The Dermot Realty Management Company

Save yourself the headache and DO NOT rent with Dermot. I lived in a Dermot-​managed property for 1.5 years, and I have never dealt with such an unprofessional management company. They are ridiculously unresponsive whether via email or phone. Any issues my roommate and I experienced with our apartment were not handled well (if they were even handled at all). We didn’t even have a super for a few months while we lived there, and Dermot’s corporate office is nearly impossible to get in touch with, so there was literally no one to contact when we had issues during that time. It’s been about 5 months since we moved out and our security deposit has not been returned to us, even though we passed the final walkthrough for damages. I’ve contacted the company multiple times over the past few months and have gotten nowhere. The employees do not respond to emails or voicemails even when contacted directly. So they are either incredibly lazy, or it’s just a strategy to make some money. Either way, this company is not worth your time or money.
I remember reading Dermot’s Unilocal reviews prior to signing my lease, and I was a little nervous but ignored it because I was so excited about the apartment, and figured it was probably just a few bitter renters posting bad reviews. Please just scroll down on this page and you can see that it’s more than a few people, and everyone pretty much comes to the same conclusion. You’ve been warned!

Today, on March 10, 2015, I received my security deposit in the mail, almost 8.5 months after I moved out, called/​emailed the company incessantly with no luck, contacted the NYC Attorney General, AND filed a claim with small claims. I am the first of my former room mates to receive my portion.
This is by far the worst company I’ve ever had to deal with. I had most of the same problems that fellow reviewers mentioned, and I’m still in disbelief over how these crooks manage to stay in business. I have numerous stories of their incompetence, but if I took the time to write them all down, I’d be writing well into next week. Please, for your own well-​being, stay away from this company. You will thank all of us on Unilocal later on.

Over the past few months, the rat population has grown exponentially! I can now hear them in the walls and the ceiling. The whole block smells like rat feces.
DO NOT RENT ANY APARTMENT ON W. 123RD MANAGED BY DERMOT (A&E REAL ESTATE)

Fellow renters, BEWARE! DO NOT RENT WITH DERMOT!
Like many others who have reviewed this company, I wish I could give them ZERO stars as well.
This review is based on their property at 526 West 123^rd Street –
1) RATS are everywhere around the building, as well as the maintenance entrance located in the basement. At night, I would hear those pesky rodents digging through trash and constantly squeaking. I became frightened to come home at night due to the possibility of seeing them. One night, I became curious, jingled my keys to see how many there were. There had to be at least 20 LARGE rats that scurried to/​from the trash area to the basement maintenance door. I was horrified. Thankfully, I never discovered a rat inside my apartment, but I am pretty sure thats due to – I applied electric tape to all doorways/​windows, as well as frequently sprayed my apartment with mint (a natural deterrent for rodents). However, my neighbors mentioned having mice problems in their unit.
2) REPAIRS — We had two bathrooms in our unit; one of which constantly gave us issues. Of the years and a half I lived there, one of the toilets worked for about half of the time. After endless emails and phone calls (nearly 6 months of them), Dermot sent several contractors to assess the damage. All of which had informed me that pipes were eroded and severely damaged. The toilet wouldn’t be a quick fix. Another couple of months passed; still no work had been done. When some work had been scheduled, we ended up with a hole in our floor, of which is still there. Oh, but don’t worry, Dermot had the decency of placing a piece of plywood over the hole. Such service! Other items that have failed to be repaired include:
–broken kitchen fan over stove
–leak in ceiling
–crumbling brick
–hole in floor
–clogged tub drain
–broken toilet
–broken light fixtures
3) CUSTOMER SERVICE — Jennifer, not sure what your job actually is. I hope you are reading this. What do you actually do at Dermot? Simply delete emails? Stare at your phone all day? Its amazing how all employees at Dermot have their profile set as private on LinkedIn. I wonder if you are even REAL people. Or are you all robots programmed to not care about the human race? Although I am extremely frustrated with the lack of service Dermot has provided me, I am even more frustrated for the elderly neighbors within our apartment unit. Many of whom have shared their frustrations with me as well. You fail to place salt at the entrance stairway, which has resulted in many slips. Do you not have a heart to care for your fellow human being? Or are you simply in it for the money? Jennifer, they can’t possibly pay you THAT much money to treat people like their lives and safety don’t matter. Which brings me to my next point.
4) SAFETY — The brick is crumbling throughout this property. I wonder how long it will remain stable. Furthermore, I have no idea what the heck I’ve been breathing in for the past year and a half.
I can’t stress enough how terrible this company is. There has to be other places to rent from. The price and location is NOT worth the many headaches this company creates.
Best of luck in your search!

