University Square Apartments

My rating is based on the parking. I am so frustrated with the parking — we have parking permits. I returned my parking ticket when I purchased another car only to find out that one of the lazy office team members DID NOT do their job and remove it from my account. Now that I need a parking permit for car number 2 that was towed after I was given the go-​ahead to park, from the rental office. They told me they didn’t have any parking permits and they will send out memos when they arrived. Needless to say, NO memos went out regarding the parking and I was towed — that was a big inconvenience. They are to deduct the tow fees from my rent. Thanks.
After going to the office to get a parking permit — IT BECOMES MY PROBLEM THAT SOMEONE DIDN’T DO THEIR JOB. I am supposed to do extra work outside of my place of employment and prove that I don’t own the car that was supposed to be removed from my account two years ago. I like easiness when dealing with rental issues. It should be hassle free…
The office staff seems to be a nice group of people, but there also seems to be a bit of LAZINESS that will affect you the tenant. CUSTOMER SERVICE … keeps and grow clients. Ms. Hairston the office manager is a really good person and she said she will let them know to look for my complaint on this issue. Thanks… I guess.

I just moved out October 2015. I do not have much bad to say, but I don’t have much good to say either. The office staff is friendly but I feel that they can be lazy and don’t have much follow through when you contact them, I asked to do a final walk through with them when I moved out, and because the property manager was out they couldn’t do it, needless to say I still have not been contacted to do so and she was supposed to be back a few days ago (thank goodness I watch enough court shows to do a video right before I turned my keys in). Another MAJOR issue is parking, they assign us parking passes but there are a large amount of cars that park overnight without passes. I lived there for 1 year and NEVER saw a tow truck at my old community I would see them daily as they took the parking situation seriously, who wants to park on the street or 2 streets down when you have groceries, it’s raining, snowing, or late at night? I also had a problem with maintenance entering my apartment when I hadn’t requested services (that happened twice that someone «called in» but I live alone and didn’t call).
But again there are some positives, the apartments are VERY spacious (I had a 1 bedroom), all of my appliances were new and I had a washer/​dryer in my unit (and one in the building still), I didn’t have rodents or roaches maybe the occasional spider (I lived on a ground unit) maybe I just lived in a good building but my neighbors were SUPER friendly and there was 0 crime near my unit or otherwise as far as I could tell (if you live in PG county you know that can be a bit of an issue). Also, everything was about 20 minutes away you were right in between 295 and 495 and if you knew the back roads most times you didn’t have to get on the highway.

I could write a book on how horrible this place is. But I’ll just gloss over the big things so that you get a general idea. I’ve lived here for 2 years and it’s only been down hill.
To start, I have had multiple bug problems. Mostly crickets but a serious, sickening amount of crickets. I couldn’t go anywhere in the apartment without seeing at least ½ a dozen crickets, alive or dead just lying around. Even after contacting the front desk several times and having different bug companies come to spray there was still crickets! I think it was mostly because of the mildewy wetness in the apartment. Which leads me to major problem 2.
Water damage. The washer dryer leaked and created water damage. The apartment above me had a leak in their bathroom and it came into my place. They had to tear down a ceiling in the bedroom and multiple walls. And then it wasn’t fixed properly so they had to come back within 2 months and do it again. Due to all the water damage there is now mold.
So yet again the maintenance men are back at my place… Despite contacting the office on multiple occasions they never get back to you. You have to stop in to get them to do anything. Overall management here is bad and customer service is absolutely terrible.
Don’t let the large apartment sizes and relatively low cost of rent for the area to trick you into coming here. The lack of customer service is appalling.

This apartment complex is horrible. I have lived here for two years and it has not been that enjoyable. There is always one problem or another with this apartment. Almost everyone we have encountered has either move out or is planning to move out. The only reason I’m even given it one star is because the rooms are big enough to fit a queen or king size bed that’s the only deal you get with this apartment complex but taken into consideration the fact that they have raised the rent every year diminishes that one amenity. Don’t live here.

