Jon Sladek was awesome to work with! He was very patient and thorough! Watts has also been very responsive to maintenance requests, and any other questions I had. I would not hesitate to rent from them again!
I work as a temp in the summer for this business, and I have had a very good experience so far! The other employees are easy to work with and are understanding and reasonable. They have a wide range of rentals in different styles, locations, and prices. They are professional, helpful, and truly care about their employees and renters. I plan on continuing to work with them in future summers.
Response to their comment:
After talking to them on the phone, there is no misunderstanding of their policies in my original review.
1. After I expressed my concern for showings during COVID especially living with a person with high risk, direct quote from Jon "we can enter your apartment anytime we want if we give you 24 hour notice." How considerate :)
2. No matter when you rent from them, they told me if you move in in December, you have to renew your lease by Jan 1st, otherwise they will start showing your apartment.
3. Jon also said, it is not their responsibility whether you know if you want to renew when you just move in. You just have to give them a definite answer, otherwise your apartment will be entered and your renewal is not guaranteed. He does not understand why anyone will have a problem knowing if you can sign your renewal when you just move into your apartment.
4. They say on average in the past they have hundreds of showings in the current tenants' apartments, so this year, embrace strangers coming in your apartment after Christmas and New Years travels during COVID.
This is the most unethical rental company I have ever worked with. The agent will text, email and call you that they will work with you with no real effort, since the system is set up to screw the current tenants. I understand they are a business, but geez, you don't have to have these unethical treatments of your current tenants, and rude and incompetent attitude to have a successful business. Seriously, I don't know how the current tenants tolerate these disrespectful treatments with such high rents in Iowa City area... there needs to be local regulations of these money hunger rental companies.
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This company is so hungry for money they don't have any professional decency or respect.
They are unprofessional and inconsiderate, the management always send building maintenance entering notices right before the 24 hour mark. Even the maintenance staff complains to us that the management's unprofessional practices make their job hard since they are the one entering people's home when tenants are surprised and annoyed.
Less than 4 months in our 12 months lease, we got a notice to sign a document that warns us if we don't renew our lease by Jan 1st, which will be 5 months of our lease, they will start showing our apartment to prospect tenants.
I have never see a rental company this sketchy to squeeze any money out of the tenants. Watts group just blatantly invades current tenants' privacy for showings? Especially during the COVID times, Watts Group, do you take liability if the current tenants and/or the prospective tenants contract COVID because of your disrespectful practices? Of course, they don't care. The couple times we went to the office, so many of their staff were not wearing masks while almost every visitors wore masks. The cleaning staff in the our building does not wear mask when they clean the hallway, potentially endangering all the tenants. Take into account how their oblivious attitude toward protecting their current tenants, it is no surprise they would put people's health at risk for profit during COVID.
For a hefty price (~$1000) for a one-bedroom, there is no indoor parking, only one mail key for two tenants, "24 hours notice" all the time to enter your apartment, already grinding you for renewal when you just moved in, frequent disturbance of your life from strangers touring your home like it is the shopping mall, bike theft (the leasing office recommends you to carry your bike and store it in your own home, or risk it being stolen, like it is your responsibility to keep the community safe), every time they send you an email, there is no good thing, the last month you pay for the FULL month rent but have to get out there several days before so they can use the days your paid for to clean and may charge you for the cleaning too.
We will make sure your prospective tenants know sketchy and disrespectful you are when they visit, which will be the most ethical thing that happens in the realm of your services.
They operate on lies and deception. Our experience with them positive. A young man with an abbreviated name, I believe M.J. worked around the clock to find us the perfect unit. However after he left things changed for the worse. The apartment we moved into was dirty when we moved in. There seemed to be a lot of confusion among their staff. Their lease renewals were a nightmare and they raised their prices unfairly. If you renew right away you sign at a higher price than someone you waits several months to resign. Dealing with Magie is very frustrating. Brandi and the front desk are good, but higher managment/ownership will nickle and dime you. Forget about getting your full deposit back. Even though you leave a unit in better shape than when you found it you get docked.
