Elements Apartments — Local services in Bellevue

During my nearly two months of living in this place, I encountered an issue that I had never experienced elsewhere. When submitting a maintenance request, the worker would hurriedly enter my unit without regard for the possibility of someone being inside. They would even enter bathrooms, disregarding the sound of the shower running or the presence of a lit bathroom light. Their focus seemed solely on completing the job as quickly as possible, without considering the fact that it is someone's personal living space.

The app provided an optional comment section where I could specify any rules or preferences for entering my unit. However, it appeared that these instructions were routinely ignored, despite being clearly stated and presumably read. On one occasion, I requested maintenance for a Wednesday, but the worker arrived the day before. When I raised this concern with the leasing office, the worker responded by saying, "This lady said she wouldn't be there today, so how would I know she was there?" This comment implied that the worker had read my request indicating my unavailability on Tuesday and therefore had an understanding that Wednesday was the preferred day. This incident left me feeling violated and as though my home held no significance to them.

All I desire is a basic level of respect and consideration. I have spoken to other neighbors who have shared similar experiences and frustrations. I suspect we are not the only ones affected, as we recently received an email stating, "The entry notes portion of the request is to notify us of any information we may need to know right away when entering your home; they are not to specify a certain date/time you would like us to enter or to request that we call before entering." In my opinion, if I am paying for a place that I consider my home, I believe people should adhere to my rules and show respect when inside my unit. Entering someone's bedroom or bathroom without knock when the door is closed and still evident that the light is on is simply unacceptable.

Edit 8/31/23: Given the situation, I hesitated to request any maintenance due to discomfort. I waited until multiple issues arose before finally submitting a maintenance request. Despite the building having a team designated for unit repairs, they still sent the same person to address the issues in my unit, disregarding our expressed preference for a different handman. When we saw him, we asked him to leave, a scenario that played out with frustration until we surrendered and accompanied him downstairs to address the issue in person to the license office. We raised the question of why he was sent to our unit despite being assured otherwise (even in their comment below "Please rest assured that we have implemented the necessary improvements to prevent such situations from happening again in the future").

A high-level manager arranged a meeting with me, yet no apologies were given. Instead, she said the app fails to convey entry notes to maintenance staff, so it's not an app issue, it's mainly the app the way it is (and it doesn't match with their comment below "Our community recently underwent a change in our system operations... entry notes from the previous system did not transfer seamlessly"). Plus, if I sought a different handman for my unit, I should visit the license office in person to request maintenance, but it wasn't what they said after the first issue I had, I even have an email that has "we have addressed this with our service team, and our service team member has been removed from doing any service-related requests in your home."

Unfortunately, their only proposed solution for residents in such situations is to terminate the lease, because they are in the handman's side. Remarkably, there's no mention of financial assistance for moving expenses. Essentially, they appear indifferent to the well-being of...

2025 update: There has been a never ending construction right above my bedroom weeks ago. You can hear the noise from the video. Forget about peaceful personal time when you live here😌

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This building is the best option for people who want to get verbally insulted every time they request maintenance and get traumatized enough that you no longer feel comfortable requesting any minor fix for the place you pay rent for💯.

I have been living here for almost 2 years (unfortunately). Everything is fine (callbox and garage gate constantly broken? That’s another story…) except when you need some maintenance work…

On 11/19/2023 I put a request to fix my washer. The worker came the next day and the first thing he did was not checking what’s broken, but angrily yelling at me how come I broke a brand new washer he just replaced. I was confused af cause I’d been using the same washer since I moved in over 1 year ago, and the washer was obviously not “brand new” when I moved in. After he’s done yelling he then started questioning me if I don’t know how to use the washer. So far he didn’t even try to check what’s going on with the washer, instead he decided to spend his precious time accusing me and my ability to use a basic washer. He then left without being able to fix the problem. Another nice person came few days later and cleaned up bunch of underwear and socks inside the washer which all don’t belong to me (🤢) proofing the washer was not as “brand new” as he claimed at all.

