Saint John’s Wood

This is another update and I continue to rate Saint John’s Wood 3 stars. Maintenance has again been out several times to handle our original issues as well as an additional issue (dryer won’t heat). Maintenance came out to fix the sliding glass door and screen. They left a notice stating both had been fixed. However, upon inspection, I discovered nothing had been done. The locking mechanism still had the temporary fix (shimming the clamp with some washers so the lock would engage) I did for security purposes. Both the glass and screen door still were not sliding on their rails and the glass door doesn’t close flush, allowing a large air draft hole. Maintenance again came out for these issues. This time, all they did was install a new weatherstrip to plug up the draft hole. They left the lock as I had fixed it and said the glass door would never close correctly due to foundation issues. These apartments apparently lease the washers and dryers from a separate company. A rep from this company came out to inspect the dryer and found nothing wrong with it. He said the dryer outlet wasn’t providing enough voltage for heating and that apartment maintenance would have to fix. We reported this to maintenance and they promptly sent a technician. The technician confirmed the dryer outlet was bad and tigntened some loose wiring. The dryer now works. While he was there, I asked him to look at the sliding glass an screen doors. He told me my fix of the lock was probably just as good as any of his maintenance folks could do. He also confirmed the foundation issues which prevent the glass door from opening all the way. He tried to fix the sliding screen door but finally gave up and told us to report it again. He said a new screen door would have to be installed. In summary, I give the apartment maintenance folks props for promptness and sincere attempts to fix MOST indentified issues. However, I dont’ appreciate whoever it was that claimed the sliding glass and screen doors were fixed, when they hadn’t even been touched. To ensure we are not blamed for the door issues, I guess we will have to report them again. BTW, regarding the dryer, when we tried to use the dryer with the defective outlet, it ran continuously for approximately 14 hours, before we got home from work. Fortunately the unit wasn’t heating or it could have been a safety hazard. Regardless, that 14 hours is electricity we feel we shouldn’t have to pay since the dryer outlet was defective. Both maintenance and the leasing office said we’d have to take any electric bill refund issue to the property manager for resolution.

The layout of the place reminded me of a campsite. A very secluded area that is surrounded by trees. The overall area looks very clean and the apartments are decent. Its perfect for VCU students because the drive is not that far to downtown Richmond plus they even give monthly discounts if you mention that your a student.