Mold, bed bugs, predatory rent concessions, pervasive marijuana, stairwell feces and cigarette butts, apartment fire; nice pool, spacious apartments, convenient location. I would have liked these detailed for me before I moved in here (I wouldn't have). Details: Mold: The more affordable apartments in this complex all seem to have mold in common. Don't sign a lease on an apartment that they won't let you see no matter their promises and excuses. Upon moving into a 5th floor apartment in the south tower, the smell of mold was strong and became more unmistakable upon each entry into the apartment. Sure enough, there was green fuzzy webby mold inside all of the lower cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. They said give us a week to clean it up and maintenance scrubbed a small area clean but the mold was still extensive. We didn't get anywhere with management who kept minimizing the problem until we started emailing photos to them of all of the mold that was still present. They finally offered us another apartment that thankfully did not have a mold problem (but we will get to the bed bug problems in a second). The next year when they jacked our rent 16% (we will get to the predatory rent concessions too), we looked at other more affordable apartments in the South tower at management's encouragement and for convenience sake, and after moving our things again we discovered the same smell of mold and extensive water damage in the closet of our intended 11th floor apartment in the south tower. After a similar hassle and again, only after emailing photos of the water damage, they showed us 4 other available apartments in our price range in the south tower, all of which reeked of mold. We wound up moving our things back into our old apartment and negotiating down to a 10% increase which was still absurd but just under our threshold for moving elsewhere. All told, the multiple moves, emails, phone calls, in person visits, in person apartment tours, hassle and bickering was an exhausting waste of time and at our second opportunity to move we quit and just left without trying to go through it all again. Bed bugs: In the 2 years that we have lived here, we have undergone 8 bed bug inspections. Management describes the problem in the vaguest terms of "evidence of bedbugs in a nearby apartment" and "preventative treatments" but refuses to allow us to communicate with the pest control vendor or get specifics about the extent of the problem. For the first inspection, they sent us an email instructing us to discard our bedding, clothes, and upholstered furniture. This was 4 months after we had moved in, and after we demanded more detailed explanation and some kind of reimbursement before discarding so many of our belongings they said it was a mistake and all we had to do was dry all of our clothes in the heat of the drier, bundle them all up in bags, and move all of our furniture at least 2 feet away from any wall for 2 inspections spaced a week apart. Thankfully we never suffered an infestation but the inconvenience of going through this process 8 times was miserable. Predatory rent concessions: This management company gets around DC's rent control by "offering rent concessions." For example, they list our rent at over $4,000 but then give a "rent concession" of over $2,000 so the rent we actually pay is reasonable. However this allows them to jack our rent essentially as much as they want, in our case 16%, between leases, and they take advantage of the cost and inconvenience of the alternative of us moving to squeeze as much rent out of us as possible through an infuriating negotiation process (see the mold story above). Pervasive marijuana: We can't leave our widows open without the smell of marijuana blowing in from other apartments. Stairwell feces and cigarette butts: It is our theory that there is at least one and maybe a handful of neighbors on our floor and the neighboring floors who take their dogs for a "walk" out their apartment to the stairwell and smoke cigarettes while their dogs relieve themselves in the stairwell. That is fun to come home to. Apartment fire: A unit burned down recently because of what they emailed us was a malfunctioning dishwasher. The family living there was displaced and the nearby apartments had to deal with water damage from the fire response. Frightening. Nice pool: The pool is nice for lap swimming and hanging out. It is well kept and they are good about being open Memorial to Labor Day and their early morning and late evening hours are generous. It is the biggest perk of living here. Spacious apartments: If you can dodge the mold, bedbugs, smoke, feces, and fires, the apartments can otherwise be spacious and bright. Convenient location: Underground supermarket access, near the red line, decent restaurants and fast-casual food. Rock creek jogging/biking close. Bottom line: we are moving after 2 years of holding out hope that all the nasty things would be temporary. read more

This apartment is a really, really mixed bag. On one hand, the location can't be beat, and the apartments themselves are great for the price. But management ranges from fine to awful, and I feel that in the last year it's only gotten worse. They consistently try to scam residents by raising the rent each year by more than they are legally allowed to. The desk service is hit-and-miss...they are usually (but not always) friendly, and they sometimes lose packages for days on end. Maintenance is also hit-and-miss, and requests for service often go unaddressed until you submit second or third requests for the same thing. Overall, this is a decent choice and a great value, but only if you're willing to deal with headaches and spotty service, and are willing to stand up for yourself when it comes to lease renewal and rent increases. read more

This apartment complex has probably the worst management company that you could possibly find. My two friends and I all moved into an apartment in the south building in June of 2018. Almost immediately, we noticed that there was a grotesque amount of mold growing rapidly on our walls. All three of us were having trouble breathing in the apartment. It became clear to us that the mold had been there all along, and was simply scraped off and painted over before we moved in. When we contacted the management/repair services about the issue, they sent someone to do the same thing again, scrape off and paint over. No shocking of the mold, no sanitary change at all, and no apology. It was only the third time we notified them of the situation that they shocked HALF of the mold in the apartment, claiming they would come back to finish the job (which they never did). Once we FINALLY moved out at the end of May 2019, a charge of $460 appeared on our account a month and a half after we had vacated our apartment and terminated our lease. There was no form of notification telling us that this charge existed, and when I called to ask what the charge was for, I was constantly told that the office manager (Russell Parson) would call me back later or send me an email tomorrow - all of which never happened. The only way I ever found out why we were still being charged was to have my FATHER call them and ask for information (which, I will add, was illegally provided to him given that he was not on the lease or involved with the renting of the apartment in any way). Finally, the information they gave us regarding the nature of the charge is false, they closed all of our accounts so we can't even view the issues that supposedly caused this whole issue, and they still are not returning my calls. DO NOT RENT HERE. You will have to fight for everything. I just want to be done with this horrific experience. If giving 0 stars were an option, I would. read more

