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freestockadvice t1_ivpikm3 wrote

I live in a Dixon managed unit as well in the Heights. 2 bedroom 1st floor/basement apartment in a 2 unit building. Dixon owns the whole building and rents the top two floors as a four bedroom unit to a group of young guys above us. All nice and designed with modern taste in mind which we liked, but after a couple months of renting the issues "between the walls" so to speak started to show.We've wrestled with water seeping into the home through exterior walls/flooring and window units, which then lead to ants, entering the home through the softer material and cavities. I'm a very aware and observant tenant and always reported issues immediately, but my property manager simply stopped answering us sometime during the summer. That led us to withholding rent due to the water and pest issues but more importantly the disrespect in blatantly ignoring us for WEEKS. After awhile we were finally notified that they are going through a "transitional period" at Dixon and that our previous property manager was no longer with the company. This was during the time I started reading about Dixon bankruptcies overseas and putting two and two together myself. Someone named Tim Coates who seemed to be high up at Dixon got back to me and addressed the issues only once a different issue presented itself. A pipe bursted above our stove and started to collapse our kitchen ceiling and damaging all the cabinetry. It was shitty living through the repairs (took about a week) but glad it was addressed and fixed and has been fine since.However between then and now I have started to see mice/rats around the exterior of our building. Obviously reported that as well and they'll send an exterminator in an appropriate timeframe who sprays and recently put out traps but won't address the main issue or really communicate with us tenants in detail about what's going on with these homes. The cavities in the exterior walls. They invite the water, insects, pests, etc that create compounding issues.Dixon bought up a huge portion of the cheap buildings when they could in Hudson County and in NYC, put a modern "luxury" coat on the interiors but never addressed the actual foundation of these homes and those issues present themselves eventually and Dixon doesn't want to pony up the necessary investments to actually fix them. They are grossly overweight in the amount of properties/units they own and manage, and the quality of management reflects that. And FYI, an exterminator filled me in on some extra tea on Dixon while they were spraying for pests at my place a couple months ago. Dixon only had something like 30-40% of tenants actually paid their rent during COVID. Dixon eventually took them to court but lost and had to swallow all of that missed rental income. I was one of the tenants that always paid on time throughout and will most definitely use that information as leverage once my lease expiration comes up and comes time to potentially renegotiate or walk depending on what they offer. Which will likely be a substantial increase for every and any tenant they have.

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munch524 OP t1_ivpjp81 wrote

What I’m hearing is that I should not have bothered paying rent during Covid. Oof. Sorry you’ve had all these issues. My first apartment was a Dixon one too in 2014 and honestly, I’ve always had issues here and there but they always responded promptly. The weird thing this time was that, I submitted the roof thing, silence. Then our basement began flooding… they had someone there 12 hours later. That contractor told me “by the way, they know about the roof falling and someone will contact you shortly.” That’s the last I heard. He wasn’t even part of the Dixon company, it was a subcontracted guy.

Idk. Obviously we won’t renew our lease in June I guess lol.

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