Monticello Apartments

It is an apartment building that attracts bad tenants, so management are generally hash and ruthless. The actual property manager who I had contact with was very nice, but the corporate policies overall I object too.
The apartments themselves are okay, just very small. The apartment complex is okay, just a little run down.

If i could do zero stars i would. This was the worst and most over priced building I’ve ever had in Seattle. And… Don’t expect to get you deposit back.

I lived at Monticello for about three years and wish I could rate them ½ star instead of a full star. In retrospect I regret staying there as long as I did but hindsight is always ²⁰⁄₂₀.
Let’s start with the neighborhood: it’s a little sketchy and due to the close proximity to the hospitals, be prepared to hear ambulances at all hours. The trade off is that you live near I5 & I90 and are walking distance from downtown and Cap Hill.
The apartments are small (~400 sq ft) but are one bedroom as opposed to a lot of studio apartments in the area, which is a plus. The appliances (refrigerator & stove) are tiny; it’s almost impossible to cook anything on the stove. The knobs on the stove constantly fell off and when I brought that to management’s attention, I was told glue them back on. On the rare occasion that I used the stove, the fire alarms in my apartment would go off like no one’s business. The drains are slow and clog regularly and the water pressure is lacking.
To my knowledge I didn’t have any roaches or bug problems but I’ve heard a lot of people complain about it.
One of my biggest issues was safety. The stairwells consistently reek of urine and on a few occasions even feces. It’s not uncommon to find trash in the stairwells and if you’re lucky, you’ll stumble across used (presumably) drug paraphernalia. For a while tenants were leaving the gates open and as a result, homeless people were sleeping in the stairwell… amongst other things. Management addressed this by limiting the number of entrances tenants had access to. Kind of a pain, but it didn’t do much to alleviate any of the issues.
Your neighbors are an eclectic mix. One of my neighbors routinely left bags of trash out for days at a time. Another apartment had at least 5 people living in it — I knew this because you could see cots in their front room. When this was brought to the attention of management, they informed me that only one person was on the lease but that they would look in to it. Aside from that my time there was uneventful, save for having my laundry basket stolen.
Speaking of management, that turns out to be my biggest beef. It was a CONSTANT revolving door and in my time at LEAST eight Property Managers have worked there; each one with their own arbitrary rules. Good luck getting in touch with them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had emails go without response, voicemails not returned and unkept appointments. I’ve had to request copies of my lease a half dozen times before I got a copy of it. Their move out procedure is an absolute joke.
All in all, I gave Monticello the benefit of the doubt during my time there but lost all faith when I sent a certified letter outlining my concerns and ongoing issues at the property to their regional office and never received a response. Aside from that, my last few months there were an absolute hell, further complicated by a complete lack of communication by the property manager. Hoping to avoid a headache, I called their regional office and was never able to reach anyone. I reluctantly left voicemails but to my chagrin never received a call back.
Although I’m bitter about my time there, none of this is written in anger. In fact, it’s only substantiated by the previous post.

The only good thing about this complex is it’s location which is what the one star is for. It’s close to city living, restaurants and shops. Everything else is terrible. The management is not consistant, in my year there i literally saw a new manager every month when i went to pay my rent so it was extremely hard to build rapport and get them to respond to my service requests. After a year of living there i had service requests that went unanswered which i eventually just had to get over. There is always noise outside due to the hospital being a block away.
I would never recommend anyone to live there unless i hated them. It was a bad experience.

I feel this place is almost 2 stars, but not quite just because there are so many issues. To start I’ve lived here for 3 months. I left early
The units are very tiny, the price reflect that, but at below 400 sqft its very tough to adapt to unless perhaps this is your first place of your own by yourself. The pictures are definitely idealized situations– very small furniture with creative photography.
The appliances are equally small and finicky. Since moving in approx 3 months ago my shower drains were clogged (on move in) my refrigerator broke, my (very tiny) stove doesn’t heat properly both inside the oven and on the burners (oh and it was filthy inside with damage to the insulation around the door), and I’ve and numerous insect problems. The apartments do not have dishwashers or microwaves. The heaters do not have wall mounted thermostats. My bathroom sink also was leaking when I moved in. Oh and the toilet runs water intermittently.
The bathroom is particularly frustrating. It has no drawers or shelves, just the single under-​sink cabinet (remember is was leaking so I couldn’t even use that). Now normally one would buy either a wall mounted cabinet or or the toilet shelf, however here this is impossible since all free wall space is occupied with towel racks. The medicine cabinet has a strong smoke odor (not to mention is rusted out in spots inside), as do all the cabinets. The sink is yellowed (likely from smoke) and the shower knob is installed upside down. Water pressure is acceptable if you buy a new shower head made to increase pressure.
Ventilation is also an issue. I’ve had to keep my bedroom window open the entire time living here to avoid mold. I don’t know why, but these apartments just completely condense the windows otherwise and consequently run down into the rails and make lots of black mold very fast.
The apartments are noisy as well. At night it is generally pretty quiet, but during the day there are lots of loud kids from the neighboring complexes (there’s a playground behind the apartments), people blasting terrible music, and being generally disrespectful to their neighbors. This is also a problem since you’ll need to keep that window open to prevent mold.
The stairwells smell like urine and are poorly lit (I’ve fallen on the stairs before). Bike storage is inadequate– They have a rack near the trash room, however there need to be about 3 to 4 times more storage based on how many bikes end up all over. The parking lot is a mess– true its a bargain for the area, but I’ve been forced to move spots 3 times (including not being able to park when I was moving in!) due to clerical errors that seem to plague the management. They even threatened to tow my car once, yet they allow people to park in the” future resident/​guest” parking spots constantly.
Oh and I cant forget about the walls. Its nice that they do 2 accent walls in the colors of your choosing when you move in, but in my instance there were paint spots on the floor and other places they shouldn’t have been. Also the walls a flimsy. What do I mean exactly? Well when I was hanging things I didn’t need a hammer. You can easily just push the nail in the wall.
Oh the the breakfast bar? Well its definitely a jury-​rigged install. It wobbles and feels like you could easily snap it off.
Speaking of management, Since being here there have already been 3 different managers for the property and that’s not including the 2 stand ins that come on certain days from other investco properties. They also have terrible office hours– not there Saturday Sunday or Monday. Got a package coming, you’ll likely have to pick it up at the UPS office as the only delivery company with access to the building is USPS and there’s no package locker.
Laundry facilities were fine, albeit expensive. It seemed to have sufficient washers granted you do your laundry during the week. It gets very busy on the weekends. Washers are paid by chipcards so you must use their machine to load a balance to your card. The problem is it only takes 5s. Doesn’t sound like a problem, but trust me, it gets annoying having to run out to get 5s all the time.
Maintenance is a joke. I have never been able to get anything done except excuses save the issue when the fridge broke. When I moved in the drain for the tub was clogged. He never fixed it even though management said he did. I had to dismantle the drain and snake it myself (which, by the way, was absolutely disgusting).
So why not one star? Well this place definitely serves a purpose. If you absolutely must live downtown, this is THE cheapest place with parking that’s not a private apartment. You must be sure however, that you absolutely must live downtown.
Oh icing on the cake? A couple nights ago I found a man pissing in the parking lot.
Other misc complaints:
no online bill pay
frequently slow to cash checks
won’t give you a rent invoice/​statement
ovens frequently set smoke detectors off for no reason.