TWELVE at U District — Local services in Seattle

DO NOT rent here. This is not a community, this is a real estate investment trust (REIT). As such American Campus Communities (aka ACC, the landlord) are here to extract as much money from your bank account and save themselves as much money as possible.

LEASES: Their leases are illegal and their practices to get people to sign them are unethical. I spoke to a few neighbors who were told they could sign a lease and if they found something different elsewhere they would would let them break their lease. When they found other housing, the leasing office had complete amnesia of these conversations. They are also pressuring people into signing leases without reading them. They contain clauses that prohibit pets. If you have a pet you will be evicted and you will have to pay your rent through the end of the lease and they will rent your apartment out at the same time. This is double dipping and they get away with it all of the time. There’s a lot more surprises in store for you when you sign a lease and I don’t want to spoil it for you. Just read it before you sign it and review it with somebody who knows what it means.

PRIVACY: Many tenants have had their units entered without proper notice. Once couple we spoke to had their unit entered while they were sleeping in bed. The ACC employee told them that they were required to inspect the unit and would not leave. One family’s children were home alone after school when an ACC employee entered the unit without notice or permission. The children were terrified and the employee would not leave. One tenant complained about ACC employees illegally entering his unit. In retaliation they continued entering the unit without notice and he caught them on his newly purchased security camera. If you do live here protect yourself by getting a security camera.

SAFETY: Prowlers have been spotted quite frequently here. Many tenants have complained but the landlord has not increased the security to around the clock. I spoke with a few neighbors who had their units broken into and expensive possessions stolen and apartment trashed. When they reported it to the police, ACC refused to turn over any surveillance footage. I have had my car broken into twice. It is not uncommon to find car windows busted out and car contents strewn all over the garage. If you live here you might want to get a car alarm or just get rid of your car altogether. Also, get rid of anything valuable, sensitive, or precious to you.

BILLING: Many of our neighbors have shared that they have been over billed for rent, utilities, and other fees. The ones who protested were told to pay or they would face eviction. One resident was double charged for rent that is directly taken out of their bank account. They disputed the illegal charges with ACC who could care less. The only way they got their money back was by reporting it as a fraudulent charge. The bank investigated and found that the charges were indeed fraudulent. Please save up some extra money if you decide to rent here as a buffer because you will likely be targeted by their fraudulent billing practices.

MANAGEMENT: The management is indifferent to the needs of our tenants and many people have suffered greatly as a result. The above concerns are only a small fraction of those that we have and their illegal, unethical practices reveal themselves in new, unique ways every day but never surprise us. Sheila Barnett, the apartment manager, does not care about the community and is not even from here. She is from Texas and she is here temporarily to force her company’s and her own values onto our neighbors and neighborhood. You should probably study Title 59 and the Seattle Municipal Code related to Landlord-Tenant rights because that’s the only way you will survive your lease term in tact. Also, we’d suggest having a lawyer on retainer and enough money saved up to fight court battles. ACC management has been quoted as saying that they are not afraid of a few hundred dollar fines, they have lawyers, and laws that favor landlords. Rent at...

My advice to anyone, especially young college students is find somewhere else to live because there are better apartments in the area that are more reasonably priced. The people here only care about money and will take advantage of young students that move here. They don’t care about the residents or their safety. I moved into this apartment two years ago when they were AVA and the place was really nice, but since a different company took over a changed to TWELVE at U District the apartment went down significantly in quality.

Firstly, the management and the people who work there honestly don’t care at all about the residents. The only thing they are concerned about is taking as much money as possible. They are complete scam artist and the rent is way overpriced for what you get. For example, when me and my brother signed the new lease, we made sure that parking was included in the new agreement. My brother even had to go down to the car to get information about the car in order for parking to be included on the lease, so we know for sure that the parking was included in the new lease and we were paying for said parking. Unfortunately both of us were naive and did not ask for a copy of the original renewal lease at the time. So when they changed door openers for the garage they claimed that we hadn’t been paying for parking the last couple months, printed out a new copy of our lease (that did not show parking on our bill) because apparently the other one “wasn’t in their files” and then charged us again for parking on top of what was in the original agreement. I’m 100% sure that we included parking on the lease because my brother literally had to go get information on the car in order to sign the original renewal lease. Whatever management has going on there is completely shady and they are taking advantage of the residents because they are young students, like me and my brother.

