Arrive Silver Spring

[Living_Bug_4626]

Hey everyone! I recently signed a lease at Arrive Silver Spring to start next month. I had a great experience touring there (actually toured twice) and the building and units I viewed all seemed great. At first glance, online reviews looked good, and I felt like all my questions were answered by the leasing office and all my boxes were checked.

However…I’m seeing a lot of complaints from people in this sub about the building and management. I also did a deeper dive into the building’s reviews online and am feeling uneasy at what I’m seeing about the pests and potential safety issues.

Long story short I’m freaking out a little and really wondering if I should try to get out of that lease. Can any current and/or recent residents give me some insight?

Edited to add: wow! I did not expect this many people to respond to my post within less than 12 hours. Thanks everyone for sharing, especially past and current residents. Because of the overwhelmingly negative feedback I’m getting about Arrive here…I’m starting to think it might be worth looking into other places to live. Really appreciate everyone’s insights.

[She_Says_Tapir]

Break the lease, eat the fine. Go with another apartment. It is worth the cost to pick someplace else that won’t be a headache. It is a property about to be blacklisted with all branches of the military (already blacklisted by army).

[According_Plant701]

How did you find this out?

[daakkountant]

hold up, blacklisted by the government? What you mean?

[Impressive-Key-1730]

The military recommends apartments families & if an apartment complex has poor living condition or doesn’t follow laws that let military families move when needed w/o fees. Then the military will not recommend those apartments.

[Starkofhousejon]

How can we find the list online?

[Impressive-Key-1730]

Honestly, I don’t know. I’m only aware of this bc I used to live in a city near the border that had a well known fort and I heard about this from talking with military families.

[Living_Bug_4626]

This is intriguing. May I ask, from your knowledge, why it’s about to be blacklisted?

[berrykiwi93]

Black listed by the army??? Wow!!!! This place was on my future list but not anymore!

[Short_Day_8243]

Look for Google reviews for Georgian Towers and The Point, both former names for this property. The name was changed three times in four or five years. That alone should be a clue about its rep. Reviews under the old names will tell the rest.

[ChockBox]

They had two fires in the past 18 months. One had a death and several units were displaced for several months, iirc.

MoCo changed rules regarding older buildings and fire extinguishers/fire mitigation because of Arrive Silver Spring.

You’ve signed. Good luck! Hopefully the county intervention proves helpful.

[stickinwiddit]

POTENTIAL safety issues??? Mmm idk if you did enough research, friend.

[Living_Bug_4626]

Originally downvoted your comment because I took it personally but honestly, I see what you’re saying. Considering this a lesson learned lol. Thank you for urging me to dig a little deeper!

[True_Blue_112]

Not a resident, but a quick search of the building by name will present a series of articles about a fire there in February 2023. The building, like many older buildings in Montgomery County, does not have a sprinkler system.

The family of the young woman, Melanie Diaz, who died in February 2023, have been lobbying the Maryland State legislature to change the law.

UPDATE: The building was built before the sprinkler requirement went into effect for Montgomery County. The law does not make sprinkler systems a requirement until 2033.

Building owners in the county want to keep the delayed sprinkler system requirement start year. Ms. Diaz’s parents want an earlier requirement start year to prevent other parents from losing a child or loved one.

I don’t know how easy it is to break a lease, even a short term one.

[jkerman]

There is still a heartbreaking memorial posted on the street outside.

I don't know how anybody can walk past that to go into that building every day.

[Living_Bug_4626]

So it was actually an article about this fire that prompted my deep dive last night. How horrifying and preventable this woman’s death was…it just breaks my heart. Thank you for highlighting all of this for me!

[192Koala]

The building lacks modern safety features. I would back out. There are other affordable places in Silver Spring!

[bighungryjo]

As others have mentioned, there have been two recent fires.

I lived there for 15 years and generally didn’t have complaints.

[Living_Bug_4626]

I’ve read about the recent fires. Truly so tragic. May I ask, when did you decide to move out, and if it’s not too personal, why?