Never came to fix things that we reported broken when we moved in, and now charging $2700 cleaning fee after we moved out, the repainted the house using our deposit money. We are fighting on this right now so never choose this company because they are so unprofessional.
They exapanded too large too quickly. They can hardly keep the door handles on the doors leading to the stairways out of the bulding, their garage doors are always out of order which happens to be very important for when you need to leave the apt, if you need handicapped access forget about it, snow removal is okay but expect a thick layer of ice upon entering from the parking lot three months out of the year. I would rather rent with anyone else.
Just wanted to express how grateful I am to the team at Watts Group, especially Jon and Stevie. Jon really went out of the way to help me find an apartment. Stevie was so polite and was able to answer all my questions about the area and how to set-up my apartment.
I had a short timeline to move and they were quick to find me the perfect place, they answered all my questions in a timely manner and had lots of rental options! I would definitely recommend checking them out if you re moving.
Had a great experience working with Watts so far. I moved last minute in June from Phoenix. The leasing agent, Jon, helped me out right away. He's very informed and knows what's going on in the community. The apartment itself is modern, stylish, and close to the hospital, not at all what I expected to find in Iowa.
If I could give this place 0 stars, I would. We used to live at the condos on Rushmore Dr, which was originally leased by Southgate but later bought by Watts Group. Absolutely worst decision to stay there after the management change.
WARNING: If you're going to move out and your unit is available for showings, they will 1) show up an hour later and blame it on "traffic", because oh yes, traffic in Iowa City is so horrible that it makes you one hour late (sarcasm); or 2) show up unannounced for a showing, which by the way, is a breach of contract because they're supposed to give you 24 hour notice; or 3) just not show up at all, without notification, even though you've prepared your unit for showing.
We also did not receive even half of our deposit although we cleaned the place absolutely spotless. I would recommend taking advantage of the walk-through with them for final inspections. I recently came across another location I was considering moving into, until I noticed Watts Group managed them... which reminded me to write this review I never got to. Stay away if you're renting. Their lack of professionalism is comical, and they don't think that college students deserve any professional service at all.
My husband and I have leased a condo from Watts Group a couple of years ago, and we were very pleased with our experience after a couple initial showing dilemmas with one of the staff members. We were a bit hesitant, but after we committed to leasing a condo with them, we encountered the rest of the staff members who were very pleasant and informative. We have decided to sign a lease with them a second time, and the staff worked hard and very quickly to approve our application and do our background checks within one day--they are very quick with email responses. We are very happy with our experiences. They have always responded to maintenance requests/questions quickly and the staff are very respectful and personable.
I cant believe they charge you for changing a light bulb and I wasnt happy with the managing of this apartment
We had the pleasure of working with Brian Watts to purchase our first home. He was incredibly respectful of our budget, likes, and dislikes, and he had an immense knowledge of the local market. He was prompt to respond to any questions and flexible in working with our busy schedules. Most of all, Brian is an incredibly genuine and kind individual which made this potentially stressful process a lot of fun. I would (and have) recommended Brian to anyone I know.
Extremely rude staff both rental and maintenance. Takes every opportunity to charge you for things, rental payment extra charges, maintenance charges, and move out cleaning. Providing fake & scam receipts as proof to charge money. Such an evil business with awful people.
We rented an apartment from Watts Group for 6 months in 2017. There had been a speaker system to hook up an ipod in the apartment that never worked for the entirety we lived there (we did let them know multiple times, they said they'd get someone out to fix it and never did. It wasn't a big deal to us but just slightly annoying because why bother to even say you're coming then?). We also had to send in a maintenance request twice before they came out to fix a broken trim on the floorboard that we noted when we moved in.
The biggest issue was our security deposit from which they withheld $450 for "cleaning," although our move-out checklist said not one thing needed cleaning. I will admit they refunded the remainder after I emailed them about it, but makes you wonder how many people they withhold from and people don't even question it (a colleague of mine had the same thing happen to her so I'm sorry but I don't think it's an isolated incident).
