The Elms at Germantown is wonderful. The staff and maintenance are very organized and patient to work with. There is a stress-free leasing and living. The place is a peaceful beauty with a great pool, park, and events. Everyone there is friendly and give a delightful experience! For the whole time we've been here, we have no regret choosing this perfect community to be in. It's also a convenient place to live since the schools and shops are nearby. Overall, if you need a place to call home, go to the Elms at Germantown! read more

The leasing office is responsive and professionally staffed. Maintenance staff are decent and usually get the job done within a short response time. The units are spacious and, overall, pretty nice. There's a fair amount of tenant turnover, which may be due to the cost -- it is fairly expensive, which is the biggest downside. read more

If no stars were an option. This review is not about the actual apartments in The Elms as they met all my expectations on what i was looking for. I am however displeased with the unprofessionalism that was showed to me by specifically two individuals at this location, Ron Porter and Julie Kim.   To begin I was looking into moving to the Germantown area.  The Elms at Germantown was definitely my first pick when I did my research online through http://apartments.com. When I arrived at the location for my tour I was greeted by the only leasing agent available at the time, Ron Porter. At first everything was great! Ron was very nice and helpful when I requesting quotes for a 1 bedroom and 1 bath apartment. I did clarify with that my move in date was tentative since it all depends on future events. As I received more information, i was able to provide Ron with an accurate move in date. So i could receive a current quote on the apartment i was interested in. However Ron kept giving us quotes for a month prior. This date was also reflected on the application form when we attempted to apply online. Whenever communication was available Ron assured us that the "application lease dates are not the official lease dates." With this response we proceeded to fill out the application which includes paying the $70 non-refundable  and a refundable holding fee of $250. Two days after filling out the form I got a call from the property manager, Julie Kim, asking us about picking up our key for the wrong move in date. When speaking, i informed Julie that when we filled out the application we were told by Ron that the application date didn't reflect our actual move in date. Julie then continued to tell me that we were given the wrong information, afterward quoting us $300 dollars more then the original quote. One could understand the frustration at this point. I put in a formal complaint about Ron to Julie about month of trying to discuss quotes and move in dates and not being able to receive  accurate information. Instead of being sympathetic to my situation she got defensive. There was no type of solution, where she just chose to defend Ron as he is a "top agent." only solution she gave was accepting our withdraw of our application. Ive dealt with leasing offices before and understand the work that is put into renting an apartment. This experience was extremely unfortunate as we were excited on the possibility of moving there. I would not be recommending this location to anyone or any of their other properties as this is how they treat their future tenants read more

I was a tenant here before for a couple yrs and had a good experience. Mgt at the time was good n knew what they're doing I relocated here again after sometime abroad and chose the elms again cuz of previous experience. Unfortunately it's the worst decision this time around I've been here for 3yrs now cuz of son's school and trying so hard to endure but it's becoming unbearable. I have mice in my apartment and it's getting worse. I call the office and all effort is to no avail. I have a ripped carpet with nails sticking out and my kids and I have all sustained injuries from this and nothing is being done by the leasing office. My kitchen sink needed some work done I got someone from the office to come and the follow up was never done. They left nails on the side of my sink said they'll return and never did. No wonder every neighbor I've had has moved out. I spend my day and night with mice running around my apartment as if I live here for free. Julie Kim the property manager can't even make time to call me after the several messages I left on for her to call me back. It's either she's ignoring me or have a bunch of incompetent team. 240-418-1912 I'm available to talk to anyone who's about to make the mistake of their life . Salome read more

We just moved out of these apartments and I don't have anything nice to say. Our first week there I was towed twice. Our water heater was malfunctiong for 9 months! They refused to put it a new water heater and just kept "fixing it". It went out 4-5 times a month for 9 months before they actually replaced it. I was told I could take a hot shower in the gym showers. Finally upon us moving out, I was told we had to replace the carpets in our house for 1300$ , they were not new to begin with and I kept my house clean. Absolutely ridiculous. I would not recommend this place to ANYONE. read more

I moved in two months ago and it's great here. Bedrooms are huge and neighbors are friendly. I referred my friend and received $$$ into my account. The staff is friendly and everyone cares. This property received an award for the best property in Germantown. Love it here. read more

As we celebrate Black history month and 50 years of fair housing we still have biases. I am a resident , love my apartment and the area; I have a puppy for my disability. My puppy don't like his leash so let me know puppies arent' allowed to have a leash, please!I just find it strange that certain residents on this property can have their dog off the leash but others are harassed and falsely accussed of not reporting their dog; then charged but can't have their dog off the leash. Everyday these certain residents are infront of my balcony with their dog off the leash while the office is open; no one knows who they are? Strange?. The office inform me that they can't find these residents or the dog! Well I suggest to get security if residents are sneaking animals on the property! These residents had their dog off the leash for 5 months now! WOW! But as you can acknowledge discrimination is in question because they are allowed to have their puppy off the leash! read more