On 11/04/2024, I put a request for clogged disposal. I live at the lowest floor of this building and sometimes the sewer from upstairs would pile up and cause my sink and toilet to make gurgling sound with some water flooding up (🤢). The same worker who yelled at me last time came again the next day. He was able to remove a small piece of plastic from my disposal and thought the clog would get fixed and left without testing. The next day, however, I realized the sink is still clogged so I put a request again. The same person came again and again yelled at me “This is the SECOND time ma’am! I told you not to put large things into the disposal! I just fixed it and you broke it again!”

I tried to explain it’s not fixed the previous day he came, but I guess he never tried to listen to me cause he just kept blaming me. I always use the disposal pretty carefully and never flush large amount of food not mentioning bones so I think the clog came from upstairs (sometimes the waste water flood randomly even when I’m just sitting at my desk far from the kitchen🤷‍♀️). But whatever the fact is I just gave up communicating with this person since he won’t listen at all. They called a vendor outside who fixed the problem nicely the next day.

After this two things I feel absolutely traumatized and uncomfortable to ever put any maintenance request, knowing it’s possible I’m going to meet the same person and being accused, questioned and scolded loudly at my own apartment. It’s definitely a super uneasy feeling as being a woman living alone to get yelled at by a guy much taller and stronger than you, with bunch of maintenance tools with him.

I just hope nothing will break before my lease ends so I don’t need to experience this nightmare again🤞 They never notify you before they come so there’s no way I can find some company in advance to avoid facing this situation...

TL;DR I have not lived in Elements, but I toured their facilities and quickly made the decision to not sign a lease. Judging by my tour, the buildings are poorly built and designed with the goal of overcharging for cheap quality rather than being actual high quality. I am sure you could have a decent experience living here, but I chose to look elsewhere.

Navigating the building to find the leasing office and rooms was difficult with the lack of directions, although I did see another touring group get directions from a different employee than the one who had been helping me. When I arrived, I asked about a specific room, which they said was unavailable, and instead sent me to four different unfurnished tour rooms with nothing more than a ground floor map and room numbers. None of these rooms were even similar to the layout I had asked about (which was posted as available on their website).

The quality of the construction felt very low and it was clear that cabinets/closets were about as cheap as the college student housing that I previously lived in. Some appliances were nice, but 4/5 rooms had cheap ones that made a lot of noise. The tour rooms feel a lot smaller than the listed floor plans, but they are unfurnished so it is very difficult to judge the size.

Room 1: On the freeway side of the building there is a lot of noise, even during the reduced traffic at 2:00pm during COVID lockdown. The refrigerator and AC were also much louder than usual.

Room 2: Very loud AC system and the window opened in a way that made me feel like I could trip and fall eight stories onto the pavement.

Room 3: I took the stairs and learned that someone in this "non-smoking" complex (the staff told me that all rooms were non-smoking) had been using the staircase for smoke breaks. The entire hallway smelled like smoke, and there was extra air freshener in the room to unsuccessfully cover the odor. The carpet in the bed was cut about four inches too wide, so it was just rolled up the edge of the wall with large bubbles where the carpet could not be pushed down flush with the ground.

Room 4: No glaring issues, but as mentioned above the HVAC system in the entire building creates a dull noise that is much louder than I have experiences in other housing.

Penthouse Apartment: I was told that I was allowed to explore the facilities, so I visited the top floor and saw that a penthouse apartment was available for tours and took a peek inside. For a large apartment (I would guess that it was $2,800+ from the other listings at Elements), there seemed to be a bump up in quality, but only up to the point that I would have thought the other apartments should have been (not penthouse quality). The balcony was very shallow (about three feet deep), which seemed accurate from the floor plans posted online.

Overall, I was not impressed, and was astounded by how much noise there was in not only the apartments but also the lobby. I never heard other residents thumping around, but the appliances and HVAC were enough to tell me that you won't get any quiet moments at Elements. Cheap construction and poor quality control were clear issues, and judging by other reviews about excessive fees, I got a vibe very similar to exploitative student housing that I have experienced in the past. If you can afford Elements' excessive prices, you can afford housing that you'll...