Archstone Dupont Circle Apartments

The Absolute Worst.
I was looking for apartments in Dupont around March 2014. Naturally this building floated to the top because of its great location and a few newly renovated units.
Don’t be fooled.
From speaking to a current resident, the place is falling apart, has leaks, breaks, and building management is unresponsive to maintenance requests. What was once a good place to live got bought out by a slumlording company (Equity management) who jacked up prices, stopped providing decent service, and continues to charge sky-​high Dupont rents.
My experience involved being told I had to apply the day I was shown the place ($ 75 application fee if I recall correctly, even though that is double the price of even the most expensive credit check). But one or two days afterward, when I had submitted all my references, the building manager (/​leasing manager?) told me that I would need a $ 200 deposit to hold the apartment, and that once accepted, I would have only twenty-​four hours to decide if I wanted to sign the lease. They would call me if I was accepted.
That call never came. Equity deposited my $ 200 «apartment hold» check, and when I called to inquire if I had been accepted, the building manager said «but of course, I told you that days ago!» I’m rarely scammed by otherwise legitimate-​seeming businesses so badly, but I’m happy to vent here. If the company tricks four other people the same way, they’ve covered the rent for that month.
I don’t think I could speak negatively enough about the management of this building, the way I was treated even just as a prospective resident, and the horror stories I have heard from current residents. If I could give negative five stars I would.
There are plenty of decent places to live in/​around Dupont. Don’t walk, RUN from this place, and from any building managed by Equity (e.g. Flats at Dupont Circle).
PS. Equity just started spamming my e-​mail today. So get ready to get hustled by the building manager, then spammed by the marketing team. Great company, Equity Management. Lotta classy folks there.

Archstone Dupont Circle was taken over by Equity Residential last year. The resulting change in the building management has led to a complete nosedive in the quality of service provided to residents. Don’t get tempted by the great location or outer façade of the building. Its an absolute trap. The building is extremely old and falling apart and the building management is terrible. The front end staff at the concierge desk are the only saving grace in this building, hence the singular star to applaud them for their good work and warm, friendly attitudes.
That said, Equity is NOT resident-​friendly or service-​oriented. The resident manager is absolutely useless and not a scratch on the previous resident manager who was a lot more mature in her years of professional service and a thousand times more competent. All requests for service now take forever to be addressed, there is absolutely no follow up and no management whatsoever besides collecting rent checks every month. They are prompt to collect rent, but will wait till the day after the deadline has passed to send you a reminder so they can slap on a fine. They act more like money sharks than resident-​friendly building management.
The building maintenance is worse if that’s possible. Any repairs take a very long time to be completed, with the resident’s convenience being the last thing on their mind. You have to call them multiple times and push hard to get decent service and then supervise closely. While one cannot blame them for an old DC building, the turnaround response on repairs is terribly slow. The air vents have not been cleaned in the building for what seems like at least 5 – 7 years if not more. If you leave your apartment for a few days with the windows closed, you will come home to a thin film of black dust on absolutely everything in your apartment.
In the last eight months alone, my apartment experienced multiple breakdowns including AC breakdown, cooking range breakdown, multiple drainage clogs even though I have short hair and a drain filter, a massive water leak that came out from under our floors and made ugly stains on our ceilings from the leaking apartment above for one entire wing in the building — the tiles needed to be replaced because they were so damaged. The work was terribly shody — the titles were unevenly replaced so you stub your toe walking around, were of a different pattern so there goes your charming «hardwood flooring» and they tried to replace as few titles as possible even though others clearly needed replacing, poor follow up as well — I had to make regular treks to the manager’s office and call the maintenance guy to ensure my work was being done quickly. Three+ weeks of living like a refugee in my own home.
They will just show up at your apartment for work without sending you a notice before, switch off the water on a weekday for the whole day without informing residents, engage in loud repair work during weekends at 9am in the morning even though it is not allowed. the list just sadlly goes on.
And Equity will not reimburse you for the loss of service or inconvenience caused unless you push hard with the regional manager and even then the reimbursement will be less than 5% per day of rent for loss of service. The resident manager is again quite useless here because she has no authority it seems to approve or waive anything.
Lastly, their rent rates are formidably high given the poor quality of the building, despite the central location. For the same amount, you can get a MUCH better deal with MUCH better service elsewhere, even if you just go up a few blocks in the same neighborhood! Needless to say, I left as quickly as I could. Worst year ever!