WestEnd25 Apartments — Local services in Washington

My husband and I visited WestEnd 25 in winter 2020 and viewed a few units. We liked one in particular, but wanted a little more space and chose a one-bedroom with den which was occupied at the time of our visit. We signed the lease without seeing the apartment but the leasing agent gave us a copy of the lay-out and confirmed that the kitchen was the same as the one that we had viewed, with a long counter top that could seat 3-4 people on stools. We made an appointment to view the apartment the week before moving in to take some measurements, see how many cabinets were in the bathrooms, etc. However, upon arriving at the building we were informed that we couldn't see the unit. Apparently, it was under renovation. This was annoying since we took off work early to view it. We moved in the next week and were very disappointed with the unit. The kitchen lay-out was different and there was only a small counter space without an overhang, so it was impossible to use it for dining. The view was of two dumpsters across the alley. We definitely would not have rented this unit if we had seen it beforehand (lesson learned!). We ended up breaking the lease after about 7 weeks living there due to circumstances beyond our control. We paid two months penalty as stipulated in the lease and closed out the apartment in good standing. Then we proceeded to be nickeled and dimed for hundreds of dollars for alleged damage to a door, apartment cleaning, carpet cleaning, etc. My husband and I lived there alone, no pets, and didn't have a single visitor. The apartment looked exactly the same when we moved out as when we moved in...we hadn't even used the oven. I spent some time contacting the Better Business Bureau and confirmed that landlords in DC cannot use Security Deposits for routine cleaning. I also talked to a lawyer friend who confirmed the same. After some back and forth with the management company, I ended up paying these costs just to put this experience behind me. They wore me down. While the location was wonderful and the concierge staff were friendly and professional, our overall experience was very negative. I couldn't recommend...

okay. so i'm a long time resident. it used to be (in my opinion) one of the top 3 apartments to live in the west end/gw/dupont circle adjacent area! whoever was running management back then was exceptional. okay so now, different story. we have a new leasing company. our rent is going to be increasing (yes even after negotiations)...while new residents get a significantly lower deal! (new potential residents: while this is great for you, your rent will probably be increased significantly after living here a while). they also added draft fees to our monthly rent when we pay, something we did not have with the previous company fyi.

the concierges and maintenance workers are nice and friendly, no problem there. its whoever running the new management here that is doing a subpar job.

we were told that last week we'd be getting spot inspections (normal for any apartment), then they cancelled it and moved to this week, for tuesday and wednesday! it was cancelled in the first place bc people complained about being given a short notice. ok no problem. i take off work to be home for today and tomorrow, because it's nice to know that a spot inspection is done, and i can clean my floors from their shoes. for reference, the last few times with the previous agency, they finished inspecting my room by 11:30 a.m. on the first day! this management group...did not even touch our floor today. as a resident, while we get why they don't say what time or specific day they'll do an inspection, it seems like they are unable to manage both their time and our time efficiently.

here's another thing..there is a particular residence who have been extremely loud past 10pm, and beyond (party noises, crowds)!! complained to the concierge. not sure if he ever took care of it or not because they continued being obnoxiously loud!

this is a nice building. rooms are nice. pool is nice. but whoever this new company is...they are not great at managing and its affecting us. for the expenses we pay...potential residents, find an apartment or rental house with better pricing and better management, you will...

Let me just say as someone who has lived here for years, do NOT rent an apartment here. With no legitimate reason, this new company INCREASED our utility bill on top of INCREASING rent prices should we renew our lease. Oh did I mention as someone said below that they added draft fees to our rent?? Leasing company management: there are over 100 of us who are willing to call you out for your unfair increases in OUR utility bills and rent. Why did any of us rent these apartments in the first place? Because pricing and utilities used to be decently competitive!!!! They didn't increase our utility bills like this!! A couple of us negotiated with the leasing company for rent renewal purposes and despite all of that, our rent will be up by 10-14%!! Dont know what on earth this leasing company spent our money on that we need to pay them even more. Ridiculous.

I took the liberty of looking up who bought this once affordable apartment building: JRK Property Holdings and guess what?

1. They are a private equity firm based in Los Angeles.
2. They are involved in multiple lawsuits! Do some research on this!

It begs the question, why in the past has this private equity firm been involved in lawsuits left and right? A group of us will be doing some more digging into the history of JRK Holdings and the reasoning for our increased utilities. And we will be informing our fellow neighbors. This review is for future renters. Do as you wish, but from our collective experience, it is not worth it at all. They respond with "oh we want you to have fair pricing, email us to negotiate etc etc" but no at the end of the day the prices are increasing.

Let me just say, our living experienced hasn't changed at all. You'd think there would be some net positive gained in this new company taking over. Nope. Nothing different, no new creatives. The only thing we've gained is an increased cost of living. If the company removed these sneaky draft fees from our rent, stopped increasing our utilities, and stop increasing our rent, I'd say to future renters "heck yeah move in here!!"....