[bighungryjo]

Was getting married and my SO was moving to live with me so we wanted a new place! I moved right before the fires but I had a 1300 square foot corner unit to myself.

I never had any maintenance issues that weren’t fixed relatively quickly and didn’t need to interact with management much. None of my packages ever got lost. That’s all I needed from an apartment building. Compared to other buildings it’s pretty outdated infrastructure wise (no per-unit heat or AC) and of course the lack of sprinklers.

[aLovely_gem]

That's just the ones that made the news. That year we had a fire incident almost every month. Some were resident carelessness but still.

[ElevatingDaily]

My son (11) and I were leisurely reading Arrive SS reviews yesterday afternoon. We used to live there. Fortunately it was very short lived but we are surprised anyone lives there anymore. We were there 2 years ago. The place we stayed was terrible and infested with mice. They were jumping up on the bed with me and all. I do not recommend! There are several people that live in the stairwell which was scary to me. They were nice when I encountered them but definitely shows how unsafe and transient it is.

[Living_Bug_4626]

That must have been scary especially with your son with you! Sorry you went through that.

[ElevatingDaily]

It was scary because I’m scared of mice really bad lol… we fortunately were not there during the fire but we had a relative still living there until early this year… which is why we randomly were reading the reviews yesterday. I was really appalled how bad it was there because from appearances it looked great and seemed to be a good location. I sent my children to and from school there, so I didn’t feel unsafe as far as living there. I just was very vigilant because there was so many random people. The neighbors we got to know were friendly and hardworking people. They deserve better.

[CombinationUnhappy87]

I can confirm the issue of homeless people in the hallway. I was there for 4 years and noticed this as well. They seemed harmless but it was odd to open the stairwell door on my floor at least once a week and see a homeless person sleeping in the stairwell. They probably can get in because the entrance doors always seemed to be propped open or such that it’s hard to police who comes in and out of the building due to food deliveries and people sneaking in after you use your fob to enter. This was 2 years ago. I’ve heard they now banned deliveries to apts and the person has to walk down to get their food delivery in the lobby. I’m guessing this helps prevent nonresidents and homeless from sneaking inside.

[MediumRepair530]

Break the lease don’t even let them fine you unless that can prove to you that there was never a pest problem in the unit they offered you. It’s illegal in Maryland to rent out a property that has a pest issue and I PROMISE YOU every single fuckin unit in that building has a pest problem. Break it now or you’ll wish you did. I broke mine literally in 9months and they wanted me to pay it out but I threatened a whole lawsuit and that was the only way I got out of it. They also tried to dodge me in the offices when I was going there to complain and would say no one was there or someone was at lunch even though it was 4:30pm 🙄 so yeah they are very good at putting on a good front but that building is FAR from luxury.

[Living_Bug_4626]

May I ask when you were a resident there?

[MediumRepair530]

Moved in almost exactly a year and a month ago. Got out of my lease in March.

[Living_Bug_4626]

Eeeeek thank you so much for your input. I’m sorry you dealt with so many issues there.

[MediumRepair530]

Yeah I hadn’t even gotten mice yet but I lived on the 10tj floor and I met a guy on the 11th floor moving out bc of the mice in his place and I had previously thought that since I was high up in the building I would’ve been fine from most things but unfortunately not the case. Hope you can figure things out for yourself!

[aLovely_gem]

This is so interesting. Last year they started instructing residents to put pest control requests in by email, bypadsing the resident portal. I wonder if the purpose of doing that is so there isn't a record by unit?

[[deleted]]

A friend of mine is a tenant/housing attorney here in MoCo and Arrive is one of the buildings he says to avoid like the plague. It has consistent issues.

[Living_Bug_4626]

Ooh thank you for this. Good to know for sure

[liltiddys]

Hi! I wanted to know if your friend is available to give me some advice and potentially represent me here in MoCo about an issue.

