Stratagem Management - Columbus, Ohio

SaNesa Gordon

My daughter and her roommates moved into a Stratagem unit not even a month ago. The first few days of moving my daughter in, we were welcomed to dumpsters across the lot that had trash expelling out of them and all around the lot on the ground which the attached pictures reflect. There was even a tampon applicator at the bottom of the stairs before heading up to her unit. After multiple emails and phone calls, Stratagem claimed this was from so many tenants moving out and that it would be taken care of. The trash on the ground appeared to have been covered with dirt and looked as though it had been there for some time. A picture of a crack in the foundation was also provided to them in their portal to show where a mouse crawled out and made its way over to the dumpster area. The video uploaded is from this past weekend, which was only 2.5 weeks later and there's more trash than there was for 'move out / move in' week and an entire host of mice / rats. This is absolutely disgusting and a health hazard to all the tenants living there! My daughter and roommates were not provided a key to their mailbox, so she called ahead to let them know she was coming to the rental office to pick it up. Upon arriving within their office hours, the doors were locked. She had to bang on the door to get someone to let her in. Once again, she took the opportunity to address the outdoor trash issue and one of the workers / property managers had the audacity to tell her 'At least the mice aren't in her unit'. After another phone call to them a week later, we were told there is nothing else they can do and to contact the City. This is insane when this is their property and I'm appalled that they are okay with this presentation. I do not recommend anyone rent with this management company as it is a constant headache trying to reach out to them to get something so small as outdoor maintenance taken care of. These property managers and owners need to significantly do better!

vlada wu

Their pattern: if you were there when they break in for maintenance, they will blackmail you for a 5 star google review, if you won’t, they will ridiculously charge 75 dollars.

When I first entered the room the floor was extremely gross. Their maintenance takes forever and never solved my problem. The mailbox and broken, windows and floor are covered with gross liquid.

They tried to charge me 75 for repairing the garbage disposal which they never done, and 50 late fee after 5 days the fee appear on my bills, and refused to remove the charge.
They ghosted emails and never respond phone calls
One last thing: if you happened to have toured their apt on 14th ave, don’t live there, plz see the video below, you will be forced awake at 3am, the music is literally louder than Midway

Richa Thakar

We had Eric come fix our heating and electricity issues. He fixed the issue very quickly and even helped us out with other issues we were having. Thank you Eric, your kindness and help are much appreciated!

Maddie Capka

Please do not EVER rent from this company, it will be the worst mistake of your life.

We toured an apartment and were explicitly told by the property manager that the unit had central AC and heat, and even the online listings stated this. We moved in and noticed it had neither. We immediately informed them and they didn’t even acknowledge that they had lied and just installed two window units. However, they only gave us one for a bedroom and one for the living room. We had a second bedroom and kitchen that they refused to provide units for and these two rooms both got super hot. The property was also in bad shape. Half of the windows didn’t have screens/had broken ones, the windows and doors had huge gaps that let in cold air, and the renovations were very sloppy. There was a dryer in the basement that was venting INTO OUR UNIT, causing an insane amount of condensation and heat and causing our food to mold as moisture got everywhere. We also had a ceiling leak and power outages among other problems. Maintenance would come and fix things for the most part, but they were only bandaid fixes that didn’t address the whole issue.

They are also impossible to reach over the phone or email, so good luck getting a response on anything. My roommate and I are also sure they blocked both of our phone numbers because we tried calling them at various times and days of the week and they didn’t pick up a single time or answer a single voicemail. We also didn’t have a property manager until 7 months into our lease since our previous one quit right before we moved in. This made it even more difficult to communicate with them as they only have general “info” emails.

