For any intelligent professionals considering renting an apartment at Mirasol, please heed our warning. We decided to move out after only a few weeks there. Here are just some of the many many reasons why:

The property manager and her assistant screwed up literally every business transaction with had with them. This started from before we even moved in and continues until today, which is almost three months after we vacated.

It all started innocently enough when we tried to get them to mail us one of their community's promotional brochures and information packages. We were relocating from out of state and wanted some info. We left our name and address with the assistant property manger and she said she would mail one out to us the next day, but she never did. It took repeated calls and finally an e-mail to the property manger to get one sent out three weeks after our initial request. This should have been a warning of things to come!

On two occasions we asked how long they could hold an apartment for us after we sent in a deposit. The first time we were told 30 days, then the next time we were told 21. We could never get a definitive straight answer to any question with these people. It really seemed like they didn't know what they were doing. Which we later learned, they really didn't.

We repeatedly tried to get in touch with the property manger to ask questions pertaining to the application process and choice of apartments, but she was never around and would never return our calls. We left numerous messages with her assistant to ask her to call us back, but we never got the courtesy of return calls. This was also an omen of things to come. So after giving up on her, we began dealing with another sales person in the office. She wasn't much better, but at least she returned our calls. She no longer works there and they seem to have a high turnover rate of employees from what we observed. That is always a good sign too.

On the one rare occasion that we were actually able to speak personally with the property manager, we asked her to fax us a rental application. She screwed that up too, so we gave up on that project and downloaded one off of their web site instead. It's really not that difficult to work a fax machine, but I guess for these two, everything and everyday is a challenge.

After filling out the rental application and putting it in the mail, we called them to let them know to expect it in a day because we overnighted it to them. We were told it wouldn't take more than 72 hours to get an approval answer and that they would call us when they got the approval. Guess what' We never got a call. We eventually had to call them a week later to find out what was going on with our application. This is not really proper business practice or how you should treat your customers.

Off timeline a little: We flew down previously to choose an apartment. The assistant property manger showed us an apartment that met our criteria and which had a really nice view of downtown Celebration from the screen porch. We agreed to take that unit and she said that would be the one we would be getting. Guess what' When we showed up with our 25 foot moving truck filled with everything we own, they gave us a different apartment with no view. That was a nice surprise after driving over a thousand miles for two days. We were not happy, to say the least. Again, this is not how you are supposed to conduct your business.

After finally getting an approval for the rental application, we requested that the lease be sent out to us so that we could fill it out ahead of time to save us time when we got there because we had friends meeting us at Mirasol to help us unload the truck and our time with them was limited. They agreed and just asked that we get it notarized. No problem, right'
We were told that the lease would be overnighted out to us the following day by Fed Ex. So we waited. Two days go by and it hasn't come yet. To make a very very long story short, it took nearly two weeks for us to finally get the lease because the incompetent employee left it sitting on her desk and forgot to mail it. In that time period we called repeatedly to tell them that we still haven't received it and to find out where it was. We got all kinds of lies and excuses from the property manager, but she never bothered to take personal responsibility for the situation and make sure it got mailed out to us. We found that this would be her standard operating procedure. She likes to blame others and lie to your face to cover up her gross incompetence.

Then, when we finally get the lease, the dates are wrong on it as well as other financial figures. Boy, these people can't do anything right!

On three separate occasions we requested that the apartment be cleaned before we moved in, We were assured it would be and even given a date that the cleaning crew was scheduled to clean it. Guess what' It was never cleaned! As if finding out we were not getting the apartment we chose wasn't bad enough, then the one that was forced on us was filthy! There was urine spray all over the two toilets from the construction workers as well as dust and dirt everywhere. All of the counter tops were scratched badly as well as all the appliances. They use black counter tops and appliances in all their apartments for some stupid reason, and the damage to them was horrendous. The kitchen looked like it was forty years old. Again, not what we were expecting.

