I have lived here for 10 months and have wanted to move out for approximately 9.5 months...I ended up here because I was leaving a bad marriage, but had I known how bad it was going to be here, I'd have stayed with my miserable ex.

The office staff is generally awful, paying little attention to even the most simple requests. Until you sign the lease, they are kind, responsive, attentive...once you sign your name on the dotted line, they change right before your eyes.

They leave crazy notes on your door if you owe $2.00 in water bills (no joke)...will file in court if you pay your rent on the 5th (has not happened to me, but to others). The "fitness center" (really just 3 machines in a room) is only open when the office is open, so only from 10am - 6pm most days...totally impracticle. The HVAC systems were set up improperly, so your electric bill is often 200 - 400% more than it should be...for my 2 br apt it was nearly $200 last month to keep it at 68!!

The parking lot is a disaster. Cars get broken into left and right. Unsupervised children as young as 3 running around until 8 or 9pm. Dogs everywhere, and many appear to be pitbull mixes. Definitely some drug dealing going on as well. Apartments are a disaster -- walls and floors are so thin you can hear your neighbors having conversations over dinner. Windows are paper thin...air flows in and out so easily. AWFUL.

I cannot wait to move...just a few months and I am so out of this place. Please, do not live here. There are so many other nice places with comparable rents in the area. This place is just awful.

