Fred A. Smith Company - Washington, District of Columbia

Graysen V.

Would give ZERO stars if I could. This maintenance company does not care AT ALL about their tenants. A leaking boiler caused me to sustain gas poisoning and they will not reply to me at all regarding the situation. Not only do they not have the proper alarms in the building, they won't acknowledge their part in almost killing me. They will reply to other tenants then as soon as I'm CC'd, completely ghost the conversation. They also have allowed a mice infestation to run rampant in the building for MONTHS and after finally acknowledging such, scheduled the extermination for a date 3 weeks later, meaning we will have to deal with mice for nearly an additional month. I've had terrible leasing companies before but this one almost killing me and refusing to do anything about it to guarantee my safety going forward takes the cake.

EDIT REGARDING THEIR REPLY: The event in question was from October, which should be common sense considering this review was originally posted two months ago. They are replying to a SECOND event in March, that they also are avoiding answering my emails. They have not given any restitution for the October incident nor have replaced or checked on our carbon monoxide alarms. Don't believe a thing they say!

Elle

I’d give it a 0 but that’s not an option. The unit was shabby to begin with but we made it our own. Even when the washers and dryers would constantly go out, we continued on without much complaint. In the end, “Jordan”, the property manager/leasing agent is a liar who went out of her way to state one thing on the phone to me then another in email to my roommate—to CHOA (cover her own A**) and essentially ruining our move out which could have been so chill. They are a shady organization owned by EDE (name redacted for privacy) and should be warned against. In my younger days, I’d sue but I’m so over the “justice” system in this country I love… so stressful. Beyond disappointed with our experience living there. Thank G-d we are out of there by grace and goodness. Awful, awful, experience.

Ramo S.

I'd give them a 0 if I could. This is the most trifling rental company I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. I moved into my unit on 7/1/19 and informed them of MULTIPLE problems with my unit in the first week. I have had TWO inspections by DCRA (both of which fined them over $12,000 for violations). Things from broken windows and AC units to a roach infestation in my unit, the hallway and the garbage cans outside of the building! I advised ANYONE having to deal with them (and if you haven't moved in with them DONT!!!!!!) contact DCRA (you can go right to their site and request an inspection even if you do not get any assistance in paying your rent, like myself.). Note, it may take a few as they seem to NOT care about even getting thousands of dollars in fines. However, you do have options other than sitting around and waiting for an ANSWER for a MONTH from them to FIX their property's issues (meanwhile wanting full rent the whole time!). The washing machine here has been broken for 3 months (to this date) and hasn't even been checked by them (despite me reminding them at the beginning of the month that nothing has been done). They also know they are wrong as, instead of fixing the problems with their unit and building, they offered me the chance to leave my lease. I honestly would've taken the escape if I hadn't spent so much time, money and energy moving into this unit (which isn't the problem, it's the management, or lack there of). If you can, avoid them like a plague. If you are already dealing with their foolishness, call DCRA as your first step. Then use that to go to court. Good luck in dealing with their special brand of mismanagement! They are lazy, refuse to do ANY of their job (even after thousands in fines!) and lie about everything (make sure you do EVERYTHING by e-mail, don't talk to ANYONE! You'll need the proof of their lies!)

Kyla D.

This leasing company has been wonderful to me and my roommates. As college students who have been surrounded by horror stories about predatory landlords, we have been lucky with Fred A. Smith. The rent is fair, all charges are transparent, and they have consistently addressed our maintenance requests as their responsibility. Would recommend!

Joe K.

The property manager was ready to help and communicate to make my situation better and less stressful after I had an issue with my basement apartment. A prompt response is what tenants need. Thank you

caitlin E.

unhelpful, and definitely have some rodent issues... the price is the only thing saving this place.

Dryer has been broken for weeks and their excuse is just poor.

Thanks for the response - but ive been contacting you all for months ... living here is a health and safety concern 🙂

Mary H.

I had a great experience with their maintenance department! I had some urgent issues that needed addressed, and within 1 day of submitting a service ticket, the contractors were reaching out to schedule a time to come fix the issues. Everyone I have spoken with at the company has been very helpful as well. Thank you so much!

Cheyenne B.

I was hoping for the best moving into my first apartment. During the tour the building and unit LOOKED to be very attractive and well put together, unfortunately it was the total opposite. After 2 weeks of being partially moved in, rain came and COMPLETELY flooded our apartment. How could they be unaware of such a SERIOUS issue It took almost a month for them to move us into a different unit (with very poor and unprofessional movers might I add) and I'm sure it could've taken longer if we did not take the measures we did. Even the unit we moved into wasn't the cleanest (dead bugs throughout the apartment). After settling in to our new unit, we discovered further how poorly the building was built. We could hear our neighbors below us conversations and I'm pretty sure they could hear ours. Some maintenance requests were filled in a timely manner, some weren't. And even in this new unit, when it would rain we would still experience water inserting our unit. OVERALL, terrible experience when communicating with folks at the Fred A. Smith office. It's been a few weeks since we've heard anything about our deposit return, we had to reach out to them and even now it's been a week since we've responded to an email regarding our deposit and have heard nothing back.