The apartment was nice, a newer unit, but I think it went up rather quickly without much regard to longevity as our outside walls were starting to separate due to foundation settling.
I wish I could give no star. Say Bye Bye for your deposit even if you leave your apartment clean.
terrible service, not helpful, neglect current tenants.
Here is my experience with Watts Group,
I've been living in their property since Dec 2015. I think it's long enough to have a good opinion. They've always been very helpful and quick about repairs and responses to our needs.
Feb 26, 2017, 1:00am in the morning fire started in our building. My next door neighbor set his house on fire, and half of the building burnt down and other half is not in livable condition. So far, it's a disaster.
Same day, Feb 26, 2017 around 8am I went to my apartment to see the condition. Mike and Jerod from Watts Group were already there, and Jerod told me that they're already started working on things.
Feb 28, 2017. Jerod called me and told me that they have an apartment available in Iowa City, ready to move in.
3 days after the fire, Watts Group gave me the keys for my new apartment.
That is my experience with Watts Group so far...
They've been very good to us, not only after the fire, but throughout our whole experience since the day we moved in on Dec 2015.
WORST COMPANY IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND! STAY AWAY ! DO NOT RENT!!!!
My roommates and I have had a great experience with Watts over the past 3 years. We moved in to the Penn Court apartments in 2015. The buildings are newer and decently maintained. After our first 2 years, we downsized from a 3BR to a 2BR and Brandi Webster with Watts made our move so accommodating by letting us move in to the unit directly down the hall one door. Didn't have barely any maintenance issues. Great location with things going on in North Liberty (this area continues to grow), and easy highway route to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.
I am so annoyed about Watts Group. A company lack of faith! Me and my previous roommate rented our apartment in Coralville. I was the one who paid the entire security deposits. Watts group s policy was that, if I paid the all the deposits, then I should be the one who will receive all the deposits after the lease is done. However, I do not what hell is going wrong!! This was happening in October, 2018. After the Christmas, I was told that my deposits would be split into half ( one would be mine, the other would be my roommate s) And all this happened without my agreement!! I do not know what they talked about with my previous roommate. But I did not sign or agree with that. What kinds of right that you have to transfer my money to the other? A company which is lack of faith! DO NOT Trust Watts Group!!! When you sign the lease, they treat you like God, after you paid the money, you serve Watts Group!! Not they serve you!
Jon is good dude! I'd talk to him if you're trying to buy a house or rent an apartment!
Poor customer service when tenants are owed money and have followed instructions for move out. Nice apartments, but service should match apartments.
Update 6/15/17: I moved out in mid February and requested a sublease. I received a call from my apartment manager in early March that there was someone looking to lease, but were unable to afford the rent at the current price. He was looking for options to help them rent. He asked if I would be willing to offer $300 off per month for 3 months. He was not sure if this would fit the potential renter's budget and as nothing had been signed would have to call me back to confirm the details. I never received a call back.
The next contact I had was an email at the end of the week that had my lease termination, back dated so that the new lease started prior to my sublease being ended. I notified him via phone and email that I had never been notified of the new lease and I had not turned off my electric and water. The new tenant were using electric and water on my accounts. Clearly they had not but the accounts in their names prior to move in as is standard in a lease. I did not agree to paying for the utility usage of a new tenant. I agreed to keep the utilities on in my name until the lease ended or was re-rented. Since I was not notified prior to the apartment being re-rented there was no way for me to turn off the utilities prior to the new lease being signed.
I inform the apartment manager that this was not acceptable and I had requested that the utilities be taken out of my name. Neither the water nor the electric companies could process a same day turn off online through the user portal. I added a note to each company explaining the situation and requesting a retrospective credit. I requested a refund from my apartment manager and included copies of my shut off request. This was the same day I receive the lease termination notice. The best the water company was able to do was process a shut off for the same day. Thus, this was 3-4 days of the new tenant using my account. The electric company was not able to meet my needs and did not complete the shut off request until several days later.