Dermot Co. is one of the worst slumlord realty companies in New York City hands-​down. Thankfully I got a letter that Metropolitan LLC has taken over my building and all the buildings that Dermot used to own on my block so that’s a plus. On the other and, it could be a case of same crap different toilet.
Just the fact that Dermot Co. hired three peon superintendents in a row that did virtually nothing for the residents is beyond me. I can see that they have to do the bidding of their employer, but not one of them had any ethics to override what Dermot has been trying to do to all of the residents whether they be long-​term, rent stabilized, or paying market rate.
Do not rent from this realty company you will sorely regret your mistake if you do. Their buildings and common areas might look decent on the outside, but if you want repairs done you’re better off doing them yourself.

DO NOT rent with Dermot realty. They are simply the absolute WORST. The lock on the front door of our building broke, trapping people inside at worst, and leaving our front door open entirely exposed at best. And when trying to reach them to solve this problem, you get lost in a voicemail web. They are awful. Never rent from a building they oversee, you will only bring yourself grief.

I ended up getting my security deposit, by the way, after a few months. So I should revise this upward.

This company isn’t worth any stars. My roommates and I have lived in the building two years only to save us from the hassle of moving– however this is the worst property management company and regardless of how desperate you are, do not rent from them.
They are very unreliable and unresponsive whenever there is an issue. There have been several emergency situations and the super for our building is not willing to help or provide alternate suggestions. Their emergency phone number takes you to a voicemail.
We have lost a lot of money due to water leaks that they were aware of for a month. They have not resolved several open items that needed to be fixed upon move-​in.
They are the most frustrating people to work with and are unwilling to work around your schedule to help with maintenance issues.
They are unprofessional and the way they handle business is unacceptable.

Updated 10÷21÷14:
In the past month, the company (or at least one person at the company), has been making an effort to address the issues that have been piling up for the past three years that I’ve lived here. I’m hoping this marks the beginning of a change for the better.
Previous review:
WHY CAN’T I GIVE THESE A-​HOLES ZERO STARS? They are the absolute worst. Take tonight: no hot water in my building (this happens anywhere from once a week to four times a week from late September through early May, 3 years and counting since they said they were replacing the boiler). So I texted super, and then received an auto-​reply that he no longer works with company. All the published phone numbers on property management’s website lead to a defunct maintenance line or voicemail. I finally reached the leasing answering service, who gave me the number to a working maintenance line. Let’s see if they actually fix it by the time I need to leave tomorrow morning. This situation is one of the better interactions I have had with Dermot… at least I found a human being who at the very least said she would «page someone» — although there’s a good chance I’ll still be showering in freezing cold water tomorrow morning. To anyone thinking about renting from Dermot Properties… DON’T. Save yourself endless hours of frustration. Seriously, if I thought I could get my security deposit back from them without a legal battle, I’d move out right now.

Much like the previous posts have stated, the ONLY time you will EVER hear from someone is when you are signing a lease and forking over cash. I moved into my apartment in November of last year, only to find out there was no heat. My so called «radiator» (the tiniest hunk of metal you’ve ever seen shoved into one corner of one room) was cool enough to touch, although the super assured me it was «on.» Even if that’s ON, it’s still not sufficient heat! The «heat» emitting from that thing barely filled the one foot radius around it, let alone my bedroom on the other side of the apartment. I began putting thermometers in various locations around my apartment. In the MIDDLE OF THE DAY with the sun beaming in and my windows taped shut those thermometers were reading 48 degrees. I took pictures and sent them to the building management with, you guessed it, no reply.
Since then, I have had issues with rodents, bugs, and ceiling leaks, which I have contacted them about, and have still had no response. To clarify, I have been trying to contact this company since November of 2013. It is currently September of 2014 and I have had ZERO of my calls or emails answered or returned. A full ten months without ANY contact.
I obviously will not be renewing my lease.