I am a long-time resident.Things have changed over the years.The location and apartment spaciousness are still the same.However,periodic elevator problems,leaks and a garage in. need of repair still are problems.Company needs to invest some money in some repairs to restore the building's former glory... Procimity to metro,grocery store and other conveniences are definite pluses.Now, there seem to be mice,bed bugs and other problems. Perhaps,the company needs to invest more time and money into the infrastructure of the buildin Now,there seems to be some lag time with package delivery!If the packages are delivered late morning or early afternoon,why do we get notification in the even The problems with bed bugs,mice and rats continue! The management needs to do a building-wife inspection and treatment!Perhaps,the health department should be consulted to determine if there are any code violations! This is no longer a luxury building,but a place for transients who just do not care! read more

There are some problems within building! Although the location is excellent,this place has some issues The elevators are periodically broken,the garage is falling apart,and the animals are creating havoc! Room size is good,but not sure the gods outweighs the bad! read more

Honestly, this is 2.5 star rating. I moved to DC from New York for work and needed to find a place that would be close to the red line for commuting purposes. There are some positives to this building: the apartments are spacious, it's close the the train and grocery store and the staff at the front desk are pretty great. At 3003, I lived in a studio that could've basically been a one bedroom and it was an affordable price. The BIGGEST positive: Julie Jackson from the leasing office. Julie was the SHINING light of this community - extremely knowledgeable and helpful. So it's no wonder she recently got a promotion to a different Equity Residential community about a month ago. The rest of the leasing office - they were unresponsive, disorganized, would often hang up on you if you called and were just rude and unhelpful. That is, with the exception of Shanna Brown - She is also OUTSTANDING. By the time moved out of 3003, Shanna had been with the leasing office for a few months now, and the difference between her and other people I've had to work with in that office is like night and day. Julie and Shanna are amazing. Hands down the most responsive and helpful people in that office. So honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Shanna got a promotion to another community soon. If you can, I would avoid the rest and work with her. I can't sing high enough praises about how professional and great she was to work with. The front desk staff during the week, weekend and the students who work during the evening are also great. There were unfortunately too many other negatives that over time, outweighed the positives about living here. The biggest is that building is essentially a dorm for the schools in the area. As a professional, it's hard to deal with the fact that your home is their dorm. Drunken behavior, trash in the halls, running up and down the halls, stupidly running into elevators to push all the buttons and then dashing out as a "joke", pulling the fire alarm as a "prank" in the early hours of the morning...if you are a working adult like myself, this gets old very fast. And this likely is not the community for you. The last unfortunate bit is dealing with how Equity Residential generally deals with rent and renewals as this is a "rent controlled building". Equity Residential seems to be running a rent connection scam and the tenant association even had council members attend a meeting where we talked about this. Equity Residential advertises a low rent amount for an apartment but on your lease they will put the "market rate" - some astronomical amount. Then in an addendum to your lease, they will provide you with a monthly concession. Fine. BUT then when you are up for renewal, the rent that is raised is not the amount you have actually been paying in rent each month (what they put on the addendum instead of the lease) but that "market rate" listed on your lease. If you'd like to renew, they will offer yet another concession...but if you do the math, it's way more than they are legally allowed to charge you as an increase (CPI plus [x]%) since they increased the "market rate" amount that was listed on the lease and not the rent amount you were actually paying, but was listed on the addendum. Confusing? Yes. It may not actually be against the letter of the law, but it is definitely against the spirit of it. If you can, urge that the rent amount on your lease is the amount you'll be paying each month - not the made up "market rate". Fight against the addendum. All in all, I'd say be wary about joining this community if you are not a student. Or just come knowing that you'll likely only stay a year because the re-negotiating your rent every year, is not a sustainable game plan. They don't seem to be concerned with the attrition of residents - which probably shows you that their money likely lies with the agreements they have to provide housing for neighboring shools. read more

Tried to go to the pool with my friend who's LIVED HERE for nearly a year. Her roommate put the guest pass somewhere - but god forbid management forgive that oversight for literally two hours of one single day. They make her pay five bucks. No cash, no card, just check. After we go through the epic hassle of getting that together - management hangs out for a while, as we continue to wait for a pool guest pass. MANAGEMENT HERE IS TERRRRREEIBLE. Rude and unprofessional. Oh and the pool clerks are nazis. No drinking water by the pool....scuse me, the pools made of water. Oh and valet means you park your own car here apparently. Never move here it's legit the worst experience I've EVER had with a professional management company. Go to Avalon, or Camden, or Ava (there's one across the street). Or legit live in a cardboard box - it'd be preferable. read more

