The Queensborough

I completed a six month lease at the Queensborough. At the onset is was an average apartment for the price in that neighborhood but things went downhill quickly. One of the main selling points of this building is the rooftop access, one thing that immediately makes this less appealing is that a somewhat creepy Assistant Manager will go up to the rooftop during the summer shortly before they close the roof (9 or 10PM) and stare at you while you try to enjoy the last few minutes of your evening and then very rudely and abruptly kick people off the roof very much like the recess monitor when you were in 5^th grade and it was time to go back to class. What made that fun experience a non-​issue was for more than half the summer they completely closed the roof for a «two — three week» maintenance project that ended up taking about 3 months to complete. I’m not sure if the roof has re-​opened even now.
Here’s a list of other things that weren’t fun about my experience at the Queensborough; lack of water pressure on the 8^th floor (persistent with no fix from my maintenance request), lack of hot water (the building runs on a boiler and sometimes it’s «down»), continual building wide maintenance issues, the Assistant Manager talking to you like your a child, very old musty hallway carpet, excessive cost for laundry in old outdated machines that are usually filthy when you try to use them if their available.
The final part of this amazing experience and the main reason I decided to write this review is the fact that these people will straight up rob you when they «return» your deposit. I was supposed to be getting approximately $ 500 back and the sent me a check for $ 272.65. They charged me for soap scum on my tub/​shower area, some grease on the oven and «stains» on the carpet (which there were none). Oh and they also charged me $ 50 – 60 for «supplies». My apartment may have needed some light cleaning prior to a new tenant moving in but there is no way this charge was appropriate or fair. If you read other folks reviews available here, this is apparently a common practice for them.
If I’ve convinced even one person that this may not be the best rental experience for them I’ll consider this review a success. Mine was the worst apartment experience I’ve ever had and I feel they’ve stolen some money from me. If I could give it a negative star rating I would.

I didn’t have high expectations of this place when I moved in, based on the reviews from Google and Unilocal,but I found the place to be satisfactory. Here’s my review on my Studio stay for 12 months:
The PROS:
1. Conveniently located near bus lines that will take you to Seattle, Capitol Hill, Ballard, U-​District, Sand Point, Lake City, etc.
2. Near cheap and upscale supermarkets (i.e. Safeway and Metropolitan Market).
3. Helpful staff in building from Mon-​Sat.
4. Quiet hours from 9pm-​9am. Although, neighbors barely make any noise (or couldn’t hear them much), apart from tenant above me, occasionally.
5. Decent view if you get the right unit. Has nice, wide windows with plenty of natural light.
6. Rooftop access for amazing view of Seattle and Puget Sound.
7. FOB access into building and laundry room. Super convenient.
8. Coin machine in laundry room that accepts $ 1 and $ 5 bills.
9. Somewhat affordable rent for my unit.
10. Plenty of storage room in unit.
11. Revolving «free» unwanted stuff from other tenants in laundry room.
12. Carts that you could use for moving in/​out or transporting stuff around the unit on the 1^st floor.
13. Delivered packages on main floor don’t appear to get stolen. I never had mine stolen, nor do those that don’t pickup their packages for 3 days.
The CONS:
1. Noisy elevators, if you live near one. Couldn’t sleep because of it for the first few weeks.
2. Refrigerator isn’t all that great and quite noisy. I often find stuff melt and refreeze in the freezer compartment. I can’t store up ice cubes or some frozen foods for as long as I should be able to.
3. Recent repainting crew were unprofessional. They would blast their radio/​music for almost the entire day and one time peaked into my unit when I didn’t have my blinds down, thinking that I wasn’t home.
4. Bathroom doesn’t have ventilation fan.
5. Giant hole behind bathroom mirror for utility access. Would be nice if they invested in putting in a hatch to close it off better, rather than just stuffing insulation foam. Odor from other units keeps traveling through the walls and out that hole, particularly from those violating smoking rules.
6. Doesn’t allow bike in unit. You need to either lock it in the parking garage on the rails, or rent additional storage. The problem with the parking garage is that it’s open during the day and anyone can walk in. I don’t understand why they need to do this, because it increases risk of outsider car/​bike theft. I’m fortunate to not have my bike parts stolen, but my neighbor had his stolen once.
7. Very small kitchen. I barely had space to cook/​prep, so I rarely did any cooking.
8. Poor door and window insulation, heat leaks out very easily. I had to do some creative insulation with cardboard technology.
9. Heater is quite poor at heating up unit. unless you leave it on for multiple days and plug up the front door. The heater heat is based on weather temperature (as I am told). The heat didn’t come on until late September.
10. Funky odor in hallways. I really don’t know what it is, but the hallways always have this weird smell. I sometimes smell it in my unit when I get back from work. Plus, occasionally, there will be someone who smokes at night in the smoke-​free building. They try to cover it up by opening the hallway doors connected to the stairs to ventilate, but the smell will persist for a while. I got around this by insulating my doors.
Additional Info:
1. Laundry cost $ 1.75 for Washer and $ 1.75 for Dryer.
2. Internet providers are Comcast and CenturyLink when I was there. They should get CascadeLink (not CenturyLink) into their building, though. CascadeLink offers cheaper internet rate and you can potentially get Gigabit internet.
3. Call Jed if you need anything or have an issue/​problem. He lives in the apartment and is pretty easy going about things. He tries. If he can’t fix it, he’ll find someone that can help you fix it. I only wish that it would be made clearer that he’s there for you when you move in.
My recommendation when moving in is taking as many photos as you can of everything when you do the move in inspection of the unit. And when moving out, take as many photos as you can of your cleaned up unit. That way you can backup any potential fees that they hold against you. That landlord/​apartment manager goes through everything very quickly, but don’t let that deter you from taking your time to document everything you need on the spot.
TL;DR: OK apartment at great location for affordable price (for Seattle market), but pretty old and has its downsides. Be ready to clean the apartment well when moving out, because the fees taken out of your deposit can stack up quickly.

