Poor communication with clients., Routine maintenance left undone. managers not properly trained.

My friend recently had an awful experience dealing with Chatel. Her ceiling collapsed in her apartment and it was definitely preventable - she made urgent maintenance requests that were not addressed promptly, leading to the ceiling collapsing. They even gaslit her, saying they didn't know what maintenance requests of hers they could take seriously. When someone sends you photos of the ceiling bulging and cracking, that's an urgent issue that needs to be addressed quickly, not dismissed! I particularly would like to note that Chatel's property manager Maria Miller was very rude and dismissive of my friend's situation. I was at my friend's apartment to help her navigate this situation and came away feeling that Maria was much more focused on her upcoming vacation than providing a good experience for one of her tenants. Maria stated it was "not necessary" for an inspection of the rest of my friend's apartment to ensure the integrity of the rest of the apartment's ceiling was not in jeopardy. I recognize that a property management company can't always be held completely responsible for this type of situation, since often the landlord allows for the property to deteriorate to this point. However, I came away from this experience resolute in my belief that I never want to have any professional relationship with Chatel. read more

I've been sitting on this review for about six months. I really hate posting this review because our experience with some individuals at Chatel wasn't terrible. Some of the staff seem quite nice (although one guy was a total jerk to my spouse on the phone). But, being nice only gets you so much slack before patience runs out. To be fair to Chatel, an apartment manager is often limited by the owner's wishes. If an owner doesn't want to pay for something, it doesn't get paid for. If an owner wants to enforce some arbitrary rule, the rule is in place. If the owner is unresponsive, the management company is often unresponsive. I get it. But, there are still ways to ensure tenants are a priority. For example, last winter our heat went out one afternoon. When we contacted Chatel, they were apologetic. But, since it was a Friday evening, they said they couldn't send anyone out until Monday because the company they use was booked over the weekend. In those situations, a good management company should either put the tenant up in a property with heat, pay for a hotel, make multiple space heaters available, or deduct something from the rent of the heatless tenant for the inconvenience. Nothing. I offered to go to Home Depot in the snow to buy the part to fix it until Monday. They reimbursed me, but that was it. Totally unprofessional. But, that wasn't the only issue. We we're in a basement unit and every time it rained heavily we'd get just under an inch of water on the living room floor. Everything was fine for the first three years. Then, it happened five times between November 2018 and April 2019. Each time they said that they fixed it, but it continued to happen. The first time was the worst (nearly two inches). They brought in two medium sized fans to dry our living room rug and tried to make us pay for using the service. We refused. We decided to vacate the property after the fourth time we found water. Chatel claimed that the owner didn't care and they planned to hold us to our lease (another five months). However, in May they said that they talked the owner into letting us out four months early. But, that's still a month that we paid rent at two properties. While were relieved they talked the owner into letting us out of our lease early, had they been responsive when we attempted to give them the 60 days notice they requested -or- had they fixed the flooding issue, there wouldn't be a need for us to put them on blast. Unfortunately, our experience with Chatel has not been the greatest. read more

Do not live in their properties under any circumstances. I toured a place and signed a lease in July. When I went to start moving in in August, I noticed the wall had water damage. I reported it immediately and they "fixed" the issue. (By fixed, I mean, the water damage portion was repaired except they only did half the job and NEVER returned to finish painting the wall). Now, nearly a YEAR later, the ceiling has been leaking into my master bedroom for MONTHS. The floor is damaged and there's likely mold. I've asked for repairs practically on a weekly basis and the DCRA has written up their violations. Still unfixed. read more

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I wish I can give Chatel "0" stars. Nothing wrong with company, but a specific real estate agent/ property manager. HER NAME IS PATSY PETTY AND YES, SHE's Petty like her namesake. She barges into property without prior notice, treats tenants as kids, and lacks professionalism and communication. Avoid her at all costs. She is definitely a "Karen" type . Mark my words: do not rent from her. read more

I had a terrible experience with Maria Miller and her entire team. They were incredibly rude, disrespectful, and disregarded all of the questions I had. I spoke to multiple people about the process and none had answers to my questions. I spoke with Maria Miller and she told me "We don't have time and I think it is disrespectful and rude of you to call me after hours" after speaking to her for five minutes. I would've been more than okay to have the conversation the next day if told so at the beginning of the conversation. She shouldn't be involved with ANY customer service related positions. I'm appalled by her behavior. Maria Miller needs to learn how to speak to individuals, because she clearly doesn't know how to. This is a business that should value conversation with potential tenants. read more