Dermot Realty owns several properties in Morningside Heights on W 122^nd & W 123^rd. Their buildings are the worst offenders in regard to garbage, rats, and noise pollution. They allow garbage to not only pile up and become strewn all over their own property but also the public sidewalks. Their tenants run the gamut from older people living on a fixed income to foreign students. Neither group is inclined to act as good neighbors and be considerate of noise, even when approached and asked to do so. Dermot does not respond to complaints and have seemingly no desire to be a constructive member of the Morningside community nor provide accountability for the tenant-​created issues at their buildings.
I would urge you NOT to live in one of their buildings. You will likely face terrifying rats and belligerent neighbors who have parties (young) all night and blast televisions all day (older).

Time to jump on the mismanagement bandwagon. What sort of incompetent test do you have to pass in order to get a job with this company!!!
Here’s our story. We’ve lived at one of their properties on borinquen for a number of years. Look, I get it. It’s New York, you’re going to get pests. However we’re not dealing with «a mouse» we’re dealing with an army of them. We noticed an influx when they renovated the apartment below, we were happy to see the late night aspiring EDM dj’s to be moving on, unhappy to see mice running around our WHOLE apartment, not just the kitchen, ALL DAY LONG.
We took the same steps in the past when we had a service request, our building suffers from losing heat and hot water at least bi-​monthly in the winter so Edwin, the sup is on a speed dial. Lucky for us he lives across the street and usually remedies the situation that day.
Apparently this joke of a management company made no efforts to have someone cover for him while he’s on vacation. When my roommate texted him over two weeks ago, he texted back on vacation you need to fill out a service request form. We did. It’s dated 15 days ago and is still sitting in the out going box. We’ve exchanged emails with Susan Gomez, by exchange we mean they’ve been sent to her vortex of «shit I’m not going to answer» box until someone escalates it up the chain. At which point we received a «I’m not ignoring your emails, I had to call out sick a few days last week» response with no further action. We said hey, we’d like to just deal with you and not escalate this (read: not report your ass to 311 and the BBB) gave them the benefit of the doubt (perhaps there’s a lot more now bc of the renovations downstairs) and followed up with a call. Susan said oh I talked to Jennifer (who is she?) and she said you need to fill out a service request (DID THAT, read our previous 10 emails lady) and that we’re mistaken there was no renovations. I said cool story Suz, we’ve done that and yes there was, one of you realtors showed us the new apt, nice dishwasher and stainless steel appliances. (The kicker was we found it listed on naked apartments for the same price they’re increasing our rent to.)
I called their call service line today (Sunday) and received an unknown number call back with no contact info and a short message of «we’ll schedule something on Monday and let you know when they’ll be out» so basically, here’s a carrot, someone has pushed the paper into my desk, but I’m not going to handle it, I’ll just feed you some more bs, have fun with all the mice! Hope they don’t ef up your belongings TOO much.
The silver lining is that they got only a couple more days til 311 comes out where we’ll happily show them the trash filled areas under the stairs in the basement. The broken door and call box so that basically no one’s friends/​delivery man/​dog walker can get in unless they leave the door propped open for their friends (which they do) and trash covered roof tops. I hope the get fined into acting like at the very least a 1 ½ star worthy Unilocal review.
In transparency, I saw the shitty Unilocal reviews before I signed my lease, and was like «it can’t be THAT bad» oh it is. It is.

So here is the update. Since January I have been fighting with Dermot about replacing my stove as mine is just done. That took two court dates. Then when finally the appliance company came to deliver the stove but could not install because the gas cut off switch was broken and needed to be replaced. They refused to do it saying I could cut off the gas from the basement. In between the building manager Jennifer tells a contractor that she cannot wait to «get the N***** out» referring to me although she has never seen me in the flesh. Had HPD inspect apartment and write violations still refused. Finally went to court again told the judge what happened and what mgmt said. Court order for repairs. finally done. But will have to go back to court for them to replace the bathroom vanity which is now corroding no super constant lies Run fast run far

The super Jerris is very helpful and nice.
The company — impossible to reach– only able to reach them when you sign your lease and hand over the money

It has now been 6 weeks that my fellow tenants and I have been without cooking gas. We are organizing and looking into all options, including withholding rent, filing a lawsuit and all other potential necessary steps. There are a litany of complaints against this company on 311’s webpage for this problem, unsafe construction conditions, and more.
It does not take this long to get a permit from the city to restore gas. It just doesn’t.

