Bachtel Property Management, Inc

This review is for 611 – 615 12^th ave E apartments, in capitol hill. I signed a lease mid/​late August with the verbal assurance that all the outstanding issues would be repaired in the mean time, before my scheduled move in date. I was also told that the front entry way would be converted to flooring from carpet.
I moved in September 1^st and found carpet installed where I was told there would be laminate flooring and few of the repairs done. As per their policy, I contacted the on site/​resident manager, who told me to «wait» b/​c he was moving out in a month. With much persistence on my part and pressuring him to act, some repairs were carried out (such as new lightbulbs and a broken sink). Other things such as torn up screens, missing screens, holes in the wall (which would require a simple dry wall patch), broken window mechanism, front door that is broken, continue to be problematic despite waiting more than 3 months and multiple contacts with 1) the on site manager, 2) the handyman, and 3) Chris Gardner, the property manager at Bachtel. Being told by #1 and #2, that they don’t make these decisions on what is repaired and what is not, I contacted Chris. His responses suggest a pattern of avoidance, where emails and voice mails would go unanswered, until I finally could get him on the phone. At those times, I would get vague responses. Upon pressing him for a response to which repairs will take place and when, I received the following message from him:
«Hi Wes,
I will not be replying or commenting on anything else regarding this. Please forward all future maintenance requests to
«
That email directs to the on site manager, who has stated they can only act on the property manager’s discretion (Chris), so effectively maintenence requests are ignored, with little transparancy about decisions, and in direct contradiction to verbal statements made at lease signing.
In summary, I recommend against doing any kind of business with Bachtel. They misrepresent their properties and refuse to perform maintenence. Additionally, as other reviewers have noted the lease also states that tenants will be billed for cleaning of carpet and blinds upon move out, even if they are in clean shape. They’re unethical and money centered – avoid!
Update ³⁄₂₀₁₅: they haven’t made repairs and actually misrepresented the facts on a Better Business Bureau complaint, and then stopped responding. To explain further… I submitted a complaint to BBB after the email reply in my original review, and they did initially respond to BBB stating that there were no issues but rather everything was up to par and repaired. When I submitted photos of the problems (for example, my hand through the window that is missing a screen), they stopped responding to BBB, so the complaint has been placed as «This complaint has been closed without response from the business.» Again, not completely accurate as they did initially deny any problems and then stopped when there was irrefutable evidence to the contrary. I guess they figured that would be a better move than essentially saying to BBB, «no we’re just not going to make the repairs.»
Again, as one of their tenants, I’d strongly recommend against doing business with this company. If you’re a property owner, I’d also recommend against it as they’re clearly neglecting upkeep and maintenance.

I lived at the Naomi over in Lower Queen Anne a few years back, and Fred was the manager. I loved my apartment and never had any problems. Fred was always awesome when I interacted with him. I had to move out before my lease was up due to my husband getting military orders, but at the time of the orders were weren’t married so I wasn’t on the orders. Fred and management worked with me very well considering the circumstances.

If I could give zero stars I would. I put in my application for an apartment in lower queen anne called Regan Lee, which by the way you can NOT find anywhere on Unilocal,apartment ratings etc. Probably because the building is so terrible and poorly run. Theguy who manages the building has no idea what he’s talking about ever, looks like he is totally spaced out and lost at all times. When I went to look at the 1 bedroom he didn’t even know it came with a dishwasher, shouldn’t you know that? The floors were creaky and everything in the unit looked pretty old but that’s what you get when you want old world charm. I put in my application because I needed to find a place and it was dirt cheap for a 1 bedroom, at 995 a month. I was then denied because I had several late payments for rent on my current building because I got paid the day after rent was due. Stupid reason to deny someone, when they clearly make three times the rent. That’s not it! The property manager Patrick is an idiot. I gave them a holding deposit of $ 400, which I’ve NEVER had to give a holding deposit unless I was approved, and they’ve now taken over a week to mail me a check when I live 10 blocksaway from their property office on capitol hill. Pretty ridiculous. I’ve called everybday to get my cash back that I gave them not a check but a money order and herefuses to write me a new check and void the old one, when it should not take over a week to mail and recieve a check. I’m not dumb, they are the most unorganized and in helping, non knowledgeable property company I’ve ever had to deal with. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM.

I had an appointment with one of the agents (Adriana) to view an apartment. She was rude to me over the phone, but I thought I’d check it out anyways because it looked like a solid apartment. After leaving work early to meet her, and waiting outside the building for ten minutes I decided to give her a call. She informed me that the apartment had already been rented, but for some reason she didn’t feel the need to cancel our appointment. She’s either selfish or absent-​minded — either way, avoid Bachtel.

I used to live at Aqua Terrace Apartments on 5^th avenue North, which is managed by Bachtel Property Mgmt. I absolutely loved my apartment as well as the Management. Our apartment manager was exremely helpful, efficient, professional but fun at the same time! No complaints what so ever!