Wedgewood tenants complain about mice, mold, and water outages
Residents of the Wedgewood Apartments in Annandale are increasingly fed up with their living conditions – and an unresponsive landlord.
Among the complaints: mice, bedbugs, water outages, broken pipes, flooding in laundry rooms, mold, rats by the dumpsters, crime, and speeding in the parking lot.
Concerned tenants have been working with staff from FACETS, the nonprofit that runs the Wedgewood Community Center, to work on a plan for improving communication with the landlord.
As a result, the property manager, Ivan Patino of the Edgewood Management Co., has agreed to meet with a tenant group once a month. The tenants are also planning to bring their complaints to Fairfax County officials.
The Wedgewood is an affordable housing community owned by the county’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
At a recent tenant meeting at the Wedgewood Community Center, one tenant, whom we’ll call K, said she’s caught several mice inside her apartment and suffered through two separate rounds of bedbug infestations.
When she complains, the landlord sends an exterminator, but that doesn’t do any good unless they treat the whole building. And the maintenance crew didn’t fix the holes in the walls, so the pests keep coming back.
The mice are disgusting, added another tenant. “I used to be afraid; now I’m used to them.” They come inside when it gets cold. Last winter she caught at least one on a glue sheet every day.
A tenant we’ll call S has heard “running noises in the walls that sound like the mice are having the Olympics in there.”
At a recent meeting with Patino, the tenants learned that a third-party exterminator is supposed to clear out the vermin twice a year.
At least once a month, there is no water in her apartment, K says. At one point this spring, a water outage lasted three days. She says the lights are always out in the hallway, creating a dangerous situation.
There is so much mold in her bathroom that members of her family have developed allergies, S said. When taking a shower, even with the door shut and the exhaust fan on, people are sneezing and getting itchy eyes.
Even though she cleans regularly with Clorox, she can’t get to the mold inside the walls and pipes.
She also said the maintenance people are rude and yell at tenants.
Related story: Squalid conditions at Fairmont Gardens aired in court
When a FACETS staff member reported that Patino said repairs are supposed to be done within 72 hours of a complaint, the tenants at the meeting laughed. “That’s a joke,” one of them said.
There used to be a security guard at the complex, another tenant said, but he was fired because he was sleeping in his car instead of patrolling the property. Meanwhile, the tenant said, cars are being stolen and broken into.
In response to tenants’ complaints about safety, Patino agreed to put in security cameras in November. It will be up to the county to approve a contractor.
Rents at the Wedgewood are below market rate and are based on household size and income.
Rent for a one-bedroom apartment at the Wedgewood starts at $1,192 a month. That compares to a starting rent of $1,589 for a one-bedroom unit at Fairmont Gardens and $1,536 at the Vistas of Annandale, both of which are market-rate apartments.
Related story: Tenants speak out against rat and bug-infested apartments
The Wedgewood property manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the property, said Fairfax County spokesperson Benjamin Boxer. That includes maintenance, budget oversight, and oversight of the onsite team to ensure occupancy and customer service goals are met.
The Fairfax County Rental Program oversees the asset management performance of the property, ensuring that the third-party management company meets its financial and resident services goals, Boxer said. County staff are expected to meet regularly with management and carry out physical inspections throughout the year.
Time for the wrecking ball.
Thank you Sharon Bulova for turning a nice, affordable, middle class residential community into a rat infested, molding, trash heap.
According to a link to a FairfaxCounty.gov webpage provided in this very informative article, “The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA) is a separate political body from Fairfax County Government” and “The authority of the FCRHA is vested in 11 commissioners appointed by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors – one representative from each supervisor district and two at-large representatives.”
Considering the fact the FCRHA is run by 11 people appointed by our elected Board of Supervisors, it is not a surprise the FCRHA is a slumlord.
I don’t have a high opinion of the current Board of Supervisors.
Fairfax County has for the most part become a one-party jurisdiction where the dominant party’s elected officials are increasingly fat, lazy, entitled, and likely corrupt, because they can do it and get away with it because they have no competition.
Even within the dominant party there is no competition.
Sharon Bulova “served” on the Board of Supervisors for a little over 30 years and she has a government palace named to honor her: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/community-services-board/sharon-bulova-center-community-health.
We all know Penny Gross is going to have a government palace (probably in Bailey’s Crossroads, but I am rooting for Seven Corners) named for her before she is done.
Wedgewood Apartments should be renamed in the name of the Supervisor of the District in which it is located to “honor” the work of that Supervisor.
Maybe THAT would light a fire under the collective you know what of our exalted Board of Supervisors.
This has been going on for years. I lived there about 7 years ago and broke the lease due to bed bug infestation. Management and staff were rude, I complained to Fairfax County and was released from my lease with no penalties; however, I see nothing has been resolved! What a shame.
This is unfortunate for the residents. Some of the problems the residents experience have spilled over to the residential neighberhood( anndanle terrace neighberhood). My back yard backs into the Wedgewood Apartments. There are days that we can smell the dumpsters. We have had our cars broken into multiple times. We have had rodent come into our home!!!
The problem has been that many of the maintenance workers have left fir better paying jobs, and have not been replaced.. the r good , old ones that are left,are simply overworked, and the new ones that they hire, are inexperienced and not very good at what they are doing . In addition I gear, they have bought 2 new complexes , that these workers here have to attend to. And if you need them ,you can never find them . The manager Ivan Patino , is NEVER at his office , and one can never reach him or find him . You always have to leave a message , which is never returned. I understand that he had to work and deal also with those other properties . The receptionist is rude , and if you call at 4:40 PM,they never answer, or if they do, they hang up on you and put on a recoding ,stating they are busy and to call later. Our propert has been falling apart ever since Fairfax county took over.
They hire people like bug exterminators , not because they are good, but cheap , no wonder nothing changes,.
We used to have some individuals that when they move here , they brought bedbugs with them. They had to get rid of furniture, clean,disinfectclotes, put them in plastic bags outside in the balcony and a complete job was done to get rid of them . Now they do everything superficially , and the problem continues. They need to do a complete change, starting with the manager, staff, contractors they hire , ad hire and pay more,so that talented people stay and do a much better job.