We have lived at Cape House for a little less than two years. Our apartment is a three bedroom with nice appliances (although the refrigerator is on the smaller side), large kitchen, a washer and dryer, and close proximity to work. There are additional amenities promoted by the Cape House staff, such as swimming pools and a small gym, that we rarely use. Lake views on the property are a waste of money. The lakes are skimmed infrequently and steadily accumulate trash and lawn debris; they look dirty during much of the year. Given the number of tenants paying for lake-front views, it's simply inexcusable that these are poorly maintained. Save the $600-$1200 a year that you would pay to the complex for a lake view for something else. Finally, if you have dogs or cats, be prepared to pay expensive pet fees.

Cape House was recently sold, and the staff was replaced in December of 2007 by Equity Realty (a company that has had a number class action lawsuits against them for charging tenants millions of dollars in legal fees -- search for "Equity Apartments Class Action"). My experience with the new members of the Cape House team has been terrible; management is by far the most predatory of any that I've dealt with with in 20 years of renting. My experience with them started out poorly and has become increasingly negative over the last three months. They have handled nearly all of our complaints quite poorly. In January, the management recently extracted two months of rent ($2500) out of my bank account by "mistakenly" cashing two checks (rather than one). When I contacted the property manager about this problem, he was rude and unhelpful. He was unable to give me a time when he would resolve this issue or get back to me. The issue with double-billing was not successfully resolved by the manager of the complex; he failed to follow up with us, and tends to avoid dealing with any of the tenants by hiding in his office. When we were in the office, the experience reminded me very much of a used car dealership, where the sales reps go into the office to "talk with the manager." We were never actually able to directly talk with ---- ------- (the manager); it was always through the reps at the front desk.We were made to wait for over an hour, and he never directly talked with us or handled complaints. In my experience, businesses that engage in these practices tend to be extremely unresponsive to handling customer complains. Sleazy!

UPDATE: BUYER BEWARE! Among the many "great" changes made by Equity, they have included a nasty revision for tenants who decide to move out early, and this is something that really put the screws into tenants here. When we approached them to move out, they told us that we would have to sign a new lease termination agreement that enables them to charge whatever they want ("the home office determines price based on market conditions"). The manager lied to us that our old lease (which contains an entire page devoted to the lease termination clause) was invalid, and we would absolutely need to sign the new lease termination agreement in order to break the lease. I have confirmed with a lawyer that my current lease is absolutely valid; signing the new termination agreement would do nothing but wave my rights of old termination.

The bottom line: Are you getting the idea yet that you should not rent here yet... Given our upsetting experience, there is no way I would recommend anyone should ever live here unless you have a legal team to thoroughly review your rental contract before you sign it. All things considered, it is a nice looking place, but behind these scenes, there are some very unethical, if not downright illegal, things going on that suggest that management is taking advantage of their tenants. We have warned everyone that we know not to rent from Cape House. I recommend that you look very carefully at your contract before signing on the dotted line to avoid any unpleasant surprises. Even if you don't believe anything I'm saying, ask to see the termination agreement.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/07/2008
Agree with above response completely. The new managment team is, well managment is an oxymorn with this team. The new management team is rude, very rude and condensending. The previous team was very helpful, I went in there to pick up a package earlier this week and was told that my UPS package was not there, I was brisky and sternly informed that they accept packages as a curtesy and are very clearly not responsible if packages are "lost". What is interesting about this, is that with the new management team, ONLY the management team can give tenants their packages, meaning that the management team either gave the package to someone else, one of them kept it, or they lost it. The package was delivered on 1/29/08 and it was about two or three days later I got back in town and tried to pick up the package. Also, we had had a tenant business office, where we had full access to a copier/fax, computer with internet and wordprocessing, and a printer, since the new company took over the week before Christmas (by the way the new team fired the old team a week before Christmas with less than 24 hours notice that they were being fired); now it is into the month of February and the business room for tenants was immediately dissassembled when the new, less effecient, rude team took over...they gave the story that they were going relocate the computer in another part of the club house....do date that has not happened. There is no tenant business office any longer. There is no computer for tenants to use. The copier/fax has been relocated and not in a tenant friendly area, actually the new team has made it abundantly clear that they ARE NOT TENANT FRIENDLY. I would NOT recommend renting here at all with this new company and management team in place. The clearly are looking for ways to make money and take advantage of tenants....in fact the old team was consistantly