jesus. the thugs hit the wrong apartment on the 4th floor.

I think this is honestly more about neighborhood than anything; it’s quite a generalization to say people who rent older units are all wealthy. I come from a middling background (single mom public school teacher in the Midwest), but I’ve avoided the “shoebox” luxury buildings because they’re frankly way out of my price range.

Take our case. We’re in Brookland in a 2B2B, rent-controlled condo. The price for a 2B in one of the new-build apartments on Monroe is anywhere from $300-$1200 more a month than what we’re paying. To us, the extra amenities and potential for issues like OP is having were frankly not worth it in our calculation.

just offering another perspective!

As an aside, the rates for this building were way higher than they are now when I looked at it years ago after it opened.

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It means higher rent.

I love when OPs in these Q and A type of posts don't get the "Awww you poor thing" treatment and proceed to call everybody bootlickers. It's hilarious.

Even constructive comments are getting told they are bootlickers because they're not advocating calling tenant rights groups or suing.

The entitlement is real!

Move.

> Capitol View on 14th from 2020

Receipts: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/lawsuit-alleges-dc-apartment-building-changed-locks-on-shooting-victim/3156688/

I lived in a new building on SW waterfront and it was pretty great. Almost moved into a different building until I found out the neighboring construction was digging up contaminated soil that was making people in the building sick from the chemical fumes. Do your diligence, and meet your potential neighbors.

Did you complain or offer a solution? My old bldg followed my suggestion and locked the trashroom door each night at 9.

This was my exact opinion. The thing I ordered regularly was great, but if you mixed the favors wrong it could be terrible. At Chipotle, rice, meat and beans can only be combined in so many ways.

Right? There’s a lot of weird things I’ve learned to consider when looking for an apartment (proximity to elevator and exit doors, amount of light switches/outlets) and I’d never think to ask about this tbh

I’ve never not seen the unit I planned on renting.

Last time something similar happened to me I made a website about the building and how much they suck. I posted it on every review website I could find. It worked.

Google will hook you up with a website for 15 bucks or so a year. Took me maybe 30 minutes in total to make.

I also lied and told them I paid to SEO it. But I'd imagine it's probably pretty easy to get "building sucks.com" right next to their actual website on Google.

Co-signing this. “Luxury” apartment buildings often have cheap and shoddy construction that produces all manner of structural problems down the line. Older buildings are often much sturdier and better built (though they certainly have issues as well).

I’ve lived in both older and newer buildings across a number of states, both renovated and non renovated. My favorite places by far have been the older buildings with modern renovations.

MOVE.

What worries me is when people actually buy new construction. In most forms . Houses or condos in burbs same problem

Finally someone actually helpful whos not being an asshole on a high horse lol

OP can also see about requesting a rent abatement from the rental company if the noise is occurring outside of normal quiet hours. I've been successful in requesting an abatement before over them violating quiet hours however it was in another state.

I find anti-shoebox folks are far more likely to come from a wealthy background where they grew up with tons of space(or a neighborhood with character) and were surrounded by groups of folks who look down on small apartment renters(that's for college kids!).

Run an actual cost comparison on a brand new building marketed as "luxury" versus some run down converted row house with stompy and sons living above you next door. There's typically no difference because the baseline for a room for rent STARTS at 1.2k, and once you start accounting for all the demand from people who want "yards", more "square footage", or a parking spot, it's literally all within hundreds of bucks a month.

I will fully support your defense! I've seen so many buildings going up that are, essentially, tissue paper and possibly some duct tape or liquid nails. When we first moved here in 2013, we lived for a short period of time in a new building on H NE and everything about it was terrible--the construction, the management.

Nothing beats plaster for sound-dampening.

Oh boy, you're gonna make me cry. I was working next to Union Station when that location opened up (and closed). For the 2 years (?) that it was open, I ate there 3-4 times a week. I loved that place. Tasty, healthy, fresh!! Fuck Chipotle really...took a great concept (and there were long lines every days) and canned it because they couldn't get a handle on Chipotle back then, I hate them for it and stopped eating at chipotle since then. Sometimes I dont understand corporate America!!

It makes logistics easier if you're going to have an armed mob assault the Capitol to be able to store your stuff close by.

Oh we don't live there now. This was like 2 years ago, but I thought the situation applied and it was a similar tactic we took when people started dropping weights at the gym above our apartment.

That's also assuming they're sympathetic enough to do so or that there's a similar apartment in your price range available. They did not give a fuck though (lol) and it was during height of the pandemic.

There is no REASONABLE level of due diligence that would have caught this before OP moved in. Most places won’t even let you see the actual unit you’re renting before you sign. They’ll show you a model apartment or vacant unit and then a floor plan of just the unit you’re interested in. What management company do you know of that lets you look at the blueprints so you know where the mechanics are in the building or lets you hang out in the exact unit you’ll be renting for hours to see if there are any noise issues before you sign a lease? People would normally know about a bar. Who would even think to ask if the trash room is next door? Even if they did, not every building has a compactor that goes off randomly all day vs. having to just deal with the couple times a week the dumpsters are emptied.

What would you have them do? Shut down the trash compactor for the building? The rats and roaches would love that.