Rent Athens LLC - Athens, Georgia

Amanda C.

My daughter rented a townhome from Rent Athens and I helped her move in. Be very careful when doing your walkthrough and note every little thing. To start with there was a huge hole in the steps leading to her second story apartment which made it unsafe to move in. Also 2 other areas of wood rot. When we went back to rent Athens they acted like it was no big deal but we were there with all of her belongings in a U-Haul and unable to move in until those repairs were made. Upon move in we literally had to clean the entire apartment ourselves. There was dust on the ceiling stains in the fridge and cobwebs in the air vent and the carpet was dirty and smelled. One of the windows didn’t close all the way and you could see outside with the door closed because there was a huge gap. Also the blinds were replaced in the front window with blinds that didn’t fit. So anyone could see in on either side. The deck outside was full of garbage and what appeared to be pet feces and/or dried up vomit. There was numerous requests to have this cleaned,RentAthens just deleted the request. There is no way that someone professionally cleaned this apartment before move in. The bifold doors in the laundry room did not close because they were not correctly installed. I repaired that. She moved out early and paid her remaining two months. The apartment was far cleaner when she moved out than the way she moved in. Rent Athens kept over half of her security deposit citing things like scuffs on the wall, dirty range hood, and said that there were anchor holes in the walls. We even commented on move in that there was already holes so we could hang curtains so I know that they were already there when she moved in. I can almost guarantee based on the condition of the rest of the apartment that the range hood was dirty when we moved in as well. ( we just checked to see if the fan came on) everything was pretty much dirty so we didn’t note that. I had to clean all the cabinets as well in the kitchen because they were covered with old grease and grime. There was no filter in the air vent and it was full of cobwebs and dust. My advice is to get a professional inspector to come out if you expect to get any of your deposit back and make videos and save receipts of all the money you have to put in to make it livable. The carpet was vacuumed at best. It still smelled of dog. I can understand paying a standard fee to shampoo the carpets IF it was actually being done. This company is taking advantage of these kids. All I can say is make sure you take extra paper and take lots of notes because they will try to charge you for things that were already there and cleaning things that obviously they don’t clean. Try to avoid this company! Some photos from our move in: the last four are from when she moved out. The deck that she cleaned and we got the “stain”out of the fridge and all the other minor repairs I spent a whole week doing so she could move in should have been enough to get her deposit. But they found a “scuff” on the wall. Just beware!

Stacie M.

I would not recommend renting from Rent Athens. They are very difficult to work with if you have any maintenance issues. When we first moved in, we had an issue with the primary bathroom tub not draining. Someone came out to fix it but did not properly fix the issue because about a month later the issue came up again. We tried to fix the issue ourselves, but we were standing in ankle deep water and the tub took about 30 minutes to drain so we felt it was time to put in a maintenance request. I called prior to submitting a request and was told we would only be charged if they felt the drain was being clogged due to negligence of the tenant. The example that was provided was a tenant pouring rock soot down their drain which caused it to be clogged. We then put in another work order and when they came out again, we were charged $85 to fix the issue. When I asked them why we were being charged, they stated that due to there being hair in the drain it was our responsibility and not their responsibility because the drain wasn’t broken. We went back and forth with them but they refused to remove the charge and said if it was an issue again within 30 days they would come out and remove the charge. The maintenance request was completed on 11/14. However, we have started to have the issue again so I reached out on 12/23 asking if we have someone come out again, even though it’s only a few days past the 30 day and this would be the third time this has been an issue, would we be charged to have someone come out. Paddy with Rent Athens responded back to my email and said she could not say whether or not we would be charged but then suggested ways in which we could fix the problems ourselves. My issue with this is we have tried to fix the problem and it doesn’t work and now it is being suggested how we should fix the issue. In my opinion, as a renter, you should not be charged to have maintenance issues fixed because it is a responsibility of the landlord. We always handle minor things on our own and only submit things that we feel should be handled by the landlord if we have tried to fix the issue on our own and it is still not being resolved. If you rent with them, be prepared to be overly charged for any issue that comes up and for them to find any loophole so they can charge you.

Keith H.

Rent Athens is extremely difficult to work with!
If you're a property owner, they'll be bulldogs on your behalf, as all they care about is getting checks each month.
If you're a potential tenant - Go Somewhere Else!!!!!
Calls into the office with questions or concerns go unanswered!
I need to leave before the end of my lease, but they have no concern other than for my check each month. They say they'll help me find someone to move in & take over the lease, but just so much lip service. They've even pre-rented my apartment for after the end of my lease, so I asked if I could contact that person to see if they'd like to move in sooner (win/win for all). Absolutely not, stated as security concerns and & can't share that information. Asked if they'd contact them for me, I got a really pitiful "we'll see if we can" response. I spoke with an attorney about getting out of my lease (even with the justification that they never provided the services stipulated in the lease, thus resulting in extra cost & labor by me), and no go. The attorney said this was the "toughest lease" he'd ever seen, and the tenant basically has no rights whatsoever.
Find another management company & other place to rent.

Madeline M.

