In opening, I need to apologize if any readers think this review sounds like a rant of a disgruntled tenant. However, I am typically a laid back person and fell this is important information for anyone considering the 1901 West Apartment community in Annapolis, MD.

STAFF:
This property may have a pretty website that attracts people from all over to see it in person. In fact, it boasts itself as the best bang-for-the-buck. I've lived as 1901 West since mid-June. When I first moved into my apartment, the atmosphere was nice, the staff was friendly and the other residents had similar backgrounds and lifestyles to mine.

However, as time went on I started to notice certain trends. If I needed to get some information from the sales office, they would be happy to help out if there wasn't a prospective tenant in the office. Likewise, if they were explaining something about the complex rules/regulations to me or other tenants and a prospective tenant walked in, they would drop the discussion and go to that person. So, it became apparent that their priorities are only focused on new business instead of keeping the existing tenants happy.

Their communication skills are lacking. In a situation that resulted in my needing to make payment arrangements related to some other financial obligations, they were happy to negotiate a repayment plan with me then posted a court judgment notice on my door the next day without even telling me they were planning to do that. They claimed it was in the lease for situations like mine, but I still can't find the clause they quoted.

Another good example is when I was interested in moving out early due to needing more space. I spoke with the sales office manager, and he said "un-officially we may have someone interested in your unit and would be willing to work with you to keep the penalties at a minimum." At first, when I tried following-up with them, it took four phone calls spanning a week to finally get a person on the phone. The person I needed to speak to was never available ("out on corporate tours"), and the person I was speaking to didn't know anything about the request. When I finally got a hold of the sales manager he asked why I needed to speak with him, because the person I had originally spoken to on the phone indicated that she had already given me the information. This was a flat out LIE... When he did give me the information, the penalty amount was triple what we had originally discussed. When I questioned him on that, he conveniently didn t remember our original conversation. It wasn t until I clarified that if I was going to be charged two months rent, plus my full deposit, in penalties that I would choose to stay at 1901 West through the end of my lease that he finally admitted to having the conversation with me, by stating What is the other tenant that wants to downsize her living space supposed to do' In my opinion, the situation was created by him and not my problem. Simply put, he was trying to extort additional money to make himself look good to the management company.

BTW What they say you owe in your balance, never seems to be correct.

PARKING:
There is a great parking garage, but the automatic security gate system doesn t work well. People tend to prefer the follow-the-leader method of getting into the garage, which messes up the sensors. Since moving-in in June, at least one of the four gates gets stuck in the open position on a daily basis.

I had a situation where I received a note on my car from one of the other tenants about parking next to his motorcycle. He threatened me with physical harm and damage and towing of my vehicle in reaction to parking in the space next to his motorcycle. First, there is no assigned parking so the towing threat was meaningless, but when I presented the note to the management office, the sales manager indicated that he was friends with the guy and instead of the sales office responding to the threat that I should just do nothing and park my car in a different spot. To my point above Who s interests are the sales management team protecting'

In the past month, the garage has had a few cars broken into and property has been stolen. This resulted in the first floor stairwell entry points being locked (Note: Two of the stairways are now getting propped open by the tenants). The tenants can exit through the stairs but are forced to re-enter through the elevators, because 1901 West does not provide keys to the stairways. The elevators malfunction on a regular basis, and the MD State Safety and Maintenance Inspection Certificates expired in September 2007. Also, what happens when the power goes out' How are the tenants supposed to get into the building'

COMMUNITTY:
There are supposed to be social events organized by the sales management team. Tenants are not being notified in a good timeframe to plan for the events. One flyer gets posted on a day or two before the events take place. There is an events calendar online that is supposed to help tenants plan for the social events. However, it s been unused since the day I moved in.

A good example of not wanting any public focus occurred last week. It was about 2AM and I heard some loud music that woke me up. Although it was annoying, I accept that loud noises happen and didn t really care. However, at the same time my upstairs neighbors were in a heated argument. It was heated enough to tell that the male half of the couple was chasing the female around the apartment, objects were getting thrown around, and arguing about various issues. In short a typical domestic disturbance that was about to get violent. I called the police to report the incident, and they sent an officer to investigate. The next day I received verbal notice from the sales office that I did not need to get the police involved because a public police report identifying the 1901 West community might reflect bad to potential tenants. Simply put, people s safety is less important than 1901 West s bottom-line.

FACILITY:
Additionally, the movie room, Internet Caf , and pool room get reserved on a regular basis without any notification. Moving forward the management team is expecting tenants to pay an amenities fee for these facilities in addition to their rent. The tenants should get more than a day s notice about not being able to access the facilities that we are paying for.

The amenities like free coffee and the business center need to be better maintained. Most of the tenants are forced to go across the parking lot to the local Starbucks, which for the moment is tied with the fitness center as being the best features of the 1901 West community. The business center is only accessible during the sales office business hours, and the computers only connect to the Internet 50% of the time, the fax machine hasn t worked yet, and the PCs are unable to print to the printer.

During business hours is a good point, as well. Maybe they open and close on-time on a regular basis, but so far all of my experiences have been their opening 15-30 min late and starting to shutdown the sales office and turn off the lights almost an hour early.

CLOSING REMARKS:
In the end, I would like to apologize again. However, the past 6 months have taken a toll, and I have to sway people away from the 1901 West community.

The old saying is you get what you pay for does not apply here. There are a lot of promises made both verbal and written, and that is all you are going to pay for PROMISES. The rent is expensive, the units are tiny, the staff s communications skills are horrible and untimely, and the 1901 West community consistently falls short on all of the expectations they promise at the lease signing.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/01/2008
do you really live here at 1901? Most of this is not factual information, where do you reside at?
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/03/2008
Sounds like the person who wrote this review was or is a tenant. The response sounds like one written by someone in the management team. Please post your review at http://www.apartmentreviews.net/.

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