Secondly, they don’t care at all about the residents safety. Instead of spending money on much needed security, the funds went into renovating their perfectly good office space. There is absolutely no one to call at night if there is some type of security issue. Homeless people have been found living in the stairwell and using that area as their personal bathroom. People who don’t even live in the apartment are able to find a way inside, even though the apartment claims that the place is “secure”. One night, someone knocked on our door at 1 a.m. demanding entrance into our apartment because apparently their friend left their food in our fridge. Even after telling the person that we don’t know their friend and they don’t live in this room. The person refused to leave and kept demanding to be let in. They finally left when my brother threatened to call the police. We wanted to call security, but since the change in management I’m not sure that there is any form of security anymore, since there is no number to call. If there is then they are not doing their job properly.

I’m sorry if this post is long, but I felt it was important for future residents to be aware of what the apartment is really like. They put a lot of effort into making the areas that are shown in the tour look nice, but when it comes to the rest of the apartment building. The place smells like sewerage and is barely cleaned. This company only cares about making as much money as they can out of the residents. For what you are really getting the place is significantly over priced. If you do choose live here be sure to read the lease very carefully and definitely ask for a copy of said lease, because the people there are extremely shady. Also be aware that they charge ridiculous moving out fees, even though the lady who inspected our room when we left said that we pretty much left the place in perfect condition. In the end we were still left with a pretty high bill. So please be careful if you are considering to move here, but I would recommend looking elsewhere first because the management here is only...

If you’d like hassle free living I would NOT recommend Twelve. The manager of this property is rude and unapproachable. She doesn’t care about the residents in the slightest. She used to sit in the lobby but has since had to hire friendly staff to man her post so she can hide away in her office because she was scaring away potential new residents. The apartment was taken over by this new manager and company a few months after I moved in. They started by changing all the locks and issuing new keys. The apartment complex has two buildings and the manager sent out one email with a specific date to pick up your new key. When I arrived to the office I was not allowed to pick up my key because my buildings keys weren’t being distributed until the next day. There was no mention of this in the email and no apology for the inconvenience. The keys are a small issue compared to the bigger problem of safety that is completely lacking. The parking garage has had numerous cars broken into, it’s constantly littered with broken glass. Management refuses to install cameras which the police told my friend, the FIRST time his car was broken into, could at minimum be a deterrent. I never felt safe walking through the garage alone and often had my boyfriend accompany me. After months without security they did hire some security guards at night. They are NOT there every night. They’re also not there during the day. I actually witnessed a man prowling the hallways at 9am. My boyfriend found him and asked what he was doing, he told him he and a friend were checking for unlocked apartment doors and stealing things from inside. He also told him they lived in the stairwell of the other building that is part of the complex. We immediately notified the police and the manager who did not take any further action in hiring daytime security. Often the locks on the gates and doors are broken which allows nonresidents entry. While a resident, there were numerous times they notified us to enter our apartment. Instead of giving a reasonable time frame they would give us a two week period at which they could show up anywhere between 9a-6p. This was difficult for me because I work at night so I have to sleep during the day. When I asked the manager for a more specific time she unapologetically denied my request. After entering your apartment they never left a note to let you know they’ve been there which has always been standard every where else I’ve lived. I’ve heard a lot of other shady things that have been going on with the management, however these are the things I have actually witnessed. Overall, I would not choose to live here again unless they changed management and got more security. Be careful before getting yourself locked into a lease with...