Lancer Group Properties - Menomonie, Wisconsin

Elisse A.

The only reason I gave 1 star is so I could write this review. Lancer Group NEVER replies to emails, NEVER returns calls, NEVER communicates with you unless it's to send billing statements over email. They will never follow up with you and they will not bother to improve your situation.

Upon moving in, there was a dead bat decomposing and stuck to our floor which they would not remove. There is STILL a hole in our living room wall which was there before we moved in that they refuse to fix - still was not fixed when we moved out. A picture is attached. Our carpets smelled like cat pee and were CLEARLY never vacuumed let alone shampooed, we had to fix our heater and vent system more than a few times, and renting from them has been incredibly frustrating.

Our dryer makes terrifying noises (sounds like it's falling apart from the inside out) and has been ripping small and large holes our clothes for months - Lancer sent someone to "fix" it, and it's still tearing holes in our clothes and making awful sounds a few days later. I went in IN PERSON because they never answer their phones regardless of if they're there or not, and I was told to leave and come back two hours later because the person who deals with utilities was not available. I returned two hours later promptly (with the shredded clothes and a video/audio of the dryer sounds), and I was told to wait until someone was available because the person I was supposed to talk to (AND HAD AN APPOINTMENT WITH), was going through a lease with new renters. Dave came out and talked to me and said they would get another maintenance company out to look at the dryer. No one ever came back out, and we never got any information from them regarding the dryer and if it was to be replaced (they said they were going to talk to the property owner).

Our property is a duplex, and the upper apartment's shower leaks through the floor and into our bathroom on the lower level, and we were told there's nothing they can do. I came to the house over the summer before everything was officially moved in (but we had the lease starting June 1 2016), and the bathroom ceiling tiles were all over the floor with dirty brown water because apparently maintenance had been in and never bothered to clean up after themselves for several days, or bother to inform the tenants of any issues. I have attached the pictures of the bathroom below - they are time stamped in my photos for June 2016.
I stopped in to the office several times and the woman at the front desk (Raechel) was VERY rude to me, spoke to me like I was stupid & misunderstanding the situation, etc. Unnecessary and very discouraging to leave feeling like you have no power to better the situation.

Another issue was parking: our upstairs apartment neighbors were told there would be enough room for everyone (all tenants in the house) to park in the back lot (a rumored 6 spaces), when we can barely fit 4 cars back there comfortably without maneuvering all over.

The only thing they've done well and consistently was plowing lots & driveways after heavy snows. That's it. Avoid them at all costs.

UPDATE: After moving out when we were expecting to get our security deposit back in full (since we left the house in much better shape), we received a letter saying they were deducting $187 for "carpets that have more than normal wear." There were cigarette burns in the carpets and stains on them before we moved in as well as tears (pictures of the torn and frayed carpet are below - time stamped for June 2016 in my phone), and it's clear they were never shampooed - they leave that to the tenants. So we challenged it and threatened to sue after all that they had put us through, and they finally returned the rest of our deposit to us in early July 2017.

I will never rent with them again.

JJ

Read all of the management’s responses to previous tenants and know that they will ignore emails/phone calls and certainly not “ensure that this never happens again,” etc. I moved to this area at a time when the apartment/rental market was still underdeveloped but didn’t want to commit to home ownership. Initially, my property was managed by Eau Claire Realty and I had no complaints. Once Lancer took over, everything changed. To start, this office is excruciating to deal with. They will cut you off mid question assuming they understood what you were asking and put the phone down on you when they get frustrated. Specifically, Samantha does this. Kathy is far easier to deal with. Second, they will do anything to try and get some extra money out of tenants before they explore their own practices. The dumpster outside of my property remains very poorly maintained after months of back and forth and an occasion when they attempted to charge me for garbage they assumed was mine (but was not.) Do not let them tell you any appliance is new without exercising reasonable suspicion. Always push for them to hire a technician to come and check it out. Lastly, their communication by email is especially poor. They will send you times/dates for potential new tenant viewing with incorrect times/dates. I understand that 12 hours is the minimum required time to give notice but it’s not unreasonable for the times/dates in the emails to be accurate to avoid unnecessary disturbances. This general area has so many new housing operations compared to the time I moved here. Spare your sanity and avoid Lancer at all costs.

Jaime B.

I would avoid working with this company at all costs. My son was looking for a home to rent while in school there. We scheduled a tour of a home and Samantha, the office manager and leasing agent was extremely unpleasant from the moment we walked into the office for our tour. We followed her in her car to the rental. She was very reluctant to answer any of our questions, never smiled, spoke as little as possible and just had the attitude that we were just a nuisance to her.
We liked the rental and wanted to move forward with the application process. This turned into a three week process with no communication from her whatsoever unless we pushed for it. She claimed my son never sent an email with the info she had asked for, that she had received his roommates info, but not his. We know it had been sent, but sent it again. I called an hour or so later to confirm she had received it and she rudely replied it was sitting in front of her. So another four business days go by, nothing from her. My son called and a different lady answers, super friendly and helpful, he explained what has been going on and she went through the deleted emails and found our original email that was sent. She said all the info they needed was there and we should be able to move ahead with getting the lease. More info from her in 5 minutes than we had from Samantha in almost three weeks time. So we wait a few more days and nothing from Samantha. My son on a whim decided to tour another rental with a different company and he had more answers and clarification about the property in that short tour than we ever got from Samantha on the other property. That same day with another phone call to Samantha from my son, she finally sent the lease, a little more than three weeks later. But without hesitation, he is going with the other home. I can't imagine what having signed a lease with this company would have been like and I'm so glad we don't have to find out. Looking at prior reviews, Samantha should have been let go years ago, she was the most unkind, awful person I have ever had to deal with. Three weeks of unnecessary stress for us and awful treatment from Samantha. While on the phone with my son from his many calls trying to get through to her, she even claimed that he had put his number in wrong on the application so she couldn't get a hold of him, he had screenshot the whole application and his number was correct. From there she started to raise her voice and get angry with my son as if all of these issues were on him. I think the reviews speak for themselves, Samantha is the common denominator here and is obviously the problem.