It is now June 15th and after 3-4 calls and multiple emails, at least one forgotten payment (acknowledged by email) and one lost in the mail. More than 30 days later I have received minimal reimbursement. Please note that as a tenant I would be penalized for late payments, but things are different when a tenant needs to be reimbursed.
Additionally when I called I was accused of defamation when I had only made a true statement at the time that I not been fully reimbursed. The property manager had not reviewed the emails and initially claimed that Watts Group had made no errors and I was at fault. I reminded him that I had called and emailed and if he would review the email the entire chain of contact was described. It has been an unpleasant experience in leaving and I am disappointed it was handled so poorly. I have a full copy of the emails and would be happy to provide them.
In the future I would ask that all tenants be treated equally and proof of utilities turning on/off be a part of the move in/out procedure. Additionally that in answering customer complaints, that the full emails and other contacts be reviewed prior to speaking with the complainant.
Worst rental experience ever! My bike was stolen 3 months ago-no action was taken. My packages are stolen from the main entrance door on a regular basis and the maintenance team is absolutely not bothered about it. Multiple complaints have been filed but no action is ever taken. Basic amenities like water heater on a chilly winter morning stops working and we are left with no hot water. It is a disgrace!
My husband and I worked with Watts Group when we purchased a new construction town home last year. It was a wonderful experience. Brian Watts walked us through the process and made everything so simple and straightforward. Their team made sure we knew what to expect and reminded us, as new home builders/buyers, of things to consider as we made our decisions. If we stay in Iowa City long term we will never work with anyone else!
Would definitely recommend renting through the Watts Group. They are by far the best company I've rented from. Units were clean and well built, and if I ever needed help with something they would send somebody out very quickly.
I only briefly had Brandi has a manager for my property as I sublet it. She is incredibly helpful, efficient, and responsive, and even made sure that I got the entirety of my security deposit back when I was concerned about an inaccuracy. I love the fact that they even assist their renters in sublease, which is unheard of with other agencies I've gone through. I would firmly suggest renting through them- they are highly professional.
If you see an OPEN HOUSE sign on a property, call ahead before you go. Usually open houses are on Saturdays or Sundays. No one answers their phone on Saturdays or Sundays. I recent went to an open house at a listed property and no agent was there to unlock the property. Sloppy.
I saw a apartment a little while ago for my son's family. Even though they ended up choosing a house I still wanted to write a review for this company. The young lady who showed me was very sweet and was a wealth of information. Not only was she able to answer every question I asked about the apartment, she also answered all of my other questions about the area too. My family is from Georgia and know nothing about the area. It turns out she's from a military family and used to live not far from where we are. She answered all of my questions about the community, the parks in the area, traffic, and even the driving in snow in the winter. She even had recommendations for places that my daughter-in-law could go to teach music lessons. It was really nice to work with someone who was so professional and welcoming and willing to go beyond just trying to get us to take an apartment.
they took entire deposit and charged me $1900 for unit painting
This company sucks so much. Don t ask for any maintenance request because they won t get to it and they ll charge you for it when you move out. Most unprofessional people I ve ever dealt with on my life.
I rented from Watts Group from August 2019 to February 2021. I'll list out the bad stuff first:
- If you are an international student, with a variable deadline on your program, I would not rent here. Watts Group would not let me break my lease under any circumstances (even if I DIED). I am now returned to my home country and still being forced to pay rent on my suite. There was absolutely no considerations given for the circumstances (being forced to return to my home country during a pandemic - as well as there was blame for me not having the foresight in November 2019 when I was forced to sign my lease into 2021 that there would be a global pandemic). I was also required to pay an additional fee for Watts Group to sublet my place (due to the extra effort they'd put in to try and lease it - they have not put in an extra effort in my opinion). You'd think there would be some compassion and understanding for people in my situation?
