Prime Property Group - Champaign, Illinois

emily F.

If I could leave 0 stars I absolutely would because that is how poor of an experience I had in my two years of renting through prime. The property manager had beef with me the entire time because I expected the company to fix what was broken in my apt. We spent FOUR winter months with a broken back door window because my maintenance requests were continuously ignored. Our basement constantly flooded because of a piping issue in a basement apt that was never fixed. There was mold growing in my basement due to the flooding as well as in the bathroom because there was no ventilation. They were also charging me a significantly higher rent than my neighbor (two separate apts, 1 house). When I moved out there was no documentation regarding a forwarding address and I had to call multiple times regarding my security deposit. By state law after 30 days they are supposed to inform you of any charges to your account and by 45 days you are LEGALLY supposed to get the deposit back. It was at least 50 days after moving out when they informed me that my check was mailed, first, to an unknown address (as a business who would do this) and then to the last address on file, which was the apt I just moved out of They also said the check was mailed the day after moving out None of this makes any sense and it's clear they were lying to me, saying there was issues with the "mailing system." Long story short, AVOID PRIME PROPERTIES.

Trinity A.

My family and I rented a privately owned condo from Colony West through Prime Properties for 7 years. Throughout our stay, they were easy to work with, albeit sometimes hard to contact, but generally prompt when fixing any issues. We are so grateful to Prime Properties for helping us have a wonderful cozy home for so many years.

Jerrica H.

We lived in a house managed by Prime Property Group (owned by the owner). We saw the house several months prior to moving in while occupied. When we moved into the house, there were several issues. Water was dripping from a pipe with a large bucket underneath almost completely full. The basement windows were old. Some were cracked and others you could see outside around the edges of the windows. I reported these as soon as we moved in, beginning of August, and no one came out to replace them until the 14th of September.

I ended up contacting Urbana Tenant Union because I kept having pipes leak in the basement. They sent out a housing inspector and found multiple items that were not up to code in the house. Prime Property did comply and get the house up to code. They had to install smoke detectors in every bedroom, update plumbing and electrical, fix some gutters, etc.

Having kids, they discovered they could unlock the house from the outside by sliding their arm through the mail slot. We had someone out the next day to install a deadbolt out of reach.

We did have an issue getting our security deposit within the alotted time (45 days). But after 2 emails and providing Urbana's law, we received a check within a few days.

I did most of my communication with Jen and she was great. She always responded quickly and got our issues taken care of! So thank for being great.

I'm including pictures of when we first moved in our property.

Miranda M.

The leasing staff is great and they are making decent effort to get my building back in order. The elevator being broken is less than ideal. But I love being able to have my dog and a park next door!

Shelby Y.

You absolutely need to be careful when renting from Prime Property. Location, price, and allowing my dog all seemed too good to be true, and it is.

From day one, just to get my keys, they were left in my unlocked apartment and I didn't get out of work until 11 pm that night. Thankfully my mom was in town and could pick them up, but my heart was broken when she sent me pictures of the inside. My apartment's walls have severe water damage, and one of the bedrooms has constant standing water + mold. So, one of my bedrooms in this small 550 square foot apartment is completely off limits. I also have yellow water running down from the ceiling of my bathroom whenever I shower. I later find out from my mom who looked into it that there was a fire directly above my apartment. I did not know this going in. Up to this point the communication with management was quick and responsive. Until move in when we found all of these problems and I emailed and called, no response. It's currently been a week and still no response about my issues, but she was very quick to respond about money prior to my issues! Shortly after move in day I find roaches in my apartment. I send a maintenance request and call again. Still no response. I also have the pleasure of hearing a maintenance man, or maybe it's just someone homeless, constantly in the condemned apartment above me making loud noises and throwing what sounds like metal over the railing. When management dropped off my keys she either saw how disgusting the apartment is and thought it was still a decent place to live/didn't need repairs or she genuinely does not care about the people renting from her. For the low, low price of $690 + an extra $10 if you do paperless billing, you too can live in a tiny roach infested, water damaged apartment beneath a condemned one with non-stop clatter.

A B.

I reached out through email to schedule a tour of a property that is available in April. I was emailed back with a very short list of available times for this week (way to short notice for work) that weren't feasible for my work and dr appointment schedule. The agent responded with "come in on your lunch break". I asked if they had any other days or times and have been completely ignored. I called the office twice and to try and speak with someone about an appointment and the phone rings off the hook. Or you get the voice-mail but nobody calls you back. We don't even live in a prime property group property and they're already treating us poorly. I think it's safe to say we will be dodging a bullet by passing on this property and going with a different company all together. They have been nothing short of rude to potential renters!

Cami P.

My husband and I lived 3 years in a Prime Property managed rental and would not recommend their services. Though the managers are respectful, it was hard to get in contact with them and we often felt ignored when we reached out with issues.

It started when we moved in. Our air conditioner didn’t work the first night we were there, and after maintenance tried to fix, it was determined that we would need a new air conditioner. The maintenance person said they would let the main office know. After 2 weeks without a new unit, I emailed to ask when that would be expected (it was mid-July after all) and the office had no idea that our unit was still not working or that a new unit was needed.

Many small repairs were needed to be done which we had asked about, and was told they were short staffed with maintenance. When someone did come to fix things, such as a drawer that wouldn’t open, we were told it was unfixable, even though my husband fixed it himself with 5 minutes.

We entered multiple maintenance requests in the online portal, some of which went an entire year before being addressed, if at all. When we asked for our back door to be replaced because the door no longer opened correctly and there were gaps between it and the frame, someone came to “fix” it 5 months after the request was initially made by adhering weather stripping, that peeled off a few weeks later.

There was an issue that we brought up to Prime Property and they said to reach out to the HOA of our subdivision to handle the matter. We were not aware (we’d been renting there two years by that point) that our duplex was a part of an HOA, and when we asked Prime Property to reach out on our behalf because they are the *property managers*, they did not have any contact information to do so.

By this time, we had given up trying to contact them and any direct phone number to the Champaign office had been removed from their website and email signatures.

When we moved out after three years, it took us 77 days to receive a deposit check, of which only half of the amount expected was there. We even got charged $100 for paint touch ups and $95 for carpet cleaning even though we had asked for the correct paint color to touch up ourselves and had cleaned the carpet prior to moving out (per our rental agreement). I understand not getting the full amount back, but after three years and paying an extra $50/month in pet fees, we had expected something different.

It was an overall frustrating experience, and I hope you are better informed in your decision to rent from this management company.

Rosemarie S.

I have been a tenant of Prime Property Group for many years, and in that time I have not had one ounce of trouble with them. I have had very few problems with the properties i have rented, and when I did run into something whether from wear and tear or weather, etc., you only have to call and/or enter a request online and Jenny or one of the other staff will call or e-mail you almost immediately and they can sometimes come out in the same day, and even during busy season, within 24 hours. Another thing, if they cannot fix a problem (which is very rare) they immediately call someone in to fix it. I remember when my air conditioning broke over Memorial Day Weekend and it was 90+ degrees, the gentlemen was there until almost 11:00 p.m. on Memorial Day, but he got it working. I have never seen a maintenance group take care of their customers like they do. I have been telling all my friends who are looking for a place to rent, to contact Paul and his group at Prime Property, because in this day and age, it is great to have someone in your corner with old fashioned values.