Please please please stay far away from these people. The 1 star reviews on this site are 100% accurate. I'm not sure why there are 5-star reviews but they sound awfully generic. I'll save the worst for last. Where to begin? Professionalism and basic sense is lacking in a big (and scary) way. Very short notice was given for apartment inspections and the property manager once told us to sign acknowledgement of inspection forms in a non-native language (Spanish). This was done less than 48 hours in advance of the inspection date. When maintenance had to be done on the apartment, the repair guys were told that tenant (me) would be out of the place by 730AM. I work nights so I'm not sure who in Chatel told them that. Emails were answered in a sloppy and unprofessional manner. The apartment itself (construction, sound proofing, state of windows/doors) was terrible, but that wasn't really 100% Chatel's fault. It was an old 4-unit building in Glover Park in which noise would travel extremely easily through any and all walls. Keep in mind though that, aside from obviously newer buildings, that the type of unit Chatel rents out in Glover Park are these old, very noisy buildings. Oh - and I had to spend a lot of my own money to flush out a cockroach and mouse problem which existed on move-in day before Chatel would even consider sending an exterminator. Packages were routinely missing or delivered to the wrong units by USMail. In the listing for these places they tell you that "water is included in the rent." BE CAREFUL, this means that you pay water through Chatel, who bills you 1/4 of the 4-unit water fee as determined by the meter reading. If someone in the apartment above you takes long showers, you can feel the sting on your bill (and you will). Don't ever plan on getting your security deposit back without significant hassle. Even if you move out of your apartment at the end of the lease term, they will not return your deposit until a replacement tenant's credit check goes through and they pay their deposit. I'm not sure how this is even close to legal, as the lease is an agreement between two parties and fulfillment of the security deposit section shouldn't hinge on a third party's ability to pay. It's incredibly scummy and its clear that Chatel tries to get around any inspecting/maintenance they have to do if a lease was to end without a tenant willing to move in with the apartment as-is. I would have moved out from the place after only a few months if my finances would permit, but I ended up having the most sleepless, stressful year of my life here. Don't give Chatel your money and learn from my mistakes. read more

- Chatel has taken several months to get to some of my maintenance requests and failed to communicate with me. - It took 13 days for my heat to be fixed because Chatel sent multiple different HVAC/plumbing contractors and failed to communicate efficiently with them about the situation. - A preventable emergency took place: I made urgent maintenance requests to Chatel saying that my ceiling was going to collapse and for days it was not addressed (no one even called me back), leading to my entire living room ceiling collapsing onto my belongings. Furthermore, Chatel's property manager Maria Miller was rude and dismissive when she came to see the aftermath. She complained about how she was supposed to be leaving for vacation, and then left me to deal with the clean up and facilitating different vendors needed to fix the ceiling. I write this to make potential tenants and landlords aware of Chatel's carelessness and mismanagement. I will not be renewing my lease and will instead try my luck in another building where Chatel is not involved. read more

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Whether you are an owner or a tenant - avoid this company. Negligent, incompetent, disorganized, unprofessional, unresponsive, rude, and downright destructive. I can't count the number of sleepless nights I've had, not to mention the thousands of dollars I've spent and may lose in the future, due to this horrible company. Thanks for making my life miserable, Chatel. read more

I've lived in a property through Chatel for about two and a half years now and I really don't have any complaints. They have always been responsive and our maintenance issues get fixed pretty quickly. When I leave this apartment I would like to continue renting through them in a different unit. read more

Chatel provides terrible service. It takes them weeks to a month to solve issues that arise with properties. They are also very difficult to get in touch with and are rude to work with. The properties are not managed well or kept up well. Overall, extremely dissatisfied with Chatel from all aspects and do not recommend them as a company. read more

Honestly, I wish that I could give Chatel zero stars. After renting a unit from them for the past two years, I can honestly say that they are the worst rental company that I've rented from when it comes to responding to maintenance issues. I lived in a unit, in a Georgetown row house, which obviously was old, beat-up and a exactly what you'd expect for a Georgetown rental. Amongst the issues that we encountered were: -A broken air conditioner that took 21 days to fix. -A downed electric wire in our driveway that took 6 days for them to remove -A basement that completely flooded, up to our ankles, on 6 different occasions, including twice in our final two weeks (Without ever talking to us regarding the mold in the basement) -Door knobs that didn't at all work These were the biggest issues. The lack of response to maintenance, to the avoidance of responding to our questions regarding the security deposit, it was honestly a horrible experience. They definitely are in it to please their property owners, without giving much of a care to their renters. Avoid at ALL costs! read more

I would give this business 0 stars if I could. Our HOA's financials were a mess (e.g., bills paid late, not accounted for in our statements, not linked to the proper transaction numbers, we received other HOA's bills, etc). Items were never fixed (e.g., our call box remained broken for 8+ months). The vendors they chose were late, didn't show up, or overcharged us (e.g., our new management company discovered that we were being overcharged and got various companies to refund us). We rarely heard back from Chatel and if we did, it's because I reached out to management (e.g., the President, his assistant, etc.). I constantly had to threaten litigation. To date, we're still waiting on final payment to be transferred to our new management company. read more

