Altitude Apartments — Local services in Malden

I wish I could give this place 0 stars. I never leave reviews nor complain all that much, but I’m pretty compelled to about this place. When I first moved in 2 years ago, there were light switches falling out of the walls, the microwave didn’t work, and the shower head fell off, and there is a huge ant problem.

The people in the leasing office are some of the most miserable unprofessional people I have ever had the misfortune of speaking to. Some of them will speak to you like you’re a toddler if you have a problem or just yell at you. I was there for 3 days and got screamed at for coming in to pick up my parking pass, which you need unless you want to get towed.

Speaking of which, they will tow your car for ANYTHING. If there is the slightest thing wrong with your car, you may wake up in the morning to go to work to find your car missing. Tire went flat overnight? Towed! Not even a warning email. Now you have to pay $200 to get your car back on top of the money you have to pay to fix your car. They have tow trucks patrolling the parking lots looking for cars to take. On multiple occasions, I have even caught tow truck drivers peaking into people’s windows trying to see what was inside of people’s cars for some reason. I’m fairly convinced Altitude has a deal with the tow truck company to take people’s cars with no warning and split the profits. My friend’s car was even stolen by them with nothing wrong with it because they apparently meant to take someone else’s. They wouldn’t bring it back nor pay for an uber for him to go get it.

This brings me to the guest parking issue. They have the tiniest little guest parking lot that is always completely full. In order to get a guest parking pass you have to go to the leasing office that is only open during normal work hours now, and they don’t respond to emails nor answer calls unless you’re a new renter, so they make it impossible to get a guest pass if you work a normal 9-5. Even if you do get a pass, there probably won’t be a spot available.

Maintenance is a disaster. My dishwasher broke and it took me 5 maintenance requests, multiple emails, and 4 months for them to actually get in there and fix it. 3 months of them doing nothing, no follow up emails or anything, the remaining month was them coming in multiple times and not finishing the job. They left a note saying “do not use your fuse box until we fix it tomorrow”. They never came back to fix it. FINALLY the new dishwasher was installed and it STILL didn’t work! One more maintenance request finally fixed the problem but what should have taken a week at most took 4 months.

The elevators are constantly broken and are two years passed inspection, someone ripped the security camera out of the ceiling and left it hanging by some wires so altitude just removed it entirely, packages that are delivered to your building are now constantly being stolen. The lobby doors just didn’t lock for months. Someone in my building brings their dog down to poop in the walkway leading to the building and doesn’t clean it up, and one time even left it INSIDE the building on the floor. No action from altitude and they know about the problem. I met one resident who fell out of one of the side doors and sprained his ankle after altitude removed the stairs with no warning and no signs indicating there was a big cliff behind the door. Everyone has already mentioned the mice problem, which I’ve seen in my apartment.

And lastly, like once a month they will send out condescending or threatening emails. One crazy example was the manager sent out an email that said someone was seen leaving a building with a scooter, and in the email they said “When we find out who it is, YOU WILL BE EVICTED!” There is nothing in the leasing agreements specifying anything about this or even somewhat relating to it, I looked. And best part was, it was signed “the manager”. They must want to remain anonymous.

These are just the big things but there is too much to say and it would make this post too long to post. But yeah, this place sucks,...

Utterly disappointed. Having lived here for over 3 years, the leasing office have no courtesy or respect to talk to long term residents. Moreover, since me and my husband are taking the next big step in our lives by buying a house and moving out of the apartment, the leasing office is charging us inappropriate fees in the pretext of providing insufficient notice.

Here is where the problem is - the leasing office needed 60 days advance notice of either renewing the lease, non renewal or renting on a month to month basis. We asked to put us on a month to month lease since we were in the process of finding the house. This notice was provided in the stipulated time line. We were asked to give 30 day notice to opt out of month to month. Our stars got lucky and we got the house we put an offer on, so we told the leasing office 30 days in advance that we will be opting out of month to month.... SURPRISE! we have been charged insufficient notice charges of $1476 because we did not let the leasing office know that we were vacating the apartment. WOW.. how on earth can we give two notices at the same time? and where did we go wrong???? We provided the notice but still we did not provide the notice??? WHAT?