- While the building I was in was apparently a strict "no pets" building - nearly everyone has a dog. I called one of the rental managers about this and she said all the owners had verified paperwork that their animals were there for emotional support. Either it's stupidly easy in Iowa to get this paperwork or the rental manager lied to me. With several pets in the building comes with a multitude of problems - owners not picking up dog poo on the lawn, finding urine in the elevators, etc.
- With respect to pets; as with most new constructions these days, the walls are quite thin and I could hear all my neighbor's dogs yapping/barking/running/etc. at all hours of the day. I could also hear my upstairs neighbor's washing/drying machines whenever they ran it (which seemed to be at 11pm at night?).
- Delivery people could never find the entrance to my building. The surrounding buildings all had high visibility signs and lights, whereas my building (we did eventually get a street number) was not marked well at all. Be prepared to explain to every DoorDasher, Uber driver, pizza delivery where your place is.
Good stuff:
- Location of my rental was decently convenient to the University, both by bus and by car. Groceries and errand running were easily done by car or walking with a decent selection of options.
- The suite was nice enough and any issues were dealt with in a reasonable time frame.
Overall happy and satisfied, there were a few issues that occured but they were resolved. I wanted to update my review especially as Jerod went above and beyond during the time I rented here to help resolve any concerns or issues. I would recommend this company.
Jon Sladek was very resourceful & professional in my search for a rental property. Always very prompt with replies in regards to any questions I had while searching and was able to iron out some differences with the property owner in order to make things work. I would refer any of my friends or relatives to go thru him with their future needs. If you aren't asking to go thru Jon, you're only hurting yourself!!
If I could leave a zero star review I would. NEVER rent from this company no matter the building. NEVER.
They are extremely unorganized. Communication with their customers is not at a professional level. Sometimes I would be the only roommate to receive important emails, some updates would go to the other, even though both of us are on the lease. As for the 24 hour notice emails prior to entering units, I found it comical how either of us received these in a much smaller time frame than 24 hours. As of me having to reach out to a member of their team, after sending an email, I never would recite one back. The majority of the time, my emails being sent were questions, but I had to either go into the office or call the office to get anyone to respond to the issue at hand.
They entered my unit on numerous different occasions to fix mistakes made during the process of building the new building. In & out all winter, and inside my unit for over five hours a day doing noisy repairs. This caused my utilities bill to rise by $13 for the time they were there with the patio door taken off, and just tarped off during December. Remember, this was caused by Watts, not a maintenance request or anything on our end. No 24 hour notice when they would arrive. These annoyances were just for repairs for the unit.
They will also show your unit to new prospects regularly. After having to leave my unit 3 separate times in one month for a showing, I contacted a staff member to explain how ridiculous this was becoming. I continued to explain that I was enrolled in online classes at U of I & needed my apartment s peace to do school work. She apologized & explained to me that our apartment will not be put on the list to show other prospects. It was not 2 weeks later & I have an member of Watts knocking on my door for showing. This is not a joke. I called back. Why was my apartment the only one to be getting shown this frequently? The representative tried to explain that within the 20+ unit building, each unit is on a rotation to be shown, so all units are being shown equally. By the end of my time in this unit, our unit had been shown a total of 28 times in a 12 month period. This is not a joke.
Moving on. There is absolutely no grace period for late rent checks. I missed by two days & had a FORTY DOLLAR fee. It was my first late notice. I called to inform the representative that I was out of town & unable to drop my check off. She said It does not matter, add $40 to next month s rent. Goodbye
Horrible company. Extremely unorganized. I cannot stress this enough-NEVER RENT FROM WATTS GROUP, IOWA CITY/ CORALVILLE/ NORTH LIBERTY.
We moved into a Unit on a tuesday and were given a 3 day window to complete out condition of unit sheet . The apartment was in a terrible state
There was even food left from a previous tenant. There was paint and soackling on the floor. We had 2 parking passes on our lease, but they tried to just give us one and pay for the other. On the 3rd day I went to turn in our sheet. The office was closed due to covidm i called the office multiple times throughout the day and got no response. I emailed the sheet and also got no response. On the 4th day after moving in, we realized our garbage disposal literally doesnt work. Has never worked since we moved in the the 1st. We called emergency matience and got NO ANSWER. Also, our bathroom door doesnt latch.
