Van Metre Companies - Fairfax, Virginia

Sloane B.

Van Metre clearly aims to satisfy client needs. I was having an issue at my rental property and Manuel sat down with me and asked what he could do to help. The situation is now resolved thanks to him.

Karl N.

I had a terrible time as a resident of a Van Metre property, Fairfax Square Apartments. Staying there was incredibly uncomfortable and I am so happy I left. Here are some things that happened during my time there:

- Management gave my apartment keys to a prospective tenant. I had an unsupervised stranger unlocking my door while I was there.

- Maintenance left their keys in my door and my door unlocked. Anyone from the street had free access to my belongings.

- Maintenance would show up on different days than notice was posted or not show up at all. You never know when someone will be in your house. It’s a very unsettling feeling.

- Management lied to me and said they wouldn’t raise the rent when my lease expired. They raised the rent and refused to honor what they told me.

- During the pandemic they drastically raised the water utility rates. There was no prior notice or disclosure in the lease agreement. They refused to give an actual explanation for the increase.

Van Metre has a bad reputation for a reason, dishonest and poor management. If I were a property owner that employed them, I would seriously consider whether to continue the business relationship. Management that behaves like that can be a serious liability for an owner.

Daniel H.

I lived in a Van Metre run apartment building (The Aspen) between August 2017 and October 2022. I fled the building due to a cockroach infestation that impacted at least 5 floors and flourished due to management's negligence.

On September 7th, I reported roaches in my unit. Only by September 13th did the building first send a pest control specialist. When I later met with the assistant property manager, she told me that maintenance should have left traps and done some preliminary work before the 13th (I purchased traps myself).

The next 6 weeks were a nightmare of roaches entering from my kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, and the hallway. I left for a weekend and sealed the bathroom door with duct tape. When I returned, found 12 dead roaches in the room.

I spoke to other tenants who told me they first reported a problem on their floor in April! As of October, they kept saying the did not know the source of the infestation but fired the pest control service. They rehired the previous exterminator who managed the building well but for some unknown reason stopped using about a year ago.

I documented live and dead roaches in hallways, stairwells, and laundry rooms throughout the building. Dead roaches that I informed the building about sat for days to weeks without being cleaned, although they urged me to constantly clean up roaches in my unit with the guidance that finding them dead was a sign of the treatment working. It was a rather binary scenario- either there are or aren't not roaches in my kitchen. Dead might be slightly better, but weeks of dead roaches is still unreasonable.
Management allowed me to break my lease without penalty, but the entire ordeal to move out, order take out in lieu of a kitchen I could comfortably use, living elsewhere for weeks while paying rent, and replacing furniture cost me about $5,000. They will not compensate the expenses brought on by their poor management.

Avoid The Aspen and other Van Metre properties. Their terrible response to an active and growing problem demonstrates such a failure provide habitable space. The property managers I dealt with offered platitudes but little actual help. Only rent with them if you like depleting your savings account due to Van Metre's own irresponsibility and negligence.

Judith A.

I struggle with the star rating bc we LOVE living at Woodland Park. The maintenance is amazing. Great care is taken of the grounds and landscaping. We haven’t had any major problems with our unit while living here. My complaint is with the office. Well, it’s renewal time and we had been asking for our renewal rate. My wife and I had already decided that we needed more storage and don’t want stairs. We reached out to and went over to the office. We kept being told different things and cost for transfer. We were not assisted through the transfer process just told to keep looking online and when we see one we want, to apply for it then update the office. We did this, then we were told that the pricing online is sometimes wrong and they use the pricing they have in the office. Like wtf… it is web based and generated based on traffic and leases and new applications, and inventory 🤯 also, whatever is online they have to honor anyway. But online doesn’t tell you when the unit is renovated so we had to just keep calling and waiting. It truly was a mess. There were other instances of misinformation being provided. We had no intention of leaving Woodland Park but this was so stressful and there was no real assistance given we started looking at other rentals in the area. Ultimately, it is easier and less expensive to move to a new property with NO CONCESSIONS than stay.

Below is our non-renewal letter.

Dear Van Metre Leasing Team,

We received your renewal letter last week after asking for it for over a month. We proactively looked into transfers before receiving the renewal offer. The cost of transferring after fulfilling a 15 month lease without ever being late is more expensive than moving to another property. It is offensive to be treated as a new resident, with no history after living here for the past year.

We began this renewal process wanting to stay or possibly transfer at Woodland Park. The cost of the transfer fees $400, new application fees $100 (despite the lower rent for a 2BR), pet fee $500 (that apparently doesn’t transfer to the next unit), and $500 amenity fee does not invite our family to stay. As such, we will NOT renew our lease at Woodland Park. We have enjoyed living here but cannot justify a $300 per month increase for another 15 month lease or the astronomical $1300 monthly increase for a 12 month lease.

Jessica C.

After complaints about mold in our unit at Saratoga Square, we purchased an at home mold test. It has come back positive and has continued to grow quickly in the Petri dish.

Nothing has been done to address the issue, we moved here temporarily due to insurance work needing to be done at our residence we own. My husband explained our situation including the fact I was in and out of the hospital/ doctors visits due to prior mold exposure when applying for the apartment. No walk through was offered prior to the lease signing, nor was a walk through done prior to giving my husband the keys, As soon as I entered the residence I immediately had to leave due to the overwhelming mildew smell in the master bathroom. We quickly put in the maintenance request, Sharmika reached out, briefly made a comment about the situation, but seemed to be more focused on obtaining a DNA swab for our pet. Maintenance came out but nothing was done. We tried to be switched to another Van Metre property entirely which became a nightmare.

After trying every avenue through Van Metre company we have found to not only being brushed off, but not being taken seriously. All off us in the residence have been suffering from sicknesses ranging from Respiratory issues including shortness of breath, severe itching, burning, skin rashes and ulcers, as well as edema in our hands and feet.

I have made maintenance requests, physically spoke to someone in the front office, and reached out to corporate all with no response or resolution.

Cecilia A.

You guys should come and experience the warm, friendly, courteous, helpful and well trained assistance of King, Joliet & Shaquera at Makers Rise Apartments in Herndon, VA. They are always hard working and well deserving for us new & would be tenants at this beautiful spectacular NEW apartment building called Makers Rise! Their rooms be it a studio, 1 bedroom, 2-beds and 1 & 2 beds with den are all very spacious and surely with new state of the art amenities. What I love most of the Makers Rise building is their lobby! It's stunning especially at night with their full blast starry lights by the ceiling! And yes, btw all their rooms have high ceilings!!!

Leslie G.

Do NOT move to Stonegate Apartments or any properties managed by Van Metre. I have never in my life seen so much turnover in management causing so many problems and issues. They are incompetent. I have been dealing with an issue since last year and after 4 Managers and 3 Leasing Consultants later, NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE TO CORRECT THEIR MISTAKE AND THEY ARE NOW TRYING TO GIVE ME A 5-DAY pay or quit notice. I don't think so!! STAY AWAY!

Testing G.

VanMeter is the worst builder I have ever seen in building house and customer service. I have bought over half of million $ house in Chantilly, I found tons of issue on the Pre-Walkout day and VanMeter told me that they will come and fix them. They never showed up, I have sent them over 20 email and 15 texts messages, multiple phone calls, they have not respond. they are playing games with me, also they are avoiding to do 11th month warranty inspection. I have contacted Rebbeca the Customer service agent, Regis the construction director and Mike the voice president of VanMeter. They all ignored my emails/texts.