My mother and I moved into our apartment (2720 S. Vietch St., Apt. 104) on August 15, 2007. About 3 weeks after we moved in, it rained. There wasn't a lot of rain, just a light drizzle. However, mom's bedroom floor was completely soaked through in one corner. This happened each and every time it rained. Each time, maintenance would come out, plug in a blower (louder than a jet engine) to dry the carpet out. Then, they would relay the carpet, clean it if needed, and consider the problem "fixed." It never occurred to them to look into or fix the actual problem. After our 8th or so flood, we threated legal action, wrote a nasty letter to the management company, and only then was an investigation conducted. They found that the downspout outside my mom's room was clogged with cedar mulch. After cleaning it out and redirecting the spout, the flooding stopped. However, not before mom's carpet turned brown, green, pink, and orange from various molds and bacterial growth from the nasty water seeping into the nasty carpet. If they try to charge us for damages or refuse to give our security deposit back, we are suing them!

Flash forward about 6 months. By this time, we had at least 5 flooding incidents in mom's room. This day, however, our laundry room flooded from the ceiling down. Water was gushing down from the A/C vent in the ceiling and running down the inside wall. Everything I had just washed and hung up that morning was now hanging on soaking wet/destroyed cardboard dry cleaning hangers. Luckily, none of my work clothes were ruined, but I had to rewash everything and again call the grossly inept maintenance people out to help me. The guy did a little investigation by checking the apartments directly above mine for leaks and water damage. About 30 minutes later, he returned to my apartment to say that the 4th floor hallway A/C unit had a clogged condensation line and was overflowing water onto the floor, which then seeped into my apartment. By some miracle, apartments 404, 304, and 204 had no water damage. Lucky me....

He stopped the water leaking, waited for my ceiling to dry (with a dark brown stain marking the outline of the wet spot), repainted the ceiling, and considered the problem fixed. One month later, it happened again. Now, I get about 2 laundry room floods each month and it almost always happens on my laundry day. Is this apartment cursed'!

To make the water problems worse, both toilets run forever after flushing. We have to jiggle the handle or, failing that, take the lid off and flip the flap shut so the tank will refill. They haven't "fixed" this problem either.

Also, the garage doors are almost always broken from people ramming into them on purpose. Parking in the garage is almost impossible to find if you live on the 1st or 2nd floors. Street parking for guests is very hard to come by. Arlington parking enforcement will nail you for any little tiny infraction, no matter how small, so beware! Neighbors are loud, obnoxious, talk loudly on their balconies after 10 PM, throw wild parties, break the "No Pets In This Area" signs, and routinely do not pick up after their dogs and let them poop on the sidewalk. Trash is not policed on the grounds as often as it needs to be. The "doggie pots" aren't emptied routinely, so the smell of dog poo is often strong.

A vandal superglued several apartments' locks shut a few months ago, cars are routinely broken into, bicycles are stolen, and a few cars have been keyed.

None of the issues we have had while living here have been truly fixed. DO NOT live in these apartments. You WILL regret it!

User Responses
From: suet77	Date: 10/15/2009
Wow! I have since left this Avalon Apartment in June of 09 and I have been so much happier...I swear that place needs to be condemed, but of course since the VA rental rights are obsolete, they will keep making money off of this rat hole. All you can do is tell people to not live there and see what happens to the property in the end. I do not wish anything bad to happen to anyone in terms of jobs but this property needs to be re-evaluated somehow. Keep fighting the Avalon!
From: pinkdragonrider1978	Date: 10/15/2009
I do realize that crime can't be controlled by Avalon. However, each resident pays good money to live in a controlled access building with a controlled access garage. When both doors are broken, anyone can get into the garages and break into vehicles, key them, or steal them. It is this particular problem that Avalon has complete control over. We pay for controlled access, we should get it. When that is taken away, our rent should be lowered commensurate with said loss of security.

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