I lived at Winter Oaks/Berkshires for five years. When Shelter Properties ran Winter Oaks, it was fine. They really seemed to care about their tenants. However, when Berkshire Property Advisors LLC took over and renamed it Berkshires at Winter Haven, they no longer cared about their tenants. They are a large national property management firm and the bottom line is money!
Maintenance does appear to be an issue...I don't that it is the maintenance men or the property advisors. Anything that does actually get replaced is the cheapest model available that is assuming maintenance actually shows...at one time they had two maintenance men who were responsible for 230 apartments each. Unreasonable. Berkshires did paint and made the property appear to look nice but that's it.
Do yourself a favor, prior to signing a lease, drive thru this complex at night. You will see the thugs out sitting on their cars with music blaring and colt 45 in a paperbag. Have personally witnessed drug sales. Have personally witnessed prostitution...yes, management was told and they didn't care. Do not be fooled by their background check on tenants either, they do not run an NCIC on tenants which is the only sure way to know someone's criminal background. They absolutely run an FCIC and as long as you don't have bad credit, your in. If you don't believe me, go to Winter Haven Police Department and ask them if 200 Ave K SE is a safe complex to live in, ask them how many calls they get to that address. Ask them about the 75 tire slashings in one night that was in the newspaper that Berkshires had no comment about....statistics are statistics anyway you want to look at it.
I am disgusted at the way the Berkshires runs this property...
Please don't rent here! They have a lease that is about 30 some odd pages and the financial backing of Berkshires to screw over the hard working honest people who pay their rent on time and yet allow the criminals to live there. Don't be fooled by them saying they don't accept Section 8 either, they may not accept Section 8 but they definitely accept something. It is ashamed that once such a nice complex is turning into the projects.
Good luck finding a decent rental.

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