If I could give this company 0 stars, I would.
Absolutely HORRIBLE experience. My apartment is a living hell. From the day I moved in, there’s been a horrible cockroach infestation. Additionally, I’ve seen mice 5 – 6 times in the three months i have been here. I began getting bedbug bites the THIRD WEEK after I moved in. I found multiple bed bugs and tried to contact the company. No response. TWO MONTHS later, we switched property managers and I finally got an answer about the bed bugs. Of course, the night after my apartment was treated, I woke up with 6 new bites. Clearly, the treatment didn’t work. The bed bugs are still biting me nightly with no sign of stopping.
Our heat turns off at least three to four times a week and there’s NO WAY TO CONTACT THE COMPANY. We have no super at the moment because ours was fired. Both phone numbers that our property manager gave us in case of emergency do not work. Currently, I’m sitting in my apartment that is infested with bed bugs, cockroaches, and mice, with no heat and no hot water.
I STRONGLY urge EVERYONE to NEVER, EVER RENT FROM THIS COMPANY. It is a HORRIFIC experience and I would not wish these living conditions on my worst enemy. I truly feel that I’m living in a tenement. I will be contacting the NYC rent board shortly to try to get this company shut down for good.

My only way to get in contact with these people are to post on their Unilocal page. After my previous comment I received a phone call from a woman at their corporate office that claims to be the building manager, I tried calling her back twice and still she hasn’t replied.
This morning, there is snow on the ground and its 22 degrees. We have NO HEAT AND NO HOT WATER.
I’m going to start posting on this every time we wake up to no heat. (weekly) I don’t know what else to do.

I lived in a rent-​stabilized apartment in Park Slope for 8 years. After I’d lived there for about 3 years, the owner sold the building, and we went from using a decent management company to Dermot. Right away, things started going downhill in terms of building maintenance and responsiveness to problems.
Under Dermot, I had more than one billing «error» with my rent: one time they «lost» my check and demanded a new one, then cashed both of them; once they didn’t cash my rent check for so long that my bank cancelled it, and when they weren’t able to cash it several months later, Dermot tried to charge ME a fee for insufficient funds.
It always took a very long time to resolve these issues, as most Dermot staff are difficult to contact. Paula Lovell in Billing never ONCE called or emailed me back, and most of the time her voicemail and email were full, too. I have no idea whether she is incompetent or malevolent, but either way, she needs to be reassigned or fired. I’ve never had a worse customer service experience than I did with Paula Lovell.
Some other employees were more responsive: Jonah Rosenberg always called me back promptly, and Bruce Caines wrote me a letter of reference for my coop purchase very quickly. I really appreciated their professionalism after dealing with their incompetent colleagues.
And even better news: I got my full security deposit back less than a month after moving out, with no hassle at all. I was so surprised and pleased about this, especially after reading other renters’ experiences.
I would never willingly sign a lease for an apartment managed by Dermot, but in the end, they behaved reasonably. So try to take comfort in that if you are stuck renting with them.

I have lived in my building on 345 e. 12^th street for 9 months now and have had a plumber come around 20 times to fix the continuous problem of raw sewage coming up through my shower. Our unhelpful super was fired a month ago and has not been replaced. Our property manager Jonah Rosenberg has been unreachable and unresponsive for the past 5 days that my toilet and shower have overflowed into my apartment. I have filed two formal complaints with the city and no help from dermot.
Can you imagine paying 2500/​month for a one bedroom apartment that spews raw sewage from your shower? I can’t even go to the bathroom or take a shower and the place smells horrible.
The apartment below us has the same problem and we later found out that the girl who previously lived here had the same issue.
I’ve called 212 714 6073 to report the problem but they are only a call center and can’t help me. If somebody from dermot is reading this please contact me at
I feel horrible for whoever they try to lease this apartment to next.

I lived in a Dermot building in Astoria for a year in 2009. It was terrible.
We had no heat for 5 days in the winter. I have a photo of my apartment when it was around 50 degrees inside.
After two dozen phone calls (as many Unilocalers have said — good luck reaching them), they put a giant 4 foot high radiator in my bedroom as if to mock me.
They routinely lied about things, to the point where I had to create a spreadsheet for who I spoke to and what they promised. Also tried to hold my security deposit too.
The super (Mike) was actually an awesome guy and very responsive but the company sucked. If I had written this review in 2009 it would have been filled with expletives and 5 times longer, but just know that you should not live here. For any reason.