I had to create an account to complain.
I am totally agree with other 1-​star reviews. This is the worst place ever in my many year’s of renting experience. This place has made me start to regret the decision to move to Seattle. The building is very old with ancient, barely working appliances. Laundry room is full of broken washer/​drier and always busy. However, all these are still tolerable, the main problem starts when you are moving out! They will always charge you the full last month rent no matter when you move out (even you move out on the 1^st!). They will try best to manipulate and distort the cleaning charges to hold your deposit and even charge you more. In order to suck blood from you and have you pay the money, they will absolutely send all bills to collections without even contacting you! People, look up online. You will find there are so many previous Queensborough residents bothered by collections after moveout. This place is run by a bunch of greedy people and disgusting. Avoid this place!

Seattle, Washington
(In Queen Anne)
I lived at Queensborough for a total of five years. Two years I rented a studio apartment and then I rented a one bedroom for three years. I liked living there but I had to compromise on a few things. It’s location is convenient and offers an amazing view of downtown and the bay however the apartments are really small, there is limited closet space, and the building is old. It’s not dirty but the carpet in the halls are old and needs to be replaced.
Although the apartments are small in size they do rent small storage units in the lower level of the apt. For about $ 25. So even though the apts are super small I utilized the affordable storage to store season things winter tires and clothes, luggage, skis and lawn chairs. Since the storage was in the apt building it was available ²⁴⁄₇ and I was able to easily access things without the need to drive or be restricted with specific time frames that other storage units usually have.
Anytime I requested maintenance, issues were resolved in a timely manner.
When I was inside my apt I rarely heard any noise from neighbors, vacuums or foot steps from above. Two sounds I did hear were sirens at all hours but that comes with living in a city and I also heard children playing outside every morning between 9 and 10am at the preschool across the street.
I wish my apts had it’s own washer and dryers but there was a large community laundry room in the building with roughly 6 – 8 washer and dryers. Sometimes in the mornings the coin machine was out of quarters but it was usually refilled by noon. I never had a problem with the dryer not drying my clothes. I also did not have my car vandalized while parked in the garage.
Aside from the small size of the apts I didn’t like that packages were often left at your door or left outside the mail boxes in the apt lobby but I think that’s more of a problem with the mailman and delivery people not really the apts problem. It would be nice if the apt manager could sign for the packages and secured the package in a safe place until I came to pick it up but instead packages were left and anyone could steal those packages.
I had an amazing view from each of the apts I lived in and the roof top offered relaxing chairs and tables to sit while seeing the view of downtown Seattle and the bay. The location was convenient because within a few blocks there were banks, grocery stores, the post office, health clinics, a movie theater and the bus system.
When I moved out I left the apt as clean as when I moved in and I received my deposit back in a timely manner with no problems. If I knew someone who was looking for an apt in the downtown area for a responsible price and didn’t mind that it was an older building with limited space I would suggest this apt complex.