Also we swear that they have shrunk our closet since we last saw the apartment. I feel like I am getting scammed. DO NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE.
I lived with Watts group for 3 years. After always paying the rent on time and abiding by their rules, they screwed us over and took basically our entire security deposit saying that it cost outrageous amounts of money for a paint job and some cleaning. Maintenance requests took forever to be fixed (due to lack of maintenance workers) and they made us pay for damages that were already there when we moved in. During Covid, money is really tight and Watts Group just simply does not care.
I m not really sure who is working the front desk today but who ever is her boss and elanors boss needs to be informed how unprofessional they were today. You know I Turned in my request to sublet and was told I needed to pay half of rent which is fine. I then said I would be back to turn that in. Then when she thought I left she went back and basically was saying super loud that I couldn t read because I asked a question that was on the slip. I was mocked and I m not sure why. Then I called and Eleanor answered a s was even more unprofessional... what type of business are you guys running exactly especially when we pay you a good chunk of money to live here? You guys all around aren t professional to me at all.
A property and development company that s actually benefiting the town.
The correspondence with this company has been great! We were given directions to the property to the property when we set up our showing. All of our questions about the application and leasing process were answered promptly and thoroughly. Our daughter doesn t move in until August and she has already received information to help her prepare for moving in. It s a relief to know that our daughter will be living in a condo that is managed by such professional and helpful people!
They don t have anything in the small towns around the university. The person I talked to did give me some contacts for people to try in a couple of the small towns. At least they don't try to screw you over if you don't want to rent from them like the other two places I called. I can almost see why they were recommended. They don't have many options though. It's all high end places right by main traffic routes.
Watts Group Rentals is absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend them for ANY and ALL rental needs that you or anyone you know might have in the Iowa City/Coralville areas. I have personally known countless renters at many of the different WATTS properties and they are always treated with the upmost respect, professionalism and timely responses from all departments, maintenance, property managers, admin, accounting, etc....................There is a reason why they have been in business now in this community for over 40 years!!!
They were very accommodating throughout our search and purchase of a house. I wasn't able to be there for most of the process because of work, so I was relaying most of my questions to them after seeing pictures and videos taken at showings. It was great to be able to walk into our house after all the work Brandi and the team at Watts Group did and know that this is ours.
renting during 2018-19 was good for me.. the only bad thing was they were kinda sketchy about returning my full security deposit, but I ended up getting it all back after contacting them.
This place has been great to work with. If your moving to the area please put their listings on the the top of your list.
If I could leave zero stars, I would. While the apartment itself was adequate, the organization is so poorly managed that our experience was largely negative. If you need anything -- no matter what it is -- it will be a problem. Jerod, who was our main point of contact, is rude, condescending, ill-informed, childishly manipulative, and clearly overwhelmed.
I'll provide several examples from our experience below:
1. When our heater broke in mid-winter (March 28), they said we would need to wait to have it fixed. Jerod wrote, "I need to have Kelly heating out to look it over. That's where I run into big charges after hours." We had a 3-month old infant at the time and we had to sleep on the floor in front of our spot heater. When I pushed back and expressed that this was an emergency, Jerod said, "You insist on being treated differently than ever other tenant."
2. We called maintenance because the light switch in our kitchen was broken and they invoiced us for a light bulb (a petty $2).
3. Our food disposal broke and they said it would be a charge to have it fixed. I fixed it myself.
4. They did not honor the 24-hour notice policy for apartment showings. Once, knocking and immediately entering to do "maintenance" while my wife was still trying to get out of bed.