User Responses
From: happyrenter1954	Date: 05/28/2008
Please do not take the word of someone who is so miserable here that they have decided that they would have preferred to stay with their miserable ex. That is at least not without checking the place out for yourself. If any of this stuff is true at all it so grossly exaggerated as to be just plain hillarious. My HVAC bill last month was less than $100 and I did heat right up until just awhile ago. And my dog is a purebred border terrier; my neighbors have a beagle. (And by the way, pitbulls if they are handled and trained well are known to be really affectionate, good dogs. It is the owners who torture them and fight them (like some dude named Vick) who are f*cked. Pardon my French.) I haven't seen any drug deals going down, but then I have seen some in some of the finest neighborhoods. So go figure. And as for kids playing outside -- well, the parking lot does abut the grass and the "outside" area any kids would play in. What has the world come to? Kids are no longer allowed to play outide. If you are not just looking for an excuse to go back to your already failed relationship - do yourself a favor and at least come and take a good look at this place before you decide to rely on the reports of the ANONYMOUS and DISGRUNTLED.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/28/2008
I used to live at Canterbury -- I don't know how we survived it the whole 7 years -- and I couldn't agree with this review more. I think the person who made the comment, "happyrenter1954," must somehow be affiliated with Equity. You can't have THAT MUCH love for Canterbury unless you're getting some kind of kickback from them.
From: happyrentr1954	Date: 05/29/2008
I only live at Canterbury. I really think people ought to come visit the place and judge for themselves. The place might not be the Taj Mahal (but what is?) but it really is much, much nicer than any of these people saying these very nasty things are acknowledging. The sweep every day. They mow every weekend. There were no dogs (other than mine who is a purebred and not a pitbull) or children in sight last night or this morning when I went outside. And no one was breaking into any cars nor were there any drug deals going down in the parking lot. REALLY! In fact, there were only two other people. And the birds. (Barn swallows nesting near, very charming). I have three cherry trees in front of my house. Many of the people living here are military and in the area only for a short while. With only one exception, everyone has been at least cordial and most of the people are actually friendly. By my definition of ther term anyways. The few problems I have needed to have serviced have been addressed almost immediately by the management. And by the way, the rent is very favorable for this area (I shopped, I know). I don't know what kind appliances someone is leaving on to incur a $200 electric bill in April-May, but even in this time of high rates, one has to wonder? And the water is billed with the rent (it is all spelled out in the lease) so why on earth would you short your rental payment by $2.00? If you have paid short, you have paid short -- what management is supposed to apply one set of procedures to people who have paid short by $2.00 and another set to people who have paid short by the $25 or $250 (come on - you and I both know the courts require the same procedure apply to all). I just don't get it. Okay, so maybe the place isn't a Versaille or some other swanky palace. But it is comfortable, decent living at a decent rate. I am not affiliated with Equity in any way other than I am renting from them but I do not want to see other people who might make very decent neighbors too and who might very well be perfectly comfortable living here (because REALLY there is nothing that seriously wrong with the place) scared away by people who don't want children playing outside (ever) and don't like dogs. By the way, there is a very nice monkey bars for the kiddees -- and a big swimming pool with a lifeguard. Cherry trees, birds, mowed grass, swimming pool -- let me get this straight? This sounds like ghetto life to you? CMON. And come off it.
From: cjd411	Date: 05/30/2008
Happyrenter - PLEASE. You've very obviously affilliated with the property. This guy's review is about perfect. I lived there for two years and none of his statements are false. I am not disgruntled, I am just a normal tenant (who has not ONE complaint about the place I've been at for four months now). When I was there, they started some unrequested construction on the balcony areas. They started it in June. The balcony was gone for most of June. They hastily put up a new one when I complained, but neglected to install the sliding door. It took TWO MONTHS of harassing the office staff to get the door installed properly (it was just leaning next to the wall, not installed, for the WHOLE SUMMER. Don't even ask about my electric bill.) This is NOT a joke. And they left the bedroom windows only 1/2 installed (you could stick a finger through the cracks between them and the wall). This REALLY happened. This is only one of many, many obvious incompetencies this staff has. There is no way in hell, no matter how you twist it, that you could consider this a "happy" place to rent from.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/23/2008
I am on the fence about this place. Some days it is nice and quiet and the birds are chirping, and other days it is like living in a low income housing development. Just last week I was home during the day and four boys all aged about 12-14 were riding their bikes in the parking lot, not paying attention to the cars, and leaning their bikes on the parked cars and sitting on the hoods of cars. They also all had water bottles and were trying to aim and throw them into the sewer at the end of the side walk. One of the maintenance men just so happened to be getting in his golf cart at the next building over and he yelled at them and told them to move. The boys in unision told him to go f*&k himself. These same four boys are also always at the pool with no adult supervision. The pool is not supposed to be a babysitter for your kids. Montgomery County has pleanty of resources for these children to be doing productive supervised activities during the summer and not just freely roaming the neighborhood getting themselves into trouble. Why isn't the leasing office or anyone managing the pool? I know it's a great idea to employee the foriegn exchange students to work at the pool, but when they know little English, it is hard for them to enforce the rules. Another incident at the pool was when a ghetto-fabulous mother in her skimpy white see through bikini yelled across the pool at her daughter that she was "going to f*&k her up" because she splashed water on her. There is also a young girl that frequents the pool unsupervised who wears skin tight white t-shirts with her white bra on underneath so when she gets wet you can see right through her shirt. Why send a notice to the entire complex with pool rules if the management is not going to enforce them??? Oh, and I agree with the dog issue. I have seen full-bred pitbulls being walked on the property (and in case you are speculating that perhaps they don't live on the property, the owner and the dog walked straight out of one of the buildings). I have a guy that lives downstairs from me who blares his music whenever he is home, and his stereo is in the room direcly below my daughter's bedroom. We tried nicely to go downstairs and knock on his door and explain that we have a 7 year old that needs to go to bed, but he refused to answer the door. This went on until 11:30 at night until we finally had to call the police. The police showed up and banged on his door and he still refused to answer the door, but he did turn the music off. It wasn't until 2 weeks later that management put a note on all doors in our building that it was in the rules of the lease not to be noisy past 10:00p.m. So now the guy still blares his music but makes sure it is turned off at 10:00 p.m. -- 2 hours past my daughter's bedtime. Oh, and I have lived in major cities -- Brooklyn, Baltimore, and London -- and none of those experiences have been like what we have experienced here so far.
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/10/2008
I don't know who this happy renter person is, but you clearly have never lived anywhere nice. I guess canterScary has been the best you have ever experienced. Not that there is anything wrong with that, however, you see that there are so many people who have been unsatisfied with the living conditions accodring to this review site. I lived here about one year ago and it was the most miderable time of my life. I am sorry but it was ghetto...extremely. I am not going to watch my language and have respect for these so called humans who parade around the neighborhood at all hours of the night yelling, using the f word and n word, breaking into peoples cars and dealing drugs. I couldnt even leave my apartment without someone being like "hey baby" or whatever they say. Its like a bunch of wild monkeys live in that neighborhood. Why should I have to respect people like that. People wonder why whites are so racist towards ------..its because of people like that who are destroying our communities. It is so hard to go anywhere especially nowadays without feeling like your going to get mugged. It is the TRUTH! Germantown is really bad and it is unfortunate. The people downstairs were liek running a drug operation out of their apartment and then one day they just dissapeared and the management was so confused as to where they went. The guy who lived there came out one day and I thoguht I was going to die..not only that he was wearing a shirt that said "wanted" wow...like how am I NOT supposed to judge these individuals?? the people across the hall had 5 grown adults living there and one child. It just blows my mind that people can just roam free and destroy this country and than have the nerve to say that were prejudice or racist. Screw that...I am racist against ghetto people and I am not afraid to say that. When they start respecting people and their property and stop killing and making our young children addicted to drugs and slutting them out than maybe I will have some respect! THANK GOD I do not live here anymore!
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/14/2009
Wow, I hope any sensible person would completely ignore the post from 10/10. Anyone who brings race into an APARTMENT REVIEW should be completely ignored. I have known more than one person to live there and none of them had any problems. I'm actually considering getting an apartment there myself. The neighborhood didn't look, feel, or sound bad to me at all. I visited the property on a Saturday afternoon (you know, when people are usually out having fun, enjoying their freedom from work and school) and I didn't see any unusual behavior from any of the residents.
From: beautybks	Date: 06/24/2009
i still live here and electric is really high. i think happy renter guy works for the company but no one should involve race in an apartment review. its not that bad but my car was vandalized 2ce so i am out of here in 2 months

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