Below was my orginal post. I only have a couple more months on my lease and I most certainly will not be renewing. There are consistent problems with my appartment. The maintenance guys that come to fix stuff talk to you like you are dumb and when you ask questions they don't answer them. Their suggestions are fire hazards. If you have a problem with your heat they tell you that you should use a space heater (which if you do any research fire departments tell you not to use those heaters while you are asleep because they are prone to starting fires). I honestly don't think they have any liscenses to be doing anything, and they are just handy men. I also don't think they really do anything that they are scheduled to do unless you are there to hold them accountable. My door was supposed to be repainted a couple of months ago; it never got done. The oven and dishwasher are as old as old can be. There is no thermometer on the oven or a light. The dishwasher barely washes any dishes. Another thing is that the gates for the cars are broken atleast once a month.

Currently there is no gate on the left side of the complex because someone drove into it. People are driving in and out of the gateless side so they don't have to use their card or the call box to get in. In either Aug or Sept someone drove into the card reader. It is still not completely fixed. If you put your card up to it, the stand wobbles, as if it is about to fall over. Sometimes you have to scan your card more then once for the gate to open. The reader isn't even protected with a plastic cover. There is only a silver plastic (like cellophan (')) over it, i guess to keep water out.

The parking situation is rediculous. People park wherever they want. We have gotten letters from management regarding illegal parking, but they don't follow through with any of their threats. There is a couple who parks their cars (2 cars) in handicap parking spots, a couple nights a week. Neither of them have handicap stickers or licsense plates. There is even a car now (i have no idea who the owner is) but he parks his car over night in the zone that is painted yellow for emergency vehicles. I highly doubt having regular dc plates consitutes as an emergency vehicle.

The mail is also rediculous. The mailman just leaves stuff either at your door or on top of the mailboxes, but expect to never get your package or even some of your mail in your mailbox. You can complain if you want to the post office, if you are lucky they will find it in a corner of the office on franconia rd (the first time i complained mail was found, the second time they couldn't locate anything).

Good luck if you move here. It looks like there are a number of vacant apts when you drive through the complex at night. I don't really know how much management cares about the place, except to make money. They raised the cost of trash collection without any notification, which is pretty amaizing due to the amount of waiste they put out in flyers.



I have only lived here for a breif period of time, but what I have noticed about the issues with parking is that if you live closer to the middle of the complex the more issues you will have with finding a parking space close to your building. I live several buildings away from the club house and gates, and I have never had a problem. Not during the week, the weekends, or over a holiday weekend. The furthest I have had to park from my building is probably 150ft. Since I live on the parking side of my building I can see my car from my window, and as long as I can see my car, it isn't far.
The complex is around 260 units, and overall the amount of land the property takes up really isn't a lot, when comparing it to other apartment complexes in the area. Take my word for it when I say this place is intimate, my roommate spent 4 months trying to find an apartment we liked, in this area, and this is the nicest place. You pay for the upgrades that are in the apartments (fireplace, crown molding, full size washer and dryer in unit, 9ft ceilings, a lot of cabinet storage in the kitchen and large bedrooms). This place was more then what I wanted to spend; however, with what they were offering, you are not going to find at other places in the area.
There are two things which are currently bugging. (1) The magnetic locks on the pedestrian gates do not always lock, and that was a feature that I liked about the place, was the added security. (2) I have a dog, and I pay a lot to have one dog. A $400 deposit and $40, which when you do the math, it is $80 a month for my dog who is less then 20lbs. My issue is that there is dog deposits (to put it nicely) in all of the grassy areas. I am a curtious dog owner and I clean up after my dog. But with that much money being shelled out (if you have two dogs it is $600 deposit and $60 a month) the least they could do is have someone cleaning up the place, or even watching for the inconsiderate dog owners who aren't cleaning up after their dogs. One nice thing though, is that they have the doggie waste stations, but that does not cost an exorbinat amount of money.
I still have several more months on my lease, and I don't know what I will be doing at the end of it.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/23/2009
The appliances are very dated, and perhaps if they didn't spend all their time updating the leasing office they could replace the appliances in some apartments. However, I've found maint has always been pretty helpful. I have noticed the smell of gas in a couple of areas, so not sure what is up with that. No one picks up after their dogs, and a few months ago they sent notices out about breed restrictions. Yet there is still a pitbull living in the next building over.. not sure what's up with that either. The gates aren't broken all the time, obviously right now they are opened due to the snow. Though I did notice they were left open one night, and some neighbor was having a wedding and they took up all the spots. That really pisses me off, because clearly it was an inside job. ( I know it was a wedding because as I was walking to my car that I had to park outside of the gate, they were all dressed up and 11 of the cars were leaving at once. ) No, I'm not lazy, but I pay a high rate of rent, and should have the choice to park over a guest who is just staying at someones place. The mailman that is in my building is a complete waste.. He asked me if I lived on the 4th floor so I could bring someone their box which I am pretty sure is illegal. UPS always brings packages to the leasing office, so I'm pretty sure your issue is with the post office. Atleast it's not like the Ridgeleigh where you have to find a mailbox to just send out mail. Once our lease is up, I'm pretty sure we will be leaving.
From: Fallen1	Date: 12/24/2009
"The appliances are very dated...." Honey, at most, they are seven years old; hardly qualifies as "dated". "I have noticed the smell of gas in a couple of areas, so not sure what is up with that." I've heard that before; unless and until something blows up, doubt Fairfax County code inspectors/fire dept. will actually do anything about it (that said, I don't know whether anyone has gone through those channels to address). "No one picks up after their dogs ...." That's not really true. It's just that because they allow each tenant to have TWO dogs (which I think is ridiculous, but it's certainly a profit center), it may seem that way. Trust me, if all of the dog owners weren't picking up after their pets, you'd know it. "Yet there is still a pitbull living in the next building over." They cannot make an existing tenant get rid of a pet that isn't causing any trouble/breaching the lease; they'll have to wait until that person leaves. Any attempt to make an existing tenant get rid of a pre-existing pet would simply be a loser in terms of an eviction action. "...I pay a high rate of rent, and should have the choice to park over a guest who is just staying at someones place." I agree that the parking situation could be better, and that their not having a permit system is simply to avoid having to deal with the resulting issues vs. doing us a favor (which is how they couch it). It's been brought up to the president of the management company, as a matter of fact. "The mailman that is in my building is a complete waste..." So write to the postmaster general and the head of the station out of which he works. :) No sense talking about things that are completely separate from the issue of the landlord. :)

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