Reviews of how owner Bryan Clark, lawyer Erek Sittig, property manager Megan Clabaugh, office manager Chantrice Horne, and the rest of the criminals working this company operate.
People get mad and write 1-star reviews on Yelp, BBB, Google Reviews, and other places all the time.
Does it do anything?
No, because you idiots keep signing leases with these crooks and thieves.
But let’s save off the 1-star Yelp reviews. Actually, at the time this was written Bryan Clark’s Apartments Downtown and Apartments at Iowa ONLY HAD ONE STAR REVIEWS.
Some of these are for “Apartments Near Campus”, a previous company owned by Bryan Clark.
5/11/2023
Guys it's awful. Don't rent here. They prey on college kids, specifically young women, who are typically first time renters. Take your business elsewhere or you will likely have them emailing you asking you to pay some arbitrary fee--in cash. Weird.
3/7/2023
NOT SAFE!! recent worker fired for creating false leases and stealing the deposit and then ANC told those who got scammed that they're just SOL. allows maintenance workers to come into apartments without any notice, and has terrible locks on ALL their buildings which anyone with any key can get into. I don't know how they are legal or allowed to run a business. Tried to charge me for things they caused. Hope karma comes for these people.
12/2/2022
0 stars. Lived with them for 2 years. Upon moving out, they charged us over $200 for 6 hours of labor. The only physical charges were a new AC filter (which we shouldn't have paid for anyways) and to patch a small hole on the wall paint from a command strip. Reached out to them for months for a detailed statement as to why I was charged for that much labor and STILL cannot get a response from them. Had tons of issues while living with them as well. They charged $30 to put my towel rack back on the wall, $30 to change a smoke alarm battery, gave me a random utility charge when my utilities were paid that month and I provided proof of it, and countless other issues that caused me so much stress over 2 years that I lived there. Please don't give these people your money, they should not be in business.
Also, the business is Apartments Near Campus - I guess they did a shameful attempt at a name change to "East Apartments." Probably to lose all the bad reviews, but they will assuredly get more under any name with the way this place is run.
11/23/2022
Don't rent from Apartments Near Campus even if you are desperate, DO NOT. We have been waiting FOUR MONTHS for the security deposit. The check is "in the mail" and the check has been stopped and they are sending another one blah blah blah. It's all a lie. This place is TERRIBLE.
8/19/2022
Please save your time and money and do not rent from this company. My friends and I rented a 4 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms (527 N Linn St) and it was the worst mistake we ever made. First of all the day they showed us the house they locked 2 of the doors to the bedrooms and told us that these two bedrooms were the same size as the other two we had been shown, only to find out that one bedroom was literally the closet to the other and couldn't fit a bed so I spent the entire year sleeping on a futon, and the room connected to this one had no closet because I was in it. Along with this the bathroom downstairs was so small you couldn't fit your legs in there to use it and all the floors were disgusting and dangerous there was nails sticking up floorboards coming apart and a huge slant. We contacted them multiple times to fix t for about a month before they did anything and once they finally fixed it our furnace, which was probably as old as the house, broke and was leaking gas and we had to evacuate the house. For this to be complet fixed we probaly waited about another month and a half and spent almost the entire winter in a house with no heat and saw no price reduction in rent or even any sort of sentiment. After all this we were then charged excessive amounts, which were taken out of our security deposit, for "fixing" things that were never touched by us such as repainting the already destroyed walls, replacing screens on windows that were never there, a toilet seat which was broken when we got there and asked them to replace, etc. and they charged us 600 dollars in labor. Please heave my warning and find a different company to rent through.
8/16/2022
This company is awful. We moved in with the lease saying and paying for a cleaned apartment. Apartment and building was awful:
Urine on toilet and floor and wall
Floors not cleaned
Food on ceiling
Cobwebs and spiders throughout
Blinds broken
Holes in walls
Paint chipping away
Entry into building with bags of food
Hallways with garbage throughout
Mailbox open with very old tennis shoe
Called maintenance and visited office and NO response to do what lease agreement stated-clean apartment before arrival. Voicemail full and office open 1 pm - 4 pm daily so good luck getting a hold of someone that cares or will actually do something.
