We have only lived here for a few weeks but we don't feel that this community deserves the bad rap it has been getting on this forum.

We moved in on very short notice and the staff really squared us away and made sure everything was in order. Once we took possession of the key, we walked through the premises and marked down things that needed repair on the form that they provided us for this purpose with our welcome packet.

It's understandable that they cannot check everything when they have such a high turnover of residents, especially military people moving in and out all the time and at short notice.

We found a couple of minor things, such as the blinds beeing lose in the bedroom and a little bit of water standing in the bottom of the dishwasher after use. We dropped the list off with the leasing office and all our complaints were addressed by a maintenance person within the next four days, and all were fixed.

Maintenance staff are all very friendly and make sure things get done. When they came to fix the blinds I also asked them to look at two other things and they did so, fixed them, and were very polite.

We are renting a two bedroom apartment with a den and one and a half bathrooms. When we moved in, the carpet was brand new, and the unit had been freshly painted. The rooms are spacious and we have A LOT of closet space. It is also located less than 5 miles from my husband's job and the community is very pet friendly, which is a huge plus. Parking space is never a problem, there is plenty of it.

In our third week here, we experienced flooding that originated in the apartment above us. The flooding was caused by the fact that the upstairs resident had not called in a work order on something that she knew was not working correctly, and it ended up backing the water up and overflowing.

Maintenance came within five minutes of being called, entered the upstairs apartment and had the water shut off right away. Shortly thereafter, their carpet guy, who is an independent contractor, came and removed the wet carpet padding. Maintenance staff installed several commercial grade dehumidifyers right away to make sure there would be no issues with mold and mildew. The head manager, Emily, came to our apartment in person to see the damage and make sure that things would be taken care of.

The flood happened on a Tuesday afternoon. We had the carpets completely redone - new padding and repairs - by Wednesday. The carpets were done by a contractor who went out of his way to make sure that the job was completed that day, and done professionally. After the carpet was repaired, the contractor steam-cleaned the carpets in the entire apartment for us. On
Friday the water damage in the ceiling was fixed and painted.

Maintenance staff has been very helpful and made sure to let me know by phone when people were coming to do work and when things would be done by. The head of maintenance personally came in twice to make sure the carpet was done and to re-hang the hallway door after our apartment was painted. Throughout this process, he was very nice, would take the time to talk with us, and made sure all our concerns were addressed.

This is one of the few communities that I have ever lived that is very pet friendly and even allows large breed dogs. Their pet fees are very reasonable compared to most other places out there. The last place I lived at, I had to pay $300 per pet and then $25 a month additional to my rent. Here I paid $600 for three pets with no additional fees. There are nice, big grassy areas between buildings to walk and play with my dog, and dog pickup-bags are provided for free by the apartment complex, which is very convenient.

We were even allowed to paint our apartment to our heart's content, and everyone on the staff has remarked how nice it looks.

Of course every apartment complex has its problems, and this one does as well:

There are some people here who simply refuse to pick up after their dogs, even though there are free pick-up bags provided. Some people who have no control over their dogs still allow them to run off the leash, making them a danger to other people but also putting their animals at risk.

Some of the neighbors are noisy and you can hear music through the walls, but it is not excessive in my home and it usually only occurs during the day, which I have no problem with. Everyone likes listening to loud music sometimes. Overall, however, this is one of the quieter neighborhoods I have lived. There are playgrounds for children which keeps them from running around like little maniacs, throwing toys at cars, like at the last place I lived.

One of my biggest concerns with this area is security. I think that the complex should ask local police to step up patrols around this area, or hire on-site security guards. There are what appear to be gang members who hang around the complex, which should definitely be addressed, although I'm not sure whether this falls under the responsibility of the apartment managers or the local police department.

I don't think my house is 100% secure, but realistically there are hundreds of ways any home can be broken into, and it should be up to residents to work towards not providing the opportunity and the desire for break ins. This is not a dangerous area per se, but crime happens everywhere and it's just wrong to blame the people you are renting from because someone broke into your home or mugged you in the parking lot.

User Responses
From: potomacview99	Date: 04/22/2005
I truely believe that this prior review was written by someone who works for the company/property. It is to perfect. I had a flood in my apartment, it took longer than 4 days to resolve the issue. It took going over thier head and photos of the damage.
From: BDMhistory	Date: 04/25/2005
No offense, but if you "truely believe" that I work for Potomac Vista then you need to rethink your beliefs because I just moved here and I'm a resident and new to the Woodbridge area to boot. I've also never lived on another Windsor Property. You might want to go look at the last place I lived, I left them a scathing review. They were Cloverleaf Point Apartments (a WMCI company) in Newport News, VA, which is where I moved from. I had a flood here and everything was fixed by the end of the week. The flood happened on Tuesday. I had my carpets repaired Wednesday and the rest fixed, primed, and painted on Friday. Anyone who has ANY damage to their home should document it. You need to take photos for your records and also for your renters' insurance company so you can file a report with them, which you should ALWAYS do if something happens in your apartment, whether the company you're renting from fixes it or not. It also helps if you go to the leasing office and show them photos of the damage. Sometimes they get calls about things that aren't nearly as bad as they are made out to seem, and pictures will help them make your work a priority if there is a lot of damage. And no offense, but FOUR DAYS is a reasonable amount of time for fixing flood damage. Try living where I lived last - the neighbors had no power for A WEEK and the apartment people basically told them to "suck it up" and that they "would get around to it."
From: buoyboy	Date: 07/26/2005
Listen to yourself. You had only lived there a few weeks and that much trouble? Sounds like it doesn't take too much to please you.
From: windsorpotomac	Date: 09/04/2005
Hundreds of negative reviews and one positive review. I'm sure individuals reading this website have commonsense enough to take that in consideration.
From: armyrecruiter	Date: 12/07/2005
Well, I have lived here over a year and I don't have problems with this community. It is definitely one of the better ones in this area. Being military, I also moved in on short notice - no problems with it. Some minor maintenance issues but these are older buildings and stuff breaks. Big deal. I bet you people whine about everything everywhere else you live, too.

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