We rented sight unseen in the late summer of 2020, before moving to DC from a different city (we had a pretty glitchy video tour of the place). Cividwell listed the property as a "meticulously maintained" historic rowhouse in capitol hill, and unfortunately its rather brief rental period (there was only one other set of tenants in its history) meant that tenants have been responsible for flagging maintenance issues - which Cividwell has promptly addressed - but unfortunately, that's not the same as a home being meticulously maintained over its lifespan. This house was neglected before it was rented and in our opinion shouldn't have been rented out in its current state. It smelled of mold, there were roach sightings, numerous code violations, and when we took occupancy late at night after a long drive, the lights were on, the oven was on (!), the AC was blasting (because of the oven) and the washing machine was half full of water - indicating that the landlord had not done a cursory walk-through before we took occupancy. But because we took occupancy of the property, we had no legal recourse to claim the warranty of habitability had been violated. Aaron agreed to let us break our lease eventually, but at some cost (a month's rent) and labor - we had to find new tenants to replace us, we had to seek legal advice from the city, we had to arrange for a DCRA inspection, etc, all the while fielding waves of anxiety about how the owner would respond (who we could not contact directly). The mold/moisture issue I brought up wasn't addressed promptly and I felt like my safety concerns were being ignored. In the meantime our house was full of contractors fixing stuff during a pandemic when my husband and I were both trying to work from home - which is why we felt like it never should have been rented out when it was - they should have fixed these maintenance issues instead of putting our health at risk. Some issues were fixed quickly, but others were not - that moldy smell was pretty obviously related to the decaying back brick wall that needed repointing (and less obviously to the dryer that was not vented outdoors) - why we were the ones responsible for identifying all of these things rather than the property manager boggles my mind. The issues we brought up were not preferences, but real structural and safety issues. It felt like we were paying money to do both the property manager and the owners' job. One star for Aaron's overall good nature and prompt communication. read more