Garage door entry is not available because gave wrong code.
This company does not care about their apartments! Never lease from them!!
8/13/2022
Not great so far and all we need is a parking pass. No one is here though the office was supposed to have opened an hour ago. It was also supposed to be open yesterday and other people in line reported that they were not.
Signs in the window are from last year. We have our driver's license and vehicle registration. Do you have any staff????
3/22/2022
Do not rent from ANC. From the many weeks of neglected maintenance I frequently have letters and boxes stolen from my front door. This has occurred on 7 occasions in the last 6 months. Oh yeah and there is a homeless man living in our laundry room. About a 8 week resident as of now. They already know about all of this.
10/15/2021
My apartment was infested with cockroaches and the company was so unresponsive even after I told them about it. Also my bathroom door fell off its hinges twice (randomly in the middle of the night) and my AC almost caught fire when I tried to turn it on heat mode because they turned my heat off when it was still 40 degrees outside and wouldn't turn it back on when I called. My stove was also so old it was unusable.
Don't live in 527 S Van Buren it is infested with cockroaches and this company will do nothing about it
9/6/2021
Worst company ever. Scam college students just because they can, they never update their appliances and have all-around disgusting buildings. I lost my job due to COVID-19 and was living in one of their buildings at the time- they made no accommodations, charged me $20/day until I could pay, then threatened to evict me after explaining my situation to them more than once. You never know who the actual landlord is because it's run by college students who have no idea what they're doing. Please just save your time and money- never rent with ANC
7/24/2021
DO NOT RENT FROM HERE HAD TO TAKE THEM TO COURT
A company predicated on ripping off college students. They are horribly managed. Their business hours are about 18 hours a week. If you go in to complain on something their solution is to tell you to send an email so you'll leave. The only positive reviews you see anywhere are because they wouldn't let someone back in to their apartment while locked out unless they gave them a good review. They don't take care of units then will try to keep your deposit on bogus charges. I walked in to a newly renovated unit that they clearly hadn't checked if it was move in ready. Had to clean the entire unit covered in dry wall dust before moving in for hours without hot water. Nothing was hooked up. Nothing was ready. I went in to complain and they told me to send an email.. of course never heard back. At the end they tried to keep $500 of my deposit for (Cleaning and labor, etc.) and I submitted a request explaining why I thought I should get it back. They gave us $40 back. Finally decided to take them to court to get the rest back and I did. They don't care they make money off college students not knowing any better. DO NOT RENT FROM THESE IDIOTS. I am not sure how they are still allowed to be a business.
8/26/2020
This business is a disgrace, and should be ashamed of their business practices. The apartment had been empty for 2 years before my daughter moved in. It was filthy and hadn't been cleaned as "promised", so I was on my hands and knees cleaning before allowing her to even put her belongings inside. I should have sent them a bill for my services because that is all they do apparently - scammers! (See below image for examples of their shady charges after move out)
Walls were yellow to begin with, $232 to replace lightbulbs?!
No one answers the phone, they enter the apartment with no notice and charge you for work that they cannot show proof of - it's absolutely terrible!!!!! Now they want to keep over 50% of the original deposit. I have never experienced something so unethical, and it is truly a shame.
12/11/2019
Literally the worst possible business I could ever image. Please read the reviews before you whose to go to this place. Renting with them was one of the worst decisions I have ever made in my life
8/28/2019
DO NOT EVER rent from these people! We rented there last year, and they were horrible. They were great when we said we were interested in renting a place, very accommodating. Once we signed the lease, it was impossible to get ahold of them. We were told there were security cameras on the premises, which there are in the hallway. Our neighbor was broken into in the middle of the night and both of their laptops were stolen. When asked to see the video footage, they were told that the cameras aren't on......nice! Place was disgusting when we moved in. Literally disgusting. My mom wouldn't even come in the place. Then, of course, they keep your security deposit. Pretty much thieves. Wouldn't be surprised if the break-in was an inside job. I would give it no stars, but you have to leave one.
