The Marylander

I am staying here with my friend right now, and the location is perfect. I literally have not spent any money on transportation since I moved here. Although other apartments might claim to be close to things, like 1 mile, 1 mile is still a 20 minute walk or 40 minutes round trip. You don’t have to worry about any of that here! Within 0.3 miles (6 minutes), you have JHU campus, JHU shuttle, Barnes, Starbucks, Chipotle, Potbelly, etc.
This place is great for the sleep and go type of tenant. You can come home to eat, drop off stuff, etc. multiple times a day. I also like that I can run downstairs and workout at night, or if I’m sexiled, I can chill in the social room.
Now here are the things that suck:
1. In order to use the laundry room, you have to buy a $ 5 card. Why can’t we just use quarters?
2. The bathrooms have no exhaust fan. Humid bathroom plus entirely carpeted apartment=microbiological nightmare.
3. Also, the bathrooms have no shelving, and under the sink, there is no cabinet!
4. The toilet paper dispenser is right next to the faucet of the bathtub! What kind of interior design is that?
5. The bathroom is also super small.
6. Why is there carpeting right at the entrance of each apartment? Carpet doesn’t go with wet slushy boots.
7. The closets are really really small and only slide open halfway. They should slide all the way into the wall!
8. The kitchen is so cramped! If someone else is in the kitchen, I basically have to be sexual with them to get something.
9. Not wheelchair friendly! There is no ramp at the entrance and then there are three steps to go up to get to the elevator. Big hassle when you are trying to move furniture!
10. I wish there was recycling! I dropped off a bunch of plastic bottles on campus today but I can’t do that long-​term.
11. We’ve been informed that July 1^st, there will be no water from 9 am to 5 pm! That is a long time for America! Really inconvenient. Now I have to hope my roommates don’t forget and leave morning deposits at 8:59 am *mask on face emoji*
While the location is probably one of the best for anyone affiliated with JHU, it seems that since the demand is so high, the property does not have any incentive to improve the place. A 2 bedroom apartment here starts at $ 1440, and considering how much it costs, I would expect the apartments to have better design and amenities. If you just want to go to work/​school conveniently, and don’t care about a nice bathroom, kitchen, closet, etc., it may be a good choice.

Do not live here, save your money my friends. I lived here last year and I wouldn’t dare go back nor refer anyone to this place. I paid the astronomical fee to move out just because that’s how bad it was and it wasn’t worth anymore of my time. They know they are not a well managed and that they are a very poorly run building which is why they advertise so much. They always say they have passed your comments on for improvement but nothing ever changes! There was zero ventilation in the hallways, so when it’s stuffy and someone is cooking Indian food, you will smell it. One window in my apartment. Enough said about that. There is a relentless rust in the bathtub that will always win. You will always lose. A black ring of disgustingness also rules the toilets. Paint is consistently chilling, water problems constantly, My sister found a cockroach the day I moved in. The mail room is extremely and remorselessly disorganized. The only good thing about them is location! I love Charles village. Parking in the garage is really expensive monthly and there is nothing they can do to protect your car on the outside. I’ve gotten many tickets there being 3 – 8 minutes late.
I was constantly putting in maintenance requests because things were always falling apart. I didn’t know anyone in that building who was happy to live there! Anyone! Spend your hard earned money somewhere else and be comfortable.

1. In the coldest days of winter, they turn off the gas and radiator, claiming their contract with BGE. Seriously !!!
I am yet to find such responsible apartment in the locality.
2. Furthermore, the heaters are only turned on if the temperature is below 32 F, people do not feel cold at 34 F they think.
Window units are not sufficient to heat up your apartment.
3. The water is fairly regularly shut off, often for several hours and that too without notice which is the most ridiculous thing. (Where is the responsible behavior now?)
4. To add to that, had a fire incidence recently in the laundry.
Management doesn’t look like concerned about these repetitive issues.
I am definitely not renewing my lease here.
Rent at your own risk !!!

As others have stated, the Marylander is a pretty terrible place to live.
Issues:
1. My roommate’s bedroom ceiling began to leak, and it took about a month before the issue was resolved. Water was constantly dripping from the ceiling whenever there was any rain, and it spread across a large (probably 6×6) area of his ceiling. He had containers all over his floor during that time to catch the dripping water. He complained multiple times about the issue, but nothing was done. The maintenance guys (who are actually pretty nice) would come look at it but do nothing. Soon the leak from the roof caused massive damage to the kitchen ceiling as well. We couldn’t use our kitchen for days, and the sagging of the ceiling was really disconcerting.
2. The management is absolutely incompetent. Though the utilities were paid through BGE by myself and my roommate, they claimed they were being charged by BGE as well and put that on our balance each month. We repeatedly had to have the same conversation with them about the fact that all utilities had been paid. Based on talking with other residents about similar issues, I honestly believe they hope these things go unnoticed.
3. The online portal is terrible. There can only be one account per apartment, essentially meaning only one person gets important notifications. In addition to rent listed in part of the balance, there are always extra charges with non-​descriptive two-​letter acronyms that give you no idea what you’re being charged for. Also, good luck trying to get an adequate receipt of payment from either the portal or the front office.
4. I’m actually amazed at how bad the water situation is. The water temperature on the whole left side of the building is totally unreliable. This sounds like a minor complaint until you realize that the water gets icy cold or burning hot almost every single time you take a shower. But much worse than that is that, as others have said, they shut off the water all the time. They give a day or two notice via notes near the elevators then shut off water the entire day. This happened more than a handful of times during my year at the Marylander.
5. The mail room complaints from others are also totally valid. You are not notified when a package comes, and rarely can you go to the mailroom to pick up a package delivered the same day.