Where to start... I should have trusted my gut the week we were about to move into the apartment complex. Julie was strongly pushing us to look at their other property on Connecticut Avenue (Connecticut Heights). But we didn't want to live too far from the metro or the grocery store so we kept pushing. We found our apartment available on their website and did the application online. It was easy and that was the last thing that was ever easy with this place. The day of our walk thru, we noticed that the parquet floors were in dire need of a care. Like a sand down and refinishing job. We also noticed that our bathroom ceiling was peeling and cracking from what looks like water damage from the apartment above us. To this day still looks like that despite asking them to come in numerous times to fix! We mentioned the floors but gave up after no response from Julie. Additionally, our apartment was constantly smelling like smoke (we don't smoke). We asked for new filters in the AC units to see if that would help, but it didn't. We ended up just using painter's tape to cover any cracks along our apartment because we couldn't stand it. The moronic thing is, unless you can find the person who is smoking, they won't do anything. And they can't do anything really because the no-smoking policy is only for the common areas!! Moving in was another big hassle. Their loading dock is ridiculously far from the South side of the complex. Something they didn't mention to us until the day before we were scheduled to move in. On top of that, their freight elevator was out of service. So we had to use one of the two main elevators and people were using them while we were trying to move in!! The amount of trips it took for us just to get the elevator synced up and the back and forth trips to the loading dock ate up our "amenity reservation" period of 3 hrs (that's the max they'll reserve it for you). We weren't able to move everything unfortunately, so we had to reserve the freight elevator another day. That was super frustrating. Then, a few months into living here, my boyfriend shakes me awake one night shouting that he saw a mouse in the living room. We spend the next day trying to track this mouse and requested an exterminator to come over. The building gives us a guy from Orkin who shows up and puts down sticky pads and tells us to wait a week. My boyfriend who can't stand pests, decides to take it into his own hands and ends up finding huge holes in the baseboards of the cabinets which is probably how the mouse got into our unit in the first place!!! Something I wish I had known before we ended up living here is the company's policy on month-to-month. In the past, our previous management companies would let us go month-to-month after our 1-year lease, increasing our rent by the acceptable rent control percentage. However, at this property, that is not the case. That's because they give you a monthly concession for the duration of your 1-year lease. If you choose not to renew your 1-year lease, that rental concession is knocked off and you are required to pay an obscene amount of money - like almost double what your current rate is. For example, we were paying $1630 a month, if we chose to go month-to-month they wanted us to pay close to $3200 a month. I don't know about you, but that's pretty sketchy business. On top of that, if you do decide to renew with a 1-year lease, because they record your unit at that ridiculous $3200 a month to DC housing, your new rate goes up WAY more than you think. (Just for numbers sake, 5% on $1630 is only $81. But 5% on $3200 is $160.) What else can I say... A dog was electrocuted a few months back because of the deteriorating state of the property (the entire dog walking area right now is being "fixed" because of this issue). If you have a car, beware, there have been some break-ins. Security is poor. I've come in through the garage only to find the access door wide open for people to come and go. There are several holes in garage too. Mostly water damage, which then leads me to thinking there might even be some mold problems. Their leasing staff is inept. The prior desk receptionist (not the lobby receptionist, but the person in the leasing office) was always looking so disheveled and startled. She wasn't approachable and she definitely didn't have a strong customer focus. She often comes off cold and rude. And that's pretty much for all of them - James, Julie, Marco, et al. When we put in our 60 days notice, they were super quick to get us our move-out information. I wish they would put that much care and attention to everything else that they do. One thing I also hated, they called a few times to ask if they could show our apartment to people. We gave them a firm no. Just walk away from this place. It's not the same ever since Archstone was acquired by Avalon and Equity. Both of these companies are horrible, only want profits, and don't understand customer service. read more

TL;DR In my opinion you should do yourself a favor and not move here. Also you should not trust the management staff. Unfortunately all the bad reviews are true! Indeed, I believe that they are doing a "Rent Concession" scam which basically is a bait and switch (check this article for more informations: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/article/20832392/landlords-exploit-dc-rent-control-laws-jacking-up-prices-after-concessions-expire). Also they will silently take your deposit money by claiming that the apartment needs professional cleaning but they will not offer any real prof, or even worse: close-up, blurred pictures. If after reading all the reviews you still decided to move in this building you should know that if you have troubles you can always find help and an ally in the Office of the Tenant Advocate (http://ota.dc.gov). read more

I've been swindled! The lobby is beautiful, Julie in the rental office is very nice, the apartments have a fresh coat of paint and the hardwood floors are recently finished. I needed an apartment for the year of my fellowship. My office is in the basement of the Capitol Bldg, and I wanted something with a west facing balcony so I could get sun in the afternoon/evening if I got home before sunset... Reality was not slow to hit me. I was rarely going to be home before 9pm and about a month after I moved in, they started construction on the west buildings' balconies. I dealt with the noise from the west building, rejoiced whenever weather stopped construction, and hoped that they wouldn't need to start on my balcony until after I moved. No such luck. Before I get to that, let me list the other inconveniences and lame management practices: 1. They charge a $600 amenities fee when you move in which includes services such as the business center, coffee/tea, and general upkeep of common areas. They've taken away the printer (I was told I could email my confidential documents to the desk staff to print!), limited coffee/tea to morning hours, and the common areas would not pass my grandma's criteria, which is saying something since rumor has it, she "bathed" in whiskey. Not clean. 2. Maintenance has entered my apartment 3 times even after being asked to wait until I was home because I have a skittish cat. On one instance, over the Winter, the floor was lifting due to a leak and they entered the apartment when I wasn't home, moved furniture, tore up the floor and replaced the damaged areas. After several minutes of panicked searching I found my cat in an empty piece of luggage on the top shelf of the closet. She stayed there... for a really long time! 3. UDC students- I am young enough to remember college life... especially how every apartment party was shut down around 11pm. Not only did they not shut it down, but I had to break up a fight outside my door, AND some little s#$% called me ma'am. MA'AM! Do you know how devastating that was?! I wanted to go in to show them how this ma'am does a keg stand, but instead I let it add to my growing disdain for Archstone Van Ness. 4. College kids are one thing, but those pubescent things running around, slamming doors, and yelling at each other in cracking voices down the hall.... yeah. They're high school students, still warm from the death grip of their mother's goodbye... she was right to think that they are not ready to live on their own. And no, Archstone Van Ness did not disclose that they rent out apartments as DORMS to UDC. 5. The fire alarm. Granted, I read that the building had a death in 2006 due to a fire, and I totally in support of not dying, but they seem to have overcompensated with an alarm system that goes off once a month, VERY loudly, and for a VERY long time. Do you know how hard it is to get a cat out of luggage on the top shelf of a closet? I won't elaborate here.... 6. The building now allows dogs without ever consulting with existing residents. I love dogs, love! But, this means that all of the lovely grassy shared space on the property is covered in... s&^%. 7. The garbage... seriously. This is elementary property management, residents should not be surrounded by the smell of garbage. Reflect back to #4 and common eating/sanitation habits at that age. Lastly, the balcony... I am reasonable when it comes to expectations. If you get food poisoning, they reimburse your meal. If they cancel your flight, they book you on a new one. If you travel to India with grand expectations of cleanliness, the comforts of a developed country, and bland food, then you are an idiot and don't even deserve a trip home. If you sign a lease with a building that promises comfort, convenience, friendly staff, and an apartment that feels like a home, you are willing to pay more in rent. But for $2,200/ month, you should not have to live with taped up windows, dust, and NOISE 8 hours a day. If this is unavoidable, the property manager should work with you to find an acceptable solution. Call me a bleeding heart, but I couldn't bear feeding my cat in the luggage on the top shelf of the closet. I may not always be home to suffer through the noise, but she is, and she gets ulcers when stressed out. I, instead of enjoying glass(es) of wine on the balcony, will suffocate in an apartment with no windows to enjoy even a glimpse of the sun during the best months of DC weather. What do I get for these sacrifice? Refunded amenities fees? no. Decreased rent? no. Ability to MOVE to another apartment in the bldg during construction for the remaining 2 months of my lease? no. But hey, they "understand my frustration" and can offer me a $30/month refund for the loss of a balcony that adds at least $200/month to the cost of rent... This, I'm pretty sure is more insulting than being called "ma'am... Yes, yes, I believe it is. read more