I don’t know why my tips and reviews aren’t being posted. Maybe I can only post bad stuff to have it shown on my phone, but I love it here! This building is close to my work and the bus routes are walking distance. (2 blocks) I chose living here because I wanted a safe place to rent from that wasn’t a «party» place. I was recommended this place from one of my friends who lives here, I can understand why. nice views, nice neighbors, and the building is smoke-​free. My mom was helping me move in some of my stuff and the manager downstairs even had moving carts for me to use. I read some of the other reviews and I don’t have a cat so I’m not worried. My deposit was $ 500 and they told me $ 350 of that comes back as long as I leave the apartment as clean as I moved in. I also like that there are 3 supermarkets and they are open 24 hours and are a block away too.

Same experience as Jason below. I cleaned as best I could, and didn’t get a dime of the deposit back. I knew the carpet had been stained so I let it go. Next thing I know, I’m hearing from collections! Asking for $ 1200 in addition to the deposit! Freaking awesome. Before that I actually enjoyed living there, even though it’s nothing much to look at. The rooftop is the star attraction.

I’m a former tennant. Stringfellow has been a complete crook as long back as anyone could remember (horror story after horror story). All the problems they’re talking about now were problems from way back when. Nothing has changed & never will. When you move out prepare to fight him in small claims court because he will gouge you for every dime he can. He is the devil but claims hes so religious! Ha! He is Satan!

I cleaned as best I could. LIved there 3 years. A match fell to the linoleum and instantly burned a hole. My cat scratched at the carpet near the front and closet doors. They gave me a used oven to replace one that didn’t work. A scratch occurred in the moving of it in. I washed the walls, the manager said it looked good. They sent me a bill for over $ 4,000 to replace all of what I just said and more. Not only that but they are trying to get me to pay for brand new, higher quality everything. The cost of the linoleum that they are charging me for is literally more than twice what it is worth. I was astounded. I thought it was a joke. I called them and left a message, heard nothing back, so I figured they’d forgotten about it. Not only did they not call me back, but they sent the bill to collections. What a crazy situation this is going to be! Do I actually have to, for the first time in my life (as a student and a massage therapist) hire a lawyer?!

I’ve moved 10 times in the last 6 – 7 years; however, the only time it was because I hated where I lived was when I lived here. I was moving from out of state, so I signed a lease for this place without viewing it myself. I haven’t lived here in about two years, but my experience was as follows:
Halls constantly smelled like cigarettes and weed. Apartments were old, musty, and worn. The pictures on the website are laughable — not even close to what this place looks like in person.
The dumpsters right below all the apartments get picked up by garbage trucks early in the morning and the shattering glass is deafening.
Laundry machines were terrible at drying clothes and they were always being used. Coin machine was constantly out of order as well.
Management would leave religious messages taped up in the elevators throughout the year, which was completely inappropriate.
Factor the security deposit into your rent because you will not get it back regardless of how clean you leave the apartment. I scrubbed the place clean for hours, but as everyone else says here and on other sites, the scumbag landlord makes up ridiculous charges to keep almost every penny. You can take him to court and likely win, but I didn’t have the energy to do so over a few hundred bucks. Hopefully others do.
The only two redeeming qualities about this place are the views from some apartments (mine was great) and the rooftop deck is very nice. Thus, I’d give this place a 1.5, but am rounding down because the owners don’t deserve good people as tenants.

Beware of this property the owner is your typical slumlord minimal upkeep, but expects maximum profit. Additionally, I agree with the other reviews; DO NOT EXPECT your deposit back under any circumstance.

I ended up living at the Queensborough for 5 years. When there was an issue with my sink, I came home from work the next day with a brand new faucet! The element in my oven went out and a week later, had a brand new stove! The only reason I moved was to buy a place when the market went south… sometimes I wish I would’ve just stayed there. Everything’s convenient and within walking distance! I don’t know how much rent is now as I moved out back in September 2009 but I have fond memories of the Queensborough…

This place only gets worse. Run kind people of Seattle –run.