you, however if you don't and you know you don't well this is for you. I am constantly dealing with dog poop being in the area where I park my car and now a dog next door constantly barking. I called the office and I was "told" that there is nothing can be done due to this being a pet friendly community. I am just suppose to just pay rent here to continue to hear someone's dog bark for hours. The ECI group really needs to bring "this " property up to standard of what the residents are paying.. This property and how it is being managed on the cooperate level deserves a big fat zero rating.

The property is maintained & improved in an excellent manner, the management & maintenance staff are exemplary in every way. Have lived here for 6 years as proof. The Columns at Bear Creek is a quality choice! JANETTE LOCKHART IS A VERY HAPPY RESIDENT.

Something is really up with this company. They don't answer the phone, hell the phone volume is off. The girl at the desk gabrielle is very rude and not understanding at all. I literally called the office in front of her and did not hear the phone ring. She claims to leave a vm and calls will be returned yet the vm that the call forwards to she says she has never heard of...so this company doesn't answer the phone and sends calls to another company they know nothing about. That just shows you they do not want to be bothered by residents calls. And they do not give out last names. You take my money monthly yet I cant even get proper customer service. Even the people in the office don't give out information. The company does not care about its residents they just want to take your money. Would not recommend staying at any of their properties.

I Understand what you going thur I been waiting on my deposit and Amin fee back almost three weeks All I hear is your check been cut on the 20 here it go the 24 in still not in the mail!! Where my Money!!

I have worked for ECI for 5 years, it's an amazing company to work for, would highly recommend.

I made a complaint about the Columns at Shadow Creek (CSC) a couple weeks before move out after a staff member failed to properly report our 60 notice of not renewing our lease & in retaliation ECI Group made a false claim to a collection agency and intentionally gave the collection agency their property address as my new forwarding address so that I wouldn t receive proper notice.

Further insight below...

Tammy Norwood, property manager, stated that since the employee who i gave my 60 day notice to was no longer employed they couldn t corroborate when the notice was given to him.

I called ECI Group to explain the situation in which Valerie Acree, Accounting for CSC, and Yvonne Hill, Regional Manager for CSC, said there was nothing that they could do and we would have to pay $1798.14, even after being tenants with timely paying history and no complaints for two years (The property was acquire by ECI Group and the name was changed at one point during our lease).



Fast forward to January 2019 and I receive a call from a collection agency who stated that they have been sending letters to the the address at the CSC in regards to an unpaid balance of $1798.14. I asked her why on earth would you be sending letters to the address that we moved from when they have my forwarding address and have sent me mail since our move-out day in which she replied that was the address given by ECI Group. I then informed her that $1768.14 was paid/withdrawn from my account by ECI Group on Nov. 3, 2018. She requested that I send proof of payment so that they could go back to ECI about the false claim.



I ve called ECI Group twice on this but I don t expect a call back for another week as that s roughly how long it took them to get back to me at the beginning of this mess.

I ve never had a bad renters experience until ECI Group so I will be taking action to file formal complaints with the appropriate agencies.

As someone else mentioned, be sure to sift thru the solicited/fake reviews.

Was asked to call this company regarding office space they may have , who ever answered the phone was so rude, an she hung up on me, I wouldn't rent anything from them, so he went to another management company.