So far not a very good experience with Mirasol, but it gets worse!;

From the first day we moved in, we were awakened every morning by barking dogs two floors directly below us. After a few days of this I commented to the property manger about the problem and she said she would take care of it. It continued and we complained a couple more times. We left messages with the assistant property manger to pass along to her boss about the situation, but this woman never once passed along a message that we asked her to. The barking never stopped from the first day and continued until we moved out six weeks later. Not exactly the high class rental experience we were promised.

The first item you read on the billboard in the leasing office states that these apartments are built using "concrete construction for maximum sound insulation". This was the main reason for us choosing Mirasol, but we found out, just like everything at Mirasol, that this was a misleading sales gimmick. Our apartment was the most sound intrusive apartment we had ever lived in. This place was like a cheap hotel room. No exxageration! We heard TV sets coming right through the floor as well as washing machines, bathroom exhaust fans, showers, and one wacko who vacuumed her apartment everyday for 30 minutes. We had to call police twice because of the volume of a TV coming up through our floor at one o'clock in the morning.
The apartments all have heavy insulated exterior doors, and when people come and go from their apartments these doors slam so hard that they shook our walls and windows. This went on all day and night and would jar you from your sleep or what ever else you would be doing. I think we were the only ones who had the decency to hold our door and not let it slam. That's why we say this place was like living in a hotel room. It was awful!
Some genius decided that using tile floors in the breeze ways and the exterior hallways was a good idea, the only problem is that you could hear every footstep a person made walking in these buildings, no matter what floor they were on.
We were on the third floor and the apartment directly below us and directly next to us was vacant, and we could still hear all of these disturbances from two floors below us. Unbelievable! On one occasion we were home while one of their sales people was showing the apartment next to us to a potential renter. We heard every word of their conversation coming through our wall loud and clear as if they were standing in our apartment. We could hear them closing cabinets and walking around on the tile floors. Not exactly the "maximum sound insulation" they claim. This was the main reason we got the heck out of there. We couldn't imagine what it would be like when someone actually moved in next to us or below us. They did build using concrete, but they did not put a layer of insulation between the concrete and the drywall. So what they really accomplished was to make every apartment and building a giant speaker enclosure where every sound is amplified.

And the dogs! Lots and Lots of barking and pooping dogs all over this place. The property manager claimed that there were only 11 dogs on site, but we estimated that the real figure was more like 30! These dog owners lied to avoid paying the pet fees on their lease. Barking dogs are probably the most annoying thing to be forced to live with on a daily basis. It makes life miserable. Especially in an apartment environment.

There was also a serious mold situation at Mirasol. Since it's opening in the spring of 2003, many residents had to leave because of mold in their apartments. We saw constant repair work going on because of water intrusion as well as special trucks with equipment used for cleaning out moisture. These were not just carpet cleaners, these were specialty environmental cleaning crews. In our own apartment we had a moisture problem too. Every night massive condensation built upon the windows, and by morning it was running down the walls like someone turned on a faucet. We had to open all the blinds, get towels, and wipe down the windows so the water did not run down the walls into electrical outlets or damage our furniture. And yes, we know that humidity is a problem in Florida, but even running the AC all day did not alleviate the situation. There was something fundamentally wrong with the construction that was causing this. There was also mold visibly growing in on the walls in the exterior hallways of the buildings. You would think that maintenance would go around and clean it off occasionally. After speaking to a resident who has lived there since 2003, he complained to us that he has never once seen the property manager tour or inspect the property. We can attest to the fact that in our time there, we also never saw her anywhere but in the office. Unfortunately, when you sign your lease you also sign a document absolving Mirasol from any liability pertaining to damage from mold. This includes your own health as well. If you have children or pets that you care about be sure to get the facts about the mold situation at this place. They are not going to tell you about it when they are trying to earn their commission.

We did look into moving to another apartment in the complex, but after conversing with other residents in other buildings, we concluded, that the noise situation was bad regardless of which building you are in. In particular, residents in the main resort building stated that that building was perhaps the noisiest. Even the office staff conceded to that.

