AR
Adriana Rodrigues
Jun 10, 2023
After renting for one year, here is my honest evaluation, please read to the end to get a full view of our experiences:
Pros - great centralized location, the 3rd floor was relatively free of pests, there were amenities available... but please keep reading to see beyond that. The MAINTENANCE CREW is EXCELLENT, always came quickly with any issues, and was friendly.
Cons -
1) Loud breezeways - people having loud conversations in the middle of the night, and particularly, a LOT of college students with parties (UNF is close by). You will constantly hear residents in breezeways and in their apartments being inconsiderately loud, parties going on at all hours, and excessively loud stereo systems that shake the entire apartment - not an exaggeration (noise complaints go ignored). If you don‘t mind noise, great, but if you like quiet sleep, you can forget about it.
2) You pay an extra $30 per month for a valet trash service that is forgotten about very often, forcing you to have to do it yourself anyways. When it is done, the trash valet is completed in the middle of the night (midnight) - which is very loud (see point above). Also, the enforcement of the rules for residents is not carried out the same with everyone. When we first moved in, we received a $25 violation for putting trash out too late in the evening, but then saw other residents had trash out all hours of the day and night throughout our year there. No violations to them were given and they carried on doing it. This created a stench in the breezeways, debris everywhere, vomit, beer cans, etc., and other foul stuff in the stairwell from late-night partying, and dogs peeing in the breezeways.
3) Yes, there is a gym. But, the gym was never clean, machines were always broken, never had drinking water in the tank (filter was never changed, gross), wipes were always out, and there were constantly residents there that didn‘t put away weights and played their music loudly for all to hear (they literally brought speakers). There was no enforcement of the rules and even though I asked the front office to fix the broken apparatuses, and replenish the wipes and water filter, those requests went unnoticed. It‘s not great to pay extra for an amenity that you don‘t even want to use.
4) Pool was pretty good for most part. However, another testament to how little the staff cared - there was an incident where I was the only one in the pool. The pool cleaner came out and started to pour chlorine and other harmful chemicals while I was inside! I asked her politely if she could refrain from doing this and wait a few minutes longer when I would be done. I told her I was pregnant and that it could be potentially harmful. She said, no, I cannot stop, and continued to pour the chemicals. I let the front office know. They did not care. Which leads me to my last and most important point...
5) Ultimately, the Hacienda Club is quick to charge their tenants, and as I‘m reading other recent reviews consistent with my experience, it‘s clear that they simply want the most money out of you. This was very obvious as we were moving out. They refused to do a walk-through with us for move-out, which could help ease the process and avoid charging discrepancies. We always did a final walk-through with staff in other places we lived. Upon move-out, we were charged $400+ for regular maintenance fees that they should take care of themselves in between tenants. I attempted to dispute it, but they first ignored me for weeks, and then when I finally got someone on the phone, there was no discussion, and it was obvious that the staff has been trained to get your money and treat tenants as means to that end. Regardless if we were exceptional tenants, they simply want their bottom line. If you want to be treated like a valued resident, you can look elsewhere. Fort Family has a ton of properties and will approach their tenants with coldness. Relatively, we would have had a higher review with this complex, but the treatment we received at the end of our time there completely tarnished our experience.