Kass Management Services

Don’t ever rent from this company. They don’t care about their tenants. Apartments are old and ran down. I tell my manager about mold and get ignored. It’s ridiculous. Lazy janitors working for them. It takes months to get things fixed. A shelter may be a better option than the piece of crap I live in.

When it comes to finding apartments, I’m as neurotic as it gets — I like to find my next apartment quickly, and I anxiously analyze every last detail (is paint allowed? will the lightbulbs be replaced? what’s the water pressure like? etc.), wanting to make sure I’m prepared for the move on time with everything taken care of. All of this is to say, I recognize I’m probably not the easiest person to deal with if you’re a realtor — and Kass Management has been great!
Kurt Shreffler showed me two different units of a building I was interested in, let me take my time looking through them and gave me space to consult with my partner, who I am moving in with. He answered all of our questions thoroughly, and he was flexible about my partner’s work not allowing direct financial calls to management, accepting a pay stub as her proof of employment and salary. Even after the viewing, once we submitted our applications, Kurt remains positive and helpful — he responds to my texts quickly, and he always answers my calls. When I was getting nervous about whether our application had been accepted, he even took the time to look through their online records and confirm that we were approved, and never made me feel like a pest.
If living in an apartment run by Kass Management is anything like looking for an apartment and applying for one with them, then we are in very good hands! Major props to Kurt for being so patient and upbeat!

I debated for a while whether to write the bad review or not, but I could not let my bad experiences slide and let someone else fall victim to the same crap. Kass Management has poor communication skills and during the entire process. I was passed off to deal with 3 or 4 different people. When a mishap occurred, the senior accountant tried to jump to conclusions and place blame on me without even knowing the background stories that had transpired both via e-​mail as well as thru telephone and in person conversations with other staff members who were taking care of me.
Kass Management has a third party company called PayLease which processes the monthly rent payments of the tenants that decide to do online payments (although the system tends to debit the account almost 5 days later…). Before one picks up the keys to move in, it Kass Management’s policy (or so I was told) that the rent had to be paid in full in advance to their office. It really put me in a tight financial strain, but I went ahead and paid that, plus the move in fee.
I wanted to move in a few days earlier so that I can allow my sublet tenants have a full day to move their stuff in on the first. The senior accountant said that he was only «authorized» for me to pick up the keys up to 2 weeks before the first of the month, and I would have to pay a prorated amount of $ 200+ for that time that the keys were in my possession. With my work and travel schedule, I didn’t even have the availability to move in that early! Yet, since, since that was the «best he could do», I decided to go with it…
I moved in and everything seems fine, until a few days later, I noticed that PayLease took out the entire rent amount from my bank account, leaving me in overdraft with my bank (+ $ 35 fee). I called them to return the money ASAP as I had already paid it in advance so that I could have the key in the first place! After a few days, the money was returned to my bank account, yet, PayLease had the audacity to charge ME a $ 25 stop check fee.
I spoke with both Kass Management as well as PayLease and neither of them would take responsibility for the $ 60 that I was now short of because of their lack of communication. I was also sent a warning letter of possible eviction because of that failed transaction… It was really frustrating to deal with.
A part from that, whenever the mediocre pest control person comes out to spray, afterwards, I actually noticed an increase in cockroach activity. Also, just today, as I was about to take a shower and get ready for work, my unit all of a sudden had no hot water for me to use.

I thought that my previous property management company was bad, but in retrospect, Kass Management makes them look like guardian angels!

look for another property management company because kass is legit unorganized and they also have horrible customer service.
dont sign your lease agreement until you see you apartment. i had 2 small requests, for a hole to be covered and the wood floors to be polished. neither were handled, we signed our lease and they stopped returning our calls on the issue.
there were a few times i paid my rent online but it took a while for it to be taken from my account so naturally i called to ensure they received payment and the were so rude told me it should be taken out within a few days and «i need to wait» i said i paid online, not with a check, it shouldn’t take 5 days for the payment to be taken out from my account.
they even wrongfully served me an eviction notice. lmao. then apologized over the phone.
my best advice would be ask if the deposit is refundable at move out !!
because mine was not, if its not don’t kill yourself cleaning the apartment when you move out. you are giving them $ 400 just to move in. (lets keep in mind the unit had some issues).
#2 do not sign your lease until you see the unit. they will hound you to sign and pay but once you do all that calling and checking on you is a done deal. i dont care what you have to do stay on them, you are paying them to manage the building!

Kass tries to muscle people out of money illegally.
Kass acquired the building I lived in from another owner. They tried to convince me that rent I’d prepaid to the old owner no longer applied. The Illinois state Security Deposit Return Act of 1974 blatantly says these credits apply, but Kass repeatedly told me they didn’t. This a lie and a very questionable collection practice.