I preface my review with I’ve been a resident for 15+ years, so I know the highs and lows of this complex. Let’s get started.
Amenities: Pool, tennis court, basketball court, and work-​out room. A family room to rent for special occasion.
Management: This is the heart of customer service for every apartment complex. I have watched this office go from a team of Caucasian professionals who aimed to serve their residents to an all African American staff who are quick to say what cannot be done. In addition, this all African American staff talks about personal issues (aloud and across offices) while customers are present – embarrassing to my race. When I first moved here, I was treated with respect – now, I am treated as property. There is little time to plan for maintenance notices – people are not considered. And, if work is being done in your building, prepare yourself to be embarrassed by the mess left in the hallway. The office will quickly tell you that your home begins inside your unit. The Super joined the team some years ago and he, too, will quickly tell you what cannot be done because of budget constraints. The Super is Hispanic and rarely hires other races to do maintenance work – many cannot speak fluent English, which is challenging when an issue is encountered. Whatever happened to the diversity in Greenbelt!
Grounds: Oh what immaculate grounds they used to have. It was a joy to ride home through the entrance to see the beautiful flower bed. This flower bed was changed several times doing the year – impressive. This flower bed no longer exist, as well as, the lush grounds. A few bushes and flowers remain, but they are overshadowed by bald grass throughout. The former mulched edged trees are nothing more than dead trees that shed limbs daily. Every morning you could count on hearing the blower that was used to pick up the tree debris and trash – now, I just awaken to the debris, dog feces, and trash.
Units: These apartments are some of the largest units around. You will not find apartments with eat in kitchens and formal dining rooms. They even have large walk-​in closets (master and hallway) and dens. This is the plus side of the unit. The downside is as follows: thin walls – you can hear everything; inefficient energy – expect to pay $ 150-​$ 300 in electric during the summer; cheap appliances; cheap carpet. In attempt to stay up with the market, units are undergoing a major renovation, which includes washer and dryers in the unit. This sounds good, right? Wrong! While convenient, the spin cycle shakes everything in your unit. I can sit on my sofa and feel the vibrations. Oh, you think this is coming from my washer? Think again. It is the neighbor’s washer underneath. It is worse when I wash. I have to move things to avoid them from falling on the floor or making noise – yes, the stove, cabinet doors, dishes, and glasses shake with annoying noise.
Neighbors: The neighbors were great over the years with a few hiccups. There was diversity in each building, but not now. A new breed is moving in. When I asked the office about this, I learned that corporate is allowing people with bad credit to lease a unit if they can come up with double or triple the rent. Needless to say that the former neighbors who had a mind-​set of respect and care no longer exist. I understand that one may fall on hard times where credit scores aren’t the best, but when your neighbors are sitting in the hallway, slamming doors, talking loud, using profanity, smoking marijuana, having frequent police visits, and showing a blatant disregard for the rules in the lease, it’s time to go. People will play car music loud, set up carpet and tents on the lawn, and use their own personal grills to have cookout. Never was this conduct allowed. In fact, the office used to perform regular inspections to ensure that leaseholders were in compliance.
Maintenance: Maintenance is poor, and in many cases, it is nothing more than covering up issues. I can give you many examples, but I’ll share two: Maintenance changed my locks and the cylinders do not align right. Consequently, I have to align the door to lock or unlock it. When I brought this to maintenance attention (before they left), I was told to just jiggle it – in other words, it’s good enough for rental property. The tub wall is ajar and is nothing more than a cover up of mold. I just keep pouring bleach behind it to protect myself. Maintenance response times: please don’t have an emergency. Routine maintenance is routinely 3 – 5 days with several reminders.
Trash Dumps: Since morning clean-​up no longer exist, trash will be around the dumpsters. And of course, I have seen rodents. The upside is that there are several dumpsters strategically placed around the complex, so they are rarely overflowing. A word of caution though, you may have to live a couple of days with furniture at the dumpster, which can be an eyesore.

Affordable, spacious apartments in a relatively safe neighborhood, especially for PG county. Close to public transportation, grocery shopping and the University of Maryland.
However, staff can be extremely slow to respond to maintenance issues. Once in a while you get lucky and they’ll fix your problem within the hour, but I’ve called three times in the past five days to get our washer fixed and they have yet to send someone over.
Overall, can’t complain. It’s a nice neighborhood, our apartment is newly renovated and we only pay $ 1075 per month (gas/​heat included, water and electric not) in rent, which is pretty awesome for a large 2-​bedroom. Service could be better though.