Venice Park — Local services in Venice

I am not the type of person who ever leaves reviews, but my husband and I moved in around April. Our apartment was great/staff was great.. A while back we reported hearing leaking from the roof when it rained and reported a roof leak. they came out and told us it was an ac leak and it was all fixed … further down the road we noticed mold growing on our ceiling in the corner and the wall next to the tub starting to become soft and almost collapse. Their way of fixing this was to scrape the mold off (not bother to replace the rotten dry wall) and put caulking over the cracked wall.. of course eventually the leak continued and the wall got worse and the ceiling eventually had a hole in it because of the previous leak not being properly fixed.. we then looked into the AC unit to try to find the leak and found mold growing all over our ac unit. after asking the front office for a mold report for our unit they told us that it was not their responsibility to have one so we paid $450 for a mold inspector to come out. His report showed 400,000 count of mold that can cause asthma and severe allergies and sinus problems (I am pregnant and already had been to the doctor multiple times for these exact symptoms) He also found 25% moisture behind our bathroom wall confirming an active leak.

We sent this to the apartment manager and made them aware AGAIN of the leak and new mold found… they did nothing about it and did not contact us to even acknowledge our email. we even found that the work order we put in mentioning the mold was later changed by management from “mold found on AC unit” to “AC leak” So my advice is to take pictures as soon as you send in your work orders or they will change it as to not alert their higher ups I’m assuming…

After the hurricane, they had inspectors come out to every apartment however we had been reporting what they found for months.. the inspectors found 50% moisture behind the same wall our mold inspector found moisture behind which tells me our leak turning into something bigger could have been prevented if they had come out to inspect when we reported a leak in the roof…

Aside from all of this the AC vents were dirty and the bathtub cauking was so poorly done the tub moved back and forth every time we showered and I later found a review on yelp that someone fell through the first story because of their bathtub being put in improperly… which they did come out to re cauk but it didn’t hold up for more than 2 days..

based on Florida statute 83.56 and section 32 of the lease “responsibility of owner” management MUST act within a reasonable amount of time to fix the mold and they did not… so we sent in our 7 day notice via certified mail and after 7 days of STILL hearing nothing we left. Which after the process of alerting management /waiting a reasonable time for a fix/ sending in our notice and still not hearing anything we legally had the right to do.

I’m writing this to make others aware that if you have mold in your unit to alert their management team.. the tarps have been on the roof since the hurricane as well for at least a month and it seems like from yelp reviews mold has been an issue there for a long time… I don’t want others to get sick like I did.

please do better...

