Nine East 33rd Apartments — Attraction in Baltimore

I have summarized my own experiences as well as the experiences of many of my peers who have lived/are currently living in 9E: Rent increases both when renewing and in the middle of the lease term. Currently, rent has increased by $137 since last year Promises of keeping a tenant’s rent stable if they renew, which are not kept after renewal Staff never responding to messages sent via the housing portal Black mold forming on ceiling tiles in the hallways. After mold is reported (which takes weeks) the tile is removed, but the leaky pipe/contamination source is never addressed Difficulty contacting staff via email, as emails are not listed in the housing portal Broken stairwell doors that either a) remain locked even after using the fob, or b) open without use of a fob, reducing building safety Blanket application of cleaning fees after move out. When moving out, it is expected to clean the room such that it’s in an acceptable state for the next tenant. However, no matter the actual state of the room, these fees are still applied, costing upwards of $500, with no method to appeal Dirty rooms during move in. It’s common during move in to find hair, dust, and grease throughout the apartment, as well as broken cabinet doors Hostile “URGENT!!!!!” emails threatening eviction after being 1-2 days late with rent payments Aggressive “URGENT!!!!!!!!” emails on a daily basis asking tenants to resign leases Inaction to evict tenants who are months late on rent and have had multiple serious complaints made Inaction to resolve issues of theft between roommates in suites General lack of communication between leasing employees. Speaking to one employee does not guarantee you won’t receive an email days later about the same issue Difficulty being applied to mailing lists. A peer of mine had their email copied-and-pasted into a mailing list incorrectly at the beginning of their lease, meaning they weren’t receiving any emails from 9E. After this issue was addressed, they were added to some mailing lists, but the incorrect email remained on many others Difficulty with addressing payment complications. A peer of mine was paying by paper check and was $5 short one month after a “mail room fee” was applied. 9E emailed and called to harass them about being short without explaining the issue. They proceeded to call every day following for weeks, even after the tenant spoke to the leasing office, until the check was processed Failure to maintain the trash rooms and trash chutes. Bags of garbage will frequently pile up in the trash rooms, making it impossible to even reach the trash chutes, which oftentimes are broken and difficult to open Failure to clean common spaces and elevators. There have been pools of vomit in the elevators that will go uncleaned for 4-5 days before being “cleaned” (mopped into the cracks of the doorway) Failure to control pests such as flies and gnats breeding and spreading from the trash room Failure to collect trash from rooms. A $20 “valet trash service” was applied to rent mid leasing term, and a black trash can was given to each room, along with a schedule for when trash would be collected every day. Only a week after this services inception, the daily collections stopped, and trash would sit outside the rooms for 3-4 days before they were picked up Entitlement to enter a tenant’s room with no warning. Months into my lease, 9E added a roommate to my lease without telling me, and in the middle of the night they let themselves in to show this person their room. No email, no notification, no warning of entry. Advertising a parking garage to new tenants while they take no accountability/responsibility for issues that occur in said parking garage, and take no action to resolve said issues Advertising a grill on the greenspace that has...

If the doctored 5-star reviews that all seem to mention the management by name do not give a glimpse into the reality of this place, then I hope my review will. Nine East is a living representation of capitalist dystopian hell.

The internet is managed by an external company who did the lowest bidding. Every time there is a thunderstorm, the internet shuts off for hours on end (once, more than 24 hours), and I'd have to call technical support—only for them to throw their hands and say "We can't give you a time frame." So much for a student-centered apartment complex. In any normal building, such "repairs" would have been a simple off-on switch of the router. Sometimes, the elevators break as well, and they aren't fixed until the next day. This is a 12-story building.

The building's construction is shoddy and substandard, with paper-thin walls, no outlets on kitchen islands or in bathrooms, no range hood (smoke alarm goes off almost every day somewhere in the building), and the shower doesn't have a fan.

The staff look like they're on autopilot and really do not care. Most advertised amenities are spotty at best. Trash regularly fills the entire trash room. Once, the bike room was locked and I couldn't have access to my own bike.

The biggest transgression is when roommates move in and out, maintenance will literally unlock your door and walk into your apartment without notice. At least my dorms had the courtesy for staff to wait outside for residents to open the door for them.

Did I mention that guests have to sign in at the front desk?

These are my experiences in the two months (!) I have been living here. None of this is advertised to you, and none of these flagrant violations are stated in the lease. Whether a newer, flashier building is worth sacrificing your freedom, that's up to you.

Edit 11/3/24: One of the elevators has been broken for over a week and no one has any clue when it’ll be repaired.

Edit 11/11/24: The elevator is STILL broken. Evidence of gross mismanagement.

Edit 11/19/24: The elevator is still broken. Not a single clue when it will be fixed. The management appears to be a band of glue sniffers. There are also a large amount of gnats and flies that appear to come from the drains (other reviews have confirmed this). The mailroom has lost one of my packages.

Edit 11/28/24: ALL THE ELEVATORS ARE BROKEN. I just had to walk down 8 flights of stairs to get outside. What the hell is going on.

Edit 12/3/24: One elevator is back but the other is still broken. It was broken before Halloween and now it’s almost Christmas and it’s still not fixed. The printer is also broken.

Edit 12/12/24: They sent random people to test the smoke detectors without any notice from management. They unlocked the front door without our permission and knocked on our room doors demanding that we open them. None of this is mentioned in the lease (and yes, I found it necessary to read the whole thing). And yes, the elevator is still broken.

I should remind you all that we are paying $1480 per person per month to share an apartment with three roommates. That is New York City prices in Baltimore to deal with this nonsense. The audacity of...

My daughter lived at 9 East 33rd for this past school year, and I genuinely cannot imagine spending another day in this apartment. Here are just a few of the many issues we experienced: Constant, unnecessary fire alarms. The blaring smoke alarms went off at least once a week—often in the middle of the night around 2 AM—with no clear cause. It was disruptive, stressful, and entirely preventable. No sound insulation whatsoever. The walls are paper thin. Conversations from the common area or even from inside bedrooms could be heard by everyone in the unit, offering zero privacy. Broken elevator for nearly the whole year. The second elevator was out of service for around eight months, creating long and frustrating wait times and serious inconvenience for all residents. Inconsistent building security. Sometimes students were required to sign in, other times anyone could walk in unchecked by simply trailing behind someone else. There’s no reliable access control. Disorganized package system. Packages frequently went missing or were handed to the wrong person entirely. The building’s system for managing deliveries is disorganized and careless.

The bottom line is that you are much better off living pretty much anywhere else close to campus. A row home would probably be your best bet or one of the smaller apartment complexes. Don’t waste your money on 9 East’s “luxury living experience” because it is absolutely the...