Midway Equities, - Sherman Oaks, California

Michelle H.

The 6818 Morella property in North Hollywood was a lucid nightmare. There were prehistoric roaches, faulty plumbing--replete with leaks plus resulting mold--and finicky hot water that went out intermittently. There was an overflowing shower, perpetually clogged pipes and a massive leak in the walls after which a plumber had to crawl through a hole in the closet to get underneath the apartment in attempts to dry out the resulting lagoon. As a result of said standing water in the crawl space, the apartment smelled like dead animals for the first year and was infested with mosquitos. There was mold in the water heater closet that had been scrubbed off and repainted….repeatedly. This was emblematic of the landlord's approach--bandaid after bandaid upon the septic, oozing wound that was this apartment. Instead of replacing the damaged drywall, we were scolded for letting our 9 year-old play in the courtyard. Apparently his ball bouncing was too noisy?! The landlord was a master of deflection/ gaslighting and failed to ever accept responsibility or remedy persistent problems likely because he had a false idea that he was a "real estate Mogul" (literally called himself that) versus a glorified slum lord. He was abrasive, condescending, and patronizing, but all this we tolerated as we attempted to weather a pandemic.
Then we began to feel unsafe. We walked out on Christmas and saw a man bleeding out in the street. My daughter was picking up shell casings on the sidewalk. The building was covered in graffiti and we had our car broken into while parked in the carport 3 times. The last straw was when I went out to the car one morning and found a man crouched behind my trunk. He claimed he was having a smoke.
So we gave our notice. We went out of our way to leave the apartment in great shape. It was 1000 sq ft, but he ended up charging us $2,000 for painting anyhow. Midway Equities and it's henchman, Brian, is for people who have no other choice. Please, if you make solid money but are contemplating a Midway property that undercuts the competitors by a little bit, don’t take the bait. You’ll certainly pay for it in the end. Unless you enjoy being robbed and watching roaches scurry over what's left of your belongings.

Rosalino R.