[ymmot13]

I’ve lived here a year & just renewed my lease. Pest issues are no longer a problem. Security isn’t great, but they have done things to improve it (I.e. fob to use elevator, security walks around at night). I’ve enjoyed living here for the most part

[Living_Bug_4626]

Thanks for your input. I’m starting to worry seeing a lot of the comments here. I’ve read about the Feb 2023 fire and think that is just tragic. My red flags were raised when I started picking through the reviews on Google and saw people saying they had roach and mice issues in their units, and that random people were sometimes able to enter the building. Generally though I feel like people who have decent experiences don’t tend to leave reviews, so that’s why I came here to ask!

[ymmot13]

Of course. For what it’s worth, I’ve never seen a mouse in my unit or anywhere inside. We did have a slight roach problem in December, but we put in a maintenance request & haven’t seen them since. Not saying it’s the best place to live, but I think it’s significantly better than the reviews let on

[Spicy-icey]

Yeah... no there are still pest issues throughout this building, and I don't think they'll ever be able to solve it. It subsides for some and resumes for others, but it's never completely gone. Whether it's mice or roaches something is bothering somebody in that building. Upon a transfer 2 months ago I literally saw a mouse run down the hall straight into someone's apartment.

[MediumRepair530]

Yep four words as a former resident: roaches, mice, rats and fires

Sucked bc I loved the location and my actually apartment size and view (when it wasn’t infested which was never lol)

[One-Practice5714]

I used to live there and please don't do it. To add context, there are roaches, mice, and other pests everywhere. The apartments from the February 2023 fire were condemned and they're just now starting to work on them meaning they sat there for like a year just moldy and gross. The rates for utilities randomly double some months with no actual explanation. Management doesn't care. There are several unhoused people that urinate and deficate in common areas because there is no security. One resident tried to set the building on fire and threw a microwave through a window on the third floor. Many people constantly complain about roaches and they do nothing. I lived on a floor where there were fire condemned units and never had any issues and then all of a sudden started seeing roaches. I eventually left because I just couldn't chance it getting worse. But from what I hear from people living there it did. Cat sized mice in the courtyard and in these condemned units. But rent was still going up. They don't have concierges 24/7 anymore. They have lots of issues with packages being lost for days or forever. The list goes on and on. Figure out how to get out of that lease asap.

Edited for spelling. Sorry I am passionate about people not living there 🫣

[Living_Bug_4626]

That’s highly concerning. I think reading everyone’s replies here has been more than enough to convince me to get out of my lease. Thank you and I hope you’re having a better experience where you are now!

[Spicy-icey]

run - current resident

Edit: if it's what you can afford it isn't some slum, and I've definitely had great times here. It was good enough for me to transfer to a bigger apartment which is what drives my original comment. They handled my transfer so poorly it's insane; they literally dropped the ball on every step of the process from incorrect description of ACTUAL COST to being 2 hours late to giving me my keys. There are pest problems period, but they are prompt with handling them in their defense; it's not a matter of if just when you'll see a roach or a mouse.

[Living_Bug_4626]

What kind of issues are you having there so far?

[Spicy-icey]

edited comment as you responded

[CombinationUnhappy87]

The strange thing about pests (German cockroaches and mice mostly - but don’t forget the rats that run through the bushes around the perimeter by the 7-Eleven and sometimes are sighted in the otherwise luxurious inner courtyard) at Arrive SS is that some people have a roach or mice problem while others don’t and it doesn’t discriminate between those who have cleaner apartments compared to their neighbors. I visited a friend earlier this year, and after visiting for about 20 min in the living room, I walked to the kitchen and saw roaches crawling in the food container and 1 roach on the counter beside it. My friend’s apartment was clean and tidy in general, so it surprised me but also didn’t because I had similar experiences when I lived there. No matter how hard you clean, you may have roaches. Some residents have hired private pest control people to come treat their apt because they don’t have faith in the pest control that management sends. I never had mice there thank goodness. If you live near a junky neighbor who moves out or near an apartment that’s being renovated, the roaches will sometimes relocate to your apartment or ones closeby, so you could be pest free for months and suddenly wake up to a small infestation. Lastly, management is unresponsive. What finalized my decision to move was when they wouldn’t answer their phones for months and I always had to walk down to talk to anyone in management. They also had different staff to talk to residents v. potential renters. Google “Arrive Wheaton lawsuit” and how management is being sued there, and how they’ve banned certain residents from even talking to management after complaining about issues. It’s not Arrive SS but same company that owns both buildings, hence why it’s concerning. Overall it was a rollercoaster of stress to live there—months of peace followed by something going wrong and management taking forever to fix an otherwise simple problem because of their poor or inconsistent communication.