WISH I COULD PUT ZERO STARS....... THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST PLACE I HAVE EVER LIVED, OR COULD EVER IMAGINE LIVING IN. I COULD WRITE SO MUCH HERE BUT HONESTLY I HAVE WASTED SO MUCH ENERGY WITH THESE PEOPLE THAT I DONT HAVE ANY LEFT FOR THIS POST..... DO NOT LIVE HERE, I REPEAT DO NOT FRIGGEN LIVE HERE.... STAY FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR AWAY FROM THIS CRAP HOLE... LYING, MANIPULATIVE SCUM.... NEW MANAGEMENT IS CRAP, THEY RAISED THE PRICES UP ABOUT 400-500 DOLLARS AND SAID IT WAS FROM "NEW APPLIANCES" FOR GODS SAKE I GOT A NEW MICROWAVE...... THEY ARE ALWAYS STATING HOW ALL THESE "IMPROVEMENTS" ARE COMING....FUNNY CAUSE I HAVE BEEN THERE 6 MONTHS AND THEY HAVENT CHANGED OR IMPROVED ANYTHING, THE POOLS ARE DISGUSTING, THE HOT TUBS THAT SHOULD BE FILLED WITH WATER ARE FILLED WITH A BROWN DIRTY SUBSTANCE THAT RESEMBLES CHEW SPIT.... THE FITNESS ROOM HAS ONE TREADMILL AND A WEIGHT RACK WITH ONE 35 POUND DUMBELL AND ONE 3 POUND DUMBELL.....I NOW GO ONLINE TO SEE THAT MY SAME APARTMENT, ONE BEDROOM 544 SQ FT IS BEING ADVERTISED AS 837 WHEN IM PAYING 1300 FOR MY ONE BEDROOM 544 SQ FT APARTMENT...... I LITERALLY CAN NOT EXPRESS MY CONCERN TO YOU ALL ENOUGH, DO NOT LIVE HERE, DOOOOOOOO NOT DO IT..... I HAVE RATS INFESTED IN MY STORAGE AREA AS WELL AS MY LANAI, THEY HAVE RUINED EVERYTHING I HAVE IN STORAGE.....MY LAUNDRY ROOM THAT IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A WASHER AND DRYER PUT INTO IT STILL REMAINS EMPTY......I HAVE PALMETTO BUGS CRAWLING AROUND MY FLOOR ALL THE TIME..... I HAVE HAD MY KITCHEN CEILING LIGHT NEARLY FALL ON MY HEAD TWICE SINCE I HAVE BEEN THERE.....WHEN I NEED HELP WITH ANY MAINTANCE, THESE BOYS WHO LOOK AS IF THEY ARE 20 YEARS OLD COME OVER, NO TRAINING, NO EXPERIENCE, AND NO IDEA OF WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE DOING..... I HAD MOLD GROWING IN MY BATHROOM WITHIN 3 MONTHS OF LIVING THERE.... DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW THEY FIXED IT ALL...... THEY PUT CALK ON TOP OF IT... I TOLD THE GENTLEMEN THAT IM PRETTY SURE ITS NOT HOW ITS DONE AND THEY SAID ITS FINE ITLL COVER IT...... SO INSTEAD OF REMOVING THE MOLD AND SEALING ALL OF MY BATHROOM THE PROPER WAY, THEY JUST COVERED IT WITH CALK..... WELL I CAN SAY ITS BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE THEY COVERED IT AND NOW THERE IS MORE MOLD THAN I KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH.....CAN I ALSO SAY THAT THE AC DRAIN GOES DIRECTLY INTO THE SHOWER.....CAN I ALSO SAY THAT THE PLACEMENT IS PUT PERFECTLY TO DRIP DIRECTLY ON TOP OF YOUR FACE WHEN YOU ARE IN THERE .. I AM DONE, ABSOLUTELY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DONE WITH THIS PLACE........ OH AND ON TOP OF IT MY KITCHEN DRAWERS HAVE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT HANDLES ON THEM, LOOKING LIKE THEY SET IT UP IN 3 HOURS.... MY TOILET IS SLOWING COMING OUT OF THE GROUND, MY KITCHEN COUNTER THAT THEY STATE IS MADE WITH REAL GRANITE.... LOL.... WELL THE COUNTER TOP IS SLOWING SEPARATING FROM THE BASE..... OH AND IT WEIGHS ABOUT NOTHING SO IM PRETTY SURE YOUR STATEMENT OF REAL GRANITE COUNTERS CAN BITE ME..... MY AC NEVER WORKS, I AM IN THE PROCESS OF HAVING IT FIXED FOR A SECOND TIME SINCE I HAVE BEEN THERE..... DONT LIVE HERE.... GOD DAMNNIT I CANT STRESS THIS ENOUGH.........

I lived here for a year, and at first it was a pleasant experience. However, when they changed staff, it was extremely noticeable. Maintenance is a joke. They don't hire professional maintenance people, just any Joe-shmo who walks in off the streets. I've had a maintenance person watching YOUTUBE VIDEOS on how to fix something. My heater didn't work and if we did turn it on, it would often smell like smoke. When I told the front office, they told us just to not turn it on. Clearly, they did not want to put in the work order.

The other issue with the front office is that they will charge you whatever they want in rent. All 4 of my neighbors were paying something different. The person across from me was paying a little over $1,000/mo, the person behind me had her and her boyfriend living there with a cat and a dog and was paying $1,100/mo. The person across from the couple behind me had her and her husband, plus their dog for $1,150/mo and for some reason my boyfriend and I were paying $1,300/mo rent with our dog.

Also, they will not obey their own policies. There is a quiet hour after 9PM on the weekdays. New people moved into the apartment above me and after they were settled, the noise got worse. They would stomp around, drop stuff, blast their bass surround sound at ungodly hours, they once put together furniture on a Tuesday night at 2am. My boyfriend went up there to knock on their door to ask them to please stop, and they had the tools all over the place and the wife was using a SAW and they told him to "eff off" and slammed the door in his face.

When I e-mailed the front office about this, I politely asked if there was some sort of security or if they can reach out to them and explain to them the quiet hours, and I was told there is nothing they can do, but to just call the cops. I am not going to call the police for something that THEY'RE supposed to handle. Especially when a tenant is in violation of their own policy. The person who lived behind this neighbor said she complained as well and was basically told the same thing.

There is mold all over the place, the AC units are disgusting, their "pest control" is a joke. I stayed home one day when we were supposed to have the exterminator come into our apartment (which is mandated by the complex) and spray for bugs. He went into one apartment in my section and then left. When I asked him if he is coming back to spray in ours, he said yes, but guess what? He never came back and guess who still got charged? I did.

They are scammers and will nickel and dime you for everything. I was told I was not allowed to do the final walk through with them when we moved out and we got charged for STREAKS ON A MIRROR.

This place is horrible. Go down the road to Woodmere and get a bigger apartment with more bedrooms, cleaner apartments, mold free, cleaner area all around, and MUCH nicer front office workers who actually CARE what their...