I've been living in the University Square apartment for 3 years. Finally I moved out August 2008. I had horrible experience with the property, and would like to share it with you. Hope this will help you to decide whether you want to rent the apartment.

Before I started my job at the U of Maryland in 2005, the university paid me and my wife to fly to Maryland to find a home. After 2 days of looking around, I found University Square. After we spoke with the assistant property manager determining an apartment, surprisingly, the lady said she cannot print the lease to sign. We had to fly back to arrange reallocation. The manager said she will mail us the lease later after we returned to Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, after few weeks waiting, we did not receive the mail. Then I called several times, a lady said she will mail me another lease to sign via express mail. Few weeks later when the date of my reallocation is approaching, I call them again to confirm. After many calls and many refusals from the manager to talk with me, the manager finally spoke to me. She promised that the apartment is there and has been confirmed. I gave the apartment number to May Flower as my reallocation moving company. And we, including my 10-month daughter and the grandma, drove to Maryland. It was about 5pm when we arrived in Greenbelt. After we checked in the Holiday Inn (the hotel behind the Greenway center, I may be wrong with the hotel name), we decided to take a look at the apartment. When we came to the rental office, a young man checked the record and said the apartment has been assigned to another renter! Can you imagine how bad our feelings were when we heard this news, particularly after 3 days of driving' And, the moving company had that apartment address for delivery next day. I was told that I will be charged if I were not there when my furniture was there.

The next day, my family went to the rental office again talking with the property manager. Finally, we got another apartment and accordingly the rental office adjusted the monthly rent. In fact, later when I was in the rental office, I heard similar story: they gave the apartment to someone else although they have promised a person. Then next month, I received a notice from the court saying that I did not pay the full rent. I went to the rental office, who admitted it is their mistake not considering my new rent and told me I do not have to show at the court since they will dismiss the bill. A renter who was at the rental office told me that I had better to show at the court because the rental office may or may not dismiss the bill although they said so. I have to request for a leave from my work to go to court because of the mistake by the rental office.

The apartments were built in about 1950s (60s), so you can imagine how old the facilities are. During the winters, the heating did not work well. In average, for every three times the heating unit worked, two times the unit produced cold air and one time worked normally with warm air. I talked many times with the rental office. The office said it worked! Yes, it worked, but I cannot get cold air twice to get warm air. It was a real pain during midnights (about 3 times per week) when I called the technician to get the unit to work normally. The worse thing is that, since the old heating unit put extra gas out of the apartments, during winter you can smell strong gas in the whole community. I do not how harmful the gas is to adults and kids. Then the summers came and things got even worse. One summer (should be the August of 2006), the temperature was higher than 100s degrees and it was hotter in the apartment since the apartment is not designed for air circulation. I understand the rental office got many calls regarding AC and they only had ONE technician. There is a LONG wait list of AC problems. When I went to the rental office saying that I have a then 2 years old daughter, a lady (should be an assistant property manager) said 100s degrees is not a big issue, and her house has no AC as well, implying that I should feel OK with the room without AC. The words gave me a shock.

There are several times when they scheduled pest control, asking us to move all stuff out of kitchen, but nobody came to do the pest control at all. So, we usually ignored their notices of pest control and water closure. Until we moved out in August 2008, my rent is $1,100/month (1 bedroom with a study room). One neighbor in the same building told me her rent is about $1300 per month (one bedroom), and another neighbor in the same building pay $1145 per month (2 bedroom with a den). I never know how they determine the rent, do you'

Overall, it is a real pain to call the rental office to schedule any fix and appointments as they try to refuse anything and they get very frustrated when you call them. My friend told me that every time when she went to the rental office to report any apartment problem, she cried in the office.

