Watassa Management

This is by far the worst management company I have ever encountered. They are cheap, make you do the scheduling, and don't follow through on service calls. They are not professional nor friendly. There are better properties and management all over DC -- do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.

Be well aware of the terms of your lease. When things break, Watassa will always try to charge you even if they’re supposed to pay for the repair. We moved into our unit in February and the heat wasn’t even working. It took them three weeks to fix it and they refused to refund our rent. They also said we were overreacting when the apartment was 40 degrees. We only got a refund back when we threatened to go to small claims. They have two people managing 7+ buildings. It’s not worth the trouble, rent elsewhere.

Buildings are very poorly maintained. The common areas are dirty and rundown. Yes, management is very responsive to complaints, but the problem is that we had to report so very many problems in our year here. Roaches, dirty water raining from our bathroom ceiling on 3 separate occasions. Would not recommend.

I lived for two years at The Holland apartment building in Adams Morgan on Vernon street. The building had great potential and beautiful bones, but Watassa seemed like it could care less. Throughout my entire time there, construction was being done to build washer/drying facilities in the basement as well as HVAC for the whole building. It was supposed to be completed in 6 months, but took well over two years (I never saw completion), and construction of the project switched hands several times from ex-con contracting crew to ex-con contracting crew. HVAC vents and controls were installed, but were never activated. When I returned from vacation I came home to the mess the workers left in my unit. Floors were not covered, dirt and dust all over everything from electronics to clothes, furniture and belongings moved all over the place. The whole unit was in disarray and dirty. Front door regularly broken... Old man was robbed in the vestibule for his Green Card. Mice were a constant issue. The trash area was not well-kept (understatement). The building was rarely maintained, repainted, or mopped. Due to incessant construction, the buildings front lawn/grassy area was a constant pile of dirt covered in blue tarps. Back entrance easy to break into, and two people were burglarized before I ever got there (not including Green Card mugging in vestibule which happened while I was in my apartment). All in all, Watassa was seriously lacking, at least at The Holland. They never finished work on time, hired sketchy/lazy contactor crews, didn't keep the building clean, and never installed electronic locking doors. Francis seemed like a nice guy and tried hard, but something tells me "Jim"-- who seems more like a phantom slum owner since I never once saw him, has a complete lack of regard for The Holland and its tenants who pay over 2k per unit.