Rent Athens cares nothing about your apartment until you move out of it, and they can then charge you for issues that existed when you moved in. They charged several hundred dollars more than my security deposit for mandatory carpet cleaning everyone has to pay for, a basically mandatory maid fee, and the bulk for new paint. Many of the spots there were complaints about existed when I moved in, so they either charged the previous tenant and did not repaint or did not care when I moved in. Then, there is also messed up paint from a leak I reported for over a year that a previous tenant complained about as well. For a little while one so the summers I lived here, my apt/ room was unlivable, yet Rent Athens seemed to not care or be able to do what needed to be done to fix it. Yet when I go to move out, missing paint due to previous tenants all of the sudden needs to be tended to and costs hundreds of dollars. There was a leak in the window when it rained for over a year. I would wake up wet. I would have to use fans to dry out the wall. At a certain point the wall started to deteriorate. They would take days to come out and then took over a year to find a solution that was sustainable. Their miscommunication when there are issues with apartments make it difficult to avoid additional charges if you are concerned. When my refrigerator was leaking, the maintenance man told me to wipe up the leak rather than stopping the leak. When they come to change the air filter monthly, they come into your apartment without notice. The insulation is poor so the heat runs almost constantly in the winter when it is over 65 degrees. If I could live with issues in the apartment, I usually tried to avoid calling maintenance due to the extended wait time and sometimes unhelpful solutions. There also seemed to be no way to reduce the flies. I tried fly traps and calling an exterminator. Couldn't recommend anything except the location, but it's not worth the hassle of dealing with Rent Athens. They also sent out an email on Christmas Eve saying "The majority of the units are having large amounts of water in the unit and causing damage to the property and items." When I freaked out and tried to get someone to come check my apartment (which costed $100), they then said that they had actually not gotten any reports of water damage/ leaks in my complex, so they couldn't take the five minutes to only send it to the complexes having issues. I would suggest not renting with Rent Athens if you want a livable apartment, do not want random extreme expenses, like having maintenance requests filled without additional payment, and can at all avoid it. Also, they make you pick a time to move out, so you might not actually be able to stay until your lease ends. The dishwasher also would flood in the bottom and never correctly drained due to the way it was built or at least the repair person said that was as good as it gets if it isn't next to the sink. Then, you can stay for the inspection but can't fight anything, so there really isn't actually a point in being there.

Justin Q.

Not using my personal Google account as I see they like to handle negative reviews by replying with your lease details, which is sad. This company is ridiculous.

They're fully aware of their position as a company with a *significant* number of properties around here, student tenants who are often renting first time so they don't know their rights or have the time to pursue issues, and potential clients who are desperate for housing. Be weary of their intentional exclusion of a lease termination clause in contracts--it means you have zero outs, even with units not up to building or fire code. Their standard lease also permits entry without notice or permission at any time for any reason. We have stopped receiving notices of entry after reporting maintenance issues to higher ups. They've entered the unit without permission or myself in it a number of times, despite maintenance tickets indicating it was not okay to do so. They also neglect to address very, very obvious issues despite having plenty of time to do so and being fully aware of them (albeit understating the issues) on the move-in form. They are a grade-A, textbook example of a predatory company taking advantage of their clientele while overcharging and under delivering.

Heed the advice of everyone else and do your best to find someone in the business of managing properties as opposed to 🪛ing people over. Cheers!

Tiff S.

Rent Athens took over as my complex's property manager in the middle of my lease, and I was pretty nervous based on some of the online reviews I had read. However, I had an overall positive experience with them.

Maintenance issues were typically responded to promptly, with minor issues often addressed and resolved within the same day. I was able to receive my entire security deposit back with no issues, though I did put in a lot of work before move-out. The office staff, specifically Amanda, were always kind, professional, and helpful no matter what I contacted them about. Additionally, Rent Athens was very accommodating of my work-from-home schedule when I decided not to renew my lease and they began showing the unit to prospective tenants. They were very respectful and flexible when they could have chosen not to be.

My one issue is that there were a few miscommunications with the maintenance department right after the takeover, and as other reviewers have mentioned, maintenance would often come by without advanced notice (I was a night shift worker for awhile and was woken up on several instances by the guys knocking and entering my unit). When I called the office with my concerns, I was informed that the maintenance workers have their own agenda and can't always give a guaranteed ETA for work orders. While understandable, my suggestion would be to possibly make a policy for maintenance techs to send even just a quick heads-up when they're on the way, so it's not a total surprise. It was also a little difficult at times to get status updates for maintenance issues, but that can be standard for any rental company where tenants are not in direct contact with the owner. Keep in mind when renting with any management company - not just Rent Athens - your experience can vary wildly based on who the owner is.

Otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised by and thankful for a positive experience with Rent Athens.

Nur S.

Do NOT work with Rent Athens. They took over the management in the middle of my lease. I would never like to work with them. Just because of that I moved to another place managed by a different company.

First of all, they use every minor scuff and other things to overcharge you. They charged me $160 for maid, $325 for paint although the apartment left very clean and there were very minor scuffs on the wall. Then when I dispute it, they apologized and deduced the maid fee to $0 since they said they didn't see any areas where a charge would have had to be assessed upon my move-out. They have deduced the paint fee to $165 but that is still too much. There is no labor work needed for the walls. Please see the pictures.

Why do they overcharge and why do I have to dispute it? What if I wouldn't mind ant hadn't dispute.

Secondly, they keep sending emails about entering to the promises for different reasons, pest control, AC cleaning, etc. Even though I don't give permission to enter the apartment when nobody is at home. Then, multiple times I changed my schedule to be present at home but they never came.

Third, the maintenance requests are never responded and they never fix it. When I called them after I've waited one month, they said they have a lot of work order and I have to wait. Then, they never came.

Charlie F.

Incredibly thin walls. Neighbors constantly making too much noise. Rent Athens will do nothing about it. I have talked to both my neighbors and Rent Athens and still nothing. If anything they just make noise to be nasty now. Unless you like having no peace at any given time of day, find a different company to rent from.