Kass management has come through and fixed the windows and other necessary repairs. I am finally at peace and feel safe.

I’ve been renting with Kass for a little under a year and have really loved my experience overall.
Initially I called a sign on one of their buildings I was interested in and was forwarded to a leasing agent named Julia. She called me back immediately and although nothing was available in that building she offered me several different options.
I found a great one bed that they were just finishing remodeling. The entire building was new and clean and has remained so thus far.
I really love that I can set an auto rent payment through their website. I’ve never had to contact my manager about any problems (hope I won’t need to!!) but I frequently see the maintenance man around the property and he’s really very friendly.
My lease renewal just arrived and I am definitely renewing. :)

Kass management manages my condo building in Lakeview, and every time I have an issue I speak to Cheryl who is the bookkeeper. She is always amazing, and quick to respond to any issues I have. She is pleasant, and always willing to help. No complaints from me :-)
** This review was for Cheryl only. I cannot say the same for the others that work there **

When my building was purchased by Kass Management, I was terrified, because I read reviews online. I’m sure much of it boils down to who you have as your property manager, but I had a stellar experience! There were very few issues to begin with, but when I did need something, my property manager (Kurt) couldn’t have been more responsive. Both my washer AND dryer quit working late one evening and Kurt had the repairman in my place the next morning and the units were repaired that day.
Because of several events, I had to move eight months before my lease was over. As a result, I contacted Kurt to learn my options. He outlined several of them, so I chose to re let the unit. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I paid Kass one month’s rent to take care of all of the marketing, showings, applications, etc. Within less than a month, they had a new tenant sign to take over in January.
I highly recommend renting from Kass!

Kass Management seemed like a great rental company until I started to have maintenance issues. The building manager, Matt Yellin, does not return emails or voicemails unless you call his manager first. I moved into a newly renovated apartment in May and have not been able to use my oven since. Despite the number of times I call or email Matt or his managers, I do not seem to get the issue resolved. I have rented with other companies before and have never been treated so poorly. If you choose to rent with Kass, I hope you have a better experience than I have had.

After renting from Kass when I was a student in Evanston, I decided to move back into my parents house after college until I could afford to buy my own place. Now that I’ve since moved into another apartment with decent service, I understand how truly bad Kass was.
To start things off, they tried to bill us for water when our lease clearly stated that it was included. When they realized they had no case against us, they suddenly tried to charge us $ 150/​mo each for the parking spaces that came with the house. They threatened to tow if we parked in the spots in the garage that was marked with our address. Turns out they were bluffing.
I had a subletter (who had followed all the necessary paperwork steps) send in a rent check with our address and they took the check and didn’t apply it to our account. So then they claimed we owed money and wouldn’t give us our security deposit. Eventually they sent a check to one of the four tenants after we had all moved away but because of how they wrote it, we couldn’t cash it without all of us present so it just delayed the process even further.
That, along with the poor maintenance of the unit (mold, mice, roaches) made my experience with Kass truly miserable. Avoid this company at all costs.

I rented from Kass back in ’07, and have never had a worse experience with a property management company in my life. I was in my early 20s at the time and lived with my sister. We were two young women in a garden apartment in Lincoln Park.
Kenny Parquette was our property manager, and without notifying us, he scheduled an outside vendor to enter our unit and replace the windows and window bars while we were out of town for Thanksgiving. Bad move generally for many reasons. The bars on the windows had not been replaced yet upon our return, so we called and requested that Kass replace them asap (remember, two young women in a garden unit).
We were told «they’re going to wait for a warmer day.» Like spring time? Like day after we get burglarized? A couple of days after we requested the bars be replaced, we actually WERE burglarized and all of our electronics, jewelry and other items were stolen. I don’t know if Kass was in cahoots with the window company, but it reeked to high heaven of a very convenient set up that Kass did ZERO to prevent and most likely facilitated.
Kenny’s reaction to the burglary: «You must have a pretty bad boyfriend.»
If you can help it, DO NOT RENT FROM KASS.

We moved into a different unit in our building as a favor to our landlord. Unbeknownst to us, the unit had a terrible mold problem and holes in the floors because of it. As soon as we told our landlord about the mold, he denied any existence of mold (even though it was attested that the mold was due to an AC leak over the course of a year that happened several years prior) and he hired Kass to manage the building. Kass first tried to blame the mold problem on us (even though the damage to the floor was due to years resanding and subsequent mold rot, and we’d been in the unit for a month), and then, afraid we would sue, they did everything they could to try and scare us out of the building, including sending an armed man to harass us and at 3am, after admittedly trying to break into the apartment with a screwdriver (this makes no sense, we still can’t figure out why on earth this guy was trying to break in, or why he told us and showed us the tool).
I’m sure Kass is just fine if your building is in good shape, but if there is any actual damage that might be harmful to you or your loved ones, they will deny, deny, deny, and resort to downright illegal tactics to keep you quiet and avoid a lawsuit.
The building owner (and previous management) is Alphazerek Alliance, LLC.

