345 Flats

I rented a 4-bed apartment August 2023-July 2024 with three friends for my senior year at Kent State University. The apartment and complex itself was, in my opinion, standard off-campus college housing (standard, cheap furniture, somewhat expensive, bad soundproofing, and full of college students). That was all completely expected and acceptable, but the real problem I had was during and after my move-out. In my experience, 345 Flats/Book&Ladder upon move-out will try to get as much money out of you as possible unless you have clear, precise proof that you didn’t cause the damages (basically document EVERYTHING, even flipping over the mattress/furniture when moving in). 345 Flats asks for a $250 security deposit and an inspection form completed upon move-in, so I did my best to follow the prompts and document clearly visible damages throughout my room and the common spaces. At move-out, they charged me an additional $150 of damage fees for a cleaning fee, a damaged mattress, and broken blinds. I had never thought to flip over the mattress as it wasn’t asked on the inspection form, nor did I pull the blinds down to their fully opened position because they went past the window sill. After being largely unresponsive and hard to reach regarding my damage charge disputes, Book&Ladder refused to negotiate the charges. I even called the City of Kent’s Housing Department who informed me that landlords can not charge “general cleaning fees” as they are covered under wear and tear. All 3 of my roommates were charged the same $90 cleaning fee, so in the end they were taking $360 for our entire apartment for a fee they are not allowed to charge. Basically Book&Ladder was unjustly charging residents move-out fees, neglecting to respond to my concerns, and ruining my perception of their business habits. I write this review purely as a warning to all future 345 Flats or Book&Ladder residents to document EVERYTHING with pictures, videos, etc. upon moving in. The City of Kent’s Housing Department recommended filling out the inspection form, but also taking pictures of all damages, even for furniture, etc. that’s not on the inspection form and asking the landlord to sign a paper saying they know the damages were not caused by you. The apartment served its purpose for my last year of college, but I urge you to document everything. 345 Flats and Book&Ladder do not follow great business practices and will try to take as much money from you and your roommates as possible.

Do not send an application fee in on this place unless you go and do it in person. My daughter applied on line. They charged her $200 applications fee and me a $25 fee to cosign and they have an 85 person wait list for the fall. Even though they are advertising for fall leases, they are full until fall of 2023. They will not refund our money...because in the fine print it says they aren't responsible if they don't have an apartment to lease.

Jan 2022: Do not sign a lease for this place. It would be a big mistake. I’m a proud KSU alumni, my daughter lives here and I wish we could get out of the lease. I used to sing the praises of this place. I was wrong. The management is inflexible. The price is OUTRAGEOUS. The WiFi is weak. There are other places to live that are much better. I am SO very disappointed. Realty management is not an easy endeavor. But there is SO much room for improvement with 345 Flats.

The facility is really nice and I have had no issues with the staff, they're really friendly and always go out of your way to help you. My cons for this place are, first of all, it is really overpriced, I understand the location but the apartments itself are super small. Second, it comes "furnished" but the furniture is really cheap and not well made. The mattress is also really hard and uncomfortable to sleep on. The floors are really thin in the sense that you can hear everything your upstairs neighbor is doing, and a lot of the students party here, every weekend I can hear my neighbors music through the floor and they jump up and down, it is super annoying. My last complaint is because of the location, there are a lot of other places that other students live around here and it gets very very loud on the weekends. I gave it four stars because for me, the pros outweigh the cause, but the apartment itself is vastly overpriced and small.