I've been a resident here since May 2015, and if I knew then what I know now I would have NEVER leased an apartment here. From the poor insulation (I can hear my neighbors pee) to the lack of safe parking, this place is not worth the rent they charge. The manager has little experience managing this property; I've grown tired of putting in maintenance requests. This place looks good from the outside but not so great once you're in the units. The peel and stick tiles in the bathroom and the below builder grade carpet should have been a telltale, but I was desperate and needed a place quick. My lease is up 8 long months and trust me, nothing could keep me here. There are so many other options. Don't settle on this place like I did. You'll regret it. read more

Nothing wrong with the apartments but just the bias attitude you receive after you move in. When I first moved in I was getting letters of eviction that my rent wasn't paid when it was, it became harassing and a violation of the HAP contract. Flyers was distribute to report concern or complaints but when you do report a concern you are retaliated and falsely accused of harassment. Then my apartment was flooded you can still tell by the walls. I didn't receive a walk through when I moved in. I had to send an email for the walk through. I don't hang in the office I communicate by email and the emails don't fabricate but most of the emails are ignored when it comes to working. If you report a concern expect an attitude because if you don't give 5 stars, you are the worst tenant. ESA and support dog is harassed by unleashed older dogs and you not suppose to protect your dog either. I sent pictures by emails to the office that the dog is off leash the tenants lied on the police report that their dog was never on the leash. Is it a crime to fabricate on a police report? See the pics on the review the man is in front of my balcony with an unleashed dog. I had to pick up my puppy from being attacked. Do they have rabies? Vaccines? License in Montgomery County, MD? However, other residents seen them with their dog off the leash so everyone lying on these two tenants. A flyer was sent out to email your concern but be careful if you do, you will be falsely accused of harassment by emails. So I reported to the office that the dog attacking my ESA support puppy then I am falsely accused of bringing my dog on property, I get a harassing phone call (called legend headquarters) and then tried to charge me for a ESA support puppy (violating fair housing act) I have a right to protect my dog from being attacked from an unleashed dog. Property management isn't only about collecting rent but handling tenant complaints and concerns not ignoring them. Why disability an issue and discriminated on this property? What happen to Fair Housing Act laws. It shall be unlawful to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any person in the exercise or enjoyment of, or on account of that person having exercised or enjoyed, or on account of that person having aided or encouraged any other person in the exercise or enjoyment of, any right granted or protected by this part section 818 of the Fair Housing Act. Retaliating against any person because that person has made a complaint, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in a proceeding under the Fair Housing Act. Retaliating against any person because that person reported a discriminatory housing practice to a housing provider or other authority. read more

We moved in here in June 2014. It was love at first sight! The huge units that were available with plenty of amenities and storage. We picked a loft style apartment. Well what we weren't told was that our utilities, of which we pay all of it, would be equivalent to a single family sized home bill! When we moved in our cooling unit never cooled. We submitted several requests and had many maintenance visits without resolve. Today, in January 2015, six months into our lease, it is 14 degrees outside and we do not have heat. It is below 55 degrees in our unit and we are waiting for the poor maintenance man to get here. He had been working in the complex all day with heating issues in other units. This is a cheaply constructed apartment complex in a very nice area. There is no insulation in the building which is probably why it's so cold right now. We have already submitted a request to Dept of Housing to start getting some things resolved around here. The manager, Julie, will not return calls. We went from having a $50/mo PEPCO bill to $150 because the thermostat runs and runs and never reaches the desired temperature of 74 degrees. In the summer months our bill was up to $270 one month because of the crappy cooling system. We pay over $1800 / mo for rent plus utilities and cannot even enjoy the unit. We also have a beautiful gas fireplace that we cannot use because it wouldn't stay lit and blew in even more air. I had to block it off just to keep the unit in a livable condition. Do not move here!!!! There are plenty of nicer apartment complexes just five minutes down the road!!! read more

Do not move into these apartments. I lived on the 4th floor for one year, I would set my ac programmed at 68 during the summer and it was 90 degrees in my house. The ac ran all the time without efficiently cooking the house. My electric bill was 250-300 a month during the summer. Maintenance just said, it's working as hard as it can we can't do anything to cool your house down. The place is old and many things need replacing. However that expense will somehow be put onto the tenants. Our water heater malfunctioned for 9 months of the 12 that we lived there. It went out 4-5 times a month and the office had a solution for me, I was to shower in the gym showers by the pool! Are you serious?! Finally they replaced it 2 months before my lease was up. By that time I was already looking for a new place to live. When we left we received a final bill, and they decided to charge us for replacement carpet. 1300$ to replace all the carpets. I asked Jessica for pictures of the so called damage on our "new " carpets. She produced one picture with a quarter sized stain. The carpets were used when we moved in, they just shampooed them. This place has a serious moral and ethical problem. If you're looking for a place to live do yourself a favor and keep looking. read more

