Venetian Isle — Local services in Horizon West

The good, the bad, the ugly.

My wife and I have lived in several different apartment complexes here in the Orlando area over the last 5 years, ranging from standard apartment complexes to luxury ones. We lived at Venetian Isles from 11/2020 to 11/2022. We lived in one of their Carriage Homes which are similar to one-bed-one-bath town homes. I will lay out the rest of my review by pointing out the good, the bad, and the ugly of this apartment complex. Long story short, I would NOT recommend living here.

The Good:

The Carriage Homes, the immediate area, the clubhouse, very close to Disney, and the Maintenance staff.

The Bad:

Lawn maintenance.

The Ugly:

Property Management. When we first moved in, the property management was great. However, as they left and new management came in, the quality of property management declined very quickly. The biggest issue we had with property management was that on two separate occasions, the tenants that were renting out the extra garage below our unit would allow people to live out of their garage. The first time, it was only for about a week or two during the winter. When we notified the property management about this odd behavior, she just told us there is nothing they can do so we let it be. I find this hard to believe because they were very strict on people having friends/family visit the clubhouse, stay with you for more than x amount of days, and allowing visitors to be in parking spots. The second time, during the summer months, a different person started to live out of the garage. After about three weeks of this person living there we were concerned for their wellbeing because they were living in a garage in 100-degree weather, we were worried about our safety because we had no idea who this person was, and there was trash accumulating in the garage that you could see and it was beginning to attract insects. This time, not being in the mood to deal with the property manager's terrible attitude, I contacted Graystar's (the property management company that owns Venetian Isle) and submitted a formal complaint about this issue. The next day I received an email from them and the property manager apologizing for this situation and they had the person removed and the garage cleaned.

Clubhouse staff. The Clubhouse staff was not friendly, rarely available, and completely incompetent. There were several situations where we were told directly conflicting information. This was not on insignificant inquires either, it was concerning lease breakages, lease renewals, and other financial matters that could potentially cost someone thousands of dollars if they are not provided with the correct information.

Dog park. It was nice to have an on-sight dog park however, like most dog parks, there were plenty of aggressive dogs and incompetent owners and several dog fights did happen. There was also a point in time when they had it closed for two-three months for "re-turfing." They ended up just filling it with mulch when they filled their mulch beds. All with the same cheap wood chiplets that did not provide a stable surface for dogs to play on and could easily cut or stab their paws, making the dog park unusable. Several other residents and I communicated with the property manamgnet and Greystar's corporate office that if the mulch caused any type of injury to our dogs that we would be filing a lawsuit. They then closed the dog park down, removed the mulch, and actually re-turfed it with grass.

Road noise. Constant drag racing happened at all hours of the day and night.

Cost. For being such an expensive place to live, all of the above issues and even the ones I have not mentioned should not happen. I would highly advise against renting here. If you want a luxury apartment in that area then I would recommend living at the Zen which is also owned by Greystar. We lived at the Zen prior to the Venetian Isle and it was our favorite apartment in Orlando and we never had any issues in the year and a half we...

Due to the character limit on here I can’t post my whole review. If you wish to read it in full please go to YELP where it allowed me to post it unedited.

I honestly wish I could say something positive about my stay at Venetian Isle.

When finding this complex, my boyfriend and I thought we found our home for years to come. The grounds looked well maintained and the design of the units were an upgrade from where we were living. When given a tour, we were reassured that there was NORMAL amounts of apartment noise and that we could easily live a relaxing and quite life in our new home. This was the first of many lies.

The office staff seemed nice enough and acted as if they had our best interest at heart, but in truth they were just after money just like any other business.

On our first night in our “quiet” and “safe” new home, we heard a disturbing amount yelling and banging upstairs after which the police came by to inform us that they were called by the wife due to domestic violence and asked if we had witnessed anything.