This building was once run by competent and trustworthy people, but in the last few years its gone way downhill. The management staff comes off as friendly and kind, but they are not to be trusted. One time we had our wall painted and they damaged a piece of our furniture and, instead of doing the right thing by either paying for the damage or hiring someone to fix it, they said that unless I prove to them that they damaged it they would not take the blame. The only way to prove it is to literally put a video camera in my apartment. At that point my trust was lost with them. This place is OK if you plan on staying for exactly 1 year, not more than that. Once your year is up then they will increase your rent by 12-15%. It's impossible to become a month-to-month tenant because they will force you to pay the full chargeable amount without a concession. Since this building is rent controlled, they report to the DC government what they can charge for your unit, which is often way above market value. 3003 Van Ness was reporting to the DC gov that my "rent" (or total amount they can charge) was about 50% more than what I was actually paying. What's frustratung was that I was paying Market Value, even though they were reporting to DC gov that my rent was 50% higher. Once your year is up, they will increase your rent by any percentage they want OR you can become a month-to-month tenant by paying the full amount that is being reported to DC gov. It's a complete scam. Please refer to this link if you would like to learn more about how they scam their residents: https://sites.google.com/site/vnsta3003/announcements/howresidentsarebeingtrickedintopayingtoomuchrentat3003vanness Mgmt tries puts on a smile and they do the minimal so they look good. They have a birthday cake once a month for residents. Nice, right? Meanwhile, they don't provide any wipes in the gym to clean the machines, half the machines are broken, and half the time their are no water cups. When I tell them about this issue, they tell me that the gym is " a privilege." I can keep going for days. When it comes down to it, this building is run by untrustworthy classless fools. It's not a place to call "home," and mgmt wants to keep it that way (with a smile). read more

I'll start this review by saying that the two stars stand for two things: location and square footage. This complex is in a great location, just a block from the Van Ness red line metro stop. The apartments are spacious and in pretty good condition. These two things convinced us to live here. We were pretty happy at first, then the reality set in. This is NOT a good place to live. Equity Residential actively participates in a "bait and switch" rent scheme. We viewed an 800 square feet unit in October 2015 that was listed on the website as $1,770/month. The leasing agent told us that since we were moving in during the slower winter months, that the rent wouldn't go up that much after a year. We loved the building, location, amenities (pool - which is not managed by Equity, by the way) and we even had friends in the building that had moved in within the last year. We proceeded with renting the unit and at the time we put down the security deposit and signed the lease, we saw that the "monthly rent" on the lease was listed as $3,400. Underneath that section, the lease said we were receiving a "monthly concession," which brought the monthly rent owed to $1,770. We were told that this was a formality. We signed, not understanding that this was the "bait" of the "bait and switch." In July 2016, we received a notice that our new rent was going to be $3,468 starting in late October if we didn't sign a new lease. This came as a huge shock, so we asked Equity what we would pay if we signed another year lease. They came back with an "offer" of $1,930/month, which is $160 more than what we were paying. We knew that DC did not require tenants to sign a new lease, that we could go month to month after a year. We also knew that DC law says that landlords in rent controlled buildings cannot raise rent more than 2%+CPI (which is 0 this year). What was even more shady is that when we questioned the leasing agent about this via email, she suggested we discuss this in person because "there had been a misunderstanding." We continued to pursue our case, emailing all of the DC laws as proof that Equity was out of line in raising our rent more than the 2% allowed by law. We even presented them with their own listings of apartments in the building larger than ours that they were renting for less than our proposed increase. They refused to negotiate and in an email told us that their original offer was their final one, and attached the notice to vacate form for us to fill out in case we wanted to move out. And so move out we did. We were effecitvely evicted from our home by requesting that they abide by rental laws. Equity completely lost our trust and we will never consider renting from them again. For more proof that this is not an isolated incident, read the stories in this article: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/article/20832392/landlords-exploit-dc-rent-control-laws-jacking-up-prices-after-concessions-expire Other things to be aware of: Security - multiple thefts in the garage, doors are left propped open Fire Alarms - Go off frequently and not on all floors, which is extremely dangerous Elevators - Constantly being repaired and/or not working Smoke - Vents do not work properly and smoke smell can seep in, their solution is to put a filter over the vent in your apartment but it only helps slightly. Danger to Pets - A dog was electrocuted and killed last spring: http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/92882223-story read more