5. The neighbors directly above our place were often partying and violating week night sound curfew, after-hours. After I knocked on their door and reminded them that our infant-baby was sleeping they would usually politely apologize and quiet down some. However, on a couple of occasions these parties would get so rowdy that the police had to be contacted. When we informed Jerod that we could sometimes smell drugs at these parties (in a smoke-free building), he did nothing. Later he actually said that these neighbors complained about us and contended that we were the noise-makers! Must have been the nursery rhymes.
6. We learned that if you purchase a home using a Watts realtor, they would work with you on the timing of your lease. Well, we tried this. However, soon after being assigned a realtor, she (Megan Theis -- who is ironically one of the few to have given Watts a 5-star review on here) switched roles while we were mid-search and our account was not communicated to anyone else internally, leaving us back at square one. We ended up buying a home with Susan Eaton of Skogman (I highly recommend!).
7. Watts seemed to have difficulty keeping track of its finances. For instance, they apparently didn't have a CRM or "didn't remember" the balances that they owed to us in because of overpayment, or offsets or security deposit refund. When we pushed back on them to repay the amount they owed, Jerod would become personally agitated. He wrote, "I m going to send you the difference in the deposit personally just to put this behind us." It was strange to see someone get so worked up over a few hundred dollars that they did indeed owe us.
8. They asked us to surrender our keys 12 days before our lease ended.
I could go on, but I'll leave it there. As you can see, each time we expressed an issue (no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential to a multi-million dollar organization) we were met with resistance and unwillingness to provide basic customer service and professionalism. Instead, Jerod said that we wanted 'special treatment' and that we were 'different'. While many companies would interpret a bad experience as an opportunity to showcase its customer service, Watts -- specifically Jerod -- seemingly took it as a personal attack and would become excited, defensive, and insulting. Overall, we have a very bad taste in our mouths regarding Watts Group and intend to be vocal about sharing our negative experience there.
I wish that someone would have dissuaded me before I made the terrible mistake of renting with Watts Group. So, I hope this review will help you make your decision regarding which housing provider you entrust with the safekeeping of your family.
all they know is to take their money, they are very rude. they treated me badly in my rent 2017. one had to insult me JERROD twice and my deposite was put back badly I will never advise anyone to go there and for a breakdown in the house you have to fight to come fix
They'll do everything they can to keep your deposit, in my case citing minor wear and tear and the "labor" to fix it as their justification.
My wife has had this apartment for 5 years and has never missed a rent payment. We ve had countless things happen to our apartment including flooding when pipes burst (fire chief said negligence on their part, second time it happened) and two different garage robberies each a year apart (broken security cameras both times). That is the tip of the iceberg.
We asked to break our lease 2 months early (again after 5 years) and got a quick no. Well here s your two star review for our troubles. This would be a one star review but the maintenance crew works hard and does a good job. Management is what needs improvement.
In our one year period of living in one of this companies apartments, we had multiple packages stolen from our front door, a vehicle stolen from our secure garage, had our brand new water heater go out right before we left for a 10 day vacation, notified the company before we left and when we came back they still didn t fix it for another 10 days. The management staff is absolutely awful and not once took us seriously. Tried to overcharge us for things under the actual assumption that we were naive college students and wouldn t put up a fight when we were in fact not. Every complaint that was put in about neighbors above us being so loud it sounded like they were destroying the building and smoking that filtering into our apartments was completely ignored. On top of all of that, when we reached out about resigning, the company claimed we selected no on the email that was sent and therefore our rent would be going up by $400 more a month ($200/person). The so called email they sent was a lie because not only do we both frequently use email for work and wouldn t have missed it, but when it came time to move out and we had questions and called they again referenced sending some apparent email. Since this was one of many times they talked about emailing residents about building communications we asked the to verify what our emails were. They never had them entered and still blamed us for missing the communication. The only random notifications we got were emails about them showing our apartment, usually with almost less than 24 hours notice to random strangers when neither of us were in town. These emails were conveniently sent on the minute of 24 hours notice to the one email we used to set up our original showing and when we asked for more of a heads up so we could predict if we would be in town to at least clean, they claimed 24 hours was the most they could do, which is bs because when we scheduled our showing it was done a week out.