These events took place over the course of a few weeks in January and February of 2018 and are based on actual events. I would not recommend anyone move to the elms given the current leasing staff and property manager that currently work at this property in Germantown. When I first arrived to look at the units I noticed the office staff consisted of 3 women and one older gentleman. While they tried to put on a nice smile and act concerned I started to notice slight attitudes with this staff that mad trying to even complete the application process difficult. To make a long story short after I qualified for the apartment my leasing agent refused to allow me to see the property one more time before signing the lease unless I paid almost close to 2000 dollars for rent and fees and then sign the lease. I did spend time prior looking at the unit in question however before you sign anything most properties require you do a walk through of the property one final time .I quietly balked at how the leasing agent got an attitude with me because I wanted to see the property and make sure everything was ok before I forked over thousands of dollars and took ownership of the property.When it all said and done I walked away from everything and found somewhere else to live. While it was delays on my part I had to change a few things at the end customer service does matter and always wins. If my leasing agent handled this simple request differently I would have let it go signed the lease However when it was all said and done too many shady comments and attitudes were displayed towards me before I could even get in this unit so I decided to keep it moving. read more

I moved here for its location. Its within walking distance from montgomery college germantown campus. But this place is awful. You have to pay extra for the workout room which never has working machines, and the pool which is not that great. Theres never any parking forcing you to park on the street which is public and your car will get dinged. The apartments have cheap blinds, carpet, and other amenities and have zero light. The neighbors are loud and rude. The management is always complaining about something, and raising the rent and adding random fees. And maintenance just walks in whenever they please with one knock and no time for you to answer the door yourself. They are always leaving flyers for mandatory maintenance with the broadest most inconvenient time windows and half the time never show up. Ive also had multiple things stolen off my balcony including a 400$ bike that was locked up! This place is one of the biggest rip offs in montgomery county. Save your money and your sanity by staying far away! read more

I have been living here since the winter of 2011 and I am counting down until my lease ends! The apartments claim to be "luxury" but fail to say much for the type of people who live here. Residents openly smoke out on the playground, despite the new "no smoking" signs. The lifeguards NEVER pay attention and residents have had to pull their own children out of the water several times when the children have yelled for help while gulping down water and afterwards the miffed female lifeguard will maybe walk around the pool once before sitting down on her stand visibly irritated when parents ask her to please pay more attention and will openly ignore them. Both lifeguards ALWAYS pack up 45 minutes early as soon as they see the office staff is gone and not watching over them and will tell you that they don't care what time the pool is open till, they are locking it. All complaints filed in the office are completely ignored. Residents have cluttered, "hoarder style" balcony's on 20400 with 5 Direct TV dishes and furniture out despite the contract stating you have to keep them neat and the dishes concealed (ONLY ONE PERMITTED). If I am paying so much for rent, I expect it to live up to the "luxury" title it has. Instead I have to deal with a neighbor who curses loudly on her balcony to her unemployed boyfriend about sleeping with other women every weekend and police have to be called constantly since they have taken a liking to throwing things over the balcony onto the ground below when they have altercations. There was even an incident when a car windshield was damaged and it took all day for the staff to show up and sweep up glass that littered the parking lot. All the neighbors were extremely angry and are still angry that they are permitted to live here despite damaging property and lowering the standards of the complex even LOWER to government housing status. When you do have a maintenance issue it takes the workers forever to show up, one gentleman in particular who always waltzes into the apartments leaving dirt all over the floor. I understand they work outside as well so that honestly didn't bother me as much as him claiming he had called me with instructions to turn off my AC so he could fix it (the central air is ALWAYS breaking due to cheap materials and repairs) and when I replayed the message back to him showing him there was no instructions whatsoever to do so, he laughed openly at me like I was an idiot for not "understanding what he was gettin' at yo." I don't understand where they find these people. The office personal on top of it all are all no older than 18 and anytime you call to ask a question or request a repair, they act as if they have no idea what on earth they are doing and it turns into the most awkward phone call of your life. I have no idea why they are hiring little girls to do office work when these girls cannot even conduct a phone call properly and have no idea what to do, who to ask, what comes next, NOTHING. You end up every single time being put on hold for 15 or more minutes while they "go ask someone what to do." They apartments look nice but that's the only plus. I should have known something was wrong when I noticed someone is ALWAYS moving in or out, every single weekend. BAD SIGN since no one wants to stay here after one year. Oh also, they have no rules for where moving vehicles park and unload so they are always RIGHT in the middle of the parking lots blocking all cars in and refuse to move. OH and don't bother calling the office to ask them to please request the movers to relocate the truck, you might as well be asking them to figure out the space time continuum, they are t read more