This is worse than the dorms. Worse than my filthy college apartment I (a woman) shared with three men. The apartments.com Web site boasts this description:

"Carlton Arms is nestled on 100 lush tropical acres, located at the mouth of the Braden and Manatee Rivers, with towering oaks, sparkling lakes, cascading fountains, and breathtaking river views.

Imagine. You're headed home. Past the gated entrance, your view opens to vistas of the glistening rivers. A private drive winds to your residence through a setting with architecture reminiscent of the rich heritage of Colonial Jamestown...warm brick...tooled copper. Meticulous landscaping abounds with flowerbeds, spacious courtyards, and elegant palms. Just offshore, manatees quietly break the calm water. You have made your escape to paradise.

Each exceptionally spacious floorplan is designed and built with careful attention to traditional detail you would expect to find in an expensive single-family residence. First floor apartments open onto private, fenced patios ideal for gardening and friendly gatherings year 'round. Second floor residences offer panoramic waterfront views."

Hah. It was horrifying from the very first day I visited. One of the impeccably rude office ladies (and from what I've noticed, they do nothing but sit there and glare at you. They're not saleswomen. They're not leasing specialists. They don't do ANYTHING to sell you anything. They just sit there.) told me there was a six-month waiting list. They've told other people that. It's a lie. My father walked in five minutes later and they gave him an array of available units to choose from. I should mention I'm 24, 23 at the time, and look a tad younger.

When we finally worked out an apartment to lease, I was happy with it. It was big enough, about the same size as my 600-square-foot apartment in Brandon I was vacating for a new job in Bradenton, and had everything I needed. I saw the floor plan. They wouldn't show me the unit.

I applied and was promised, though not in writing, this unit. That's the one I applied for. There was some trouble, however, with the paperwork at my new job. It took a few days to verify my employment. About four days later, I received a phone call from one of the worst of the office-sitting ladies. I was being given a small unit. Basically an efficiency with a sort-of wall splitting the bedroom from the living room. This was because it took "SOOOOOOO long to verify your employment," she said with a tone that indicated I had inconvenienced them by attempting to rent their apartment and pay their salary.

Of course, I still could not see the unit. But, since it was a cheap place and close to my job, and there's few other places to rent in Bradenton (likely why they're so blase about being polite to you), I took it.

Bad choice.

The kitchen was really just a storage unit for my kitchen stuff. The oven was a joke, a mustard yellow half-unit from 1979. The rotting cabinets hadn't been replaced since then, either. The walls were painted with layers and layers of cheap flat paint that didn't mask the holes and creaks and cracks underneath. The only light fixtures were in the kitchen and the bathroom. The patio was great, until I realized the weeds that grew like super-fast-growing alien plants were mine to pluck.

The problems began in the first week. The A/C broke down. They fixed it. Then my kitchen began reeking of mold and my counter was wet each time I went in there. The cabinet below was blistered from a leak and moldy water coated what was in there. There was an A/C leak now in the wall.

My first electric bill was $200. Turns out the unit was so old it was working extra hard to power the apartment. It took three weeks to get them to replace it with a new one, and they never reimbursed me for the extra electric charges.

Insects began camping out in the apartment. Ants marched along my bedroom wall from the day I arrived to the day I left. Tiny flies then joined them in my final weeks. Lest you think it's my fault, I'll tell you it's not. I don't leave food out. Ever. I'm clean. Very. This was just an infestation.

I didn't know how bad it was until I moved out. Dead insect carcasses lined the carpet along the wall. Dead spiders mottled the wall behind my couch. I almost crawled out of my skin when I saw what I had been living in.

Among the other problems: The brand-new A/C unit and air handler failed again when the air started blowing hot air. Turns out the unit was not on and air from the summer heat outside was being pumped into my apartment. It had been doing that for hours and was 100 degrees in there, at least. My cat almost died. Also, the shower stopped producing hot water after about 2 minutes, and leaked all over the floor despite my best attempts to seal the curtain. Turns out it was leaking through the tub at the bottom. There was also NEVER ANY PARKING.

And the rudeness never stopped. When I called about my final A/C problem, I explained the maintenance guy had been out three times and nothing he had tried had worked. It was late May and my A/C still was blowing hot air into my tiny apartment. She snapped that I already had three work orders ("YES, I KNOW. I just SAID he's BEEN here THREE TIMES ALREADY"), she dismissed me, saying they'd try to get somebody out and hung up on me.

I will say the maintenance men were always prompt and polite, and always fixed the problem, even with some occasional trial and error.

And as for the security, it's a joke. The old men in the guard shack won't get up from their chair and TV set and wave EVERYBODY?through.

Don't live here. Please. If you do, it's your own fault for ignoring this review. Perhaps the townhouses are nice, but young people are discriminated against and from what I've seen, their place is in ramshackles.

User Responses
From: arentergirl2005	Date: 08/23/2005
I rented this place with my cousin for 2 years, both of us being the age of 22. I couldn't say anything better than she has already. Everything she has said about her apartment, my cousin and I experience myself. In addition to that the neighbors were nosey, we lived on the bottom under a man who had lived there since the place was erected. He looked into our windows while he walked his dog and he seemed to not be able to mind his own business. The office staff, always rude. Bugs, more than you can even imagine. And in the 2 years that we lived there, the tree next to our patio, the roots grew up so bad that it cracked the patio in half all the way to the sliding glass door. And she's right about the "Carlton Arms Police" they did nothing but harass the young people. There was a man in a truck that followed me into the community, all the way to my apartment,parked his car and watched me. I called to the guard house and they provided no assistance. Don't rent here. It's a dump.
From: Toocute	Date: 11/23/2005
It's funny to see something like this. Out of 900 apts and being in business for 25 yrs. You find one person who has nothing better to do than sit down for hours and write a novel about what they didn't like. People like this have either no life at all and they will not be happy anywhere they live.
From: wilderz	Date: 12/21/2005
So, toocute, You have a life if you post only positive reviews? Plus how the hell would you know how long it took her to type that post? Perhaps you're gauging it based on your own hen-peck tpying method. I've lived here five years, and yes in the beginning it was very nice and the staff was prompt and curteous. However, after a couple management changes things have gone down hill drastically.

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