Here is a 100% unbiased and fair assessment of the property. For a little background information, I am a recent college graduate and live in a 1 bedroom apartment here.

Overall:
There are many places that are better than this one in the area. You can read my fair assessment of this property below and make your own conclusions, but I have lived here for a year and do not plan on going into another lease with this property.

Price:
It is decently high, but the whole area is pretty high. They generally give you two rates (for me it was $1145 a month and $1280 a month) and then tell you that this apartment is going for the $1280 a month, but we'll give you this special price of $1145 (just to make you feel special). The trick is if you move out and break your lease, you have to pay back the special rate for every month on your lease. So in my case if I lived there 6 months then I would have to pay $1280 - $1145 = $135, multiply that by 6 for 6 months so 6 * $135 = $810 and since you have to tell them 60 days in advance if you are going to leave, then you have to pay 2 months rent. So the total becomes 2 * $1280 $810 = $3370. If there is a possibility that you might break the lease, then do not rent here because their upper rate is above everyone else and they require 60 days notice where most say 30 days notice.

Safety:
There have been a decent number of armed robberies in this community mainly because of 1) Very poor lighting at Ashford Meadows everywhere except for the front, 2) A very high illegal immigrant population about 1.4 miles up Centreville road towards downtown Herndon (they usually hang out at the Alabama Road intersection). All the issues I have heard about have come when someone was walking to there car at night (generally the 10pm-1am timeframe), when they get approached by a Hispanic man with a gun. Also, there have been a few car break-ins as well.

Personally, I bought a handgun when I heard about the crime at this apartment complex. If you plan on living here, I highly recommend spending the $400-$500 and buying a gun to keep yourself and loved ones safe. There are always spectacular gun shows in Chantilly at the Expo Center a few times every year.

Facilities:
The overall apartments are decently nice, not amazing but slightly better than average.

The garbage is a pretty big problem around here. There are I believe 3 garbage units for the entire community, which just isn't enough. There should probably be at least 5 and maybe up to even 9. Because of this, garbage is laying around the bins since the garbage units are completely full.

The workout facility isn't that great, but if you are just a runner then it should be sufficient because there is a treadmill. If you like to do any amount of weight-lifting, you will probably need a gym membership (luckily you can get a special rate through the apartment of $25 a month to a local gym that is typically something like $60 a month).

The business center is pretty bland and is essentially just a run down cubical next to the front office.

Management:
The management isn't that great (on a scale of 1 - 10 I'd give them about a -1).

Most times when you walk in the front office and need something, you feel like you are getting taken advantage of. For example, I went in recently to see what my new lease would look like if I decided to sign it. They gave me my new rates (which were $50 higher than what I was currently paying), so I asked them how they could justify increasing rent when the housing market was sour and for that price I could go buy a house instead. She responded saying well your rent didn't go up, look at the rate we would be charging you and look at this special rate (both the special and the base rate were $50 higher than what I was currently paying).

She wouldn't agree that I was going to be paying a higher rate than what I currently was paying, so I made her get a piece of paper out and write down my current special rate and base rate and what my new special and base rate would be. Then I asked her again, do you still want to stand by your claim that my rent isn't going up' She looked flustered and said that they don't make the rates but that it comes down from corporate.

Also, I'd say roughly every 4 months, you'll come home from work and a note will be on the floor saying (We entered your apartment today to check ____________). Just a little annoying because it makes the apartment not feel like home since you never know when a maintenance person might enter without your permission.

All in all, the management office basically just reminds me of a Sorority. Some of them are attractive on the outside, but they are really lazy, not very smart, and will continue to affirm they are right even when it is as something as simple as if one number is bigger than another.

Community:
Your average person living here is in their 30's. If I had to make a rough estimate, I'd say 35% Indian, 45% White, 10% Black, and 10% Other (Hispanic, German, Swiss, Chinese, etc). Again estimating, roughly 25%-33% of the apartments here are families with kids.

Maintenance:
The maintenance generally does a decent job from my encounters (although many of my neighbors have had issues). The only thing I can hold against them is not leaving my apartment the way they found it.

I'm not at home most of the day (because I'm at work), so I generally turn the heat off in the winter or AC off in the summer when I'm not there. When the maintenance staff comes, they always will turn on your heat or AC full blast and leave it running the rest of the day. I honestly have no problem with them turning it on to keep warm or cool while doing there job, but I wish they would turn it off after they leave (but they never do).

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/10/2009
I mentioned last year that the sorority girls who call themselves profesionals in the office are just that....they have no moral sense of what they tell you, i.e., backing it up like a decent person would and should. They just totally are self oriented and scream at you if your make them think outside the box at all. I moved out and forgot something in the apartment...some pots and pans that cost me over $1,000. I callled three hours after I mived out and they screamed at me that anything I leave is just TRASH TO THEM, GET IT TRACH, that;s what it is...trash. They may as well have spit in ym face and told me they think I am trash. This is three hours after I moved out. No place ever moves that quickly to freshen up a place....in fact, they ahd four vacancies right in my little corner of the copmplex, so I am quite sure thye do not come the very hour someone moves out. IN fact, the people acrosss the hall from me no one went to their apartment for at least three or four days. I paid these creeps $85 extra to vacuum and clean after me; I vacuumed every room and even cleaned the bathrooms with clorox and they were spotless. I spackled every signle little tiny hole, scraped off every piece of ddirt I could see from the windows...etc I tok photos also and am prepared to go to court to get my deposit back. DO YOU THINK I CAN HOLD MY BREATH WAITING FOR MY DEPOSIT BACK? NO, I am sure they will try every way to keep it just to spite me. So I will ssue them for court costs as well.....let you know what happens. PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and go to craigslist....find a condo to rent from the owner...dealing with a person who owns his own home is going to be much better than dealing with these liars and thieves at ashford ghettos, as the realtors told me they call it. There was so much crime there that under our bedroom window every single night there were sounds like someone was being murdered or doing drugs or whatever outside our bedroom window...cars all gathered and parites in the parkign lot STARTING AT 2 EVERY AM, week day or not!!! must be alot of resdtaurant workers because I will tel you it was clockwork when they would yell and wake everyone up as they stood outside their cars and had parties from 2 am on. I coulda set my clock by them.

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