Moreover, on requesting the leasing manager Jacqueline Motta to meet to clarify the situation - she refuses to give us the availability and more over acts superior and bullies us by saying that she is the management and policy is policy. When my husband went to the leasing office that very night to collect the latest copy of the lease, it became a big deal for her and she started passing rude comments. We are fighting of stop this injustice, but have no support since Jacqueline claims to be the management! This is practically harassment where we are suppose to keep quiet because the money will be deducted from our security deposit anyway. There is nothing we can do to stop this unless someone helps us. We will be contacting the management customer service too to seek help and hope someone responds.

This situation has been the same for the past three years. There are roaches in the building, bugs and ants! I have lived in an apartment where six baby mice kept popping out of the air conditioner one by one. On complaining to Jacqueline about this situation - she said she was trying to make it right and thats why I should not be angry, but be appreciate that aggressive treatment was being done. Are you kidding me???

Your or your guest's car can get towed any night and the leasing office or the security will have no information if your car is towed or not/ or where is your car. We have lost uncountable number of packages because the package person does not bother to check for the delivery and point blank tells us that nothing was received!

There is a referral program that the leasing office tells you about, but mind you - neither did the people who referred us get any compensation not did we get anything on referring two other friends who lived here. Totally unacceptable and unprofessional.

No doubt that the rent is affordable and the community is good with good residents and our friends living here, but when it comes to dealing with the leasing office - it is practically impossible to talk to Jacqueline Motta WHO IS THE MANAGEMENT.

Paula Nigro, the previous leasing manager was stern but was reasonable to talk to. She heard you, understood your situation and at least tried to help out with what was in her power. She was fair. She never cheated and grabbed money from us like how Jacqueline has been doing. She has tried to do this with our friends as well who left the community.

We were sad to leave this community because we had made memories here for 3 long years; but this experience has totally made it...

I moved to Altitude last summer into one of their newly renovated 800sq ft 1bd apartments for $2,300 a month. With the pool, gym, and balcony view, it felt like I was at a resort. The complex does well maintaining the landscaping as well as the common areas. Housing prices in all of Boston are terribly expensive. However, with the amenities, great location, lots of resident parking, and access to bus stops, the price makes it fair and worth living here!

As for staff, Kim is really nice. She hasn’t forgot me or my partner since we moved in, and it makes us feel welcomed here. Lori is nice on a good day at Altitude. You can tell the office staff needs a bigger team. Like many offices, the staff seems overworked with too much on their plate each day. They’re doing what they can.

One of their maintenance crew is also very nice (unfortunately I don’t know his name so I can’t give him a shoutout). He is so friendly and easy to strike up a conversation with! Maintenance response in general is fine. I’ve had reasonably fast responses for most requests. There was a time when my newly renovated closet had a rack that fell (I didnt have that many clothes/items there) and it took a while for it to be fixed. It just took a follow up email, and they sent a contractor that same week.

Pests. Thankfully my building doesn’t have mice. But we have roaches. If you request a pesticide spray, Altitude will schedule it and that’ll get the job done.

They just upgraded the pool furniture and repaved the tennis courts and basketball courts, so that’s cool. A staff member from Altitude told me about some upgrades they have planned. (Im looking forward to when they take the smelly carpet out of the elevators!) .

Though there is a gate, they let anyone through. So not actually a gated community. I wish they had more guest parking, and guest parking at different buildings. There are so many parking spots that are not used, I wish it was designated visitor parking. You must make sure your guests park in the guest lot, or else they WILL get towed. Not fun after hosting a dinner party or game night.

Accessibility. Altitude was built in the 70s. Unfortunately, accessibility was not at the forefront of people’s minds back then. Still, there are some quirks about Altitude that are not very accessible for residents who use wheelchairs or walkers. For example, behind the pool, there is a path with 1 or 2 unnecessary stairs. This should be a ramp instead. The entrance to the parking lot for the same path is blocked by a car parking spot. So if a car is parked there, someone with a wheelchair or walker cant get through. Also, the pond isn’t accessible either. You must go through a steep flight of stairs or hilly grass to enjoy the pond. One last thing about this topic, the main doors for my building don’t have automatic door openers. That would be nice for everyone, regardless of ability. So many residents go through the doors with a handful of groceries or their bikes.

Altitude has so many residents (there’s about 10 buildings), there’s so much opportunity to foster community. I wish they had monthly community events or gatherings. They don’t need to be big events, just an excuse for neighbors to get to know one another.

They also don’t recycle for some reason which is sad.

Overall, this place is good enough for me to renew my lease for...