Hastings Village Inc

I finally got out of this hole after wasting more than a decade of my life there. It looks alright on the surface but that s all Hastings Village is, smoke and mirrors. The office is run by Susan Cupo (Crest Management) who has perfected the art of being UNhelpful. (There is another Susan there who is quite nice, however, she is not the manager, but should be) When you have an issue and Susan Cupo answers the phone you can be assured you will get a healthy dose of I don t give a s**t attitude that would make a test pilot in a broom factory blush. She acts like the manager of an exclusive country club and how dare you interrupt her day with your trivial problem. You will not get any assistance from her so don t even bother. Just hang up and hopefully one of the others will answer. Speaking of problems, the heating system was ancient and always had to be repaired (they called it bleeding the radiators as if it was some basic maintenance) at the beginning of each cold weather season. Once the radiators were bled that did not mean they would work consistently and there were many times during the decade-plus of winters that I had to go without heat over a long weekend or holiday because no one at Crest Management felt that was a problem worthy of immediately attention. One January night I was so desperate for heat in my bedroom that I tried to fix it myself only to make things worse by scalding myself with hot steaming water that burst from the pipes. I thought I would have to call an ambulance but fortunately my exposure wasn t long enough to cause damage. The neighbors here are generally nice, but there are a few sour pusses scattered liberally throughout the complex who act like they're the mayor of Hastings Village and take it upon themselves to question you directly on whether or not you live there when you park in the spaces behind the buildings. Nice. I was also one of the unfortunate people who rented a unit from an absentee landlord. I saw the landlord when I moved in and over a decade later when he/she came to inspect the apartment at move-out. Needless to say, there were many issues related to the fact that he/she NEVER made any serious effort to maintain the structural integrity of the unit. In fact, I spent much of my own money replacing faucets and outlets and other issues that needed attention. He/She never even painted when I moved in (just said no to the request as if I was crazy to ask) and there were windows that were unusable for years even though they were reported as broken to both the landlord and Crest Management. Thus, although nothing was said by the landlord at the move-out inspection, once I did move I was blamed for issues behind-the-walls and floors that I had no control over and was threatened with a bill for the damage. Fortunately I knew my rights as a tenant and avoided his/her scheme to charge me for the refurbishment of HIS/HER property. One other specialty of the house: don t be surprised if the fire alarms (not the smoke alarm) goes off randomly, especially in the middle of the night and especially during the winter. Once it was so bad that everyone was out in the street during the winter. The fire department came, I m assuming to turn off the alarms. Of course the sight of emergency vehicles scared a lot of the residents, but this being Rutherford and Hastings V. in particular, no one really communicated with each other. The Rutherford FD and PD are another story for another review. All I will say about the Rutherford PD and FD is they must have all attended to the Susan Cupo School of Etiquette. In conclusion, avoid Hastings V. if possible. Beside the poor management and rampant absentee landordism, the apartments are tiny, dark and very dated; dated in a bad way and not in a cool retro way. They are not cheap either as part of the price built into them is the mistaken self-perception that both Rutherford and Hastings Village are great places to live in, which they are not.

Hastings Village is a very nice and quiet village but do not ever think of renting the 77B, the landlord Gamal is a robber and he will rip you off. I got married and moved there in November 2011 and the landlord looked very friendly and nice. I trusted him and used to always send him the rent on time. In June 2012, my wife was 7 months pregnant and I was planning on moving to NY to live next to her parent’s house since we both work. I called the landlord and informed him about my plans and he sounds flexible and understandable since my lease agreement will end in November 2012.After getting his approval, I found another apartment in NY.I called Gamal on July 1st and informed him that I am moving in August 1st to the new apartment. He asked me to send him July rent as usual and he will send my security deposit by mail. In August, I met him in the apartment and we looked around together and everything was nice and clean. Some very small holes were still in the wall in living room where the tv was and in the bedroom. I asked him if he needs me to fix them since i forgot about them he said it is not a big deal and to not worry about it and he declared that he already sent me my deposit check to my new address. One week after, I received a letter from him saying that he took my deposit and he is not going to give it back and the funniest thing is that to defend himself he declared that I need to pay him 2000$ for leaving before the lease ends (Knowing that I left after calling him more than 4 times, informing him about my plans 2 months before and getting his approval but not written because I trusted this thief).Furthermore, he added some other lies to the letter and declared that he spent 1000$ for fixing 4 microscopic holes in the living room and other 4 in the bedroom.(knowing that I asked before I leave if he needs me to fix them, and I was able to fix them by myself). 400$ for putting a new screw for the bathroom seat and 500$ for cleaning the bath tub that I left clean and shiny more than the bath tub that he has in his own house. He ends in inventing a fake bill with an estimate total of 3900$ and was insolent enough to ask me to send him 2900$, the remaining balance after stealing my deposit. His only objective was to bargain my deposit.
Do not make my mistake again since he will look very nice and respectful in the beginning but will rip you off in the end. It is very nice to live in Hastings village and there is plenty of available apartments other than 77B

I HATE living here.. Susan Cupo (Crest Manager) is the worst. She is rude to the people who live here. She basically looks for anyway possible to NOT help residents when they have problems. The piping and maintenance are terrible. I pay a ton of money and I don't see any of it maintaining my property. The pipes are older than dirt. Save yourself a lot of headache but not moving in this development. I have regretted making this my first home.