Where do I begin' This place is a horror! I have been here for years, and each year it gets progressively worse. There is NO security here, and only one entrance/exit. The rest of the facility is fenced in, like a prison. There are constantly cop cars here addressing some issue, whether it be drugs or domestic. We even have a resident registered sex offender! Come ON, can you say "background check'" Two doors down we have a dominatrix by profession, who offered to teach my teenage daughter her trade. Another woman approached my daughter in the laundry room wanting to know if she wanted a threesome with she and her boyfriend! SICK!!

The noise level is unbearable at night. Many residents pack their families in 10 people to a single apartment (illegal, by the way), and hang out ALL NIGHT on the steps to their 2nd floor apartments, holding their screaming infants, drinking beer, playing cards, chain-smoking their cigarettes, leaving the butts and beer bottles all over the first floor residents' front "yards" (or what passes for them), inviting 10 OTHER friends over for fun. I once found a used condom on the sidewalk in front of my car. No respect whatsoever for other people around them. And, heaven forbid you should confront them nicely, and ask that they please, please keep it down, as you are trying to sleep! I asked them, one evening, to please lower the decibel level a bit, as I was trying to sleep, and they just stared at me blankly, and continued on (then you have to worry about retaliation, so you try HARD not to say anything at all). I have to keep the TV in my bedroom and in my living room on all night long, just to drown out the noise from the revellers partying three feet from my door. The way this place is designed, the steps to the 2nd floor land just 3 feet outside of the living room door and the bedroom window. I bought an air horn yesterday and will use it next time they don't shut up. I NEED SOME FRIGGIN' SLEEP!!

Residents let their children as young as toddlers hang out all night in the DARK courtyard and riding around on their bikes in the parking lots where people zip through in their cars like it's a highway. People here are either drunk or crackheads (with a few exceptions), and most should have their children taken from them for neglect/abuse. A couple ten-year old girls vandalized my car and wrote graffiti on the trunk with Sharpie markers.

At night, the courtyard is dimly lit, inviting crime. When I get home from work, I stay inside, and no way would I dare crack my windows. There is trash, cigarette butts, broken beer bottles everywhere EVERY morning. If you think you want to rent here, come on down and visit after sundown and see what you will see before they make an attempt to clean it up in the morning so as to lure other unsuspecting victims, um, residents. Parking is a nightmare, and if you don't get home by 4:30 or 5:00, you have to park many buildings away from yours - loads of fun when you bring home groceries at night to have to haul all your ---- from hundreds of feet away. We had a building burn down last year, I'm sure due to a faulty stove. Our pool has a sign on the fence saying it has been closed since Oct '06 "due to violations regulated by the state." Yet, they keep the pool full of water, inviting any number of children to climb in at night and drown. Idiots. There are fire ant mounds all over the courtyard . . . you dare not stand in one place too long.

Management has turned over 4 times in the past 5 years, each manager worse than the last. They're all cheery when it's time to sign you up and take your money, but heaven forbid you should need any maintenance done. They don't even answer their phones; they let voicemail take your message---THEN, they don't even get back to you. Finally, in disgust, you physically go to the leasing office, and by then you are beaming mad. Of course, heaven forbid you should display your anger. The current manager just turns her back and walks away. Being nice about what you need doesn't help either, as you get the runaround . . . "oh, the maintenance guy will be at your place by this afternoon..." and he doesn't show, that afternoon or many, many afternoons later. OH, and the utter irony is how the last manager used to answer the phone, with her cheerleader voice: "It's a great day at Avalon Square!" I wanted to smack her one.

There are roaches the size of your thumb. I've had 2, count 'em, 2 pest control services (which should be done monthly) in the 5 years I have been here. There is black mold which is only addressed by painting it over. The A/C is mold-laden, too. Many residents have complained of headaches and chronic illnesses. The plumbing backs up into the bathtubs on a regular basis. The A/C units are from the '70s and continuously break down. The last manager told me that her boss said there aren't funds to replace the units. The cupboards are 30 years old and falling apart. The toilets from upstairs apartments leak and ruin the ceilings of the first floor apartments - again, they only spackle and paint the water damage. The carpet, promised to be replaced when I moved in, is buckling and stained. I hire carpet cleaners every 6 months, but they say there's nothing they can do. Many residents put area rugs over the worst stains. The laundry facilities hours of operation were just reduced to 9am-5pm M-S. COME ON! Open only during the average person's WORKING HOURS! Not to mention that only half of the washer/dryers are working at any given time. Only you don't find that out until you've already inserted your prepaid laundry card. The machines are working just enough to take your money, but not enough to give you a wash/dry!! And, the only way you can get more money on your card is to go to the office, which is not open on the weekends. Assinine!

OH, but they have painted the OUTSIDE (a nasty puke color), and repaved the parking lot. All this, I'm sure, to lure future unsuspecting victims into the fold. Or maybe they're trying to sell the place. SLUMLORDS.

How did I get here, and why did I stay, you might ask' Well, I came from out of town, was lured by a "special" to get in, was promised the place would be fixed up (it wasn't). Along with the sh*tty pay here in Florida, the lovely SLUMLORDS keep upping the rent, leaving you absolutely busted broke with no way to save for a down-payment on a nicer place. This is no accident. They know what they're doing. This is how people get stuck in crappy circumstances and lose hope. Such is the case of the working class.

RUN SCREAMING, DON'T WALK, FROM AVALON SQUARE!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!

User Responses
From: PatriciaJC	Date: 02/27/2008
Either things have changed alot since this review or you needed somebody/place to blame for your unhappiness. It is so quiet here at night, and pretty darn safe. I have never seen a bug here, not one. And if there was mold, I would certainly know it...allergies. I love it here!
From: djlazerx	Date: 02/29/2008
Dude I almost felt your pain. See my review. We almost moved in here and were so close. Good thing we are paying $200 less dollars a month and nothing but older white people in our area. Thank god I gave it to that ----- manager before we walked out before signing the lease. Damn ----!
From: awilson02173	Date: 03/24/2008
It is sad that you two people that have BAD REVIEWS for Avalon don't have the BALLS to put your name on the review!!! This place is nice and the Office people are equally as nice it has come along way in the last 3-5 year and it is getting better. Maintenance does the best they can and I have no bugs and also have a nice place to live!!
From: ImplacablyBlunt	Date: 11/13/2008
Well, you can legally brake the lease if things don't get resolve. Of course, to keep yourself in the safe place you must write a certified return receipt letter taken from the housing department explaining your concerns and letting the office know that if they don't take quick action you will file with the city of bradenton, inspectors and any other pertinent offices a complaint againts the property and their owners to have the liberty to brake the lease. Of course if you take matters in your own hands and act impulsively you can end up having to pay for the whole lease. Know your rights. The library and internet are an infinitive source of information concerning tenants/landlords laws and regulations. The tenant that chose to go thru what you are going thru is for ignorance and lack of knowledge.

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