I have reported Camden Club to the Orlando Better Business Bureau for their deceptive practices.

I saw the reviews here before I signed a lease last year but needed someplace quick, and upon driving through the place looks nice. At first, I was a little disappointed to see that my final rent was not the price that we had agreed upon as they added the following monthly fees:

$20-30 water fee - this was the only one I expected, they divide the total water bill up by square footage

$25 trash fee - never saw this one coming. They charge to take your trash away, when the trash compactor is only a few feet away. You cannot opt out of this service. The trash people come Sunday through Thursday, sometimes at 10pm (which wakes my son), and if it rains they may not show at all. So essentially you're paying them over $1 each time they take your trash away. With hundreds of units here, there's a lot of money to be had for just picking up trash bags. I'm not sure if the complex is getting a cut, but I can take a guess. I was never told this when signing my lease.

$5 trash compactor fee - yes, they charge each unit this to cover the costs of the trash compactor. I was never told this upon signing my lease.

$5 "bill preparation" fee - they just added this this month (May 2007) and said its so they can prepare my bill. I pay my bill online, by a computer, so I'm not sure exactly where this fee came from. I asked, and they said they can add whatever fees they wish.

On top of all of this, there are very deceptive rental practices here. They change the rent daily based on supply and demand, I could get my place for $1100 and the person after me get the same exact unit for $1500. It's all decided in a corporate office off the premises. I asked to see what I'd pay for next year if I resign, and they still haven't provided the information 35 days before my lease is up. Of course, they'll still expect the 30 days notice to vacate the apartment, which means they'll give me no warning as to what I'll pay next year and I have to decide before ever seeing their magical quote whether I'm staying or going. Of course I am leaving.

The apartments are very roomy and have great back porches, but are very old. The appliances are usually the originals (from 25 years ago) and there is poor ventilation through the AC and poor ventilation in the bathrooms which contributes to mildew. There's a serious mold problem here, and I even had them specifically come clean my AC unit out (which sprayed mold all over my apartment, on every surface). 2 months after that we're still seeing mold - my son crawls around on the carpet (brand new in our unit) and at the end of the day the tops of his feet are black from the mold. I've complained several times but to no avail.

The office staff has gotten very defensive and aggressive in the past few months. I've brought issues up with them and they are not helpful, and turn them around on me (like noise complaints, or cigarette smoke coming into our apartment). I've lived in 5 or 6 apartment complexes in my life and this is by far the most unfriendly. The only other one to come close in comparison was a corporation as well in a college town where they could get away with screwing the students.

The community on a whole has declined since we arrived as well. We just had our first mowing/blowing/edging in 2 months. A lot of apartment communities that had gone to Condos are now going back to apartments after the poor sales, and they are basically filling up the place with whoever/whatever they can find at extremely reduced rates (people have the same unit as me for $300 less a month now). There's a constant patrol of skateboarding kids, and I've seen a few teenagers with gang colors outside talking about shooting people and standing in the middle of the road being a nuisance to passersby and constantly cursing around our kids. People also gun their car/motorcycle engines at 3am as they speed at 40 mph down the main stretch of road through the complex (they did just install speed bumps, which should help with that).

Overall I'm extremely unhappy with Camden Club, it's just another mega-corporation mistreating people because they can get away with it. They are only worried about their stock price (symbol CPT, which they actually put right on their camdenliving.com homepage). I know I'm powerless to change anything, but at least I can complain to the BBB, here on Apartmentratings.com, and move to another apartment complex once my lease ends.

I recommend against renting at Camden Club if you have other options until they change their ways.

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