To be perfectly honest, when I first moved here in 2005 I had very little problems. My one bedroom apartment is spacious and, in the beginning, maintenance responded quickly to any requests I made. The staff (esp maintenance) is really nice and most of the appliances are updated, so problems with either are rare. But about a year into my stay here, my experience with the apartment complex became a living hell.

First of all, the noise level here is ridiculous. I knew moving in here that it was close to two universities (Towson and Goucher) and expected some partying on weekends. I was a rowdy college student once, and I understand how that is. But I have never acted the way many of the college kids around here do. Parties occur here EVERY NIGHT, not always in my complex but in several nearby buildings. For some reason, the college kids love to take the party outside and drink, stumble, pass out, and scream throughout the entire complex. Even with the windows closed, we are able to hear them at all hours of the night (and I mean ALL hours). Forget sleeping with the windows open in the summer.

In addition to being noisy, the kids leave beer cans all over the grass, walkway, and parking lot as well as TP the trees on a regular basis. Management has posted several notices on the noise level, but they pretty much go unnoticed, just as the partying goes on without reprimand.

Parking also sucks. I've had to stalk for parking spaces regularly after 8pm, which cannot be guaranteed even if you have a permit. Now that construction has been constant for about a year now (they are tearing down the old complexes across the street and are building new ones), the parking lot has gotten worse. Construction workers use the lots and take up a ton of space with their huge trucks and equipment (even though they aren't supposed to), limiting spaces even more. The entrance onto Southerly Road from Dulaney Valley has been shut down since construction began and the only way onto the street I live off of is through Locusvale, which has been ripped apart by the construction. The road is now composed of dirt and gravel, with huge bumps and potholes that ruin the alignment on most cars. Also, half the road is regularly roped off due to digging into a water main under the pavement. Good luck if you need to go somewhere in a hurry. Waiting for construction equipment to clear the road for cars is long process met with the glares of workers who seem in disbelief that you are inconveniencing them so greatly by asking them to move.

Lately my apartment has been falling apart, literally. My bathroom sink and shower have always backed up, but the longer I've lived here, the bigger problem is has created. I pour one bottle of Draino down the shower drain 3 times a week (at least) to keep the water from overflowing the tub when I shower. My ceiling also started leaking about 3/4 of a year ago. I complained to management, and they sent maintenance out immediately. However, after fooling around in the attic for maybe 2 minutes, they said the problem was fixed and and replastered and repainted the ceiling. Less then a month later, following another storm, the ceiling was leaking again, this time in 2 places. The leak was so bad that when the maintenance guy climbed up into the attic, he fell through the damp, decaying ceiling and broke his leg. The hole he created remained for a few days because maintenance said the surrounding ceiling needed time to dry before they could do anything. Finally, its fixed, but because they refuse to replace the roof (these buildings are being torn down soon and management doesn't want to invest money in them), I can't be sure that the leaking won't return.

Also, this winter our heat has broken 5 times. Maintenance was very slow to respond (sometimes taking days), which resulted in me having to spend the night elsewhere a couple of times so I didn't freeze to death. Of course, I still had to pay rent for those days my apartment was unlivable. And maintenance still doesn't know what is wrong. I have a feeling my problems with the heating aren't over yet, and probably won't be over until spring comes and I no longer have to use it.

Despite my complaints, I really am a tolerant person. I know I'm not paying a large amount of money for this apartment, and therefore I am not expecting extraordinary service. I just want my apartment to be livable. And some days, it really isn't. If I were looking for an apartment in Towson, I would definitely recommend paying more money and getting someplace a lot nicer. Heck, maybe when the new apartments are finished they will be worth living in. But I doubt it. Because they are being managed by the same incompetent and rude people and will probably be populated with the same inconsiderate, uncontrollable college kids, I believe that quality of Dulaney Valley Apartments (or whatever else they named the new place) will still be poor.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/13/2008
Hi, Thank you for this explicite review. I want to move to Towson, I visited once and fell in love with the area. I wasn't aware of the college kids population...huge tourn down for me, I know how they party nowdays. Do you have any thoughts where to live in Towson with $800-900 to put on rent.

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