Dorchester Apartments

Interactions with management are frequently unpleasant. They are nice when you want to move here, but act like they hated that you did! They can be rude. They talk down to you. They are constantly argumentative and defensive. It is really unpleasant living somewhere you don't feel welcome. It is a shame because otherwise I think the property is fine. Change management!

I was calling for my friend today and the front desk person was rude and said "we don't take surveys." I was just typing the info down for my friend. Because of the attitude this place provided, I won't recommend this place.

Pros:
-Angelique in the office is very nice and helpful (at least when you first move in).
-The grounds are pretty and well-maintained. The bunnies in the yard are cute.
-The units (appliances, etc) are good quality for the price of rent, and utilities are included.

Cons:
-The parking lot is EXTREMELY narrow and difficult to park in, and the lack of assigned spots means that sometimes the lot is full and you have to park elsewhere if you get home late.
-The pest control issues are what drove us… out. It started with the cockroaches ("they're just waterbugs wandering in from the rain, they'll go back outside when the weather changes!"), then the spiders, then the beetles ("we've never encountered those before!"), then the rolly-pollies, then the centipedes. But really, it was the bed bugs that were the last straw ("All apartment complexes have these problems"). Six visits from the exterminator in the first two months of living there did not help, and the problem grew persistently worse. They essentially admitted they had no plans to fix the problem, and said that they could move us to a different unit, but since it would be on the first floor the problem probably wouldn't improve (weird if we were the only unit with serious pest problems as they told us).
-Michael, the manager, to whom I attribute all the above quotes. He seems very nice and helpful on the surface until you realize that he's lying through his teeth about everything. He assured me that our (spotless) unit was astonishingly the only one encountering any pest problems. When I pointed out the online reviews mentioning bed bugs going back several months, he explained that when he said they had never experienced these problems before he meant that our UNIT had never had these problems before (?????). When I pointed out that bed bugs (and all other insects) can travel between units, he told me I was wrong and I could ask an exterminator if I didn't believe him (I asked an exterminator. Bed bugs COMMONLY travel between units and infest entire buildings). As a side note, he uses the Dorchester Apartments Twitter account as his personal Twitter and wrote a review of the staff (read: himself) on their Facebook page, which is just weird.

I'm sad because this is a property with so much potential, but you can only wake up with bed bug bites and a cockroach next to your head so many times before a place becomes uninhabitable. Read More

DONT MOVE HERE!! Do yourself a favor.I lived here for a year and half. I hated it so much I left in the middle of my second year contract. Where should I start...well first off the management, Mike is the manager and he is so rude and condescending I don’t know how he even has such a job. You would think he was a problem solver and peoples person because of his position? NO. He actually told me he didn’t know who I was because I needed to be let in to my apartment after locking myself out after… living at Dorchester for 8 months. Not to mention I was charged for it. There were some men maitnance who would stare and give weird vibes when I would have my girlfriends over. But the final reason or the last straw was the mice. There were three at one time in my apartment. I even saw one climbing the wall one night. they say they “fixed” it but nope, I didn’t know a person who didn’t have one in their apartment it was insane so I left. The only good thing about this place was Bob and Edit across the street. Honestly there are many many properties in Arlington this is not worth the money. I hated my experience here. I wish I contacted corporate,I wonder if they know all the disrespect that’s going on. Read More