reasonable if you were a day late with rent once in a blue moon....the 4th of the month rent was due by not the 3rd with the prior team, this team demands it by 3rd of the month, and if you are turning it in after 3rd of the month, dont bother with a personal check...they wont accept it: cashier's check or postal check, and they tacked on 55$ for turining it in on the 4th, the took away the rent box, so you have to wait to find one of them to hand the check to. When requested since this was significantly different from the previous team to please waiver the $55 for this time due to the change in policy, the management individual was exceedingly condencending and refused. I simply have never seen such rude, rude , rude people in a service oriented industry......I'm guessing they act friendly when folks are looking at the apartments to rent, but DON'T BE FOOLED. Also the prior team sent out a montly news letter with activities, parties, the exercise classes, massage (for free) schedule, the exterminator schedule (who was also on demand), since the new team took over: NO NEWSLETTER, NO ACTIVITIES, NO FREE MASSAGE, NO EXERCISE CLASSES (all free). There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON FOR ANYONE TO RENT HERE.....if moving was not so expensive there would be many folks moving locally in the near future out of here and into a complex not managed or owned by the company that took over Cape House Apartments the week before Christmass 2007.
From: carmenpax	Date: 04/01/2008
I want to know what lawyer you are speeking to because I need to speak with him regarding my own issues here.
From: capehousesucks	Date: 04/03/2008
My boyfriend and I have lived here for 7 months and it has been 7 months of hell! I don't know what possessed us to move here. Shortly after we moved in, we started to notice an EXCESSIVE flea problem with our dogs. After speaking with several other pet owners who are dealing with the same problem, I decided to call the Leasing Office. When I called the Leasing Office to see if they spray any type of pesticides on the lawns and explaining to him what kind of treatments we have been doing for our dogs, the answer I got from the manager was that, they cannot guarantee a flea free lawn. Understandable, I do not expect it to be flea free but at least try to assure me that the lawn is at least treated. Well, needless to say one of our dogs past away due to excessive skin irritations from the fleas. On top of that...good luck trying to get them to send someone out to treat your apartment for pest. They don't believe in Pest Control. So, we ended have to purchase foggers and bomb our apartment ourselves. NEVER have I lived in an Apartment Community that does not have a regular Pest Control schedule. So, if you are a pet owner, I would seriously think twice about moving here and just based on the many other dissatisfied residents here, you may not want to be another statistic. We are Military and should be receiving orders within the next few months, so we're going to use that as our golden ticket out of this ---- hole. However, I am not looking forward to the move out process and how much we are going to be charged for. They are impossible to deal with now, I can't even begin to imagine what kind of hell we are going to go through during the move out process. MANAGEMENT is just PURE HELL to deal with. If you are looking for an actually "COMMUNITY" with an understanding and caring management team,Crape House is not it!
From: rainbird	Date: 04/03/2008
You can speak with any Jacksonville lawyer, but I can't recommend a specific one. There are plenty who specialize in landlord/tenant law in the yellow pages. Most will provide an initial phone consultation for free where you can clearly describe your situation, and they will give you a general assessment. During the consultation, you can also ask the lawyer to represent you if things go to court, and you can bring up the lawyer's name if you talk to the staff to let them know that you have been informed of the situation. If you are low income or would just like some general legal advice about your current contract, you can call Three Rivers Legal Services in Jacksonville (this is a nonprofit group in North Florida that offer free / very low cost legal consulting for landlord tenant disputes at www. trls. org). Until you sign the horrible "lease termination agreement," offered by Equity (which will double your lease termination fee should you decide to take that), your current contract from Douglas Allred company remains completely valid and you can terminate by following the advice in the contract (usually page 8 of your original lease). Although we have traditionally met with the staff to terminate, this is a simple kindness. In this case, you can terminate your lease by mail without ever dealing with staff; find the lease terminate agreement page and follow it to the letter. In our contract, we terminate by sending a check and and a lease termination letter with our signatures by certified mail; a separate copy of both the letter and check is also sent by regular mail. Why do the staff try so hard to get you to sign the new agreement? The only reason the staff want you to sign the new form is that it negates the old termation clause of your lease, and they know this (otherwise they would not bother). And believe me, they will try like hell to pressure you into the new agreement, telling you all sorts of things. They did this with us. It's all bluff and bluster. Bottom line: If you want to save your money, don't sign ANYTHING they offer until you speak with a lawyer. I am absolutely furious with Cape House and Equity management; the way we have been treated is completely unethical and reminds me of how a slumlord must behave, even if this is not outright illegal behavior. I suspect that most tenants in Cape House confronted by similar situation have no idea of their legal rights and are getting taken advantage of by the management.
