Mazza GrandMarc Apartments

The one consolation for this dismal rental property: free HBO/​DVR/​cable and tv (only in living room).
I moved here because of the general lack of choice in off campus housing in College Park. Would’ve lived at the View, but I didn’t want random roommates and it was super expensive.
Things started out okay, I liked having a big room, the quiet was nice, and I had free parking. However, it quickly turned bad.
First of all, NEVER opt for early move in if you don’t want to walk into a horrible situation. I had to do so because I was having space issues, and wanted to secure a place sooner rather than later instead of living with my friends in the interim. When I tell you that my apartment was an absolute pigsty… I’ve never felt so disheartened to live somewhere. I’m talking dust and trash everywhere, burn marks in the floor and furniture, dirty toilets, hair everywhere, clogged up drains, and things still left in the refrigerator. When I expressed my concerns to the move-​in staff, her words were «jeez…why didn’t you just wait another two weeks?» Thanks, like I didn’t already know that. I had to hire a professional cleaner.
Oh, and our dryer didn’t work for the first two months we lived there. Something about «waiting to order a part»…it took countless service requests and chasing down maintenance guys to remind them to get it done.
If you enjoy having visitors or friends, do not live here. The parking situation is terrible, only about 30 spots out front that you can only snag in the early morning or middle of the day, despite an entire floor empty in the parking garage. Of course, you can park in there, but its $ 10/​day pass that you can only get during office hours, which are limited.
Living here and not owning a car is annoying. I was fortunate enough to have one. Otherwise, you rely on the UM shuttle that requires ID and runs every 30 minutes. If you like being able to walk places, don’t live here. Very isolated.
Towing is a huge issue. RPM towing seems to pick and choose when it wants to enforce its laws by patrolling every night. I have seen people park terribly in the garage time and time again, yet my friend who lives in the building parked wrong one and got towed (from his rightful spot) because one of his wheels was on the line. Everyone who lives in here is a student, and towing is $ 175. We don’t have incomes, that’s someone’s paycheck. At least use a warning system, you market yourselves as STUDENT housing, be sensitive to that.
On top of that, I myself got towed overnight on a weekday because my normal car was in the shop and I had a rental car. Wasn’t able to get a pass because by the time I got back to the apartment, the office was, you guessed it, closed. That morning I had to miss my class because I was dealing with all of this, and no sympathy or customer service at all from the front desk. The first woman I spoke to actually got an attitude with me, saying that it had to be my fault and that I should stop yelling and just pay. Exactly what someone wants to hear when they’ve been towed, right? Wonderful. I left feeling taken advantage of, powerless, and unheard. No compensation at all, even though I was a RESIDENT and therefore guaranteed a spot.
One night my car was vandalized in the garage — side windows damaged, windshield wipers taken off, and «Fuck You» written on my car. You’d think since it’s a closed garage they’d have tapes, right? Apparently not. I was told to file a police report independently. I asked to speak to the property manager, I believe her name was Diega or Diana, multiple times. Got the run around so may times that I just gave up. Really feeling the love and concern here. Never solved, no follow up, never got in contact with her. I got the feeling she told the office staff to get me to go away.
We’ve lost internet, power, cable and water multiple times.
The garage door has broken more than once, causing major traffic buildup.
Oh, and my favorite part. The fire alarms.
There have been SEVERAL times in the middle of the night where a blaring, incessant, unannounced alarm has sounded for more than 20 minutes. I’m talking middle of the night, 3−4am, on schoolnights in December. Sometimes they’ll go off more than once in a night. I’m pretty sure I have PTSD at this point… have never heard a noise so loud. Again, no compensation, no apologies, for any of these issues. Is it too much to announce a drill beforehand? Is it too much to actually keep your hardware up to date and stop SKIMPING so that these things don’t happen again?
I moved out 2 weeks ago and just got my bill — a $ 100 charge for «heavy cleaning» even though I made sure my room was spotless, UNLIKE the people who lived here before me and $ 20 charges for blinds that were broken when we moved in that we put down on our sheet. Good riddance.

I’ve lived here for about two years now, so I feel pretty comfortable leaving this review.
Pros:
1.) 10 minutes from campus.
2.) ShuttleUM bus (runs every 30 minutes).
3.) Parking is part of the move in, so you’re not paying an additional fee like some of the apartments closer to campus. Trash is also accessible via a shoot in the garage.
4.) Water, electricity, and rent payments all go through the main office.
5.) Fully furnished with a TV (etc.).
6.) The bedrooms are the thickest in terms of insulation – closing the doors cuts all noise. The other parts of the apartment are a little less so, but still not too bad.
7.) Resident Portal (where you can view your payments & pending maintenance).
8.) Maintenance has an emergency line if something breaks, or you get locked out.
Cons:
1.) Halls are not the best in terms of insulation – you can hear EVERYONES conversations, no matter where they are in the corridor.
2.) FIRE ALARMS. Some times the main office tells the residents when it’s testing them, but more often than not – it’s random. Seriously. Buy earplugs and expect to be woken up in the wee hours of the morning.
3.) You only get one key fob. So don’t let it break.
4.) Visitor parking is on a first come basis, which is a pain if you’ve got friends/​relations visiting out of state and there’s nowhere to park. You can pay for a visitor parking pass, but again, if the office is closed you’re out of luck.
5.) Lots of stuff gets broken (pipes, workout machinery, etc.) – doesn’t really bother me since I don’t use the areas that get hit the most.
6.) Trash. The smell is pretty bad, but hey, it’s trash so it’ll only smell but so good. The problem lies with the residents who don’t seem to know what the trash shoot is for – and don’t care.
7.) Some of the residents beat the heck out of their apartments as well as the hallway. I can’t tell you how many times maintenance has had to come fix holes.
8.) I really appreciate the work that maintenance does, truly, but they never tell you when they’re coming – or if they come when you’re not home, they’ll leave some form of mess.
Honestly? It’s not perfect. But compared to the other apartments, it’s just a bit better.

