I have been a resident for 2 years at Camden Live Oaks in Tampa. Overall living here has been not so great. The price has been just too high to put up with the problems we've run into (although I recently heard they dropped the rent, I guess we we have been still paying the high rent from 2 years ago). Let's go ahead and get the pros out of the way:

PROS
* Camden is very close to USF - take the shortcut (42nd street to fletcher) and you'll be there within 10 minutes (or if you get stuck behind the Bull Runner, maybe 15 minutes).

* Our apartment had a nice view because it was backed up against the conservation area behind building 15411.

* Vaulted ceilings on our second floor are nice.

* The water pressure is decent and the hot water doesn't run out too quickly.


And now for the many Cons:

* The parking situation is awful. My building in particular only has 3 spots to park in due to there being conservation area along one side instead the usual parking lot. Fighting for parking can get ugly. When we first moved in, in 2006, a few of us had an agreement with the office that we could park in the grass because our parking lot was so tiny. Since then the management put in big concrete curbs so we couldn't even drive onto the grass, then they began to sneakily boot cars at night. Once we were walking from our car and noticed our neighbor's car had been booted even though it was legally parked. We knocked on her door to let her know, and we actually flagged down the guy who was booting the cars to ask him why - it ends up that he accidentally booted her car when she had done nothing wrong. It's a good thing we noticed or else our neighbor would have been very late to work in the morning, all because of a stupid mistake. I've gotten tow notices on my car several times because I would park in the grass to unload heavy things and then forget to move it. However I got lucky and was never actually towed because they give you a 3 day notice.

* When we moved into our apartment it took them a few weeks to even repair all the damage done by the party animals who lived there previously. Our bedroom door was caved in, our bathroom door was too, there were holes in the screen on the porch and our dining room light was cracked. There is a big neon yellow stain in the linoleum in front of the fridge that they never took care of. They should have replaced the carpet because of stains in the bedroom, but they didn't.

* Our sink and bathtub get clogged every month. We're not giving big dogs a bath in it, we're using it like normal yet it always clogs. The pluming here sucks so bad that drain cleaner doesn't work and you have to put in a service request, which takes at least a week to get responded to. Sometimes they never send anyone at all and you have to repeatedly call.

* It is not abnormal for the water to be randomly turned off for repairs in the middle of the day. One day the water was off for 3 hours, but usually it's for 1 hour. It sucks when you've still got shampoo in your hair or soap on hour hands.

* The appliances are old. Our fridge freezes on the top shelf and doesn't thoroughly cool the bottom shelf. The freezer has a huge ice maker that takes up most of the space. We just take it out because the ice is gross anyway. Also, our oven always heats 25 degrees lower than we set it to.

* People don't pick up their dog poop. This probably happens everywhere though.

* There is a roach problem, but this probably happens everywhere in Florida too.

* This year Camden has begun requiring renters to purchase rental insurance. Another pain in the ass.

* Pet fees are a non refundable $500 per pet. This is outrageous when you're merely adopting a pair of little kittens like I did. Cat's are usually house trained straight from the shelter. This is a high fee apparently targeted at large dog breeds, which I see a lot of in this neighborhood.


* Our neighbors have generally been sketchy and annoying. We had some cool neighbors below us, but they did argue loud and you could hear nearly every word. The lady a few doors down has annoying dogs she's always screaming at. The atmosphere is not neighborly and friendly.


* The trash system is so awful that we haven't been using it for the past year. It costs an extra $25 a month and the garbage cans they give you are small and animals easily break into them which spreads your trash all over your front step. The apartment will leave notices on your door scolding you about the mess. They say the trash gets picked up almost every day, but it really only gets picked up like twice a week. The trash can will barely fit one bag. You do the math.


* Our one bedroom apartment has only 1 closet in it. No linen closet, no storage closets of any kind except for a very small crawlspace. Our den is piled to the ceiling with storage, as well as our 2nd porch, which means the areas can't be enjoyed by us and our guests. If you use your porch for storage, Camden will order you to clear it off.


* Sometimes the area will be perfectly nice and quiet. But at busier times all you can hear is car after car zooming by (way too fast) with stereos triumphantly booming the lamest music.


I'm releaved to be moving out at the end of August.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/29/2009
I don't think Camden orders you to remove your stuff from storage -- we lived in a back apartment in live oaks and our roommate totally dominated our porch with all her junk, and no one (sadly) ever told us that it had to be moved.
From: waambat	Date: 05/29/2009
Despite what you are insinuating everything I mentioned in this review really happened to me while staying at Camden. They left notices on our door and threatened to fine us because I had my bicycle, an easel, a table and a small shelf of some cleaning supplies on the porch. It was a huge nuisance to bring it back inside because we only had one tiny closet that didn't fit that stuff.

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