Unsafe, mold and sewage problems, and management will lie, cheat and steal from you. One of the worst management companies ever! My list of complaints against this building and the management is endless, but here is a short list: 1. I found mold growing on my bedroom walls. When I asked for a repair, they ripped out the walls and floor in my bedroom (and I had to sleep elsewhere with no concession), and then only fixed half of it. When I pointed out other mold that was not addressed, but was previously pointed out, I was again evicted from my bedroom for several days and had to sleep on my couch. 2. I routinely had raw sewage come up the pipe and into my kitchen sink. This wasn't simply the sink being backed up. It was because I was on a lower floor and all the apartments above me shared the same sewer line, so when everyone was using the sinks at the same time (i.e. almost every morning or evening), their bile would end up in my sink and even someones spilling over onto the counter tops. Management refused to make any long term solutions to the problem other than call a plumber and have it snaked. The plumber told me that the snaking wouldn't solve the problem because it was years of buildup in the pipes and the pipes could no longer handle the volume of flow. When I asked management about this, they said that was absurd and wanted to know the name of the plumber who told me that so that they could stop using him. 3. The building began renting units out to local Universities as dormitories. According to DC law, maximum occupancy of an apartment unit is number of bedrooms plus 1. Therefore, a 1 bedroom apartment could only have a maximum of three adult tenants. However, Equity has had the units rezoned as dorms, so they now squeeze 4 adults (18-22 years old) into one bedroom apartments. What this means for everyone else is that the noise levels are out of control. Even just normal living sounds are intensified because you have too many people living in the place and they're usually on 24 hour schedules between the 4 of them. Complaints about noise from these dorms are not handled by management. If you have a problem with noise coming from those units, you are told to take the complaints to UDC directly. Are you kidding me? 4. There were at least a dozen break-ins while I lived there and security generally was very lax (unless of course you want to go to the pool, then they have to check ID). There is simply a lot of entries to the building and a ton of people living there, so it's difficult to control that many people and entry points. That being said, management refused to install cameras or hire any additional security. This is even after someone was found to be living in the social lounge area. 5. There is a 60 day notice requirement in the lease. Already, that is outrageous. I gave 45 days notice and was explicitly told by the office manager that they wouldn't hold me to the 60 days and nor would they charge me for the 15 day difference (because I offered to stay the full 60). Then, two weeks after I move out, I'm hit with a $1000+ bill for failure to give proper notice, even though I was explicitly told by the office manager that they would not charge me. They will lie, cheat, and steal to get every penny out of you. Literally one of the worst living situations ever. Don't be fooled by the cheap rents and nice pool. Every other aspect of this place is a nightmare. read more

Highlights (lowlights, really): -- unconscionable lack of safety; -- careless and unhelpful staff; -- bait-and-switch rent increases. The only good things that can be said about this building are that the floor plans are large and it's close to metro. LACK OF SAFETY. During the three+ years I lived there, there were somewhere between ten and thirty burglaries that had similar circumstances: there was no forced entry and they took place during the daytime. In my opinion, if someone is getting into locked apartments without forcing entry, that means that the burglar(s) had keys to the apartments. That's pretty scary. Valuables such as jewelry, electronics, and credit cards were stolen from residents. Management refused to purchase security cameras for elevators and hallways. Also, multiple women were sexually assaulted by a man in elevators in the building. Management refused to purchase security cameras for elevators. Additionally, an armed homeless person took up residence in the party room. That's not a joke or an exaggeration. Management responded by refusing to post pictures of the person on the premises to warn the community. Further, employees of Equity Management routinely let into the building people who did not live there and/or who have not provided identification. DC Police noted that lack of security when talking to residents about the crime spree in the building. Finally, the incident that reminded me to write this review: http://legacy.wusa9.com/story/news/local/dc/2016/02/17/dog-electrocuted-woman-blames-apartment-complex/80500206/. The sum total of the above safety issues would be hilarious if they weren't so tragic. Management flat-out refuses to do what it takes to keep residents safe. STAFF. There are well-meaning staff and there are staff who simply do not care or are actively and aggressively unhelpful. The well-meaning staff open the front door for you (or prop open the door) without asking for identification or a keyfob for entry. The careless or aggressively unhelpful ones leave the front desk unattended for extended periods of time; the front desk and closet across the entryway have been left unlocked, allowing open access to packages delivered to the front desk for residents to anyone who might be dishonest enough to help themselves to them. BAIT-AND-SWITCH RENT INCREASES. Equity Management has a clause in its leases that charges an unrealistic imaginary rent (let's say, for example, $3000 for a 1-BR) and then tells you that they're giving you a "concession" down to market rate (for example $2000 for that 1-BR, so the "concession" is $1000). If you would like to go month-to-month after your lease expires as is your right as a tenant in DC, you have to pay the full imaginary rent plus the maximum increase allowed by law (CPI+2%). The DC Office of the Tenant Advocate and many tenants believe that this bait-and-switch tactic is illegal and it is being challenged in court presently. In summary, save yourself the misery and hassle of living at that place. You have a choice to avoid it; there are plenty of other buildings in the area. My heart goes out to the elderly folks who are stuck living there due to rent control keeping their apartments there affordable for them. I didn't fully recognize how non-standard and sub-standard management's treatment of their residents was until I left. I'm much happier now. Learn from my mistake. read more

Be forewarned: Equity Residential aggressively and illegally will raise your rent when your lease comes up for renewal. When the leasing office sends out annual renewal notices, it frequently requests rent increases of several hundred dollars a month or even over a thousand dollars a month. Even if you can negotiate a lower rent, it's likely that you'll still end up paying substantially more than the legal limit. The best way to fight this is to spread the word about this scam, which is why I felt compelled to share this on Yelp. As more and more people report their cases, the more likely it is that we will be able to stop this illegal action against tenants. On the positive side, we have an amazing tenants' association that has been extremely vigilant and helpful, acting as a check and balance to the property management company. Also, the building has a history of break-ins to residences and cars alike, at least since I've been here over the past few years. Hot water and elevators frequently has issues. My advice is lock your door and hold on to your lease tightly. read more

