Taylor Place (now The Whitmore *eye roll*) has had its moments. The good thing is I have never seen a bug or mouse anywhere in my apartment or entire building. I haven't had many things break down in apartment although it was very annoying that every few weeks, maintenance had to enter apartments for some random reason or another. The maintenance workers are very nice and sweet, never had to wait a long time for them to fix anything in the apartment. They are quick and clean up any mess they've made. The concierge are very nice, they've always spoken to me, one knows me by name. I have my gripes with them & the parking situation but overall they are nice. You can pick up your packages 24/7. Haven't had much contact with management although some are clearly incompetent so I've steered clear of them-couldn't tell you their names. It took FOUR visits for someone to file my cat vaccination papers. After receiving a 2nd notice in the mail, I finally had to just sit and watch the girl pull our file, place the papers inside and place the file back. It was nice; however, when a cat was found in the hallway they contacted everyone with a cat in the building. Even fed the cat & had litter. I thought that was very sweet of them.

Now on to the bad--I won't even mention how your car may be towed for the most trivial things such as parking in the guest parking slot (management always claims there are "tenant" complaints. I have yet to hear of one tenant complain about residents parking in guest parking slots esp. when 9/10 there were no places to park due to random parking lot renovations that left you playing musical chairs or scrambling out the bed to reach the 9:00am deadline that management slipped under your door at 10pm the night before) and although the towing companies enter the building to give the concierge documentation, not once do they even mention you are a current resident, rather they just let your car get towed. You'd think they would call your phone or slip a courtesy letter under your door to let you know you are in some type of violation and to rectify the situation or the next time you will be towed. It's Columbia Pike, it's not like we're walking distance to a metro station-we're bordering a residential area. We're on the bus line, it's not anyone is parking at our property to hop on the 16A.

My car was towed twice-once because I did not display a current year sticker although I was never informed that I had to pick up a new sticker. You'd think they'd actually glance through those stack of files on their desk & alert residents that they have to pick up something, but then again these same people can't keep track of my cat vaccinations papers so I should've have expected more. The second time was because I parked in guest's parking--although 75% of the parking lot was shut down to install speed bumps. They can send out trivial daily emails about a barbeque but only send out rude reminders only after getting cursed out by other residents. I know they have a record of tenant license plate numbers and they make your guest sign in, get a parking pass, and then trot out to their car and drive way on the other side of the building for "guest" parking. There only 7 guest slots so good luck finding a spot if other tenants have friends over. Park any where else (even with the guest pass prominently in the window) you will come out and find your friend's car towed.

Renovations have been ENDLESS. We knew upon moving in that there was SOME floor renovation remaining & they were going to tear up the front parking area (just to slap down some bricks when the old way looked much better but what do I know) but we did not know about the other stuff until after the lease and the endless drone of jack hammers was a normal way to wake up. And that was just the beginning. Since we've moved in, we've had endless, senseless, non stop construction. The lobby just re-opened after being closed for over 6 months-just to look EXACTLY the same! The only difference I've seen are larger, brighter lights, better floor tiles and new furniture. I'm sure the new lights in the lobby are not energy efficient & I can just see my bill going up by $75 just on the lights alone. I think at this point they're just finding little stuff to fix. Every day/week it appeared that they were tearing down something, just to fix it, and then tear it down again. ALL OF IT COMPLETELY UNNECCESSARY. How many times can you paint a wall' How many times must the water be shut off to replace the pipes you've just placed in last week' I remember watching a guy paint the garbage can--I mean seriously, the garbage can'

And my main gripe is the utilities. Expect to pay no less than $215 for a 1 bedroom with 2 adults living there, even if you're barely there and you use almost nothing when you're home. I'm sure the management is passing off some of the construction uses off on the residents but even with utilities bills going up everywhere, this is ridiculous. Not only do you have to pay for the vacant apartments in the building, these same vacant apartments have the lights and no telling what else ON all day. Last year, at a different complex that charged only used what you used, our bills were less than $100 TOTAL. We've just given up. Our apartment, thanks to large windows & our location, was very warm so we never turned on the heat. We had no need to; our apartment was cozy day & night. However Nov-Feb $250 every single month with 90% going to electric. Of course they charge by the square footage/# of tenants & not what you actually use. What a scam. It made the concessions we've received (our entire reason for renting in the first place) useless because we were paying that "discount" every month in utilities! Sometimes I feel like screaming at the construction guys when they prop the door open because I just know we're going to feel the blunt of the ac/heat working overtime. I wince when I see the sprinklers going all hours of the day because I know our water bill has just shot up. I am annoyed every month when I open the mail box and see that little blue postcard because I know the bill has shot up another $30-$40 in one month.

A few other gripes--You can only use the pool/grill during certain hours-god forbid if you want to just sunbathe, not even swim, just sit out on the chairs, your key card won't work. Elevators out of service half the time(once again senseless renovations-who cares about new carpet in an elevator or new steel walls in the shaft), trifling pet owners who allows their animals to pee/poo in the hallways and dont have the courtesy to clean up after their animals. The ladies who cleans the hallways are always around though to clean up other people's messes. A non-refundable pet fee, which I have always though were dumb, we keep a very clean home even with a cat and it sucks that we won't get that $$ back. Our home doesnt smell like a cat and our cat has not damaged anything in the apartment. They could at least give your refund back if you show your home is still fresh smelling and no pet damages/stains. Too small parking spots--of course this was fine before they tore up the parking lot, now all the spots are too small & you're at a risk for hitting someone's door. Recent car break-ins...I can go on and on...

I just can't wait until my lease is up...I already have my 60 day notice printed out...I'm just waiting for my new address to stick on. The Whitmore is a farce...don't fall for the okeydoke as I did!!! AD2Hw9Wn8Umb3NN1w1jt

User Responses
From: khansard	Date: 06/27/2009
I hear ya on all the above problems. But to add to it although most of my stay here this year as been bug and rodent free ( enough with us declining the toxic roach spray they wanted to spray in our homes when we weren't there) about a week ago we had a mouse in the kitchen. Management gave us glue traps but we haven't see the tiny critter since so I can't exactly say it is an infection but I am still glad I have a cat. I would also like to say AMEN to the sky rocketing electric bills. And the scam they are running here making us pay for the vacant apartments and a portion of the entire building electic bill! We even have a service charge to be billed on our bill and when I brought it up as being absurd for me to pay to be billed the management made it seem like I was being unreasonable that was common practice. uh huh. I am also leaving when my lease is up in 2 months. I have already signed a lease elsewhere at a less "luxurious" but much more affordable and with the utilities included in the rent so there will be no more pulling the wool over my eyes in that arena!
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/26/2009
I hear both of you on that! Add to the sky rocketing electrical bill the more than 60 lights on the new lobby/elevator hallway on 24 hrs a day. And it disgusts me to see all the empty apartments also with all their lights on 24 hrs a day for weeks at end.Myself and other tenants have complained about that and we have always been ignored. I'm not renewing my lease here either.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/30/2009
Too bad you guys didn't check this place out a little better before you chose to move in. I made the same mistake last year.....They lie thru their teeth to get people to sign leases! Arlington County was all over this company about their practices....check out the youtubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCBPTzLv_L8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fO33eG7fpw

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