Katsco Properties

I was renting from this company for two years and this is the sum of my experience...1.) When you sign a lease, you agree to give the owner 3 months notice prior to your lease date (auto-renewal), in those 3 months, they can show your unit however many teams it is needed to rent it out. This means usually during the daytime hours during the week but also may include Saturdays, so, if you work 2nd or 3rd shift, you're out of luck. You can let them know what your timing requirements are but the person that is in the office scheduling these viewings will (clearly) not be happy with limitations. My unit was clean, well furnished/decorated, and maintained. By the time I left, after giving them 3 months notice, they still hadn't rented the unit. The main reason being that there was mold coming through the wall and though I submitted 2 written requests for it to be fixed and at least 2 verbal requests, it wasn't fixed until after I left. The fact that the property was not rented during the 3 months of showing was due to their neglect of maintenance of the unit.2.) The person that does the maintenance and hands on work of the units will tell you one thing, maybe more leniently, and the person in the office taking your calls will tell you and do another.3.) If your rent is late or short or if your rent check gets lost in the mail, they WILL assess a fee or they will charge you the late charge or shortage out of your deposit, so be warned.4.) When I rented my unit, the basement had items the previous tenant(and maybe the one before them), left behind. The company cleaned the living area prior to my moving in but DID NOT clean the basement. When I left I left my unit spotlessly clean, but they did charge me for cleaning out the basement though none of it was mine.5.) Don't expect pleasant or polite customer service on the phone. If it has anything to do with the company putting out money for repairs, the person on the phone gets very curt and downright rude.6.) During the time I was in the unit the front light kept going out from the multiple unit house. No matter how many times I changed the light bulb it kept going out about 2 days later. I spoke with the man who is more hands on with the properties and he stated that it was fine and I just had to replace the light bulb, despite my telling him that I had changed it multiple times with it burning out a couple of days later. One night I was coming down the stairs in the front door area and I tripped in the dark coming down the stairs. I broke an elbow. I let the company know what had happened and they sent a repair person to fix it. It took a broken elbow and I was stupid for not consulting an attorney.If you are considering this company, please keep my experience in mind. I wish I had listened to the older reviews online prior to renting with them. Best of luck to you.

On move-in day, there were mouse droppings in multiple places in the apartment, nothing was done to remedy the issue when brought up, and pests were a problem at their property. In the closets I found mouse traps upon move-in that had literal mice carcasses in them. The ceilings leaked when it rained and I lived on the first floor. There were areas that had carpet over them because it was clear that the floor was in disrepair, you could feel it give under your feet and it got soggy when it rained. The floors were so uneven that the doors didn't shut all the way. The property I lived in was probably once a beautiful house but sadly today it's clear that it has seen decades of neglected maintenance and upkeep.They also have a predatory clause in their leases to try and trap you in a lease, where if you don't reach out and tell them you're not renewing they automatically renew your lease and it's hundreds of dollars to back out. I have rented under countless landlords and never have seen this- this is because they have a hard time finding and keeping people that want to live in their properties. Nobody had signed a lease after I left, even after I left the property sat empty for months (not usual for that area)..

You will have to sue them if you want your security deposit back, period. Katsco buys old Victorian buildings and allows them to fall into disrepair until they are completely unlivable and unsafe. The house I lived in had a basement that flooded every time it rained, and the house became so full of mold it stank and was hard to breathe. I am friends with several of their other tenants and all experienced similar issues. They don't accept maintenance requests in person or over the phone, but the form on their website doesn't issue any sort of confirmation, so you will need to screenshot any request you make. My maintenance requests were routinely ignored. At the end of my lease, Katsco tried to bill me for an issue I complained about from the beginning. They once cashed my rent check, claimed they never got it, and served us with an eviction notice without warning. They then blamed my roommate for their own mistake and never apologized. Pet and apartment hold fees are exorbitant. Katsco properties are Ohio State north campus area slumlords, but they are even nastier than most.

Do you like getting your security deposit back? How about timely repairs? If so, avoid Katsco at all costs. In my two years with Katsco, I've had multiple major repairs (broken window in winter, busted pipe in ceiling) that took multiple days to repair. Don't expect to get an answer from the "emergency" line either. As for the security deposit, you're only going to get it if you threaten to sue and even then you won't get much of it back (apparently 6 lightbulbs cost 72 dollars).Lastly, their pet rent is exorbitant and there are much nicer apartments for the price.

I had to delete my other review because I was threatened with legal action. I still personally recommend not doing business with this company.

They never answer the phone or return calls regarding any situation. Threaten to evict us multiple times. House was shit and charged us for things they never took care of themselves like a puddle filled basement which was there when we moved in.

I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone. They require a $300 "hold" fee (as well as a $30 application fee per person) to "take the property" off of the market for a day or two while they are reviewing your application that is supposed to be taken out of the deposit, and if they decide to give the place to someone else you can't get your money refunded. On top of that, the woman who works at the office, Kathy, was completely rude and unprofessional from the beginning. I cannot begin to describe how disrespected and scammed and robbed I feel by this company.