We were looking for an apartment for our daughter who is just starting out, we drove around and looked at a few neighborhoods and settled on Evanston (close to train and still kinda hip). When we called on a few different buildings our experience with Kass was responsive and professional. Our contact Matt was very helpful, he gave us some great ideas of places to eat, the building had safe parking and we found a unit that was clean and very nice.
When we moved in the apartment had been freshly painted and they even let us choose the carpet color, as long as it was gray or tan. We just moved in so I was a little worried about some of the complaints, but my parents managed their own building and I can deal with a clogged toilet if need be.
The building is secure and her mailbox keys, name plate were all waiting for her on move in day. Overall our experience was good. My daughter loves the apartment. My wife and I feel she is in a safe clean apartment my only complaint is I would have liked to move in earlier but that wasn’t really the fault of Kass most people sleep in on the weekends.

Fair and willing to work with you.

I will not be giving kass management any stars this management company (mostly Sam) is probably the worst management company I have ever dealt with and I have lived in Chicago and have been renting apartments for many years. When I first moved in to my apartment it was filthy things were broken, It took them over three weeks to fix something’s I had to request a brand new fridge and stove and still had to fight over it. The fridge and stove look like a crack house fridge and stove and very very filthy. Can’t believe that they would even try to rent me this apartment in the conditions it was in and it being over a thousand dollars in rent. And there’s roaches yes I’m paying over $ 1000 and dealing with roaches I’m a clean person can’t believe that I’m dealing with roaches!

SInce my residence began in January 2013, I have had approximately 6 different property managers. Kass fails to notify residents of new managers so when an issue arises, I have to jump through hoops to relay and retrieve information. The apartment is beautiful, however, this review is based on the management services. They are semi-​efficient with repairs (approximate wait times 1 week after online submission request). For the cost of the apartment they should be more efficient.
Also, Kass increased the rent $ 125/​month for the second year (after I’d protested the 150/​month buck increase). I’m horrified at the next increase. This will certainly be my last year in this lovely apartment.

Ugh, where do I start with these people. They are rude, disrespectful, they ignore your phone calls and emails. I swear I think they are conspiring with each other to provide the worst service they can. Treat their residents like dogs.
The parking lot and area outside my building has been under construction since I moved in three months ago, all the while they are charging me $ 150/​month to park in a lot that is half closed off. I parked in the open part of the lot a few days ago and got towed because I was «blocking the entrance.» So there was no sign saying I couldn’t park there, I paid $ 150 to park in a lot with no room, and now I paid an additional $ 172 to get my car out of the tow lot. What is my $ 150 going toward? I ended up arguing with the maintenance guy, Vic, over this at which point he called me lazy for not finding another place to park and said that I was disrespecting everyone who lived at the property. What is disrespectful is charging residents to park in the lot that doesn’t even have enough room for everyone and not providing an alternative parking option. So disgusted.
Patrick, the property manager, is one of the worst people I have ever communicated with. He’s even worse than the management company I rented from in college (and believe me, they were bad). He is very condescending and was basically calling me a liar when I repeatedly tried to tell him our granite counter tops were not sealed. I could go on and on but that’s the summary of my issues with Kass. Their employees are trashy and unprofessional (except for the woman who initially showed us the property). Stay away from them when looking for a place to live.

Giving Kass Management 1 star is the most generous thing you can do. The list of issues we had with our depreciating apartment was endless. Kass took weeks to fix even the most basic repairs at our place in Ukrainian Village. For the sake of time, I’ll only describe the two worst problems we had. The first was that only a few months after living there, a squirrel managed to dig it’s way into our apartment. Not only did it eat a bunch of our food, it shit everywhere. Kass’s solution? «Open the door and let it out.» The squirrel was definitely still living in the ceiling by the time we left. The other big problem was the ceiling stared leaking poop colored rust water all over the place. This leaking somehow built its way up into a giant spore pile on our window. Disgusting. I’m glad we didn’t resign our lease because who knows what would’ve happened to that place.
TIP: be sure to INSPECT THE HELL out of the apartment if you’re thinking about renting from Kass.

This review is for their condo building management service (or lack thereof).
I lived in a building managed by Kass for 7 years.
— I’ve had 4 property managers — all were varying degrees of lackadaisical
— No sense of «ownership» over their responsibilities for our building, never took steps to find lower cost vendors
— Employed a horrific exterminator for a rat problem, never seemed concerned
— Were terrible at handling requests and needs of tenants
I could go on and on and on, but it’s just not worth my time. Their costs are also pretty high. The bar is set low by Kass, so I am sure you can find a better, cheaper solution.
The only positive thing I can say is that the people who work there are not unpleasant.