When we finally decided to move out and gave the property manger our letter of intent, her whole demeanor towards us changed. The friendly smile disappeared from her face and from then on we were only greeted with a nasty attitude and a contemptful arrogance. She didn't like the fact that I complained to her boss about her performance or lack there of.
Mirasol offers a "30 Day Move Out Guarantee" if you are dissatisfied with your apartment, which we definitely were. Unfortunately for us she would not return our amenity fee and only gave a partial refund of our pet deposit. They also charged us rent for two weeks after we vacated the unit. In the end it cost us over 2500 dollars for the six weeks we resided there. Plus moving expenses on top of that! That is a hell of a lot of money for absolutely nothing but disappointment and aggravation.

Among the many transactions they screwed up for us was that they never set up our utility and technology package billing properly. We have been trying for three months now to get this situation straightened out. We have repeatedly contacted the property manager, her regional manager, and his supervisor as well, and none of them has given us the documentation we have repeatedly requested and that is rightfully ours. On one occasion, after still not getting this billing issue resolved, I took a personal visit back over to Mirasol and tried again to obtain the documents we had been requesting from the property manger. The nasty property manager told me that:" You no longer live here and our business with you is done." She eventually threatened to call the police and have me removed from the property. This is a nice professional way to do business. That situation really tells you something about this company and their business practices.

Now keep in mind that this stupid incompetent woman and her assistant screwed up every transaction that we had with them which in turn did nothing but cause us stress and wasted hours of our time trying to rectify their mistakes, yet she has the nerve to threaten me. We wasted hours at our places of employment trying to fix her screw ups and try to get in touch with her because she never returned our phone calls or followed up on anything we asked of her from day one.
We have still not received a statement showing what happened to our security deposit or that our utility billing through them has been cancelled and the account is closed. Although this review is long, it does not even begin to cover all the details of this woman's incompetence and what she and her assistant put us through. We also tried contacting GDC's rental operations manager to no avail. He only forwarded a short letter to us through his subordinate and would not contact us personally or directly even after we left requests for him to do so with his admin and on his voice mail. In that letter he basically threatened us to keep our mouths shut about Mirasol. Apparently this organization does not care for it's customers at all. But they sure wanted to get as much money out of us that the law would allow.
The most memorable moment was When I asked for an apology from the property manager for all the problems she and her staff had caused us, she smiled arrogantly and refused.

One employee we spoke to told us that GDC spent twenty million dollars plus on this project, and we just can't fathom why you would hire some twenty something tattooed incompetent to run it. This is supposed to be GDC's premier property, and with that much money invested, why would you not seek out and hire the most proven and seasoned professional for the position of property manager' What they heck were they thinking'

ATTENTION to all the seniors and active adults out there who might be fooled into thinking that this place is an active adult community like they want you to believe. Be warned. You will be sadly disappointed if you are moving here because of that claim. In all of their advertising and marketing, GDC carefully tries to insinuate that this is an active adult rental community. It is not. From our personal observations, we would say that seniors made up only a small percentage of the residents here. There were seniors, but they are vastly outnumbered by young families with lots of kids. So if you seniors are looking for a peaceful place to live, this ain't it! On the other hand, if you like barking dogs and screaming kids, then this is the place for you.

We have nothing nice to say about our experience at Mirasol or it's employees. As with many things in and around the famous theme parks, it is all a facade. Don't be fooled by the fancy stucco exteriors or the pretty landscaping, this place is no better than any other apartment complex in Central Florida and they do not offer anything that you can't get anywhere else for a lot less money.

In their office they have a display with all of the awards they have received for their community and they tout them on their web site and in their advertising, but what they don't tell you is that they received most of them for preconstruction concepts and not for the actual end result. None of those organizations ever had any one actually live there. There is no way in hell that the people who awarded them the "The Best Apartment Community in America" honor would have done that if they had been in our shoes and dealt with what we had to from these incompetent fools.


A simple suggestion from our family to yours:
If you are looking for a rental in Celebration, avoid this place and stop by one of the town's many realty agencies and rent a nice house or properly built condo instead for the same price. The rents at Mirasol are through the roof. If you have that kind of money to burn, get something for it and don't waste it on just another shoddily built noisy apartment that you can't enjoy.
We got burned bad by these clowns. Don't be their next victims.

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