Rating the Marque apartments at Heritage Hunt in Gainesville, VA

Our first six months at the Marque have been a mixed bag. On the positive side:

• We love our apartment 
• We love watching the northern river otter, heron, geese, ducks, etc. in the pond from our apartment window 
• We love walking the trails next door in Conway Robinson State Forest 
• We love walking the trails at Manassas National Battlefield Park  
• We love nearby shopping, hospital, medical services, churches, restaurants, cultural and historic sites, other attractions, etc. 

There's a lot to like.

On the negative side: 

• noise coming from the apartment above us is unbearable (partly because of the Marque's wood-framed floors). We haven't had an uninterrupted night's sleep in the six months since we've been here. At all hours of the night between 10 PM and 7 AM
  
  the woman in the apartment above us run-stomps around the apartment, dropping and dragging heavy items on the uncarpeted floors, slam-shuts doors and drawers, opens and closes the sliding door to the balcony several times an hour, etc.--all while we're trying to sleep.                                                                                                   "Narcissistic Adult Bully: This type of adult bully is self-centered and does not share empathy with others. Additionally, there is little anxiety about consequences. He or she seems to feel good about him or herself, but in reality has a brittle narcissism that requires putting others down."   http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/adult-bullying.html                                                                                                       This definition fits the woman in the apartment above us to a "T". 
• barbells and other items (TV remotes, folding chairs, and other loose exercise paraphernalia) left on the floor of the Fitness Room are tripping hazards for residents with vision and/or mobility problems 
  
• Dogs left to bark from just inside doors to apartments clearly violate the Prince William County noise ordinance 

• Some dogowners don't bag and dispose of their dog's waste when it defecates 
• Dumpsters and their enclosures at the Marque are often overflowing and stink 
• public hallways are hot and stink 

Bringing these items to the attention of the Marque's onsite representative for property manager Community Realty Company, Inc., Greenbelt, MD is like talking to a brick wall. Nothing gets done. There is no mechanism for logging and tracking these items (similar to maintenance requests). CRC's website says: "Have a problem or concern? If you are a resident of one of our residential communities, please contact our on-site property management team." It's the classic do-loop: 

Marque "do-loop"

Who's in charge at the Marque? Nobody is in charge at the Marque. The inmates (nocturnal neighbor from hell who run-stomps and makes other noise all night long, person(s) who leaves dumbbells and other loose items on the Fitness Room floor for elderly residents to trip over and be injured, irresponsible pet owners, etc.) are running the asylum. The onsite property manager doesn't enforce "quiet hours" or the Marque's lease, or effectively address other "living environment" problems. 

paragraphs from the Marque's standard lease

Despite paragraph 20, which prohibits "behaving in a loud or obnoxious manner, disturbing or threatening the rights, comfort, health (Poor sleep linked to higher stroke risk in elderly), safety, or convenience of others", and paragraph 32 that says that tenants engaged in prohibited conduct are in default of their lease, Community Realty Company does nothing. The "prohibited conduct" has occurred every night for more than six months; and, we first reported it to CRC's on-site representative in Sept. 2015.   

CRC Greenbelt helped us with our individual problem by releasing us from our lease. Thank God that the end is in sight and that soon we'll finally be able to sleep at night. But, our good fortune in getting released from the lease doesn't help other residents at the Marque. CRC and the owners of the Marque have failed to address a multitude of problems:

• noise during "quiet hours"
• neighbor(s) from hell
• person(s) who deliberately leaves barbells and other loose items in the middle of the Fitness Room floor for elderly residents with sight and/or mobility problems to trip over
•  irresponsible pet owners (noise, waste disposal)
• other "living environment" problems, e.g. hot, stinky public hallways, overflowing dumpsters and dumpster enclosures, etc.
• lack of a written process for logging and tracking "living environment" problems (similar to the method for logging and tracking individual apartment maintenance items on the Marque's website)
• other problems

We sympathize with those residents who are caught in the Marque do-loop.

Bottom line

Negatives for the Marque apartments at Heritage Hunt in Gainesville, VA (in particular the upstairs neighbor from hell) outweigh the positives. If you like to sleep at night, then don't rent at the Marque.