These disturbances continued each and every day and all night as well as additional problems from the neighbor’s teenagers upstairs who enjoyed ‘roughhousing’ constantly. After reaching out to the security officer and the front office about our concerns and with recordings and decibel readings proving our concerns, I was reassured they would work with the neighbors to resolve the issue but nothing was done. After a month of not sleeping, reaching out to the office for help, and trying to reach out to the neighbors but being blown off— I was at the end of my rope. I left a note asking for the neighbors to please try to be quiet because they were causing me to suffer panic attacks from lack of sleep and due to the intensity of the sound.

In response to my letter, Jessica at the main office called me and intimidated me in to quietly suffering through the noise by manipulating the situation in to the upstairs neighbors being the “victims.”

This is not the last time that Jessica manipulated a situation in order to not have to address an issue with active solution.

We also had issues with our ceiling suddenly flooding our apartment due to the upstairs sink being left on, to which the solution was to stab our ceiling with a knife and then put a fan on it and then pretend everything was fine. Lisa at the office was less than excited to answer our call and find a maintenance worker to help us.

Another issue was that the air conditioning for the units was constantly working improperly, as stated by the maintenance workers as well as Jessica herself (as she said it was a reason that our upstairs neighbors may move). This resulted in usual moisture on our floors and clothes. The rooms often felt damp, which the maintenance worker told us was because of these issues. Now that we’ve moved out the complex is trying to charge us $900+ to replace their carpets due to moisture damage that could only be caused by the humidity issue in their units.

From these issues to the manipulative staff to the fact that there’s literally a full grown pig living in one of the units in or near the ‘Gondola’ building. I promise you, this is not where you want to live. Find yourself somewhere you’d want to come home to at the end of the day, and stay far away from...

A few good, but more bad experiences living at this complex. I would advise you to consider renting somewhere else. Rent is comparable to a lot of other complexes in the area.

THE GOOD:

-Beautiful pool and outdoor spaces.

-Amazing porches for people that like to be outside.

-Ample parking by our building #18 (although, doesn’t look to be the same for all buildings).

-Good personal experiences with maintenance staff.

THE BAD:

-We found when we ended our lease there is a REQUIRED $45 carpet cleaning fee. Be aware as its not outlined anywhere in your lease agreements. Also, the move out final billing is extremely confusing and we've already received bills from utility providers stating we have an outstanding balance, even though the leasing office has said there are no balances to be paid.

-There is NO security. You may think that having a gate surrounding the complex would add to the security, until you realize that most, if not all, gates are broken and people will regularly wait for a resident to open the driving gate and follow you in. Don’t get me started on the of tenants that rent out their units to other people even though you are not allowed to do this.

-Regular roach infestations. There is pest control, but it’s a pain to see a month after spraying the roaches will return. Be prepared for the need to spray in your unit every couple of months.

-WALLS ARE THIN. You will be able to hear full conversations in the apartments below/next to you. Terrible insulation results in higher energy costs as well.

Speaking of walls, be aware that a number of the walls are designed at a weird angle. It looked odd placing anything against these walls and aesthetically was not pleasing.

-Cheap fixtures. When we moved in, the apartments were only a few years old, yet the doors were falling off cabinets, inside cabinets stain and scratch easily, discoloration of grout between tiles, fans in bathroom are loud and inefficient (which is also the reason why mold will grow very easily in the bathroom), etc.

-A number of people that live in this complex are extremely inconsiderate. This includes people throwing trash into the ponds (I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count), trash left in the pool area, workout room a MESS as people don’t put their stuff away, smokers/cigarette buds everywhere, kids running around unsupervised which is especially irritating when they raid the small “coffee bar” and use up everything and leave their trash everywhere, etc.

-“Coffee bar” is a single machine that only operates 4-5 hours a day and is regularly out of coffee, cups, creamer, etc.

-Breezeways are dirty and regularly smell of trash

-Be prepared if you live facing the middle school, the AC fan is LOUD and there is some sort of generator that is ridiculously loud and goes off at 5 or 6am EVERY MONDAY. Good luck if you are a...