Residents of new DC luxury apartment building complain of flooding, rising fees

Residents of a new luxury apartment building in D.C.’s NoMa neighborhood are furious after the building flooded and their utility fees continue to spike.

Cielo resident Alessandra Torres said the leak started in her bathroom about 1 a.m. Thursday. She said she and her boyfriend bailed with buckets, but after a couple of hours, they faced a torrent. Beyond their door, it sounded like a babbling brook.

“We walked outside and saw a lot of the water flowing from, like, the elevators, which is across from the unit where I’m at,” Torres said. “Then it went into the staircase, flooding.”

“Even the ceiling from the hallway started to crash into, like, the floor,” she added

Maintenance and eventually the fire department responded.

A Cielo spokesperson said it was caused by a valve on the 12^th floor and onsite maintenance and a contractor handled the repair. They’re working with residents whose homes were impacted and apologize for any inconvenience.

But that wasn’t the first issue residents have had.

“We have these common area utility fees,” Nic Rogers said. “They started out about, you know, really small.”

But residents say the fees didn’t stay small and they now must budget for them.

“For the month of March, my utility fee for the common area of the building — $40,” another resident said. “This month — $180.”

Common area fees are in leases, but residents say those who were told outright about them didn’t expect the spike.

“Now, they’re about 9% of my rent,” Rogers said. 

“We’ve already reached out to our council member, Council member Charles Allen, and he’s actually proposing a bill to make this type of billing illegal in the District,” a fourth resident said.

The residents say their experiences aren’t uncommon among renters in D.C.

“There’s such a lack of explanation and communication,” yet another resident said.

Residents say there’s an issue bigger than their building.

“These type of quality of life, quality of financial life issues are important to the District, because we want people to be long-time District residents,” one said.

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