Overpriced
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
7/11/2007
Years at this apartment:
2004
-
2004
I've been living at The Consulate for almost 3 years now, and though I was initially happy here, I've experienced enough problems that I'm really looking forward to moving. The pros of living here have been the convenient location (Metro, dry cleaners, CVS, Giant grocery store, etc., all within 2 blocks, and the cute shops and restaurants of Cleveland Park are only a 10-min. walk away), safe neighborhood (as a single woman, I've felt very safe walking home from the Metro at night), pool, front desk attendants, clean and pest-free building, and reasonably available street parking. However, the cons have slowly added up to the point that this place is no longer worth the now overpriced rent.
The cons that have driven me away include noise due to the ridiculously thin walls between apartments (at quiet times, like when trying to sleep at night, I can literally hear my neighbor cough or sneeze in the apartment adjacent to mine), the seemingly constant construction/renovation of various parts of the building, and, most significantly, the neglectful, nonresponsive, and disinterested Management of the building. When my air conditioning failed to work properly in the height of the horrendous DC summer heat, I had to battle it out with them through repeated emails and service requests and unhelpful "repairs" before they finally replaced my HVAC unit with one that actually works. Prior to that, my HVAC unit would run non-stop and yet the temperature in my apartment would never drop below 80 degrees. My electric bill for my small 1-bedroom apartment was almost $250 one month! And yet the building maintenance and management team tried to tell me that it was working fine. Only through persistent complaints did I finally manage to get a functioning air conditioner.
In the past year, Management has replaced all the washers & dryers with new ones that are more expensive per load yet have fewer cycle options; they installed a laundry charge card machine that failed to work for months (and yet they never informed residents that it wasn't working, nor updated residents when it finally was working); they wasted who knows how much money on an unappealing renovation of the previously lovely lobby that I suppose is supposed to now look modern and trendy but instead looks cold and boring (not to mention the newly-installed light fixtures that are often not working -- of course they did get a nice new office out of the renovation); they eliminated the guest apartment that previously could be rented by residents' visitors; they began construction and renovation of the pool and tennis court only after the pool failed to drain after last summer and sat stagnant like a cess pool for a couple of months (again, residents received no communication at the time regarding why we were staring out our windows at said cess pool), and the construction ran over-schedule into the summer; they have been in the process of replacing the old, nonresponsive elevators for many months now and so far not even one replacement elevator has been installed -- they've simply managed to reduce the available elevators by one while it has been completely shut down; without notice, they disabled some or all of the electronic key fobs needed to access the basement storage room (I found out only upon dragging all of my Christmas decorations down to the basement, and then had to wait for almost an hour while the one traditional key was tracked down from another resident who had borrowed it, all because management never informed us as to this change). And despite all of the frustrations over the past year, they dared to inform residents that the next rent increase would be at least $200/month for a 1-year lease (higher for shorter term leases)!! That's approximately a 14% increase in just one year -- completely unreasonable under the best of circumstances, let alone after experiencing such deficient service and living conditions.
Finally, when I emailed them to provide notice that I did not intend to renew my lease for another year, they totally justified my decision to leave by never responding to any of the questions in my email, despite the fact that I sent it twice and specifically asked for confirmation. Only when I finally tracked down a manager to ask the questions in person did I receive a response, and when I asked if the manager had received my emails, the response was that they saw it but never read it. The general theme of most of the cons is the neglectful attitude of the Management, which manifests itself in different adverse ways on a daily basis. Of course, maybe I should thank the Management Team for motivating me to finally get out of here and buy my own place!
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