Commonwealth Crossing

"I moved into Commonwealth Crossing in the summer of 2021 and lived there for two years. Building 1708. It's extremely well priced, and the apartments are spacious and overall look good - hardwood floors, big rooms, fully functional, so I figured it'd be a good spot. The maintenance team is very friendly and responsive, I was very thankful for them while I lived there. And that's about where the positives stop. Here are some negatives that I experienced during my two year tenure: 1708 is right behind a playground for an elementary school. Get ready to listen to screaming children, all day, Monday to Friday, September to May. The sound of screaming children was made worse by the fact that my unit was randomly missing two window panes when I moved in. The walls are T H I N. Thin thin thin. I could hear everything from my neighbors, and I'm sure they could hear me. It was made worse by management doing nothing about loud music in the buildings. I once complained to them about my downstairs neighbor playing loud music and yelling in the middle of the night, and they told me to call the police. There was a fruit fly infestation in the building. I heard from another tenant that there's a mouse infestation in another. They do pest treatments, but for those, you have to empty everything out of your kitchen and bathroom for a day. These treatments have done nothing for the fruit fly problem. Once every couple weeks to once a month, SOMETHING got shut off. Water, heat, gas. They always put a note on doors, usually the day before or day-of the shutoff, giving an estimated time of when the service will be returned. This time was almost never accurate. So... Store some water and get a portable heater. Water damage? Oh yes. I had three leaks over three months. The first one wasn't terrible, the second one was quite bad (water pouring into my bedroom, that was not fun), and the third one COLLAPSED MY BATHROOM CEILING. Pictures attached. You can see mold in there too. I tried to end my lease early after that one, but was told (aggressively, I might add) that there was no structural issue, no mold (despite being able to clearly see and smell it), and that I would have to pay two months rent and give 60 day notice to leave early. They then "fixed" it by painting over it and patching the ceiling. No, I don't mean patching the ceiling and painting the patch. I mean literally painting over the mold. Then patching the ceiling. Then painting that. The maintenance guys are really nice and quite responsive, but they continually told me things were fixed when they clearly weren't. Management does their best to not actually resolve any problems, and get aggressive and rude when you push for a resolution. They will NOT let you out of your lease for any reason. They WILL make you take them to court if it comes to that. I'm pretty sure they know none of their tenants can afford a lawyer, so they don't care at all. After all of this, when they gave me my option to renew the lease, they wanted to increase my rent by 15% - more than they were charging new tenants. Also, as soon as I gave my move-out notice, management disappeared. None of my maintenance requests were addressed, none of my emails returned. Two months of absolutely nothing. I'm generally pretty low maintenance when it comes to my living space. I don't need anything fancy, and I'm a fan of saving money. I could deal with the noise, the flies, the neighbors, the rude management, the service shutoffs - I can deal with some issues on my own, and others I just don't care about much. If it was just that, I might have even renewed my lease. But when my ceiling collapsed and management got aggressive with me and refused to let me out of my lease, I just about lost it. This place isn't worth the moldy planks holding my ceiling together."

"Yeah, Val needs to get fired, people r right she doesn't know how to talk to people"

"The manager Val was very rude to us when we lived there. Does not seem to know what is going on with maintenance and then blamed us for some water issues in the unit below (we suspect it was the bathtub that needed recaulking, either that or something with the building since we also had moisture in our walls). And then finally, she tried to make us sign another year lease even though the existing one automatically converted to month to month. After I spoke with Gwendolyn from the City of Alexandria housing office who called her directly, she said that "everything was okay". This was only after insisting that she "could not talk about tenant matters without their permission" (and I had to then give Gwendolyn the permission)."

"I have lived at Commonwealth Crossing Apartments for almost three and a half years. The only reason I'm moving is because my partner and I are buying a house or condominium. Living in the Del Ray neighborhood at a far more reasonable price than newer apartments with amenities is well worth the sacrifice of central air or outdoor space. Maintenance has always been responsive and courteous. Val has always been extremely helpful and nothing but polite. Her new assistant (who answers the phone and refuses her give her name, even when a caller requests it) is incredibly rude and needs to be replaced, but that is the only major drawback. The rent only increases 0.5%-1% annually, which is so much better than all the other apartments in the area that increase 5%-10% annually. I will miss the neighborhood, location, and responsive service I've had while living here and I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a no-frills, clean, and safe place to live that is a one-mile walk to two Metro stations."

"The Front Desk woman Val is very Rude and disrespectful- Stay away unless you need her to “do you a favor”"