Columbia Uptown — Local services in Washington

I moved to this complex on July 13th, I have only been here for about two weeks and I am already extremely disappointed with management. On Saturday 20th, my boyfriend locked his bike in the bike storage room, on Sunday 21st, when we went downstairs to pick it up, the bike was not there, all that was left was his front wheel chained to the rack. We noticed that there were 4 chained bike wheels left in the rack, so it was a total of 4 bikes missing. I immediately contacted management and authorities, we then proceeded to file a police report. The police officer informed us that this is not the first time she has been called in for theft in the bike storage room at Columbia Uptown.

On Sunday, I emailed Saray asking her what my options were and what the building intended to do to make this right, my email was ignored. On Monday, July 22nd, I took a day off from work to deal with this issue in person, when I went to the leasing office I was met with a rude attitude and unwillingness to help from Ayah and Saray, they told me it was my responsibility to lock my bike, as previously mentioned, my boyfriend did indeed lock his bike. Am I supposed to accept that I am out of $650 and that it is my fault? I did not expect them to victim blame us when we reported the theft.

I chose to live in Columbia Uptown and pay more than I was paying for at my previous residence because I thought this was a safe environment, but in less than a month it has been proven otherwise. I would think that for the amount of rent we pay, we would receive a better service and be able to feel secure. The bike storage room, laundry services, and gym are all located in the basement which is an enclosed space but still accessible to anyone who is outdoors because of the open doors in the back, which makes it dangerous for everyone, particularly for women.

Needing a fob to get in and out of an apartment building does not make it secure when the backdoors are wide open and strangers are able to get in and out as they please. I would not recommend this apartment to anyone who appreciates safety or wants to know their valuables will still be there when...

DO NOT LIVE HERE. I don't even know where to begin with the issues from this property.

1. rampant pest problems - mice and roaches - that won't go away even with an immaculate apartment and regular pest control visits
2. nonexistent building security - I have come home at night to a previously evicted tenant who had been reported to have stalked members in the building, SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR OUTSIDE OF MY APARTMENT DOOR. He continued to access the building even after being evicted and sleep in the halls (where children live) and management DID NOTHING. They said it was out of their hands and told us it was on us to call the police and take care of it
3. Expect your rent to increase between 10-14% yearly.
4. Management (Van Metre) is abysmal and does NOT take responsibility for anything in the building. Maintenance requests go unanswered. Accessibility concerns go unanswered. Most days there aren't even any staff in the office and they are unreachable.
5. They have a history of taking advantage of non-English speaking tenants and raising their rents higher than English-speaking tenants
6. Packages consistently get stolen. I had to start getting my packages sent to a friend's house because they were so reliably stolen
7. My car was broken into in the GATED PARKING LOT THAT I PAY $175/MO to park in. Management did nothing and didn't have working security cameras

Whatever you do, DO NOT LIVE HERE OR AT ANY PROPERTY MANAGED...

Trust me, avoid Columbia Uptown and all other properties managed by Van Metre at all costs. Columbia Uptown is a horrible place to live. The building is plagued by constant theft, with packages, bikes, and bike wheels being constantly stolen and management doing virtually nothing about it. You simply cannot have packages reliably delivered to you at Columbia Uptown. I know tenants who have lost hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of stolen packages. Don't let them tell you the "package machine" will protect your packages. It does not, because even when the machine is working, your packages very rarely will make it into the machine in the first place. You also simply cannot use the bike storage room, as theft is virtually guaranteed. Van Metre management is also terribly unresponsive and unhelpful to many tenants and their concerns. They also very frequently close the front office at random times or on random days throughout the week, with no notice to tenants. Tenants are therefore often unable to effectively communicate with management about their concerns. Believe me, you can find a much better place to live than Columbia Uptown. Avoid it and all other Van Metre properties...