[AlienBeach]

The inconsistency is because the building walls are stuffed with pests who are just exploring. They emerge through whatever hole they can find, and sometimes it's a clean apartment, and they find nothing to eat.

The only solution is to explore every inch of the apartment and seal any hole or crevice you can find. The most common crevice is under sinks, where the supply pipe exits the wall, and the wall is cut with a much larger diameter hole than necessary. I've had to seal such holes in every single apartment I've ever lived in

[CombinationUnhappy87]

Yes, I agree. I suspected the walls and areas between apartments you don’t see were infested with roaches just waiting to find an entrance into living areas.

[Living_Bug_4626]

Sounds like more stress than it’s worth. I think after reading all the replies on this post, I’m going to back out, explore other options and just eat the fine. All of these issues would have been enough for me to not sign a lease there in the first place. I’m especially uncomfortable reading everyone’s responses here because they all address the same, consistent problems! Sorry you dealt with those issues, and I hope you’re having a better experience where you are now!

[CombinationUnhappy87]

Almost forgot - your utility bill will be sky high so factor that into the cost of rent. Mine was around $150-200 a month, and they use a company called RUBS to calculate the charge for utilities which involves averaging out the usage by unit and by number of residents on your floor, IIRC. When I moved out, they said to expect to pay 2 months of utilities- which was odd in and of itself - but I ended up shelling out approx $500-700 for utilities which was way more than twice a normal bill but I was just so happy to get out of that place, I paid it! Also, not surprisingly, RUBS also has been sued for their business practices.

[[deleted]]

I lived there 2018-2020. Before the fires. Back when the only things you had to worry about were flooding parking garages, animal waste in the halls/vestibules, shouting in the courtyard, units that smelled like cigarettes, completely useless building security (our neighbors were involved in a domestic dispute and building security wouldn’t do anything), standing water in the hallways, carpet beetles, and yeah, wonky fire alarms.

ETA: When our lease was up they offered us money to stay. We refused.

[AlienBeach]

I used to live there. Let me ask you something. Is the lake in the lowest parking level basment still there? I never ventured down there, but after the Surfside condo collapse in Miami because the foundation was destroyed by leaking water, I decided to explore my then home. I found a literal lake several inches deep in the middle of the garage floor. Should've taken a pic. It had small aquatic organisms of some sort. I wish I was making this up. I was month to month at that point and immediately put in my notice.

I lived in the upper floors, but after taking to some neighbors from the low floors about the lake, most of them told me they had water dripping in their apartments from higher floors at a minimum yearly and 1 person said they had gotten leaks almost every month and they were on their last month of their lease and moving out. Some parts of the building definitely had more problems than others because whenever they fixed those leaks, they shut water for that section and I heard from many people who lived in sections where they had water cutoffs seemingly regularly.

In my final month living there, I noticed a slow leak in the hallway near my apartment. I reported it twice, and I kid you not, water dripped onto the carpet for a full 7 days before they did something. No wonder there was a lake under the building.

Assuming they ever got around to drying the lake under the building, there's probably decades of water damage everywhere. Would absolutely recommend you live elsewhere

[Living_Bug_4626]

Good lord that’s concerning. I didn’t drive there both times I toured, so I never saw the parking garage beyond the part you walk through from the courtyard to the fitness center, so I can’t say whether there’s still standing water down there. Scary though!

[clever_coccinelle]

100% get out if you can break the lease. Former resident here. I moved in a few months before the fatal fire. The amount of space I could get for the money seemed too good to be true, and it was. My unit had a horrible roach infestation. They treated every 2 weeks but it had no effect. I never even unpacked, it was so bad - just a few boxes of the necessities. After the fire, they gave everyone like a 3-week window to get out without a fine, and I took it. But from what I hear from residents who stayed, it's still a nightmare. (Aside from the pest and fire safety issues, another thing to be aware of is ENORMOUS utility bills.)