Jason M.

Rented from them for 2 years in the same house, overall they did a good job at fixing issue may have taken them 2-4 weeks to fix some issues but they fixed them sooner or later. Moved out in May of 2024 and over 2 years the house takes some wear but they tried to charge us our $1,350 security deposits and another $1,400 for carpet cleaning where only 3 rooms had carpet, 2 already broken doors, painting some of the rooms, and a maybe 3”x3” hole in the corner of one of the rooms (which they did not fix). Almost none of the charges were actually fixed before the next tenates moved in. My roommates went to their office and showed them the amount of laws they were breaking (look up Wisconsin renter laws before paying them money) and after back and forth they decided to magically drop the $1,400 charge and just take the security deposit.

Ana V.

Lancer really screwed me and my family.
Because we were lower income, I feel there was not much we could do to fight back against their poor management.
1. They RARELY plowed the apartment driveway. I slipped and hurt my back on the icy driveway. My car got stuck in my own parking spot due to them never plowing. To get my car out we attempted putting down kitty litter, melting the ice under the car, used a blanket and also a wooden board under my tire, and had people try to push me out. I had told lancer all of these concerns and they told me there was nothing they could do. I had to get a tow truck to TOW ME OUT OF MY OWN PARKING SPOT. Lancer refused to reimburse me for this.
2 There were giant cracks in the ceiling, which they did absolutely nothing about. On top of other unfulfilled maintenance concerns.
3. We had cleaned the apartment very well when we left. We found out later they didn't give us back our deposit and they charged us hundreds additional dollars to replace the carpet as it was "beyond normal wear and tear." It was not. There were no holes or tears or big stains on the carpet. We vacuumed it regularly.
When we we tried to dispute it, they told us an "expert" looked at it and did not provide any other evidence we requested. When we still tried to dispute, they told us to talk to their lawyers. We did not have enough money to fight a legal case.
I know I sound paranoid, but I really do firmly believe that they take advantage of people they know are lower income that they know don't have the financial power to go to court or get out of their lease.
If you have the ability, try to find a different renter. I wish I would have taken the bad reviews more to heart before I rented from them.

Tsua Y. (.

I signed my very first lease with them in 2019. The maintenance repair people were always very nice. Never ran into issues with the rental office either, they were pretty responsive. Everything was good until my roommates and I got screwed over with the deposit return. We were charged for existing damages that were not fixed prior to us living there. That included the room that smelled like dog for the whole year and carpet damage in that room from previous tenants. They'll take advantage of your deposit and then not even fix anything for the next tenants. Yes they have a ton of cheap properties, "u get what u pay for". Make sure you document everything if you're renting in general.

Rylee H.

I’ve been renting from lancer since June of 2023 and there’s already been so many issues.
The first day we got our keys, my boyfriend and I go into our 2 rooms on the first floor (we have 2 other roommates) and there are MASSIVE cracks in our walls. We’ve mentioned it countless amount of times to lancer and they have yet to acknowledge it. We also noticed during our move in day that our toilet on the first floor is so incredibly loud you can hear it from upstairs and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if our neighbors can hear when we flush it, nothing has yet to be done to fix it.
There was recently a severe thunderstorm and there was water coming in through one of our windows on the first floor, enough water to completely soak 2 thick towels. I sent Lancer an email about it and a couple days later maintenance shows up without getting any response from lancer and all he did was put a dehumidifier in the room for 24 hours, not fixing the actual problem.
Our patio is falling apart, wood is rotten and sinks in when you step on it.
No painting was done prior to our move in, even though they told us we could move in 2 days earlier than we were supposed to. We hadn’t heard from them for awhile about when painting would be done so we moved furniture in thinking it would probably never end up happening. We got an email a month later asking if they could enter our property THAT DAY to come paint giving us no time to move furniture or anything so we said we’re fine without it. I’m sure we will get charged for existing chips in the walls when we move out from reading other reviews.
There’s new houses being built in a field behind where we’re located and lancer had to enter our property for “pre-blasting inspection”. I do have cameras in each room on the first floor and no “inspecting” was being done. They were just looking at the belongings in our rooms.
They definitely take advantage of college students which is sad because menomonie is a college town and that’s who is paying their bills.
Absolutely do not rent from them.

Bennett A.

Terrible experience with Lancer Group. The communication on all office staff from start to finish was awful. An extremely unprofessional group from being unavailable during office hours, not returning calls for maintenance or move out, and overall rude behavior. We moved out after 2 years of renting only to be treated with a $2000 move out bill for “painting” … find a better rental property elsewhere.