Where should we begin' There are just so many things that was and that is so very wrong with and at Windsor Pines!

Before we proceed, let us first express how appreciative you can be that there is such a service as Apartmentratings.com and that you can see here the ordeals of people who have actually lived at Windsor Pines (or other such apartment complexes) and then avoid it (or them) for dear life!

One of the most shocking things that has happened to us amongst the other horrible things we suffered there for two years is something our families, our friends, and we ourselves are utterly shocked by: upon leaving Windsor Pines June 3rd, we received a three-part letter of sorts from the assistant property manager dated June 9th which stated that they were going to impose a claim on our $600 deposit and its accrued interest for the repair of the front door trim of the apartment we lived in for two years! You want to know what's shocking about this' They were the ones who damaged the front door's trim when, one day but a couple or so months after we started living there, two Windsor Pines maintenance persons came to the apartment, unlocked the door, set the burglar alarm off, saw the door chain on, and yet pushed and pushed and pushed on the door until the door chain broke right out of its anchorage from the door trim!

I had put my baby daughter down to sleep and had lain down myself to do the same in preparation for work that evening when one of the two maintenance persons had come the first time and had unlocked the door and set the alarm off. My little daughter was startled by the fact that the alarm was going off in the living room as was I. I told her to stay in the bedroom while I went out to check what was going on. By the time I opened the bedroom door and went out there warily while still in my underwear, the person had pulled the door in and locked it, leaving the burglar alarm blaring! At that point, I was not certain who had attempted to enter the apartment. After turning the alarm off with the alarm code, I hurried to the vertical blinds of the sliding door of the patio area and I parted it and peered out and there I saw the golf cart and then the Windsor Pines maintenance guy getting into it. I was upset but exhausted and said to myself that I'd deal with it the next day as I really needed to rest for working overnight. No more than ten minutes after comforting my daughter and laying down again to sleep did we hear the burglar alarm going off once again. Repeating the same steps I'd done shortly before, I went out again into the living room, intending to just relock the door and turn the alarm off like the first time and then to call the office. However, I was barely out of the corridor that leads from the bedroom to the livingroom when I saw a hand coming through the openning of the door-chain chained door, a hand that was reaching for the alarm key pad by the door jamb, the alarm key pad, of course, being not so easily within reach. There I stood in my underwear and watched in shock as the door was pushed and pushed and pushed despite the obvious door chain being on until the door chain tore right out of the door trim. Then the guy that was the maintenance guy during those times appeared through the door and he was desperately pressing keys on the burglar alarm's keypad in an attempt to turn it off. When he noticed I was standing there in my underwear, he turned and started to ask me to come turn off the alarm! I just stood there for a few moments, appalled, violated, disturbed, angry! I couldn't believe my eyes! I was like, "They actually saw the door chain on across the door and yet they kept on pushing against the door!"

As you would imagine, I told the two exactly what I thought of what had just then happened and said that they had best make sure that no such thing ever happened again! Common sense should have told them that occupants of the apartment were home if the door chain was on! Somehow it didn't matter to them. They just busted right in!

Now, for the whole time we were there afterward, despite us mentioning that the door chain and trim needed to be fixed, despite the maintenance people coming thereafter and seeing it over and over again, they did not fix it. Now, to add insult to injury, they turn around and have actually taken money out of our $600 deposit and accumualted interest for the door trim that THEY DAMAGED! I still cannot believe it!

Then, when we wrote them a letter dated June 15th, the assistant property manager eventually sent us a letter dated June 27th, her letter basically calling us liars and saying that they would indeed take the money out of our deposit! This has been as if they were to have spat in our faces, for not only did they damage the door, but then they turned around and accused us of it!

It is very important to at this point note some things in the residential lease agreement as they relate to the security deposit: Florida Statutes section 83.49(3) requires this statement toward us, the tenants who vacate:

"You are hereby notified that you must object in writing to this deduction from your security deposit within 15 days from the time you receive this notice or I will be authorized to deduct my claim from your security deposit."

Also, this clause:

"Unless the Resident objects to the imposition of the Landlord's claim or the amount thereof within 15 days after receipt of the Landlord's notice of intention to impose claim, the Landlord may then deduct the amount of his claim and shall remit the balance of the deposit to the Resident within 30 days after the date of the notice of intention to impose a claim for damages."

Please know that by June 21, they had already printed the check for $576.56! They obviously had scarcely looked at our dispute! They were already determined to take the money out of our deposit and that before they sent us the letter dated June 27th, the letter which said basically that we were lying and that the security deposit would have the claims imposed on it.

We have contacted an attorney about the above matter, because, not only has Windsor Pines and AERC (the company that is over it) charged us for a damage that was done by them, but it will also be in our records as if we did it! The attorney has instructed us in what to do further.

We realize this review is very detailed, but we want you to have a great deal of substance of what we are talking about. Please permit me to highlight a couple or so things to you from the lease you'd be required to sign. It is always good to read documents thoroughly before signing them and, had we followed this rule, had we not been so anxious to find a place to move into then, had we known the things we'd face at Windsor Pines to which certain things in the lease would relate, we would have quickly declined to sign and have ran out of the leasing office.

Here's the first with regard to property loss (emphasis with capitalization mine):

"Landlord shall not be liable for personal injury or damage or loss to Resident's personal property (furniture, jewelry, clothing, etc.) from theft, vandalism, fire, WATER, rain storms, smoke, explosions, sonic booms, or OTHER CAUSES WHATSOEVER, WHETHER CAUSED BY NEGLIGENT ACTS OF LANDLORD, ITS AGENTS OR SERVANTS OR OTHERWISE."