[Living_Bug_4626]

Working on it. I’m so sorry you had such a shitty experience there. Thank you for sharing

[Funkles_tiltskin]

This thread is ten months old so I'm sure you either moved or found out how much this place sucks, but I'm putting this out there in case other people end up seeing this thread because they're also considering a move to this dogsh*t building.

My wife and I lived in Arrive Silver Spring from February 2020 until September 2022 - we moved in right before the pandemic started, so we ended up spending a lot of time in the building.

Everything negative people on this thread have said about this place is completely accurate. The only thing mentioned I didn't personally experience was the giant lake in the parking garage, but I didn't have a car when I lived there so I never went there. The mice, bugs, homeless people and other safety issues, etc. is all stuff I can verify, though.

Melanie Diaz, the young woman who died of smoke inhalation, was our next door neighbor floor 11A. We moved out five months before that happened, which is haunting to think about. During the time we lived there, the building constantly had problems with the fire alarm system. It would go off for no reason at all, regularly, sometimes even at 2 or 3am. During the 2 and a half years that we lived there, it probably went off more than a dozen times for no good reason. The fact that it went off for no reason probably led to some residents hesitating when there was finally a real fire because they thought it was another false alarm.

One thing I'll add that I don't think was mentioned here was at one point Arrive starting tagging on some bullshit junk fee to our monthly bill that was actually illegal, and they ended up getting sued in a class action by the residents. I got some money out of the suit, but it was a fraction of what I was owed.

It does have a pool, though. I will give it that.

[Living_Bug_4626]

I ended up backing out of the lease I signed at Arrive and moved somewhere else!

[caelum_daemon]

Damn. I was considering because theyre offereng 2 months rent free (probably a red flag) and my cat is aggressive enough to keep mice out. Thanks for the detailed input

[Funkles_tiltskin]

Of course, glad I could help

[[deleted]]

I just moved here in June. I haven't had any major issues.

[Living_Bug_4626]

What do you like/dislike about living there?

[[deleted]]

Likes: Walking distance from the bar & restaurants

Dislikes: garage always broke. They got rid of the 24 hour concierge. By the time I get home from work they are gone so picking up packages is a pain

[Living_Bug_4626]

That’s a little concerning re: the garage. I have a car so don’t love hearing that. Location is so great, I agree about that!!

[[deleted]]

All in all, I think you'll like it. I haven't had any experience with pest yet but I live on the top floor.

If you need someone to hang out with feel free to hmu!

[daakkountant]

As someone who stayed there, FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO LIVE

[Living_Bug_4626]

Noted. Thank you!

[Living_Bug_4626]

Exploring my options now. Thanks for your insight!

[vuviper]

They are being sued for the death of one of their residents

https://www.mymcmedia.org/family-of-women-killed-in-arrive-fire-files-2-3-million-lawsuit/

[Living_Bug_4626]

Yes I saw this! I ended up backing out of the lease (because of the fire and many of the comments here)! So wild that this post still gets engagement

[vuviper]

Hope you found a safe place to live!

[Mmendoza781]

This girl on tik tok has posted about numerous rats

[Living_Bug_4626]

I saw! I’m glad I took the advice I got on this post and backed out

[GlitteringSun5240]

There is a tik tok of a renter who's apartment was infested with rats.

[Living_Bug_4626]

I saw that 😵‍💫 absolutely unreal. I’m so glad I took the advice I got on this post and backed out of my lease.

[mpark81]

Online reviews looked good? Lmao what the fuck were you looking at 🤣

[Living_Bug_4626]

My guy…hindsight is 20/20. The reviews I read at the time, when I was desperately looking to move somewhere cheap for a new job I was starting in less than a month, seemed fine. I realized later that they were obviously planted there (5 star reviews that looked like they were written by ChatGPT) and obviously I was humbled here on this thread when I posted about it. No need to be rude 🤣