2/10/2019
AWFUL and FULL OF ROACHES, but so is every other "cheap" apartment in IC. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Other complaints:
Everything dirty upon move in (showers, toilets, carpets, etc)
Missing a toilet lid.
Blinds broken/missing in most rooms.
Holes in the wall before we moved in (should've been fixed after previous tenants vacated).
HUGE stain on carpet (but it's "clean" so they won't replace it).
Carpet full of pet and human hair (but still "clean"???)
Internet is garbage.
Rarely removed snow; parking lot is currently a thick sheet of ice.
No recycling containers (even though they're required).
About 10 cans of Febreze and HOURS of deep cleaning later it smells tolerable.
2/5/2019
I would not recommend renting from apartments near campus in Iowa City unless if you:
1. Be with the company for the inspections before and AFTER your lease.
2. Document all your interactions with the company i.e. calls to make repairs, etc.
We spent two days making cleaning the apartment. It was spotless and ready for the next tenant. ANC still charged $80 (8 persons, 30 minutes each) for cleaning the apartment as a deduction from the security deposit. I'd advise asking them if there is an automatic cleaning charge before you leave...or why bother to clean it?
Check your smoke detector/alarm. They charged $30 to replace a "missing battery". No tenant ever touched the smoke detector...ANC were supposed to make periodic checks to make sure the detector was functioning properly. Unless if you are with them at the closing inspection it is your word against theirs for a $3 battery that will cost you $30!
At first they tried to charge for a broken blind that was broken at move in. Repair of the blind was requested three times. The broken blind was on the list of deductions from the security deposit. After I resisted, they first asked for a documentation of a request for repair, and then a couple of days later "found" a repair order.
Be very, very cautious with this company. I realize they own/manage a lot of properties in Iowa City, so you may end up renting from them...but BE CAREFUL!
7/26/2018
This will be the first review I have ever given, but this place is absolutely terrible. The management is unresponsive, will charge you for things that is their fault (water leaking into apartment), rude, unhelpful, and will try to screw you over every chance they get. We were unable to use our living room for more than a week due to water leaking into our apartment because the outside was no sealed correctly. They did nothing but bring in fans to dry the water, but that didn't fix the issue for over a week, all the while it smelled absolutely horrendous. The living room was unusable, and when I asked if we would be compensated they basically said screw you. They currently just got out of a class action lawsuit, and from my understanding are being sued again by multiple parties. STAY AWAY FROM HERE AT ALL COSTS!
7/26/2018
This will be the first review I have ever given, but this place is absolutely terrible. The management is unresponsive, will charge you for things that is their fault (water leaking into apartment), rude, unhelpful, and will try to screw you over every chance they get. We were unable to use our living room for more than a week due to water leaking into our apartment because the outside was no sealed correctly. They did nothing but bring in fans to dry the water, but that didn't fix the issue for over a week, all the while it smelled absolutely horrendous. The living room was unusable, and when I asked if we would be compensated they basically said screw you. They currently just got out of a class action lawsuit, and from my understanding are being sued again by multiple parties. STAY AWAY FROM HERE AT ALL COSTS!
10/11/2017
DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!! They are not a good company to rent from. MY daughter lives in one of their apartments while attending school. I am her parent, and live out of state. I paid her rent using the source that they require you to use, providing checking account information. I submitted the amount and saved my approval letter for acceptance of that payment. 9 days later my daughter received notice of eviction, and a fine that totaled over $140! The company also cited criminal laws in their notice, implying that they had the intent to prosecute her on felony charges!!! Here's the kicker... My bank said they (ANC) entered the information wrong! That my information was correct, and my bank had plenty of funds!! I received NO notice until after a maximum fine could be assessed by them. Not after day 1, but 9 days after! After explaining this to them, and providing proof, they were insistent that i had no choice but to pay their unfair and unjust demand. It is a real shame that this company is purely a company of greed. I hope karma does its job with these people.
9/1/2017
Never under ANY circumstance should you lease any apartment from ANC or any of their other shell companies including Apartments Downtown or Apartments at Iowa - each of them are owned by the same people and they are all awful companies. Take every review you see here and on other sites seriously.
