I stayed at this place for 3 years. For the first approximately 1 1/2 years, it was pretty good. That was under the previous management, Partners-something. I did have to clean the place myself before moving in. When I first went into the townhouse, any cleaning that had been done was totally inadequate, and my 2 requests to have the townhouse cleaned were ineffective. Parking was horrible. I rarely even got to park in my court, which had probably at least 25 houses. But, other than that, I had no complaints; I was reasonably content.

Then Sawyer took over. (Coincidentally, at approximately the same time, I got neighbors on one side that played music almost every day, at insanely high volumes and bass levels.) Sawyer's only goal is to get as much money as possible by any means possible, while spending the least.

One immediate problem that started at that point was maintenance. Maintenance people and others started entering the townhouse with sometimes little (1-day) and usually no notice. They weren't fixing anything -- they were doing random unimportant things like painting the front doors. I would frequently come home from work to find my townhouse completely unlocked. Complaints about this to the new management were totally ineffective. I decided that I would have to stay home from work on days that management had people enter my townhouse; but this was of very limited use, because it often occurred with no notice.

These problems had just started occurring when my lease (for my second year there) term was ending. I had some concerns about the previous few months, but the place was generally fine for approximately 18 of the 21 or so months that I had been there. I decided to renew. I took my time (probably about 15 to 20 minutes) carefully reading all the documents that I had to sign in order to renew. I'm guessing that tenants didn't normally do that, because the leasing agent got tired of waiting and got up and started walking around and talking to other employees, while watching me the entire time. As soon as I signed the lease, she came back over, verified that I had signed it, then started to tell me for the first time about a new policy -- a separate water bill, not included in the new, higher rent payment. That was very annoying, as I might not have chosen to renew even with just that information. But, on top of that, I wouldn't just be paying for my own water usage, but also for that of management/maintenance, as well as part of that for other tenants! I lived at this place by myself, never did anything like wash my car there... basically, I used the minimum possible amount of water. My bills were approximately $25/month!

I mentioned the new neighbors I got around the time Sawyer took over. That coincided with a general rapid downturn in the entire area. Not only were things like crime getting worse, but I also started having a lot more problems with mice, and especially roaches -- as well as birds getting into my townhouse via the ventilation ducts. Not long after that, even the nearby Giant (just across the city line) left. The combination of the crooks that took over the rental community, the decline of the area in general, and especially the new neighbors, made my last year at this place excruciating.

I knew for sure that I wouldn't be renewing again, but I still had to suffer through more than another year. (The renewals occurred approximately 2 to 3 months before the actual lease term would begin.) During that time, all of the problem of the first few months under Sawyer continued and even intensified. Even after I finally escaped from that place, the turmoil wasn't over. It seems that Sawyer had a great idea -- renovate places as tenants leave, and make the leaving tenants pay for it! I left my townhouse in better shape than it was when I moved in. Regardless, Sawyer took my security deposit and billed me hundreds of additional dollars for... well, I didn't know what for, because the bill just said stuff like "cleaning." During the next few weeks, I spent many hours trying to resolve the situation. When I would go to the Hidden Village office, they would tell me that I had to call the Sawyer main office. (I believe that it was somewhere in Montgomery County.) After calling there many times, I finally got a response -- that I had to deal specifically with Highland Village. It was a total scam. And apparently the management had their own maintenance company that would testify as a "third party" that the charges were legitimate charges for damages. A few years ago, Sawyer started very rapidly taking over a lot of rental communities in the Baltimore area. Now I know how.

I have rented several places, for nearly 10 years now, and this place (well, since Sawyer took over, anyway) is by far the worst of them all. And Sawyer is definitely the worst of all the management companies. I've never before and never since come across a rental property management company anything like that. I can't recommend this strongly enough: avoid all Sawyer communities!

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/27/2007
Yes, I agree with you very much. I finally escaped after 7 years and where I live now is great! I hope you found some where that you like with a lot less stress!
From: happycuple2005	Date: 07/27/2007
I currently live here and I am in the early stages of filing a class action lawsuit! Sawyer Realty are just plain SLUM LORDS!!! They are definately going to get something from me in the future.... anyone interested in joining this lawsuit please e-mail me at meganjackson2007@hotmail.com
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/29/2008
Very well said, you nailed it. The problem started when Partners Management Left and Sawyer took over. I lived there for 7 yrs and it got bad to worse every passing year and i had same problems as you.

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