Don't be deceived by the large apartments and walk in closets because they do not make up for the unsafe conditions you'll have to live around. Before you sign a lease take some time to walk around the entire premise, including the garage. Outside of the building there are exposed wires and lighting issues everywhere. Unfortunately, this neglect led to a 60 lb dog being electrocuted (actually killed) and three people receiving electrical shocks during the same incident. What makes the situation worse is that it appears that management is not taking the incident seriously and has done next to nothing to correct the problem, except turn off the power in that area so other animals and children will not be killed. In the garage you will see large holes in the ceiling where the ceiling has actually fallen out. If you go at the right time you might even see part of the ceiling sitting on top of a car. There are also exposed wires throughout the garage and a strong strong odor of sewage. Although the building is considered pet-friendly, neither management nor its tenants are friendly toward pets. Management has not provided a safe environment to house an animal (i.e. electrocution of a large dog) and tenants continually hound pet owners about not bringing their dogs onto elevators or particular grass that is surrounding the building. Once I was told to stop my dog from looking at a particular tenant as we were walking through the lobby. You will find people that don't like dogs everywhere, however, tenants in the building seem to be holding a pet grudge and taking it out on all of the innocent cats and dogs. The building has a mouse problem. My apartment had 6 mice playing a soccer game on my bed and playing hide-and-seek in my laundry basket for months. They were around for so long that they were each assigned names. Management's fix was placing sticky traps in the middle of the kitchen, which were only successful in catching my dog. I moved out because of the mice and management had the apartment filled in 1 week! Those poor people are definitely living with Leo and Fred (the mice leaders) still. There is more but I am tired of complaining already. Before you sign a lease at 3003 Van Ness spend some time walking around the building and talking to tenants that currently live in the building. You will end up paying a lot of money to spend a lot of time angry at management and dealing with maintenance and rodent issues. read more

Didn't make it past the application process, even though I definitely qualified. First, they say I need to make 2.5 times the rent; then, when I pay $350 ($200 reservation fee and $150 application fee for 2 people), they say "it's a balance of factors." I check my credit; it's average/upper average and I've not had issues anywhere else. As such, forfeited $150 application fee. It turned out to be perfect, because I applied for and got a *fantastic* place in Cleveland Park, but I still want to say the following: James is *wildly* inconsiderate and unprofessional. After saying the application process would take 2 hours, then stating I was $17 or $18 off the requirement (what? ridiculous), it was a hassle to get the man on the phone for a week. After getting him at the end of a week, he disappeared on an unannounced week-long vacation, which I only learned about after speaking to a different agent. He never got back to me after that and should most definitely be fired if this a pattern. He should also tie his shoelaces when he meets prospective residents. I mean, I'm a casual guy, but for shame, man. Julie ended up having to check and tell me about rejection; she was polite and understanding. They initially said the reservation fee refund would be returned in 3-4 weeks but I got it in 2 days...which makes no sense, so they probably make that up as they go. ALSO, the apartment I saw never went back up on the website; I basically *live* online and I checked obsessively. This leads me to believe they had multiple applicants for the same apartment, even though I paid a "reservation" fee. I could be absolutely mistaken about that policy, but I'm positive this is a *terrible* management company. Important, too, is when looking and *listening* around, you sense how bad it would be to live with the very many UDC students; the reviews on here are a testament to that notion. Lastly, the 1-star is for the great location, very close to a Giant grocery store, cvs, and the metro. read more

I absolutely love my spacious studio apartment. I have a spacious balcony and a great view. The building does a great job at keeping the common areas clean. The area is so convenient easy access to the metro, Giants, dry cleaners, liquor store and so much more. I am so happy I chose 3003 Van Ness as my home! read more

While I had previously enjoyed living here the last 2.5 years, I have recently run into issues that have made living here quite difficult. UDC uses the apartments here as resident housing--be prepared to possibly deal with dorm-like life of hearing noise late night, as students are not provided/even suggested to have carpeting on hardwood floors http://www.udc.edu/docs/housing/Suggested_and_Prohibited_Items_Handout_071510.pdf Four students are in converted 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartments, with no carpet, and no substantial furniture to absorb noise. When you call the management/front desk to complain of noise, the message is relayed to the UDC RA, who in turn tells them to be quiet. Noise may die down for a short while, but then restart. Both apartment management and UDC Housing seem reluctant and ineffective in addressing the core issue of not having sufficient sound barriers and the discrepancies between student dorm-life and professional/family lives. If you are unlucky to live below a student apartment, be prepared to make multiple calls a night for a few scant hours of sleep. read more

Honestly, My partner and I were looking for excellent service, value and SPACE in our first home together. We were so lucky to find this place, and to have an AMAZING leasing agent named Nancy. I can say that this move would have been completely miserable if we hadn't received such wonderful service, understanding, and friendliness from Nancy. After living here for almost 2 weeks, we are more than satisfied with our new home. 3003 has become our pride and joy, our community, and a place where we are proud to call home. Thank you to the staff for making things easy for us, for Nancy for being so patient with all of our questions, and for the wonderful community welcoming us into the building. We really love it here. This wouldn't feel like home without all the love we have received. Definitely give it 5 stars as a building, and 10 stars for excellent service from our leasing agent Nancy! read more

Over three months since I gave 3303 Van Ness 1 star. Since then my stay has improved immensely. The garbage rooms are always spotless and the hallways are free of debris. The management team really cares about the residents and have turned this community around and made into a fantastic place to live. I'm really pleased! Our lease is coming up and as long as the rent doesn't increase too much, we will definitely sign for another year. read more

It's all great until it's not. These apartments are designed to be lived in for one year. After that, things start falling apart. Paint chips, cabinets yellow, floors warp...they'll change it all out for the next tennant. Oh, and don't get me started on the weird dust/lint that comes out of all of the vents. It's a pain in the butt to clean. The included utilities almost make up for it. The residents are a mixed bag, but in general they are quiet: big bonus. This almost makes up for the crazies that expect that people shouldn't be allowed to walk down the hall to do their laundry in their PJ pants (yes, this resulted in a complaint.) The front desk staff is amazing. No complaints. The front entryway is impressive. We buy a lot of things online and the front desk has allowed this to be effortless. As in most apartments in the city, yes, there are infestations and no, Archstone did not handle it well. Moving on. I'll miss the location. BTW, the gym is super small: don't trust the pictures. But it does have tvs attached the the eliptical. And the pool is great. Still... read more

