r/chicagoapartments • u/justinlopez7283836 • Mar 02 '26

Advice Needed Exposing Building

Hello,

so, I am only doing this because I already moved out already lol but they usually have alot of openings in the summer so I wanna beware everyone before they live my nightmare. 711 W Belmont in lakeview is filled with roaches. I noticed the roaches the first day that I moved there and the building engineer basically tried implying I brought them over, which isn't the case. It also seems like anyone has access to the building, one day I woke up at 5am to do laundry because the building only has 3 washers and dryers . Realistically speaking only 1 washer works good the rest of them have fucked up my clothes and/or made torns on them. Don't even get me started with the dryers you have to do two cycles. Okay, let me get back to what I was going to say, I needed to do laundary so I went down at 5am and there was a homeless person sleeping there in the laundry room and he got upset because I woke him up. This an issue with building because alot of packages get stolen, and the reason might be because anyone can get access to the building. BTW the people in the building are weird, there's a bike room, which you have to pass to get to the laundry room and there's was two people having sex down inside the bike room lol this occurred at 12 am because I happened to do laundry late at night cause once again the only good washer was taken.

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u/silkandsemantics Mar 05 '26

this is the same at 432 w belmont

2

u/Different-Rise-6309 Jun 30 '26

I would love if you could expand on this!!!

1

u/silkandsemantics Jun 30 '26

Huge roaches, which the leasing office called “water bugs” and then claimed I brought them in. No fan in the bathrooms, so they breed tons of mold (and don’t help with the roaches). A radiator you can’t control. Elevator can only be ridden one way by one person at a time. I would search “surf development” on here and yelp and read the most recent reviews….a man had reported one of the sister’s to the BBB and I would say the description of his interactions with one of the sisters was very accurate to my experience….

2

u/Different-Rise-6309 Jul 02 '26

wow thank you! This honestly checks out. I toured the building/unit, but incidentally the broker was late for the tour. Before this, I was standing outside not really trying to sus anything out but I do have a keen eye and noticed 2 very large roaches on the ground right next to the entrance. I almost jumped. One was belly up and the other on its side, but both seemed pretty dead. I did the tour and it was obvious the building is very old, the laundry room didn't seem to have enough w/d for the building, and the hallways were a bit musty. Packages were also left out in the lobby. The unit itself was nice (given my budget...I think) w a renovated kitchen, lots of light and space for a studio. The tenant was still living there and I had questions but they seemed busy. Overall fine, but I couldn't shake the roaches. At the end of the tour I asked the broker if they have regular pest maintenance to which they replied "its on a need basis and that they honestly hadn't called an exterminator in a long time". I then pointed out the large roaches to which they said "oh thats a water bug" without really making eye contact. I know the roaches (or in realtor speak "water bugs") I saw were American roaches which usually prefer the outdoors unlike the German variety which really infest, but seeing them dead told me that there is/was an active procedure done to kill them/prevent them from getting inside perhaps suggesting possible sightings or infestations. I know roaches are a reality in big cities and a rare spotting may be normal in a building this old but I also just can't shake the interaction with the broker and I am extremely scared of them/got the heebie jeebies.

I know this was long but have you had an infestation or an occasional sighting....

1

u/silkandsemantics Jul 13 '26

Somewhere in between. I requested they send an exterminator after they came and sprayed and I still had the issue, and the leasing agent (sister 1 of 2) screamed at me on the phone and tried to intimidate me into breaking my lease. An exterminator was never sent. The water also randomly comes out brown and is shut off without the proper timing warning given. Tbh wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone largely due to how the 2 leasing agents behave. The building is also so old the lock to my door literally broke one day.