We moved into our apartment in May 2002 when my husband transferred his lease from another AIMCO owned property. When we first moved to Snowden Village, we had very noisy neighbors all around us, both below us and on both sides. The neighbor who lived right next to us was extremely loud. When we complained about his noise, he got a nastygram quite promptly, but he kept up the noise-- even announced outside our door that we'd have to get over it because Snowden Village was for college students.

The neighbors surrounding us all got evicted and life was bearable for awhile. It was noisy and trashy around the complex, but livable. I noticed that people were moving out in droves and a new crowd was moving in-- fewer families and more hoods. Then on August 28th, 2003, my car was vandalized in the parking lot. Whoever did it broke my window and tried (and failed) to steal my stereo. Summit Belmont (next door) also got hit the same night. My car was parked under a safety lamp, but it wasn't working. My husband and I walked around half of the complex and counted nine lights that weren't functioning. We brought this to the attention of the management several times and were told that it wasn't their responsibility to fix them, since the lamps are owned by the power company. Five weeks after my car was vandalized, the lamps are still out. I spoke to a couple the other day who have lived at Snowden Village for over six years. One of them told me that someone tried (and failed) to break into their apartment. In the process of trying to break in, the would be crook damaged their lock. The couple requested maintenance to fix the lock, but they never did. The husband ended up fixing it himself because they were afraid that someone would try to break in again.

My husband and I have checked the crimelog on the local paper's website (www.fredericksburg.com) and found that a number of violent and drug related crimes have been reported at Snowden Village. In fact, one night I even witnessed two men flashing wads of cash and what looked like bags of weed. We also smelled marijuana on more than a few occasions. Two cop cars pulled up about a week ago to serve someone with a warrant. As they were pulling to a stop, two kids moved past us quickly and said in earshot "Keep walking! Keep walking!" These were people who lived here! And a few nights after my car was vandalized, a man knocked on our door at 9:00pm. He told my husband he was "demonstrating cleaning products". My husband sent him away and we called the police. It turned out he was wanted by the police. It seemed to me he was scouting out places to burglarize-- God knows if anyone trusted him enough to let him in. We also checked the Virginia State Police website and it turns out there are several registered sex offenders living in the area. Last time I looked, two were living at Snowden Village.

My husband and I have been offered post housing, even though we are only halfway through the second year of our lease. Because of some misleading language on the welcome packet we were given when we moved in, we were under the impression that we were on a month to month lease. Not so... it turns out you have to pay $250 a month extra for this option. So now, it may turn out that we're asked to pay an ungodly amount of money to get out of our lease. But when we were offered our second lease, it didn't arrive until into the 60 day termination window. Even if we had been in a financial position to terminate then, we wouldn't have been able to find a place to move to fast enough. If we are asked to pay a termination fee, I will not rest until the military community knows all about this complex and it is removed from the Set Aside program. Not only that, but I found out that Snowden Village participates in some state funded programs. Since I'm a social worker, I'll make sure that they know about this place, too.

Come to live here only if there are no other affordable alternatives. Lock your doors and invest in renter's insurance, high quality car insurance, and detachable faceplaces on your stereo/CD players. Don't leave ANYTHING of value in your car and never leave your shades up in your apartment. People do walk around the complex to see what kinds of "toys" you have. In fact, I think that's why our "salesman" visited us and not our neighbors.

11/03
As an addendum to my review, I'd like to offer this bit of information. We were sent an erroneous bill several weeks before our lease was up. We moved out on 10/24 and our lease was due to expire on 12/4. A bill, complete with a termination fee, was generated on 10/31. My husband paid rent in full on 11/1, along with utilities. He gave the management our new address and phone number on several occasions. On November 8, we received a bill for $2122. The charges included pro-rated rent for October, (which we had paid on time and in full), late charges, and utilities. It was due to be paid November 5th and postmarked on the 4th. There were all kinds of threats on the bill that promised to ruin our credit if we didn't pay immediately. However, our lease was still active and my husband had paid on time for November. When my husband called to ask about the bill, no one could tell him who had sent it or why. However, the assistant manager knew my husband had paid, so she wiped it out.

Now, bear in mind that when leases have to be broken, management is supposed to, by law, try to mitigate their losses by working to re-rent their vacant apartments as soon as possible. After several weeks, we noticed that our apartment was still vacant. My husband asked what the management was doing to rent that apartment. He was told point blank that management was doing NOTHING other than advertising on the net. Sure, they could have held us responsible for paying for newspaper advertising, but Snowden Village did NOTHING to fill that vacancy. Luckily, the unit was rented the last week of November, so we didn't have to pay a termination fee.

Had they tried to stick us with it, we would have fought it tooth and nail. They were in violation of their own lease on several other issues, most importantly those regarding health and safety and the fact that the allowed a sex offender to live there even though they require prospective tenants to sign addendums stating that they aren't sex offenders or convicted felons. I definitely think you should avoid renting from this place if you can.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates