It sounds from the other postings like maybe one or several housing laws have been broken with regard to this apartment "community" and especially with this condo conversion thing. There have been a lot of bad things that have happened to a lot of tenants around DC, and a lot of people have been really hurt by "dirty" owners/managers (and by their sometimes even more "dirty" attorneys). Many tenants around the DC have started to stand up against their buildings' owners/managers and have filed lawsuits to protect their tenants' rights!

For years, a lot of the horror tenants have had to cope with or leave probably went pretty unnoticed by most DC residents, until recently. So much came to light when Councilmember Jim Graham went up against the District Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) in his Council Committee on Consumer & Regulatory Affairs hearings last Spring.

Just to make it clear that this won't be stood for, EVERYONE at The Village at McLean Gardens probably should be contacting at least Councilmember Jim Graham at 724-8181 jgraham@dccouncil.us and also Ward 3 Councilmember Kathy Patterson at 724-8062 kpatterson@dccouncil.us, plus at least some of the members of his Council Consumer & Regulatory Affairs Committee, such as Councilmember Phil Mendelson 724-8064 pmendelson@dccouncil.us and Councilmember Kwame Brown 724-8174 kbrown@dccouncil.us.

Don't forget that there are other elected individuals in the community to contact, too. First, there's our local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC3C). Their web site is: www.anc3c.org

The Commissioner for McLean Gardens is Commissioner Reeves, and ANC3C also has a Committee on Consumer & Regulatory Affairs. Follow the links on the ANC3C web site to get e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

A word of caution...don't panic! And don't just be bullied into moving, either. There is also advice/help available from Tenants' Rights organizations in DC, and leaders of two such organizations are also being made aware of this plight, because yours truly is already contacting them -- not taking any chances to let the opportunity for help slip by. More information will be posted here when I get it.

There's power in numbers, so let's not face this battle alone. We have elected officials to help and we have organizations to help, too. Staying isolated or just believing everything management says is true could be the worst things to do. Talk to each other and talk to the elected officials. Somebody out there might just have some REAL answers and maybe a solution!

User Responses
From: mcleantenant	Date: 08/15/2005
Thanks for your post, as dirty as this is, however, what exactly is illegal about this? My lease is up in Oct. 3 and I'm wondering what rights I'm entitled to legally since my lease is technically up. As gross as this is, I have only the lowest expectations from apartment management companies, but am wondering if they've probably covered themselves in the lease legalese...

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

Disclaimer: No attempt has been made to verify or assure the accuracy of the claims made by the author of this opinion or responses. You must judge the truthfulness of any review and accept responsibility for your use of this information.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates