The Vineyards at Hammock Ridge Apartments — Local services in Clermont

It’s been a really frustrating and disappointing experience with Greystar in trying to get issues from the hurricane resolved, in addition to known issues prior to the storm. We’ve had a window that hasn’t worked properly since we moved in months ago. Maintenance came out, looked at it and said “it’s broken” and then we never received any follow up on repairs. That window came loose during the storm, and ended up falling in and hurting my husband. Had another maintenance person come out to just look at it, and then no follow up on a fix. We had water come through the walls/ceiling throughout our unit due to the roof damage, and they hired Belfor to bring in dehumidifiers and air scrubbers. We constantly had the Belfor team showing up and letting themselves into the unit with no Greystar representative present; I had to keep a safety lock on the door while I was home alone because they didn’t give enough time to answer the door or the Ring camera before attempting entry. They also asked me to NOT keep the safety lock on when I was home alone, which is a huge red flag - especially when it was a team of all men. One of the units - after collecting for several days - ended up leaking all over our kitchen and living room. We were told they brought in a faulty pump device. Greystar never followed up, so I had to research on my own and call Belfor’s emergency service line and work with their management team for a temporary fix (putting the unit into the stairwell to finish leaking out). There was a language barrier with the vendor they sent in to put down mold treatment for our ceiling and walls and repaint (also with no Greystar representative present) so we had to rely on Google translate; we still don’t know if they were only supposed to treat visible damage, or go over ALL the areas affected by water (we had water coming out like a faucet through our ceiling fixtures during the hurricane). We’ve also gotten no follow up about the status of the roof and/or insulation. We’ve tried to follow up on weird billing with the water for several weeks with no response, so I’m not sure if we’re over/under with amounts owed; we just had a bill for water from the summer applied into last month’s rent, and no follow up from Greystar with clarification. And now we have an active AC leak coming out of the unit into our laundry room; we have a bucket and towels set up for now a third issue of water damage in the month. I had to go in person to the office to report because it’s been so difficult to get through to someone on the phone or respond via email, and after seeing/hearing neighbors going for weeks without resolution from service requests, I didn’t want to risk this leading to bigger issues. They sent someone to clear out the drain line, but now I have even more water leaking and still no follow up. There also has been no response when filing with Greystar’s corporate feedback forms, so not sure if those are just routed to the on site team and stuck in queue. I don’t know if it’s short staffing or just an unprecedented volume of challenges, but it’s left us feeling wary, unsafe, and unsure if we’ll invest...

I moved into my 2 bedroom (3rd floor with elevator) in May of 2015. I do not regret it for one moment. As with all new apartments, I had a few adjustments that needed to be addressed. Management was always courteous, professional and friendly. Some of my issues were taken care of the same day, next day or as soon as feasible. As for the ‘maintenance man’, he too has always been courteous, professional and friendly. And, though I do not speak Spanish, we have no problem communicating with his limited English. As for noise, being on the 3rd floor, I can’t address that. What I can tell you though, is accept for the traffic on Hammock Ridge Road, it is quiet in the community. Going back to my Jersey Girl city living, I love sitting on my patio and watching the vehicles drive by. Management held a Halloween Party for the residents and it was at that time that I found out just how many children there are in my community. I had seen a couple children in the pool and thought how sad, there is no one for them to play with. Boy, was I wrong. With all the children and babies living here, you would never know it. People who expect perfection are unrealistic and most likely have not experienced much diversion in their life. Some people complain because they are unhappy with life and only see the negative. I have a friend who spent a million plus to have a house built in Windermere and guess what? There are issues with it. To anyone complaining about seeing police cars, I have news for you. I was very involved with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and our Community Crime Watch. We did not have problems, but welcomed seeing the ‘patrol’ ride through the community. I have been in the office talking to management when local law enforcement came in. Not because there was a problem, but to ask how things were going. I like that. If you feel there is a situation that needs to be addressed and it is something for law enforcement, you call 911, and you let the office know of the situation. Management works for a company that wants to make money; why would they ignore problems? Doesn’t matter how much one pays for rent since that does not determine whether one cares about their surrounds or not. People are paying 1400.00 plus a month and put out cigarette butts outside their apartment. All you need to do is call management and they will see that walkways get cleaned. Doesn’t matter how much money someone has to spend on rent, slobs are slobs; that is not something you blame on management. As for the pool, I would expect it to look 'unclean' after a storm or bad weather, but why would the office ignor cleaning it? They wouldn't. I ride around the community on my little scooter just to see how things are looking and I have yet to see anything that would cause me to write a negative review. My suggestion is to visit, meet management, take a tour and see for yourself. No, I do not work for the company nor am I ‘best buddies’...

The Vineyards at Hammock Ridge are absolutely gorgeous from the outside, but offer a flawed living experience. I'll start off with the positive before diving into the negatives:

The staff here have always been friendly, and always have a pleasant attitude. They seem to do their best to address issues, and overall I cannot complain about them.

Now the negative:

The biggest problem I have with the VAHR is the poor construction of the buildings. The floors and ceilings are paper thin, so living in a middle apartment is like being sandwiched between heavy footsteps above, and hearing your neighbors downstairs at all hours of the night and day.

The "wood" flooring is made from the finest scratch ready materials, which leaves the loveliest patterns of wear and damage immediately after placing furniture on it.

Besides our neighbors being loud at all hours of the night, the other issue we have with this place is the way people curb their pets, or in this case DON'T curb them. I have found excrement on the sidewalk outside of our building, people letting their dogs run around without a leash, and even someone who allowed their dog to defecate right out front of the leasing office, and just threw a couple of mulch chips over it and continued about his day.

The grills in the pool area are dirty all the time because no one cleans them after use, and the tales of people sitting at the pool all night are true.

Not that this directly affects me, but there are not enough handicap spaces for some of the other residents who live here, and for that matter, parking is always a pain to deal with because it's over crowded.

People work on their vehicles in the parking lot, which is also a delight.

Bottom line: I'm ready to leave the vineyards as soon as the lease is up (or sooner if the option becomes available). Besides the poor building quality it's a living situation where I've never been able to fully relax.

---Update/Response to Community Manager---

Since my review I've had my car damaged in the parking lot twice, and ultimately resulted in my having to take the car in to have the drivers side fender replaced.

Mildred:

Thank you once again for being a very friendly manager, I appreciate the positive customer service. Here is my list of improvements for the management at Vineyards at Hammock Ridge to consider:

1- Remove the ceiling drywall in all apartments, and add sound insulation. We were told during our tour of a demo unit there there was soundproofing, but this is not true.

2- Put carpeting in the living room area, and get rid of that hideous fake wood flooring. Not only will it help with not having to hear your neighbors upstairs walking around all day, but it's better to look at a carpeted floor than an overly...