Oculus Realty

This would almost be a nice place to live but the management company, Oculus Realty, is absolutely terrible. My wife and I have lived here going on 2 years and it's been miserable. This may be a little lengthy, but if you're considering living here then it's well worth the read...
During our tour of the building we were told the building is very quiet due to the concrete slab floors and soundproof walls and windows, and we chose a top floor unit over a basement unit so we wouldn't have anyone above us. However, we listen to dogs barking all day and all evening long (coming from a dog owner with a dog that doesn't bark at nothing and everything because he's actually trained). Despite numerous complaints and pretty clear terms in the lease related to dog behavior, this hasn't changed since we moved in. Our next door neighbor (who has a dog that barks incessantly) regularly wakes us up at 1, 2, 3am with all sorts of noise coming through the walls from his apartment. Despite more complaints and also pretty clear terms in the lease regarding quiet hours, this also hasn't changed. And after almost 2 years of complaining about hearing noise and seeing lights in a window above us and being told every time that it's a mechanical room for the elevator, we found out the other day that it's actually a loft in another apartment across the hall. We're paying hundreds of dollars more in rent for our apartment compared to other units that were available specifically so we wouldn't have anyone above us.
During our tour they made sure to inform us of all the new renovations to the building, but failed to inform us of the elevators that were not renovated and frequently break down. They also didn't inform us before moving in that they had plans to start renovations of the elevators shortly after we moved in. They said that it would take 2-3 months to renovate the elevator serving our side of the building, but after 3 months of the elevator being out of service they still hadn't hired a contractor to perform the work and it took over a year to be completed.
When we moved in we were told that amenities were included in rent. However, when we renewed our lease after a year we started getting charged a monthly 'mandatory' amenity fee. Despite the facts that this fee doesn't exist anywhere in our lease contract and it violates DC tenant laws to impose mandatory fees on tenants when renewing a lease, building management has continued to charge us monthly and ignore multiple requests for documentation showing that we're obligated to pay it.
A few months after we moved in, they implemented a 'complimentary' valet trash service. We don't use it because we think it's pretty disgusting to come home everyday to the sight and smell of someone else's trash and rotting food. When we renewed our lease we started getting charged a monthly 'mandatory' trash fee. Again, I pointed out that we're not obligated to pay this fee for the same reasons mentioned above. They actually did have language in the contract for the trash service but wrote it in a way that put all liability for payment on themselves. They agreed to not charge us for it as long as we don't use the valet service... fine since we don't use it anyway but, again, not what our lease states.
In response to our complaints, they have issued us a written notice for violating the lease because I haven't given them a DNA sample from my dog for a dog poop ID program, which is so completely absurd that I couldn't even make this up. It's extremely disappointing, frustrating and rather petty that they ignore significant complaints regarding our quality of living in the building and fail to enforce and adhere to the lease terms, and then attempt to enforce something as ridiculous as this.
The only positive aspect of the building management is the onsite superintendent, Monico, who is the only member of the management team that we've had good experiences with aside from the ladies that work at the front desk. He's very responsive, forthcoming, and has always been very easy to deal with when it comes to maintenance issues.
One thing unrelated to the building management... the tourist traffic for the zoo is an absolute nightmare almost every weekend during the Spring and Fall and almost every single day during the Summer. No parking anywhere. Crowds of tourists everywhere (and occasional shootings). People throwing food and trash all over the sidewalks in front of the building, which I constantly have to worry about when I'm walking my dog. This is something we overlooked and should be taken into consideration, especially if you tour the building at a time when the zoo isn't busy.
Overall, if you're looking for a nice, quiet, peaceful place to live with competent building management that respects the tenants and adheres to the lease contract, this probably is not where you want to live.