We ended up calling the City of Columbus Code Enforcement and had an inspection done since there were so many maintenance issues that were going unfixed. They found FIFTEEN different Housing Code violations, some of which were in multiple locations in the unit. We ended up having to break our lease early, which was a process that took way too long as they took forever to get back to us on emails and didn’t answer our calls. We had to go into the office in person to finally get a response. Then they claimed we had to pay $3100 to break our lease early, which is completely illegal. Once I cited the ORC law to them, they finally followed the law and allowed us to break our lease. Once they realized I knew what my rights were as a tenant they were friendly out of nowhere and responded in a timely manner.

Overall, I would avoid this company like the plague unless you want a bunch of unnecessary stress in your life. I have rented from numerous rental companies, most bad in some way, but Stratagem is still the worst one I have ever dealt with. Also, it is so blatantly obvious that the majority of their positive reviews are either fake or solicited.

Ryan Millikin

Rob from Strategem Maintenance came out to our house at darn near midnight on a Sunday night in the freezing cold to help us with our front door as the lower hinges had unfortunately became detached and the door legitimately could not close. It was 15 degrees out and the door couldn’t shut…this was not only a safety concern but also was potentially going to cost us a ton of money in heat bills because we would still have to run the heat while the front door was wide open. It was very late, and all hope was lost, but sure enough, Rob showed up and spent more than 90 minutes helping to redrill the hinges back into the doorframe, as well as made sure the locking mechanism would work once he was finished. It was a tedious and laborious job to fulfill but Rob was an incredibly efficient and effective maintenance worker who genuinely saved our Sunday night. I cannot thank Rob enough, and Strategem Management is lucky to have such a buttoned up and thorough worker on their staff.

Mark Shanahan

Unfortunately, I have to say renter be cautious!!! I lived here for almost four years and always on time with rent, but they still wouldn’t address our maintenance issues that caused us to move out. I lived in the one bedroom apartment and they gave me 30 days to move, they offered a two bedroom across the hall. Their excuse was they wanted to update my current apartment, okay no problem. They said my lease would transfer and it sounded like an easy move (even though I’m paying more). They end up leasing the apartment across the hall out but now offer me one in another building. At this point I should’ve moved to a new community, but with limited time I took it. Now they require a new deposit and it’s significantly more rent. No problem! But the laundry room leaked into my new apartment several times, and when laundry was running the water would back up into my kitchen sink. Still, stayed and tried to be flexible even though we had a gas leak and now our CO2 alarms were going off. Fire department came out and said it was the stove and hot water tank (which I had requested someone look at several times) but they denied it being a problem. The fire department even evacuated the building, but still they refused to fix it. After the fire department shut off our gas due to leak they did come in and replace it. They claimed the stove was fine. CO2 meter still going off and I’m not putting my family at risk. They wouldn’t do anything about it. I ended up giving a 30 day notice and told them they could keep the deposit which was well over my rent. They wouldn’t honor it and still charged me for a month I didn’t live there. After being a responsible tenant, living with gas leaks, mold, trash everywhere in the community, and trying to be professional, they still report me and now it’s on my credit report. I should’ve paid the $600 to break my lease and this wouldn’t have happened. Please know better when renting from this company, they rent to anyone and don’t keep their property in safe standards of living, the conditions are gross, and you will not get out with any of your deposit no matter how clean you leave your apartment. Go elsewhere!

Maddy Vestfals

Eric was so nice and very helpful. He really did make sure that we were taken care of when our heater broke. We really appreciated his generosity

T

DO NOT RENT HERE.
Stratagem Management is a dishonest property management company. Their maintenance team will charge you for basic services without explaining what the charge is for.

They didn’t even fix the issue I requested! Instead of unclogging my sink, they worked on my roommate’s sink, which had no issues at all. Then, they had the audacity to charge me $75 for a service I didn’t ask for. When I brought this mistake to their attention, they refused to remove the charge. Who charges for a service that wasn’t even completed? What exactly am I paying for? Also - maintenance entered my apartment while I was not there, when I explicitly stated not to do that.

Their response was dismissive and unhelpful, blaming me for not providing "clear details," when their own system already asked me for specifics like which room the issue is in.