When we moved in to our apartment, it had not even been cleaned since the previous tenants, not even vacuumed. Additionally, the patio screen door was on the floor with a giant hole through it, every set of blinds was broken beyond repair, there was lots of dirt and stains on the carpets, closet doors off the hinges, and on top of that the unit they gave us had filthy carpet when we were promised and were paying for hardwood. It took months of us calling them and them dodging every call and email before they finally installed hardwood floors like we had been paying for.
If you choose to live with ANC, you better love cockroaches because that is what you will get. We had an infestation starting before we even moved in when classes started and they were everywhere. In our food, our bathrooms, beds, and they even had a nest in our dishwasher. After pleading with ANC to please have an exterminator come out to no avail, I finally called the actual company myself and someone came out the next day- ANC beat around the bush for weeks and weeks while we lived with literally hundreds of cockroaches in our apartment when they are responsible for roaches in the lease.
When things are broken or disgusting, you likely will not see it fixed or cleaned. The first official maintenance requests one we made were not even answered for over two months after we moved in! If your issue is not important enough to them, they will totally ignore it and never show up to fix it. The maintenance guys are beyond scary too and they have disgusting conversations when in your unit if they actually show up to fix things.
ANC also chose to use our unit almost exclusively as the model unit for our building. Our unit was shown dozens of times, once with no 24-hour notice at all. Also, ANC uses the same building key for all their buildings so anyone with that key has unrestricted access to any ANC building. These practices are unsecure and scary, especially since the apartment doors for units are made of crappy wood and have loose locks that they refuse to replace.
In the colder months, the building we lived in (806 E College) had loud banging pipes from the boiler that were very loud. They kept all of us up for many nights. It even caused me to start taking sleep medication which didn't even work since the banging pipes were so loud. The pipes only stopped making sounds when it got warm again, it was never fixed by them to this day. It caused us many sleepless and frustrated nights. This is reason enough never to live in any ANC building.
ANC also wrongly charged us twice of having paid rent late which we paid on time. They sent us threatening emails telling us we would be evicted if we did not pay the late fees when in fact we paid rent on time every single month. I actually had to go to my bank and spend my own money to get check images as proof they deposited my rent checks the day the rent was due and they were forced to admit their mistakes and take the charges off my account. No apology or anything, even after they threated to evict us after we paid our rent on time every month.
They also left us without any water for hours and hours off and on for over a week last May during the run up to finals week due to a plumbing issue. We quickly discovered that the 'issue' which was never fully described to us, was below our unit and they told us they had to dig up an entire bedroom in our unit to fix it. In the pictures included you will see the twelve-foot-deep hole they dug in our bedroom that was later filled with rock and carpet was put right over (not up to code!) They halfheartedly offered us another unit to sleep in but the water was off in the entire building and there was equipment running all night so it didn't matter - keep in mind this was finals week. I had to fight them for months to get compensation for this awful incident which amounted to barely $100. Keep in mind they turned our apartment into an utter construction zone a week before finals! Who does that in a college town?
The people who work at ANC's office will lie, ignore, be rude, and scam you out of your money. Helpful hint, the manager is Jackie so make sure you go to her with all your problems if you are unfortunate enough to already be stuck with them for a year. Although she will ignore you just as much as the rest of the scammers who work there. They will be nice until they get your name on the dotted line and then you're in for a year of utter and complete misery. You will regret renting with ANC. The experience with ANC was shocking and this review honestly barely scratches the surface. Do yourself and all your friends a favor, do not rent from them!
8/19/2017
Very poor customer service-i have no idea who hired their employees, especially one named Jackie. Unfortuantely they own too much property so many people have to rent from them, but do not be afraid to call them out if they are scamming you!
7/10/2017
Absolutely so amazed with this company! One, I definitely need to look into working for them seeing as they literally do not work. I think someone actually answered the phone one time I called. Two, phenomenal customer service. They are always willing to help solve your problems with just a simple $400 fine. Three, I had a guest in a wheelchair one time and they told me they could fix the elevator Monday after he left. Definitely a good idea though because carrying him up the stairs meant we could get a good arm workout in. Huge problem solvers at this place!