When moving out, we ensured the entire building was spotless, even had one of our family s cleaning companies come in to avoid charges on our deposit. Well, we just got our deposit back and guess what, they charged us an excessive amount for a cleaning fee on an already spotless apartment (especially speaking to the fact that we both traveled and were never there, therefore weren t there to be at risk for damaging things) AND charged us to replace all of the lightbulbs in the apartment. Being that lightbulbs are normal wear and tear, not included in the lease as something expected to replace, and they had to charge us for a BS cleaning fee just to get money, I would never ever recommend this leasing company. They will literally nickel and dime you for anything and everything all the while only providing basic amenities that don t warrant the cost of living there.
Update: Watts Group hired a consulting company (Karen at Crescendo Leadership Development) to discuss why this review was left and what they could do to fix it/get me to take the review down. I think it s worth mentioning that the consultant they hired not once got back to us after everything requested was sent regarding proof of a damage free and professionally cleaned apartment. After 3 attempts to reach out it s pretty clear that they have no regard in ever making things right/the company they hired also didn t care.
Great experience renting with Watts. Jon is an excellent realtor, he took the time to explain the whole rental process and walk us through quite a few properties. The people in the office are helpful too. My whole experience has been only positive.
During COVID when the entire country was in a 2 week lock down I received an email that Watts Group would be showing my apartment. I also was living in a unit and my roommate subleased to someone with a cat without my knowledge (I am very allergic). When I voiced my concern to Watts group which has a no pet policy they were unwilling to accommodate her or I and wanted nothing to do with the situation putting my health at a severe risk. Do not rent from this group! Very unprofessional and hard to work with.
Jerod reached out and was genuine to work with us. He offered solutions to resolve the issue.
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Original review:
Terrible company. Hard to work with. Two faced agent. They don't honor what they promised when renting. We were told during COVID, they don't show current tenant's apartment to protect everyone's health. Now they will show your home when COVID is even worse than the summer in Iowa. You have to renew immediately for next year after you move in, or they will do showings, so basically they use this unethical practice to keep the current tenants, not by their decent service or nice apartment, but by your fear of contracting COVID and losing privacy. This is how they keep their business for years in capitalism, unethical practices and big corporation power.
I recently rented through Watts and the apartment was brand new and was in good shape when I moved in. They had very to follow rules regarding when rent was due, noise, etc. all named out in the lease. For the first 8 months of my 12 month lease was fabulous. After I decided I wouldn't be resigning on my current lease (I was moving out of the area) we had some issues with visiting and showing the apartment I was currently living in but was taken care of quickly and appropriately on their business end and my end as well. I want to thank them for making things right. I would definitely recommend renting through them if you are looking for a Iowa City, Coralville, or surrounding area place to live.
Apartments are nice but staff is rude and mean. Too many rules that are not even necessary and money hungry. Would not have lived here if it wasn t for immediate need problems and income restrictions all over this part of Iowa.
*******Make sure if you live on Riverview on 1st and you park in the lower level garage you have a parking spot secured. There are spots that they consider parking spots that are so small not even a compact car can fit. They will do nothing for you and tell you to park outside.*******
The only reason I payed extra for the unit I am currently in was for a parking spot in the garage. I currently have no spot and no one is getting back to me.
Wonderful. The agent was very helpful and I love my new apartment.
Very nice operation. Checking out new co-op living.
Watts Group told me they had not received by deposit and application, however my deposit check had been cashed and my application was received. I requested a third floor apartment, which I was told was available for me then when it came to signing a lease they had put me down for a second floor apartment. I was extremely unhappy about this. I have lived at a Watts property, Old Town, for almost two years and decided not to renew because parking was becoming an issue and excessive neighbor noise. I asked to extend my lease four hours to help with move-out process and was told no. Many people smoke in the apartment building which leads to an awful smell and many apartments have malfunctioning smoke detectors. Very inflexible and poor customer service.
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