I’ve lived here for 1 year with my friend and this is the worst experience I ever had.
First, the wifi sucks. Literally, I have to reconnect every 3 to 4 minutes in my room. So did my friend. Moreover, your phone will have almost no signal.
Second, the visitor parking space is a disaster. The space is really limited. Besides, the stuff here are quite rude and impolite. They always say there’s nothing they can do whenever you come to them. My mom came to visit me and stayed in my room for about 1 week. My bitchy roommate complained to the office and they ask me and my mom to get out right away! When I complained about how rude and noisy my roommate is, they asked me to write a mail to them!
If u wanna move to Mazza, consider again!

The apartment is the worst you can find around U of Maryland. Our washer has been broken for months and asked several times for repairing. The maintenance team is useless and they just came in and say «we will come back» and never return. We talked with the those laziest staffs and when I said «our washer is broken”(it was the third or forth time I said that) to them, they just says «OK» and I said I want to see their manager, they only told me the manager is busy. The truth is no matter how many time you tried to contact with the manager, there will be no reply and any promise those staffs make is SHIT! and you know what? our toilet, lights and range are also broken and nobody gives a shit about it! This is the room you will get with the highest rent around U of Maryland just nothing is working properly

Terrible, so many «mysterious» issues. Have lived here only 3 months, and have experienced two missing packages out of 10 delivered (both had tracking with exact dates and times, staff could not find any record of it.)
Worse, while utilities are supposed to be included, I was charged $ 150 one month and $ 80 another for just WATER! And no, no leaks were found. The water bill in the month in between was only $ 10. I’m pretty certain I haven’t slept with the shower on, why does my water usage mysteriously QUADRUPLE??? And like with any issue with no simple answer, apartment staff refuses to do anything about it.
Oh, and fire alarms at 3am. Fun.
No glaring problems like broken HVAC or bugs but all the little costly problems will still make you regret you ever signed the lease.

It sucks. I have lived there for two years, by the day I move out, I receive a bill of 320 dollars for simply cleaning. I didn’t damage anything but they charge 60 for carpet cleaning, 80 for bathroom cleaning and 80 for bedroom cleaning, for the wall touch up, it’s another 100 dollars, these managers are thieves! They never do any cleaning the 2 whole years my living there and anyway they have to clean up the apartment for the next resident. I am furious about my situation and they are just avoiding my calls. It is RIDICULOUS!

I’ve lived at Mazza Grandmarc for about two years now, so I feel like I can give an appropriate review. There are definitely a number of pros and cons to living here.
Pros
Because I’m a grad student, my rent was reduced to $ 949 for a two bedroom with all utilities included. That’s almost an unbeatable deal for a decent-​nice apartment (Bozutto construction, so you can’t go wrong there.)
Cons
Slow wifi, lack of unpaid or metered parking for guests, despite the four-​five unoccupied levels of parking garage space
Office staff consists of the laziest/​most incompetent people you’ll ever meet.
Example A: If you’re depending on a package to come on a certain day? Forget about it. The office processes packages extremely slow. One time I was told that even though my package was in the office, I couldn’t get it because it wasn’t logged in the system. She also said that they wouldn’t have time to log it in at all that day because of a pool party the complex was throwing. Really? A pool party? There are literally a thousand excuses as to why I can never get my packages. If you go into the office one minute past closing, they’ll tell you that the package room is locked (which is crap).
Example B: When I first moved in, I was taking over someone’s lease. The office approved my application and I signed a lease, which stated I wouldn’t have to pay a deposit. One day later, I got a call from the front office saying that I’d have to pay a $ 250 deposit in order to get the apartment! I argued that I wouldn’t because it wasn’t in my lease. I was then told that my lease was «not a legal binding agreement». What? I pointed out that all of the apartment managers had signed it and they threatened to raise my deposit to $ 950 if I didn’t pay! At that point, the girl whose lease I was taking over paid it. It wasn’t that I was being difficult, but as a young professional/​student, those are things you have to know about upfront!
Example C: After a year with no roommate (score!), it was time to renew my lease. When I went down to renew, I asked the office manager if/​when I would be informed about a new roommate. They said that I would get a notice on my door with my new roommates’ info no later than a week before she was to move in. However, when I had family in town to visit, someone moved in! I was furious! I hadn’t received any notice! I chewed out the front office and they said they had given me notice and there was nothing they could do about it…
Then I received an eviction notice on my door because my new roommate had said that I had unauthorized occupants (which really = my brothers and dad sleeping on air mattresses in my living room). Again, I chewed out the front office and they fed me some line about how it wasn’t REALLY an eviction notice, they just were warning me… Whatever that means.
All in all, if you’re looking for reasonably priced, nice, all inclusive housing, Mazza Grandmarc is where you need to be. If you can’t deal with terrible customer service or speak up when someone is trying to screw you over… You may want to reconsider.