Bowling Brook Apartments
This is the apartment complex I recently moved out of. It's in Laurel, Maryland. My address was 9080 Stebbing Way, Apt D. I looked long and hard for an apartment complex that I liked in this area. I settled on this one. It has nice balconies, nice floor plans, nice location, nice common areas, and it used to have a respectable rent. I moved in and all was well. Until a string of neighbors from hell started ruining my peace. It was then, that I discovered the biggest fault of this complex: There is no sound protection between the floors!
I was on the second of three floors. My first clue that Bowling Brook didn't put anything between the floors to kill the sound was my downstairs neighbor's home stereo system. It was LOUD! The booming bass rattled my lamps. I complained to him. After a couple more complaints to him and some bitter letters to the apartment management, he has stopped booming his system. (I give him credit--I haven't really heard a peep from him in a long while and I am very grateful of that--if you're out there, thank you).
Then came the single mom from hell. She moved in upstairs with her two year old. It was like having a two year old jumping on your head. I heard every damn footstep that kid made. I heard every damn scream that kid screamed. And I heard every damn slap that mom gave her. That woman was incredible. She'd spend all evenings letting her kid run track through her apartment, all night doing laundry and running baths (I'll get to the baths later), and the morning playing an african american station in the bathroom loud enough for me to hear the commercials. I hated her and was glad to see her go.
Then I got my last pair of upstairs neighbors--a yuppie couple who just look like they think they're better than everyone else. Hate them too. I originally wrote this paragraph when it was 12:13 am and they were doing more laundry. At least they weren't playing their stereo that night. I hear all those booms too. They apparently don't like to do anything during normal hours. I swore the guy was doing jumping jacks at 1 am one night. And if this page wasn't viewable by my parents, I'd describe their sex life also because you can hear EVERYTHING! I wanted to kill both of them. I thought I could have gotten away with it. As long as I got a jury of my peers--that is Bowling Brooks tenants living on second floors.
And those bathrooms. Jesus Christ! Every damn time a toilet is flushed or a bath is run in either the floor above or below, it sounds like an earthquake is going on. Running baths is worse than the laundry.
Just so you don't think it's just the construction, you need to know that the management team dropped the ball a couple times also. One sunny Saturday, a car alarm went off at 8:30 am. It never shut off for more than a couple minutes. It was still going at 5:00 pm. When I called the cops, they said they can't do anything without Bowling Brook's approval because it's private property. When I called Bowling Brook, they said a relative is supposed to be coming with a key. They had no backup plan. They didn't care about anybody else in the complex, they were just afraid of what would happen if the individual came home and their car was missing. I asked them what would happen if the individual came home and their windshield was missing and their alarm ripped out. They didn't seem to understand that towing the car was not only good for the residents but it protected the car as well. Idiots!
The kicker happened right before I moved out. On April 27, Bowling Brook Apartments stuck a letter in my door telling me they were going to raise my rent $100 starting May 1. Yes, that's right, they gave me 3 days warning! So considerate. I have to give them a month's warning to move out but they only have to give me 3 days warning to raise my rent through the roof. Bastards! I wrote a professional, yet biting letter back to them and (I love this part) stuck it in their door. I pointed out that May's payment has already been made and they missed the cut-off for me changing the amount. I also pointed out that I was moving out end of June (I had agreed on a house 2 days before the letter arrived) and I believe its best if they agreed to accept the lower payment for the rest of my stay. I worded it so that, if they wanted the higher amount, they'd have to write another letter. I was banking on them being afraid to write another one. I was right.
If you haven't guessed already, I absolutely DON'T SUGGEST LIVING IN BOWLING BROOK APARTMENTS! If you're in any floor but the top floor, your neighbors will drive you crazy. If you're in the top floor, your neighbors will hate you for walking. If your on any floor, the management team will screw up at least once. If you want to live in relative peace and quite, AVOID BOWLING BROOK APARTMENTS!
And I’m not the only person that has had a bad experience with this
apartment complex! Present and
former Bowling Brook tenants (names withheld) had this to say about the
complex:
I love everything you wrote about Bowling
Brook. My husband and I live here and I can't even begin to tell how
disgusted we are with this complex. Management, Maintenance, and the
apartment itself are all over rated & over priced. I've had the
Maryland Health Inspector in my apartment because of the terrible conditions
this unit was left in. We've dealt with everything from mice, cracking
walls, filthy air ducts, leaking windows, cracked windows, ect... They
wont fix or repair anything unless you threaten them with something like the
Health Inspector. I hate it here. We can't wait to get out of this
lease we're in. Thanks for the beef page I know you've spoke for a lot of
the tenants here.
I don't know who you are, but my wife
somehow discovered your website. I live in the Bowling Brook apartment
complex and only wish that I saw your website last year. The design of
the apartment was appealing, but when I moved in, I too experienced excessive
noise from the people below and across from me. Everything that you said
on your website is resoundingly TRUE: 1) there are no sound barriers between
floors; and 2) the management are bastards. The only thing I have to add
is that there is no sound protection in the walls as well. The way these
apartments are designed (staggered), you don't know where the hell the sound is
coming from. This place sucks and they jacked up my rent as well. Unfortunately,
it looks like I am forced to stay there another year because my wife will need
to work in DC, while I work in Baltimore and I don't think I have the strength
to move again. I think I am going to write them a letter as well with
regard to the rent increase. Thanks for your insight.
I stumbled across your web site today, and
had to write you. I was an original tenant in the apartments in
1989. I moved in to my 2nd level unit
(apt I) before anyone else in my building. All was well until the
upstairs people moved in. Everything you wrote was absolutely true,
including
knowing the sex habits of the neighbors and car alarms going off. My
newly wed wife and I rejoiced every time the top level tenants went out for the
evening, and got depressed when they returned. They were nice enough, but
them merely walking around drove up nuts. I felt I had to tiptoe around
my place to avoid pissing off the ground level people. I have no idea how we
lasted a full year.
Fortunately, I moved out into a single family house and now live in peace and quite.