After booking I was sent an email with link to a third party website that seemed a little sketchy but it was required to submit a picture of your state issued ID and other info to before being given directions to access the space. The house rules also were very strict which wasn’t a problem but the fact that it’s mentioned on there that the owner is a lawyer was quite a bit intimidating. I already felt like I’d done something wrong before I’d even left for my trip. This space was a good value for the neighborhood but I feel that the listing was greatly misrepresented. Legal basement apartments are supposed to have at least 7 foot tall ceilings in Chicago and everyone in our group was between 5’9” and 6’3” and we had the shortest person repeatedly hitting her head along with the rest of us… so it was a little ridiculous. She was however the only person capable of standing in the shower without partially kneeling. There isn’t forced air or baseboard heating so arriving while there was snow on the ground the apartment was also FREEZING. Thankfully I had friends a few houses away and they let us come over and use their showers and warm up. There were three space heaters provided two being mounted on the walls in each bedroom but both of them were cracked and broken in multiple places and seemed extremely unsafe to use so we didn’t turn them on at all. We did use the third space heater on wheels to try to heat the entire basement but it was still cold and everyone was wearing their sweatshirts and coats while inside at night. There were ants in both beds so after the first night we had to start checking the bed and swiping them on to the floor to step on them before going to sleep. There were also quite a few random hairs hanging from parts of the ceiling in the bathroom and the door ways into the bedrooms so I’m assuming we haven’t been the first people scraping their heads along those ceilings. The listing also says there’s pots and pans provided and after trying to reheat some pizza and other things in the oven we realized that there weren’t any at all! Turning on the oven was also when I noticed there aren’t any actual windows that open in the entire place. The windows are all glass block with very small vents and I think this apartment could be devastating if there ever were a fire. There’s only one way in and one way out and it’s through the back door down a few stairs to a landing, turn down some more stairs, through another room, another doorway and then you finally reach the door to the space. Having been in a house fire before this did not sit well with me.