I honestly do not have any more time or energy to waste on Chatel. I lived in a Chatel apartment for a year and a half. In my opinion, Maria is by far the laziest, rudest, least professional property manager I have ever met. Everything felt like a battle - work orders, trying to get set up on the customer portal, moving out, questionable charge taken out of my security deposit.... To everyone considering renting with Chatel: My advice if you actually are moving here, document everything!! And learn some deep breathing exercises. From one human speaking to another human, there are a ton of different property management companies in DC, don't choose Chatel. To Maria if you read this: I am sure you are good at something, and I hope that one day you find out what that something is. read more

I first used Chatel in 2010 when I moved to DE, and they were great. However, they have new people now, and it was an absolute disaster. From losing keys which they then charge you for, to being absolutely non-existent on the phone, to doing repair work that they never send you the invoices for, it was not an experience I'd wish on anybody. The final straw was when they charged me for SIX YEARS for management fees WHEN THEY WEREN'T MANAGING A PROPERTY FOR ME!! Yes, that was supposedly due to an accounting foul up, and they did eventually credit me back, but it took a whole lot of phone calls and threats of legal action to get it done. I just broke my contract with them, and will never do business again. read more

The poor rating is entirely because of my Chatel Property Manager Kasim. He acts friendly at first, but the minute you try and raise a concern he disagrees with, he becomes condescending, talks over you, argues by repeating himself and is just outright rude. I had no major issues with my 8-month stay at a Chatel apartment. Most of my requests were handled moderately fast and when I called the office I usually got a hold of Kasim. But then when I asked Kasim to replace the touch up paint that Chatel threw out (I asked them to store somewhere off the property) he argued that I was responsible for replacing it. He didn't even have the color on file. His response, in a raised voice, was that he's been doing this for 3 years and manages 150 properties, and doesn't have time to deal with me. There was no supervisor or alternative property manager I could speak to, so basically, what he says goes. His manner of speaking to me and likely other tenants is unacceptable. Also, beware of the wording in their lease. It is very one-sided. read more

Chatel has managed my condo in Georgetown since I moved away a couple of months ago, and has been great. Andrew and the team over there have done an awesome job both finding a tenant and getting my place ready for move-in. They have really taken care of all the legwork, while detailed monthly owner's statements keep me informed about what's going on. Overall a great experience, highly recommended. read more

I rented my first apartment in DC through Chatel. Lou was my agent and he was great! When it came time to buy a condo, there was no question in my mind - I would use Chatel. Lucky for me Lou still works at Chatel. He was extremely patient answering all of my numerous questions about the sales process and each property we viewed. Lou is a terrific agent and I feel that I got a great deal on a great condominium thanks to Lou's efforts. read more

I've lived in a lovely apartment complex managed by Chatel in Glover Park for just over a year now, and I've been happy. Whenever we've had service requests they've responded very quickly, and Eric and Ahmad with Chatel are super nice to work with. I just moved across the hall to one of their other apartments, and they had it re-painted before we came and totally ready to go. I'd recommend them! read more

The one star is entirely based on the fact that Chatel offers online rent payment. Otherwise, stay away - this is a scam of a leasing company. Seems that some of the property owners don't realize how bad their service is... Well, let me enlighten you. At one point, our place (which was a newly remodeled, pretty apartment in Georgetown) had a hole in the foundation that the company "fixed" multiple times (aka bandaged - we could feel our floor/see my bedroom door both being pulled down towards the bottom unit... scary), the ceiling was leaking (you could see the water damage creeping through and they just painted over it), AND once when they were "painting" the outside of our building, they somehow blasted a hole in the brick of my roommate's bedroom! (When we notified them, she was told to "go find the missing bricks and replace them to keep weather/animals out... What!?) Also, had rodents too - I would normally blame this on Georgetown being close to the water, as we were clean and diligent about taking trash out... but I have to assume it had more to do with the shoddy foundation than anything else. The leasing agents are fine, but the property management is the worst - especially Maria. I can't even explain how awful and incompetent she was to work with - and SO rude, to boot! I'm currently working on reporting them to the BBB, but figured I should help some others out in the meantime and write a Yelp review first. Renters AND owners, beware... Seriously! read more

So far our experience with Chatel has not been good. They don't return phone calls and don't seem to have any sense of urgency to get things done. Communication with owners has been poor. I'm hoping our building changes companies. Kasim in the office is rude. read more

The problems continue. I gave Chatel a key so that they could let Pepco in to do some metering work. They then moved the key to the basement of my building, in some sort of unsecured keybox and now the key has gone missing. Obviously this is very concerning because now someone has a key to my apartment. Chatel seems very blasé about this whole thing and has not offered to replace my locks. read more