Van Ness killed a dog by electrocution from a faulty live wire under the pavement by the back door by the pool in 2016. There are recordings of Avis lying about the incident, recordings of the maintenance admitting they knew of this issue for 15 years, pepco came out the night of the incident and found the live wire in 15 minutes, DCRA issued over 20 code violations against the safety of this building. Avis lied about a car being broken into and never failed to tell the resident that they caught the person to give them an opportunity to go to court. A resident was assaulted by the door man! Google dog electrocuted in DC. The truth is there, the facts are there! They will be nice and accommodating until something goes wrong, then they turn on you and lie to you, lipstick on a pig! read more

Great customer service and clean. The only issue I would say is n9t having a laundry in apartment

Most of the staff in this building is not professional or polite. Worst than the concessions that they now use in most apartments (that can reach more than $1,000), the management staff seeks to convince new renters that a lease with concessions is identical to a lease without them. Similar apartments have notably different rents (i.e., sometimes negotiations works in favor of lowering rents). Inside the units, it often smells badly due to many tenants smoking tobacco or marijuana. read more

My second year at Van Ness and really pleased with it. The staff, including the 24 hour front desk, is always helpful and kind, and the amenities have been great. Fantastic outdoor pool for the summer, open early in the mornings until 9pm, and they just completely remodeled the gym, doubling its size, adding fresh carpet and paint, and brand new equipment. Right next door to the red line, lots of new restaurants coming to the area, and you literally don't even have to go outside to get to the grocery store (you can get to Giant through the parking garage). Highly recommend. read more

This is the WORST place I have ever lived and I'm only 26 I have lived in far worse and more disgusting college dorms in my day. I lived here for two years and just moved out thank GOD! The building management was so sad I began to laugh at their incompetence. I have called and called and called the leasing office some days from work and never gotten anyone to answer the phone. I actually called so many times one day and no one answered that I had the front desk go check and see if they were dead in there. Our elevator was broken so many times my calves are now the size of tree trunks because I'm so used to walking up to my floor via stairs. Once I called because my mail box key wasn't working and they had randomly changed the locks and not given us new keys. They then said they had to replace the locks again because they only made one copy of the key which they lost. The washers are also broken at least once a week so don't expect to get anything washed, ever. We were charged $50 for our dog chewing screens repeatedly (which would be fine if he had actually done so.) He chewed one screen and each time we opened a service request they would close it and not actually fix the screen. Finally they called and sent a thousand emails because we we'rent paying the charge. After one full year they realized their mistake and finally took it off ... Cherry on top - we just moved out and our lease ends April 30th although we have already moved out. Found out today that they new tenants have already been moving things in even though we haven't turned in keys and paid rent until the end of the month aka the building has been letting them up without our permission. Called and they said there isn't anything they can do about it because they have no record of us having a May 1 move out date to begin with. If you plan on moving here prepare yourself to be in the SciFi zone and for plenty of opposite days. Good luck with these idiots! read more

I realized that there were no reviews under the buildings current name, so I thought I'd add one. The building was called Van Ness South up until about a year ago (I think), and there are reviews under that name. This is probably one of the most convenient apartments buildings in the city. It is less than a block away from the Van Ness-UDC metro on the red line, and there is an underground tunnel to Giant (which also takes you within feet of the metro). Connecticut Avenue is a wonderful street with lots to do, and the L2 bus will take you between Woodley park and Chevy Chase Circle. The H2/H4 buses will also take you to Columbia Heights. The building is completely satisfactory, though not much more. Most units have balconies, and there is a HUGE, fantastic pool shared between 4 buildings in the complex. It has both a "relaxing"-type shallow end and 3 lap lanes. Except on the hottest days, I have always been able to get a lounge chair. There is also a small but adequate gym in the basement, and even a sauna. The leasing office can be a major pain (there is a lot of turn over, and none of the agents seem to talk to each other), but maintenance is good, most things are fixed within a day or two. There is one spectacular front desk lady, but the regular door man is terrible (he does not open the door far enough for you to get inside...major fail). We did have ants once and a mouse twice. Both times maintenance took care of the problem. Overall, I would recommend VNS mostly for the location and the awesome pool. And while Archstone management can be a pain at times, they also are better than a lot of other places in the city. read more

Our car was broken into after only two weeks of parking in the garage. In my opinion, it was negligent to not be informed of this problem. We hould have been informed that it was dangerous to leave items in our vehicle. In my opinion, more should be done, such as security cameras or in the very least, residents be warned/ informed. read more

The apartment is in a great location and has the potential to be great, but because of management and staff, its quality and safety is questionable. There are some questionable individuals in the apartment complex sometimes--not sure if residents or wanderers who came in. The security at the front desk just let anyone come and go. To be fair, the apartment complex is just way too huge and there's way too many people living here for there to be a sense of a safe community--everyone seems to be a stranger. The building complex is falling apart with exposed electrical wires and cardboard boxes taped to the ceiling to cover up what I assume to be large openings. For the apartment itself, the walls are very thin and I can hear a lot of what my neighbor is doing, and when they open and close their doors. Having said that, the apartment is very spacious and I can't complain about the in-unit AC and amenities. Maintenance will never come to fulfill your requests. I called front desk at 3 AM for a loud beeping sound outside my apartment 2 nights in a row, and they put in a maintenance request for me both times, but they still haven't fixed it. I also emailed management a few times, and they eventually stopped responding and the beeping is still going on. read more

I am a prospective resident and working with the leasing team has honestly turned me off so much from the apartment that I am genuinely considering letting them keep the holding deposit and looking somewhere else. No one returns my emails, I ask questions and get nothing in response, they aren't attentive to what I'm saying and I've honestly been left to my own devices. I complained and they said they'd do something and I haven't heard anything. The only reason I gave them two stars instead of one is because the property has great value and an amazing deal. The fact that the staff has made me want to look somewhere else says alot. I would look somewhere else if I were you. read more