1/22/2017
Terrible. Not even goin to waste my time by writing everything that is wrong with them
8/22/2016
Avoid at all costs. Worst management company ever. Staff is unprofessional,disrespectful , unhelpful, apathetic, rude and unresponsive. They enjoy taking advantage of young college students. They have extremely limited availability especially during the busiest move in times of the college school year. Any property owner that is considering ANC as a possible property management company should look for any other option. I'm certain current property owners that use ANC have no idea how poorly they treat their
clients.
7/27/2016
We have had nothing but problems since signing a lease with ANC!
We moved into an apartment that was never cleaned since the old tenants moved out. The walls were filthy, the entire kitchen was filthy, including the refrigerator, stove, oven, and dishwasher. The bathroom had pubic hair on the floor as well as in the tub. the tub would not drain. It was a disaster! We did speak to the management office 3 times before our move in date and this it what we walked into.
A couple of months later there is an infestation of bugs that our coming out of the heating vents. We are asked to bring a bug into the office??? I still do not understand why they just didn't send someone out. When they finely sent someone they vacuumed, than they sprayed.
We were not able to live in our apartment for 3 1/2 weeks while ANC did nothing. We were relocated to a new unit that was filthy and had to move EVERYTHING without assistance from ANC.
We tried to reach the office by e mail as well as phone for 5 months before we got a response after I had to have my attorney send a letter to the office. They took no responsibility and denied our request for compensation. We went into the office to speak to a manager { who is never in the office and does not return phone calls or e mails } and of course she is not there AGAIN. After my daughters roommate went back into the office I realize I had been talking to the manager the entire time. My daughters roommate just talked to her a couple weeks back and she said she was the manager?
The girls in the office are extremely rude and DO NOTHING to help with any of your concerns. They are nothing more than scam artists who get you to sign lease than they do nothing!!!!
Check out the Tenants Project in Iowa City before you sign on the dotted line! ANC is affiliated with the majority of the businesses that rent apartments to college students.
6/8/2016
I would give 0 stars if I could. Worst apartment building to ever exist. Terrible management- very unwilling to help with anything. Mean people- crappy quality apartment. Stairwells are filled with throw up. No elevators, have fun walking 5 flights every day. I would rather live in an igloo.
1/7/2016
DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS!!!!! They have so many lawsuits pending they continue to do business under different names. Do NOT rent from them - they are crooks who are making tons of money off college students every year. Their apts are not kept up & when you move out, they will lie & steal about the condition of your apartment so that your security deposit is nearly wiped out. They lied to my son & charged him $450 for a new fridge. When we visited his previous apt 4 months later, there was not a new fridge there. They said it is on order - total BS! They charged to hang closet doors that weren't hanging when we moved in & never worked. They charged $10 for light bulbs when most of the fixtures never had them at move in. They never sent the security refund check & when we asked they re-issue it they say we have to pay them $50 to re-issue a check that after 90 days was void anyway. The list goes on & on - RUN away from any rental they own!!!
7/27/2015
Probably the worst business that I've ever encountered in my entire life. It's a wonder that they are even in business. The management is sooooo bad. They sent out an email with the new underground garage door code the day AFTER it was activated locking me out of my garage space that I payed $1200 dollars for overnight. They install the cheapest blinds that break when you touch them and then gouge you for your deposit. They open their offices hours late regularly. I would recommend that you steer clear if at all possible.
NEVER sign a lease with any property owned in the Iowa City area by Bryan Clark, Jeffrey Clark, James A Clark, Loretta C Clark, or Tracy Barkalow.
NEVER sign a lease if Megan Clabaugh manages the properties, Chantrice Horne manages the rental office, or people named Brent Tunelius, Colten Hohenthaner, Melissa Zieglowsky, Holly Hardin, or Joshua L Whetstine work for the company.
NEVER sign a lease if attorney Erek P Sittig (a City Councilman for North Liberty) is involved or affiliated with the company.
Got any stories? Email rent52240@gmail.com and tell them.