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/03/2008
I lived in Equity Apartments in Orlando,FL, and when we moved to Jacksonville, decided NOT to move into an Equity property (even though we could have transferred our 3-year long equity into the new place). We were VERY happy with the old managament, but alas, a few months after my fiance and I moved into Cape House, Equity Residential purchased the property. The problems with the new management are many and frequent - less than one month after they took over I ordered a Blackberry from TMobile online, and when I got the confirmation that it was delivered to the office, I went to get my $500 phone. They couldn't find it anywhere. So I asked to go and look at the packages (b/c I knew it was delivered and signed for at the office); the woman told me to go call UPS and find out what address they sent it to. I left, called UPS, and returned in about 5 minutes. At this point it was Thursday afternoon, around 430, and the front door was now locked. There were a bunch of people inside (including a few people who appeared to be deciding if they wanted to move here). I, along with 3 other people who needed to get into the office, knocked on the door to get their attention. ALL OF THE STAFF CONTINUED THEIR OWN CONVERSATIONS AND BUSINESS - INCLUDING WALKING PAST THE GLASS DOOR - AND NEVER EVEN LOOKED AT US. Finally, I got pissed - after all, at 5 they were all going to disappear and my Blackberry would still be missing - and began banging, rudely, on the door. At this point, the woman who was talking to the prospectie residents stormed over, opened the door a crack, and said, "We are closed right now miss!" I told her my phone is in their, it is still business hours, and myself as well as these other people, RESIDENTS, would like access to the office. I pushed in and smiled at the people who were, presumably, packing up their stuff and getting the hell out of Cape House. In Orlando, we were charged our last water bill and some sort of cleaning fee, and then never received a bill. About 6 or 7 months later, I get a call from a collections agency informing me that Equity Residential sent me (just me - none of my roommates) to collections for $200. I NEVER KNEW I HAD A BILL!!! I always paid my rent on time (which was the exception, not the rule, at this particular community), had no issues with parties, noise, trash, etc (this was close to UCF), and was sent to freaking collections for a bill I did not know I had. I called the apartment complex and was told that they sent the bill to my old address - not to the one I gave them (here in Jax). When I asked "Well, wouldn't a simple phone call be a much simpler and quicker way to recover money?" the response was something like "Well, we really don't have the time or manpower to make phone calls to ask for payment." Ok.... so the 200 freaking dollars was important enough to send a long-time resident to collections and screw up their credit, but NOT important enough to make a phone call???? Terrible customer service, no business sense, and also horrible decorators (I'm sorry, but the pea soup-piss colors that are being applied to the exterior are awful). DO NOT MOVE HERE! Very expensive, and I can virtually guarantee you will have issues with the management, either on move-out or at any other time you expect service.
From: tealster11	Date: 04/06/2008
I totally agree, this place is pretty, but is a management nightare. After I moved in, I have heard stories of management taking weeks or months of fixing things in the apartments. So far this month, I'm living here rent-free because Cape House has failed to fix the toilet in our master bedroom. We gave them our written request to fix the problem, wated the required amount of time, and are now legally witholding rent. Either they fix the problem, or we contnue to live here rent-free. It's a win-win situation.
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/18/2008
I am sooooo glad i found this....I thought I was the only one who thought HORRIBLY of this ----ed up management!!!!!!!!!!!It is the worst! I won't share my horrible experiences, but anyone care for the puke green color they just up and decided to paint it....whew i am......sooooo glad to read this! Equity is awful and I wish my lease was up sooner.

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