Don’t be fooled by the advertising or the fake reviews posted elsewhere. If you are a Johns Hopkins student, staff member, etc. considering this place, consider someplace else. Really. The stories of the incompetencies of the management here can number easily in the hundreds.
They lost my friend’s passport and then denied ever having it and refusing to take responsibility for it.
A leak sprang from one of the pipes in the building, flooding several apartments, and the management took zero responsibility and even gave snide remarks about the unpredictability of the event.
They are good at hiring kind office assistants to do the dirty work of showing their model apartments and sweet talking you into a deal. But if you ever run into an issue for which you have grounds to complain, you have to deal with a management team that could probably care less if your apartment killed you.
In the 2+ years I have rented here, they have shut off water for 5+ hours at LEAST 20 times. What exactly are they doing that requires shutting off water that many times? Expect to see a notice that water will be cut off in the whole building at least once a month. I hope you enjoy filling up your dirty/​old bathtubs just so you may have the luxury of flushing your toilet and brushing your teeth.
The apartments could actually be really nice, but because of the aforementioned negligence, the VAST majority of them are old and covered in layers of paint on the wall AND the cabinets, that I seriously think there are health risks from all the inevitable chipping.
What positives exist (location) could not possibly outweigh the negatives.
And by the way: even though the price is not too bad on paper, factor in the fact that you are paying for garbage (!), water, electricity, wifi, and it will not be much cheaper than other options that bundle.
Now for alternatives: Hopkins students, there are plenty of decent-​to-​good options like The Halstead (now called The Guilford), Hopkins House, The Broadview (Old, but well kept), University One, the Telephone Building, Guilford Manor, or finding people are renting out condos in the Village Lofts, at the Inn at the Colonnade (3801 Canterbury Rd), Highfield House (4000 N. Charles ST), St. James Place (3704 N. Charles St), and many many more options. From experience, I know apartment hunting in the area can be tough… but there’s no reason to settle with such a substandard building and hand over money to a such a greedy lecherous management.

But for the apartment is near the university and bus stop, I will not rent it.

This place is disgusting. Residents are very loud on the weekends and there is often beer and or urine in the elevators in the morning. The paint is peeling off our ceiling and the carpet is very stained. I have alerted the front office multiple times with no improvement.

I signed up for Unilocal just to let people know how horrible this place is. A bit lengthy story of mine but worth reading it to get an idea. Straight to the points.
1. Clunking noise AND Worst management AND maintenance: they toss an issue between them, like, go and talk to management, then management says, go an talk to maintenance.
There was a major clunking noise coming from the wall –from the apartment itself not from neighbors — whenever the steam heater in the apartment comes on. It was so loud to keep me up all night. Very hard to pin down the problem, because the noise only comes at nights and only when the heating is on. So I recorded a video that shows when and where the noise is. I showed it to management, and they placed a ‘work order’. I said to the management multiple times that I only hear the noise at nights, so there is no point for maintenance guys coming for a check during the daytime, because they won’t hear it. Not surprisingly, they came in during the day, and left a note ‘Uh, there is no noise’. Of course not! I bumped into him on the hallway, so told him directly that I hear the noise only at nights, so when I hear it, I would call him (the resident maintenance guy). He said ok. Next day, I heard the noise so I called the guy, He came in and agreed that there is an issue. He said he didn’t know what to do, so should have his supervisor, Niel, to have a look at it to figure out what to do. And then a week passed by. They do NOTHING. They didn’t leave any note. So I went back to the management and tell the whole thing. They placed another F**ing WORK ORDER! So I told her again, that it is useless… so give me a phone number of Niel so that I can talk to him directly. She won’t give it to me, but just makes another call to the resident maintenance guy to have a look. Another week passed by. NOTHING HAPPEND. Then somehow, I met the resident maintenance guy in the hallway again, and told him, ‘Why did you not do anything? you said you and Niel (I never saw this guy, don’t know he even exists) will look into the noise issue’ He is like, ‘Oh, I said I will ask Niel to see if he HAS TIME TO LOOK AT IT, NOT THAT WE WILL LOOK AT IT’. My reaction is, WHAT??? F**king joke!!! So I asked him to make a phone call to Niel right then while he was with me, he simply wouldn’t do it. He PROMISED to have a look at it some time soon. A month has passed since then, and I STILL HEAR THE NOISE.
Finally I decided to contact Baltimore city council to request an inspection of structural damage. If inspectors find an issue, the Morgan properties will be fined.
2. Inefficient staff in the mail room
I had 2 occasions in which I was told there were no packages for me, and turned out there were. First occasion, a friend of mine sent me a pumpkin cheese cake by usps, and tracking number indicated that it arrived at the apartment. I go to the mail room and claim my package. He says, there is no package for me. Next day, again, no package. It turned out, there was the cheesecake delivered and misplaced somewhere, they couldn’t find it! By the time I opened it, it had molds in it.
Second occasion, I had an important document delivered from government office by usps. The exact ssame thing. Tracking says it is here. The mail room staff say it is not. It turned out, again, that they placed it somewhere invisible, and couldn’t find it.
As you can see, this apartment is barely operational.

