Moving to Miami for college I thought by moving here I hit the jackpot because it was "luxury", cheap and centrally located, but it literally ended up being my worst nightmare! The place was filthy- from the elevator, the hallway (which smelled like whatever someone was cooking), the stairwell, the mailroom, the laundry room, everywhere! I mean grime, roaches and the worst was always going to the trash chute to find trash and used condoms all on the outside of it, disgusting! The fire alarm constantly went off at all hours to where I had to go through the pitch black hallway and down the stairwell for another "false alarm". Once occasion I was asleep as 6 am to find a woman looking at my walls and two men inspecting ME not the apartment, at the time I was 19 and scared, screaming. They claimed they had to do a routine check, but they couldnt knock on the door!'! The final straw was when this group of older guys moved into the apartment next to me and started harrasing me. They constantly climbed over on to my balcony and looked into my window, one night someone kept flinging papers under my doorway and i looked through the peep hole to find one of the men standing off to the side of my door like waiting for me to come out, I called the security to be told they cant make it up! I notified the management and they said that two girls occupied the apartment and I must be confused! Another incident was in the middle of the night a black man and women are banging my door down screaming about some girl needs to get her a** out there now, I call security and they said they let them in because she needed to talk to me! lol, I was in shock. To conclude, people let their dogs run rampant and pee everywhere or attack you, someone at the building across from me would hang a monkey suit out side their balcony to scare people, constanrt fights and drunk people and the best was when I moved (I kpt the place immaculate) they sent me a letter stating I stained the carpets so bad my whole apartment smelled like CAT urine, not any urine they knew it was CAT. (I had NO animal!) They wanted like $1500 to replace the carpet and "fix damages" I had to go there and demand they show me pictures of my apartment which they showed me, but the timestamp was from a year ago. I basically went through hell and wrote upper management a letter, they finally left me alone. I lived there in 2005 and Im sure it has gotten worse, do not move into that dump, it's not safe and it's disgusting.

User Responses
From: stufff	Date: 11/14/2007
I had pretty much exactly the same experience with Portofino. The place was a filthy hole, security was a joke, nothing ever worked, maintenance requests never got filled, and they charged us over $1000 in damages they completely made up! We left the apartment in perfect condition, we are still in a court battle over this nonsense because they can't produce any proof of damages at all. This site is filled with similar stories; these people are criminals and they will try to extort money from you when you leave.
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/15/2007
I had the same experienced at Portofino. That place should be knocked down and rebuilt. Roaches, ant, rats and other type of animals live there. I left the place as I found it, but the Management office don't deserve to have a nice apartment left along For the money you pay there and 100 bucks more now I live in a luxury condo with all the security possible and in a beautiful place and the most important, not being afraid to leave my house at thief, robbers or any type of criminal will. For your own safety, don't move into Portofino is not a health, secure, clean and friendly complex. There are much better places in poor countries than this. Thanks
From: PRASEMPRE	Date: 04/05/2008
portofino is horrible. we've have problems with plumbing, the train noise, contruction, air conditioning, ants, the price, you name it. dont move here, dont even move to miami, miami is disgusting and filthy.. filled with threatening people and disgusting attitudes. our neightboors are loud and obnoxious, they let there dog poop all over the balcony and we smell it every day. people are loud, and they falsly advertise. we got fake granite and plastic fake "wood" floors. the kitchen is 2X2 and the floor plans suck. portofino is the worst place to live
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/28/2009
Moving into this high class ghetto was the worst decision I've ever made. It's overpriced and maintenance requests never get filled. On top of that they try to extort money from you. The office staff are all useless and unfriendly, the tenants are the worst of the lot, there are roaches galore, it smells, and none of the elevators in the building ever work. If I wanted to live in a $#!thole I'd move to Flatbush, NY.

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