After many pains and time spent on dealing with the apartment and rental office, I moved out early August 2008. In early July, I spoke to a lady in the rental office to schedule a walk-in move out inspection (as said in the move out direction). The lady wrote my phone number on the 60-days move-out early notice, said they she cannot do anything since the next day is July 4th but will call me next Monday (July 7). Not surprisingly, nobody called me that day and never. Then, I asked the lady again the last day in the apartment about when to turn in the keys. She said any time before 10am should be ok (the office is open at 10am). I put the keys, tags and other things in an envelope into their mailbox the night of my last day.

Finally, I received their final bill. There are several charges I do not understand. So, I went to the office again to dispute the items. A young lady talked to me. I said I put the keys about 12 hours before 10am as was told by another lady. The young lady said it was not her and I have no any documents to show I returned the keys. So, she cannot do anything. Fortunately, the lady who told me the 10am was there. My experience is that you should ask them to write every word on paper as memorial document. Seems to me that every individual in the rental office works for him/herself and he/she only accepted his/her own words. In the move-out final bill, they charge me a new refrigerator ($250) because the interior is broken. Yes, it is broken. However, my wife and I called the office for many times to get a new refrigerator, but the rental office staff kept saying that we can use the refrigerator and refused to give us another one. We made a mistake not keep calling, mainly because we have been SO tired dealing with the office.

Another lesson is that you should call the utility (water, electric, etc.) to close your account. I trusted the move-out direction produced by the office. So, I did not call Pepco to close my account. Later I received an electric bill ($50 for half month). The rental office staff said they have the words in the move-out direction about renters need to call to close account. But I did not see the words in the direction.

After staying with the University Square Apartments for 3 years, we decide to move out finally. You may wonder why I do not move out earlier. As you may understand, we are very busy on work and there are much stuff (toys, furniture, etc.). It is not easy to move the whole family. But we finally decide to move because we cannot live with the rental office.

The above is my personal experience with the University Square Apartment and the rental office. Hopefully, others can get much better and happier experience than me. If you try to rent the apartments, you might consider these things: 1) how much you can live with old apartments and facilities (if you are comfortable with the problems, you will be ok) 2) how patient and comfortable you will be when you call always frustrated rental office staff (e.g., telling you and your kids to stay in 110 degrees apartment). 3) how well you can deal with unexpected situations (e.g., being sent to court, apartment assigned to another renter, etc.). 4) how much you trust your rental office (e.g., they said they will call you but never, ) and a really messy rental office.

Thank you for reading my experience. And sorry for my bad English (I have no time to polish my English).

Update on August 21, 2008:
Today my wife went to the rental office and asked them to write down the adjusted final bill and write down they will refund some money for water and electric bill (because they always forgot their words and asked for documentation), the lady (should be the property manager) refused to do so. Finally, she called police to force my wife to leave the office. Until now, I don't know when and how much I can get refund of my water and electric bills. The rental office tries to get my money asap (otherwise they send me to court) but may forget the money they owe me :)

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/20/2008
We had a similar experience with our carpet before we moved out that you had with your refrigerator. The managers are not much help. You have to contact the manager's boss's boss's boss to get anything done, or you can contact Land Lord and Tenants to file a complaint. I can't mention enough how much I hate that rental office and the ignorant staff. I hope you are living comfortable in your new home.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/21/2008
Thanks very much for your suggestions. We will definately do them.
From: mikenor	Date: 03/26/2009
I'm so thankful for your detail complaint on this place. I have been here under a year and i must add that this place is solely run from the malfucntioning brains of humans. Try to contact the resident manager (Carl) he blatantly refuses to return my calls or talk to me. His ethics are shining through in the staff. I must say some of the staff tries to help but their hands are tied by the imbecile property manager (tasha easely??) she always seems to over excerise her powers and overrides simple decisions. I think management would do better with hiring a more proactive team of professionals. Ms. Dalencia should be commended for always trying to provide continuous follow-up and feedback. Another professional member on thier Staff is Tamecika... Overall, thanks for the comment on the utilities. I willl keep that in mind for my move in three months. Oh, anyone considering moving here know that bugs, bugs and more bugs are gonna be the main occupant of your home.

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