Updating....Management has newly been meeting my expectations and I look forward to the reduction with the lovely critters. Some complaining is starting to go a long way. Apparently, if surrounding areas do not complain they aren't taking the initiative to spray those apartments unless of course complaints flood their office. read more

James Purnell at Archstone Van Ness is exceptional good at serving the community. I have been living at Equity/Archstone van ness for the past seven years and he has been the only employee that I can lean on in getting things done. If it was not for James I would have moved from the property already. Thanks for your hard work James and serving the Equity/Archstone community. read more

It is not a good place to live for sure. There are rats and mice in the apartment that you would live in. No matter what floor you are at or how clean you keep the apartment, mice are present. They come in from many holes, it is horrible. My next door friend has caught 9 mice so far. It is horrible. I have seen in my kitchen as well but have not caught any yet. People are so unhappy with the new manager. Everyone that I talk is looking for other places to go. The location is good though, the pool is nice in the summer. read more

Unsafe. No security. I have lived here three months and I am looking to move out asap. There have been multiple break-ins on my floor and there is NO SECURITY IN THE BUILDING. Someone broke into my apartment -- through a double-locked door -- and stole a laptop from my living room. Management is not helpful. I have been chased by dogs running loose in the courtyard -- I do not go out at night anymore. The apartment is spacious for the reasonable rent and the pool is beautiful, but management is definitely not interested in tenets security or concerns; their priority is to get more leases and nothing else. read more

Great location and nice pool but beware of the scam they use to trick you into paying rent increases far bigger than what is allowed by law. Equity advertises one bedrooms for e.g., $1,900 per month but when you go to sign the lease it says e.g. $3,500 per month. No joke. They say they're giving you a $1,600 per month "concession" (discount), but it's an accounting trick so they can start rent negotiations next year at $3,500 per month plus inflation plus 2%. The DC Attorney General is investigating. Find out more at www.FairRentDC.org read more

DO NOT RENT AN APARTMENT HERE. I REPEAT DO NOT RENT AN APARTMENT HERE!!!! The quality of this building has drastically declined. If I had to guess as to the cause, I would say that it is due to the fact that the building is no longer privately owned. It is now publicly owned so the interests of the shareholders trump the interests of the tenants. The building appears to be absolutely lovely and beautiful from the outside, like a luxury building. Please do not let the outer appearances fool you. The management of this building is rude, condescending and do not care at all about quality of life complaints. When you complain they act as if you are bothering them. You get no answers. It is the strangest thing. There is no customer service here at all. 1. THE NOISE - If you like to hear the every move of your neighbors, then this is the perfect place for you to spend an enormous amount of rent money. The walls and ceilings are not insulated and they are paper thin. There is no carpeting. I can literally hear the every movement of my upstairs neighbor. I can also hear their loud conversations, them walking, and sex sessions. I can hear their dog barking and their music. I kid you not! It is so unbearable at time, I wear earplugs just so I can get some peace and quiet. If you like quiet enjoyment of your apartment DO NOT MOVE HERE. You will not get it here. Needless to say complaints were met with disinterest. I was basically told to just deal with it. 2. COLLEGE DORM - I don't know who's brilliant idea this was, but college kids from UDC use this building as their dorm. They are very loud in the hallways and often have loud parties. Thankfully my apartment is not next to any of them, but I can hear them in the hallway and when I walk by their apartments, I can hear their loud music an partying. I always just shake my head and I feel so sorry for the poor folks that have to live next to them. 3. MOLD - I know a couple of people who used to live in this building who has mold in their apartment. One person sued the building and won. The other one is currently in litigation with the building. I don't know if there is mold in my apartment. I haven't noticed anything. 4. LACK OF SECURITY - This building is HUGE. And there are several entrances to the building, yet there is a complete lack of security. I have been living here a little over a year and there have been at least 10 reported break ins that I can remember. It is a damn disgrace. I called the management office to ask them what they were doing about security. I spoke to, I believe her name is Julie. As always she was dismissive and condescending and couldn't understand my concern for the lack of security. She told me to call her supervisor. I got ZERO answers from her! Overall the amenities are nice, but like the other reviewer said, the amenities do not make up for the many other problems that you will experience while living here. This building is VERY expensive, yet the service is not that of a luxury high cost building. It is a damn disgrace and I count down the days everyday for when my lease is up. I will be moving at the end of my lease and I cannot wait! It is a shame because the location of the building is very convenient and it is in a nice neighborhood, but I just cannot stand it here anymore! Please take my advice and do no move here. You will regret it. Find another building where the management actually cares about the tenants. AGAIN, DO NOT MOVE HERE!!!!!!!!! read more

this place is becoming an overpriced frat house they keep increasing the rent every year, and after 4 years, you ended up paying more than a new renter will Maintenance personal is really nice, the location is great, but the apartment are getting older, and way too expensive if you are a loyal renter read more

The majority of the people who work in this building are not responsive. Anything that you ask them to do, they will either roll their eyes (as if it is a big favor) or simply ignore you. The air quality is awful. If someone cooks fish in the same floor, the awful smell will go into your own building. On safety: a dog was electrocuted a few months back! The evolution of the rents (going down) and number of vacancies (going up) is informative. As someone put it a few weeks back, this "building is going down." Expect the worse!!! read more

If you want to pay top dollar to live in a dorm this is the place for you, this use to be a great place to live. There are great amenities-pool, exercise room , access to vanness metro but no longer. Management contracted with UDC and converted one bedroom apartments to house 4 students. Students are students-music is blasting , people are on their balconies screaming at 2am, beer bottles are thrown around. Cars have been broken into in the garage and people are letting their friends come in the garage. Twice this weekend someone was in the parking space I pay for. Management gets defensive and does nothing. , read more