Tenants Say It's a Nightmare at $100M 'Co-Living' Startup

[tenderfoot]

A developer wanted to build on of these at the corner of our street. It appears that 'Co-Living' is the disaster my neighbors and I knew it would be.

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At thousands of apartment units across the country, tenants have handed their home lives to yet another buzzy venture-backed startup. Common Living, which has raised more than $100 million to create communal living spaces across America, is trying to succeed where WeWork founder Adam Neumann failed.

Considering that influx of cash, how are things going?

“It's been probably one of the worst experiences living somewhere I’ve ever had in my 38 years on this planet,” a tenant named Will Oliver told The Daily Beast just before moving out last month. “People always have slight grumbles with their landlord… But I think this goes beyond the pale.” He likened the living arrangement to a “nightmare.”

Among the complaints from 15 current and former tenants who spoke to The Daily Beast: uncleaned vomit, sparring roommates, abysmal corporate communication, endless maintenance delays, and lax security that has allowed strangers to enter and sleep in communal areas.

Reached for comment, a company spokesperson said, “Like any other property manager, we take every step to fix the situations we can control in our buildings but we can not regulate the interpersonal behaviors between our residents…We take every precaution we can to ensure the best living experiences possible.”

:snip:

Several residents at Common’s Oakland location recalled how another occupant declared himself a “potential mass murderer” in a company messaging app in December. “I want to block the emergency exits and I want to set a fire and watch you all burn and hear you all scream in agony,” he wrote in one message, a screenshot of which The Daily Beast obtained.

The tenants alleged that they had complained about the man’s unstable behavior for months.

After the threats, one recent resident said, a company employee simply brushed off the messages. “Oh yeah, he does that sometimes,” she recalled the worker saying.

The resident said she demanded that Common let her move to a different property, but despite the safety concerns, she alleged, the company attempted to charge her a transfer fee.

“I was like, ‘You’re kidding me, right? This guy literally said that he’s going to [set] us all on fire.’”

The police ultimately got involved, and the man no longer lives in the building. Still, the tenants claimed, Common did little to communicate how the situation was being addressed and whether the company could guarantee their safety going forward.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/commons-tenants-say-its-a-nightmare-at-dollar100m-co-living-startup

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Communal living needs a strong core and a reasonabe number of people, like in a rooming house

maybe 7 to 14. Beyond that the household has too much going on.

[Amishman]

2. People are assholes, this does not surprise me

Though I am very biased and cannot stand crowds or cities at all

[Wingus Dingus]

3. It just sounds like roommate arrangements gone bad.

I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea, if someone wants to save money and doesn't mind dealing with sharing quarters with other people, like any roommate situation. Also sounds like unresponsive landlords, but that's also common in any rental. My son always has trouble getting his landlord to fix anything that isn't an immediate hazard or damage-causing.

[Srkdqltr]

4. Seems to me these people need to have live in house handlers.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Captain Zero]

5. Or a super... Oh that would be a flophouse.

I could see it working for the right 7-10 people in the right property.
A cooperative is more what I think about.
Seems like there are contracts and collateral requirements that could make it work.

[onethatcares]

6. you all here are wonderful people

from your posts it appears we share the same value systems and liberal thought processes......BUT..... I wouldn't want to live with any of ya, nope, just don't like sharing my space with someone else that might turn out to be a mass murderer. Please don't take offense, it's not personal it's just that I like to come home to the same place I left in the morning with people I've known for at least 50 years.

The communal living thing reminds me of the Manson family at Spahn Ranch.

On top of that, this is just another way to keep people from owning or renting their own piece of the pie. I've yet to meet anyone that actually "rented to own". The bank always finds a way to grab your money and give you a handful of bullshit.