Short version:
Good location, disorganized, unresponsive management, run-​down, old apartment. You can get better value for your money.
The only convenient thing about these apartments is their location. They’re close to the Hopkins campus and the shuttle stops. I got a job in Baltimore and needed a place that allowed pets immediately. As soon as our lease is up, though, we’re out of here.
MANAGEMENT:
These apartments had the potential to be nice, which is why it’s so depressing that it’s been so mismanaged. Management seems very disorganized, which can lead to problems when they forget to charge your account, for example, or misplace pet agreements they forgot to have you sign when you moved in four months ago. Also, if you’re sharing an apartment, keep in mind that only one person will be able to see the bill online– for some reason, everyone else’s total will show up as zero.
Management is not very responsive to resident concerns in general. The majority of people who live in this building are students, so management here doesn’t seem to care about tenant retention– there will always be new residents, and this is reflected in their attitude towards current residents. This year, they didn’t turn the heat on until residents actually posted petitions around the complex and complained to the city!
THE APARTMENTS:
The apartments themselves have been absolutely slathered in layers and layers of paint. When we moved in, we actually had to clean the paint off the light fixtures in order to get usable light! The end of the coaxial cable in our apartment was also covered in paint. The shelves, adjustable in theory, have been so caked in paint that they can’t actually be budged. This is a shame, because they’re the stuck in the strangest proportions– the shelves are too short to fit a standard box of cereal. Our apartment has a lot of closet space, but most of it is unusable for larger boxes because of the bizarre immovable shelves.
The plumbing here is ancient and temperamental. I take showers that are ten minutes at the most, and somehow the water manages to cycle through scalding to freezing. It’s not just my shower– my friends who have lived in the complex have had the same problem. Many of the toilets in this complex flush intermittently, if they flush at all.
Most of the apartments don’t have dishwashers, and have very little counter and closet space. I can’t fit clothing for two people into our closet.
The walls here are very thin, as are the floors. The people above us have at least two kids, who we can hear screaming and running every night.
APARTMENT AMENITIES:
The apartment itself is expensive for the quality– you’re paying for the location, not for the amenities. There’s also a lot of hidden fees in your bill that they don’t always tell you about when you sign a lease with them, including trash service. The trash rooms are simply that– rooms full of everyone’s nasty, stinking trash. For some reason, management caulked up the trash chutes and created roach motels. The trash rooms fill up quickly, and residents start leaving their trash outside in the hallways. As a result, the halls smell terrible, especially when it gets hot out.
The gym is actually quite small for an apartment complex this size. However, since most of the people living here are students, they use the Hopkins gym. The equipment is pretty old, and it’s not in very good repair. The gym also has terribly climate control, and is only a step up above exercising outside as far as comfort goes. There is only one elliptical. However, the gym does have free weights.
The laundry room is not the greatest. The dryers are terribly inefficient. The machines are operated via rechargeable cards, which can be bought and reloaded in the apartment complex lobby.
The front door to the complex is almost always left unlocked, and almost everybody can walk in– I’ve never seen security stop anybody. However, the security people working here are very nice, and they do patrol the complex every hour at night.
Edit– the older guy who works security here is really rude and creepy. Every time I go to pick up a package he tells me what an idiot the other (female) security guard is. I don’t feel comfortable with him as a security guard here.
Save your money and your sanity, and find a better place to live.

As a Marylander Apartments resident for a year, I was a perfectly happy camper since the place was close to school and convenient to Baltimore harbor and area’s suburbia shopping alike. With in-​building laundry facility; a convenience store carrying staples like milk, tp, and noodle soup; a medium-​sized gym (for an apartment building, that is), and a pleasant courtyard, the Marylander will satisfy an average renter’s needs just fine.
On the plus side, the Marylander offers year and short-​term leases, the latter of which can be great if you’re not ready to commit to a place longer term. Granted, in talking with acquaintances, people tend to have a love-​hate relationship with the building: some have no problems and a positive experience whereas others can barely wait to get out.
Rent, while reasonably priced for the area, is more expensive than places closer to the Baltimore county line or places such as Towson so, if you don’t need to be in Charles Village, perhaps reconsider looking at any apartments in the area at all.
As a temporary place of residence, the Marylander gets high marks for flexibility and convenience.