If at all possible, find another place!

We lived there for about 2 and a half years. We moved to Miami and were desperate to find a place with short notice, and Portofino was very close to our work. It looked fine on the surface, and the rental agent and managers painted a very lovely picture. The model apartment they show you looks really nice. The website makes the place look amazing. But it is not at all as they make you think! We would have moved earlier, except that we knew we would be in Miami less than 3 years and didn't want to incur more moving expenses.

They say that Portofino is home to "young professionals" but there were some very low class residents there. People *frequently* (probably at least once a day) left garbage on the floors of the elevators and hallways and let their pets go to the bathroom everywhere. My brother came to visit one day and was horrified to find dog waste in the lobby. But at that point, it was so routine to us that we were not even surprised! Additionally, some of the residents are very loud. It was not uncommon to be awakened at 2 am by someone yelling from their balcony or the parking lot, or playing loud music. Also, regardless of whether people are trying to be loud or not, you hear *everything* that occurs on nearby balconies.

The construction is quite shoddy. The walls are super thin, the paint is so cheap it marks if you touch it. Our laminate kitchen floor didn't actually cover the entire floor, only to just under the cabinet, leaving a several inch wide stretch of uncovered floor. When we moved in, the sliding door latched but left a quarter inch gap--meaning our electricity bills were sky high! They fixed it slightly but there was still a small gap that remained. Both kitchen and bathroom sinks leaked, and despite my attempts with about 5 calls to maintenance, they never fixed it and would just leave notes that there there was no leak. Huh' We also developed a major roach infestation over the last year that we were there. We never had any problems and then suddenly there were tons of them. The building's exterminator did come spray and place poisons every month, which was good, but we never could get rid of the roaches, even though we were exceptionally clean and never left food out. In fact, all of our food was in plastic bins. There must have been a bad building-wide infestation.

I also did not feel safe there. Despite what they claim in person and on their web site, THE BUILDINGS ARE NOT SECURE. There is no card access to the buildings. They are wide open at all times for anyone to come in. Also, despite having a gate, the guards are not always there and sometimes leave the gates open. Additionally, I have actually seen people climb over the walls to enter the compound and use the gym or pass through. We had random people running through the halls at night and knocking on doors. So not exactly safe.

I will admit that other apartments in the immediate area are either even worse or have higher rents. It's not that I expect some luxury place for $1000 a month in Miami. But I do not like the fact that the leasing agents and managers actively mislead and lie to people. They act like the place is really high-end when the construction and maintenance are awful! They lied to us and promised they had card access to the buildings and then they never did. For the first two months I called every few weeks asking about it, and they kept promising it was just about to get started. Two and a half years later, it NEVER happened.

Finally, we had a terrible time getting our deposit back. We outlined what we had paid, and asked for the deposit back. They sent us a note with a bunch of charges saying they only owed us a few dollars. They actually created fraudulent charges--for example, they charged us a late fee for our rent when our bank records show that they cashed our check 5 days before they say they received it. We aren't sure if this will ever be resolved. This is quite disheartening, especially after we were such good tenants. We are very clean, polite, and quiet, and were never late on rent. Compared to many other people there who apparently think the world is their wastebasket, we were model citizens! And yet this is how we are repaid.

If you end up here, be sure that you get receipts for everything from them in writing. If you drop off two month's notice, be sure to get something in writing because no matter what they tell you to your face, they will later claim that notice wasn't given. If you turn in your keys and cards, they will later claim that you did not. Perhaps you should even be getting receipts for your rent checks in case they claim you were late on your rent, too. Something shady is definitely going on in that place.

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