What would be the concerns herein' Many! Actually, during the time we lived at Windsor Pines, there was a water leak in the AC closet which messed up our daughter's nebulizer, our humidifier, our vaporizer, as well as a number of other things we had stored on the shelf in there! And there was mildew due to the moisture! Additionally, the piping was a tremendous cause for concern. It sounded like we were down by a harbour everyday with a fog horn of a boat blaring in our ears (from within the walls)! This was an ordeal we experienced for months and we asked them several times to fix it and it was not fixed. Almost everytime we or neighbours on the other side of the wall turned on the water pipe's sink tap, the piping would begin vibrating in the wall and be making a horribly loud noise that we could only discribe as a fog horn blowing! 2 PM, 12 AM, 4 AM -- it happened anytime!

To add to this, a former co-worker of my wife, a lady who moved over to Windsor Pines after we had moved over there, she told us that there was a water pipe leak directly above her apartment and it streamed down water into her apartment and was destroying a number of her belongings. When she went to the property manager to tell her about the problem, the property manager --- who is one of the most sarcastic and discourteous persons you could ever have the displeasure of dealing with --- almost bit the lady's head off! And then they expect you to sign on a lease under "MOLD AND MILDEW" that says that you "acknowledge that the apartment unit is located in Florida which has a climate conducive to the growth of mold and mildew...."

You also should be very concerned about the part which says "NO SECURITY SERVICES" and beneath that this (emphasis by capitalization mine):

"It is agreed and understood that the Landlord shall not be liable to Resident for any damages, injuries or wrongs sustained by others, or property of same FROM CRIMINAL OR WRONGFUL ACTS OF LANDLORD, ITS REPRESENTATIVE(S), AGENT(S), EMPLOYEE(S), OR ANY OTHER PERSON(S) OR ENTITY(IES) THAT MAY CAUSE HARM TO RESIDENT RESULTING FROM A TORTIOUS, CRIMINAL OR WRONGFUL ACT BY SAME."

Why reason for concern' Because there are things that do happen at Windsor Pines for which you would want to hold Windsor Pines & AERC liable. Here are some instances:

(1.) I set the alarm on one particular occasion (as was customary for me to do) before I left with my daughter to go over to the post office where we maintain a box as well as to do a couple or so other errands. By the time we returned about an hour and a half later, we discovered that someone had entered the apartment and had turned the burglar alarm off. It was only when I stepped into the kitchen and I saw the square of yellow paper on the kitchen counter that I realized who had entered the apartment: it was a representative of the pesticide company called A.C.E., a company that Windsor Pines/AERC has contracted to service the property. When I called both the W.P. office and then the pesticide office, I cannot begin to tell you the disrespectful manner in which I was dealt with and spoken to! And you want to know something else' The next day W.P. put a notice on the outside of our apartment's door saying that residents should make sure to turn their alarm on before leaving and to be very watchful while in the parking lot and so on because a number of burglaries had been reported days
prior to this.

And, friend, if you think you are really paying for a gated community, think again. A community is not a gated community if its gates are frequently open for days on end! I even heard of one instance where they left the gate open for weeks and a thief came in and stole a man's car! What did the property manager do when the man came upset to the office about his car being stolen' She called the police onhim! She called the police on the resident! It was an ex-W.P. who told us of this incident, an employee who could not take the insanity there anymore.

And as far as if a W.P. employee attempts to pick a fight with you' Yes, I said pick a fight, if you can believe it! There I was at the car wash area under the awning washing my car. I was sudding it down and did not even realize that someone had practically sneaked up behind me. It was the newest supervisor of maintenance who is supervisor to this day and he was on a golf cart which he drove silently up behind me. He jumped off it feet away from me and I turned in time to hear him bark, "What are you doing'" I was incredulous! "What do you mean what I'm doing' I'm washing my car!" To cut a long story short, he calimed that I was violating the car wash area's rules and needed to move my car. Frankly, I told him I already knew what the rules stated and so if he wasn't sure he could check again. And then I just continued sudding my car. (I knew that the instructions said that when one is in the drying stage, if another person is waiting to use the car wash area, then the one in the drying stage should move the vehicle to a parking space for drying, thereby allowing the person standing by access to the hose and so on.) He started passing some remarks to me as he jumped back on his golf cart and drove off. Later I learnt that he had told the property manager who is his obviously close buddy that I was drying off my car and not listening to him to move it so that somebody else could use it. I called the customer service number to complain and I found myself feeling like I needed to call another number to complain about the customer service woman who was so amazingly rude!

Remember when I earlier mentioned about the leak in the AC closet' Well, when this same supervisor came with the maintenance guy who I preferred out of them all to deal with, my small screwdriver which I knew for sure I left on the shelf there wound up missing! When I days later asked the supervisor if he'd seen a screwdriver as the one I described to him, he asked me with a grin, "I have many screwdrivers, so do you want one of these'" He held up a few, but I declined. I wasn't about to take anything from him, lest he turn around and say I stole it.

And then there is the case of them photocopying people's personal checks used to pay rent and leaving the checks stuck into crevices on the outside of your front door where any identity thief can steal the photocopies of your checks.

Amenties' A mirthless joke! A lot of what you'd be paying for as amenties don't even work (e.g. often-broken photocopier in business center; some equipment in gym dysfunctional; tennis court is utterly unkempt; the pool area farthest away from leasing office is filthy.

Maintenance matters in the apartment to be fixed' You may have to ask half a dozen times sometimes before what you need fixed is addressed. And they might never be fixed!

And on an on! Please be sure not to jeapordize your health or put yourself into an aggravating situation by moving to Windsor Pines.

All the best in your search for a place to call home!

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