Bartlein & Company, Inc - Santa Barbara, California

irene R.

Void at All Costs – Worst Property Management Company!
If I could give this company zero stars, I would. They are completely very unprofessional, and utterly negligent. They ruined my yard, failed to maintain my property, and had absolutely no communication with me. Let my yard die due to sheer incompetence. The so-called "gardeners" (a company named Mowtown) they hired overcharged me for services they didn’t even perform. They failed to water the yard, leading to the death of all my plants and many trees. I trusted them to take care of my property, but instead, they let it fall apart while still charging me outrageous fees.

Not only did they neglect my house, but they also did a terrible job managing the tenants. Issues were ignored, repairs were left undone, and worse: they showed zero accountability. My property ended up in worse condition than when I handed it over to them. This will cost me at least 20k.
If you care about your home, your tenants, or even basic communication, do yourself a favor and stay far away from this company. They are nothing but a nightmare to deal with!

Sanjana G.

Honestly I wouldn’t even give them 1 star if I could. This has been the worst rental experience of my life and I’ve lived in different apartments across multiple countries and states for over 10 years at this point. The attitude and responses of the property manager are awful. This company is notorious in the SB area and will take advantage of people. The apartment had a mold issue, which I had to make multiple calls to even get it looked at. They just sent a cleaning crew and called it a day. They had me pay 2 months rent as deposit and kept half of it during move out after a year because I didn’t “give notice” the right way and was charged almost a whole month’s rent despite repeated emails asking about the status and if there were any issues. No responses. Ruined my mental and physical health living at their property for a year. If you’re planning to try this company, ABORT MISSION.

Dustin K.

Worst management company I’ve dealt with. Poor communication, lack of personal connection and only in it for the almighty dollar. Taken my bicycles out of the bike room and off of the property even when they were labeled correctly. This happened without any notice. Said they trashed them but was able to have them returned the first time after sitting in their office complaining for 3 hours. Here we go again

Ezra P.

I was looking to tour an apartment so drove to their office. The parking lot was full of 5-6 drug using men, one slumped over and the other four running around, urinating etc. They were blocking the only stair case and made to run at me, whistling and yelling indiscernibly. As a young woman alone, this is a dangerous situation and I was unable to make it up the stairs. I call their office and begin telling them I’m in their parking lot, and the woman who answered the phone cuts me off and goes “it’s 20$!!!” Before I can tell her about the encampment. When I do tell her, she says she’ll call me back. I watch a woman run down the stairs, peer at these men for a minute, then run back up the stairs. I never got a call back. The men are still there.

I haven’t rented a property with them nor given them their 20$, but this is my experience with this company.

Ryan O.

I've lived in Santa Barbara for 8 years and never realized how much a property management company matters. My wife and I moved to a new property a few months ago that is managed by Bartlein and it has consistently been an unpleasant experience dealing with this company. Our previous apartment was managed by Meridian Group and they were way more responsive and professional.

No one chooses an apartment based on the management company but if you are looking for a new apartment and have your search narrowed down to just a few, try to avoid any that use Bartlein.

Devon H.

Unfortunately, our experience with Bartlein & Co. was that most (not all) of the staff were unhappy and not very helpful. They were fairly responsive and helpful when it came to asking for their coordination of plumbers and other contractors to come maintain the unit. When we moved out, we felt that they very much overcharged/took advantage of us for the littlest details wrong. Different messages/communication from different staff members. Would not recommend renting from them.

Rebecca C.

POOR, very poor service. They treat their renters/customers abominably. STAY AWAY! They're horrible and will nickle and dime you. They are horrible at helping you through the process of applying or putting in notice and have gobs of special forms and rules and orders and if you don't do it right they extend your official date of notice so you have to pay more rent. They left a giant hole in our wall for months when repairing water damage. When we asked for a decrease in our rent for the inconvenience they said absolutely not. Who does that?
If you can avoid them. It's so hard because they are one of 2-3 rental companies in Santa Barbara, but if you are not going to live somewhere at least 3 years try to go through a private owner. (If you are there less than 3 years they over charge you for re-painting, charge you special application and processing fees to squeeze as much $$ from you as they can.)
They are such con artists. It's a wonder they are still in business.

Elijah O.

If you are looking for an apartment with reliable and responsible property management, turn back now. This business is horribly run. When I applied for one of their properties, I was told that I was the only applicant. Several days later, they call me to tell me that there was another applicant ahead of me, and that they had been approved for the property. I was given information about the property that was completely false. When I came in several days later looking for an explanation as to why I was not informed about the other applicant, the receptionist couldnt give any explanation for why I was blatantly lied to. This was the same receptionist that told me that I was the only applicant for the property. This woman's lack of attention to detail cost me over a hundred dollars and wasted a ton of my time. If you are considering renting a place through this company, I strongly advise you to LOOK ELSEWHERE. If I could give this company a zero star review, I would in a heartbeat. My biggest regret is failing to read the reviews about this company. Don't make the same mistake I made; find a better property manager.