Lakewood Place Apartments

I signed a lease last month after seeing a beautiful model apartment. I was told someone was in the ONLY upgraded unit that they had available so I wasn't able to view it but was promised it was just the same & I'd even have a gorgeous ""lake view"". I even agreed to pay the extra $100 a month for the ""upgrades"". On July 31st (move in day) I went to finish my lease and get my keys. I was not allowed to do a walk through until every document was signed and my renters insurance in hand, I felt that was odd considering we had to wait over an hour for my insurance to get figured out.. Finally, everything is done. I am handed my keys and shown on a map where my apartment is.. I finally find my unit and the first thing I see is a dried up retention pond (my gorgeous lake view).. A maintenance man meets me there to do my walk through. I opened the door and a smell of cigarette smoke/ mildew hit me in the face. I could not BELIEVE MY EYES! This place was DISGUSTING! An animal had scratched/eaten all of the corners of the base boards, there were black marks and nail holes all over the walls, the closet door was broken and not even attached to the tracks, the counters were covered in a thick white nasty film, the grout in the small (not large like i was told) was filthy, the carpet had stains all over it. I called down to the front office and demanded someone come there and meet me now to see all of this, instead they sent another maintenance man! He was even shocked and admitted they dropped the ball, offered to have the cleaning service come back, put foggers in my a/c unit for the smell and throw in accent walls for free as they touched up all the black marks and old holes ( I just want to add that their maintenance staff is amazing, they stayed with me the whole time and were very concerned over how upset I was, they treated me with nothing but respect and I appreciate that) This was still not acceptable. My whole life was in a uhaul truck in the parking lot with my movers waiting for now 3 hours and I'm in tears. Thankfully, they let me out of my lease with out any question. I'm guessing this happens a lot.. I was promised a complete refund and it would be mailed to me with in 10 business days. So all in one day I packed my house up, switched over my cable, mail & electric, hired movers and rented a uhaul truck.. All to have it all unloaded back into my previous place and everything now switched back over.. Here are 21 days later, STILL NO check in the mail.. I was told by Kim via Email that my check was generated on August 4th and was being mailed from Colorado. Today I emailed letter her know i have still not received it and this was her response Hi Brooke,\r I understand your frustration and apologize for any delay. I can place a stop payment on the original refund check and have a new one issued if you like however, once I do this, if the original arrives you will have to discard it. This process takes several days to complete however, once it is processed then I can request an overnight delivery to an address where you would sign for the package. Please let me know if you would like for me to do this.\r \r why would I want to have to wait ""several"" more days???? It's like this nightmare is never ending, I am SOO happy I do not have to be stuck in place for a year! I do NOT recommend Lake wood place. If it sounds to good to be true, It usually is. \r \r Update 8/26/14 after my original refund check got ""lost"" in the mail, today I finally received another one that had to be reissued and overnighted.. however, of course! It's not even close to the right amount, Called the corporate office, do you think anyone answered the phone?????? NO they didn't! so the nightmare continues..... more

I LOVE Lakewood Place in Brandon ! I am VERY SATISFIED and I highly recommend it. I have been there for one year and I just renewed my lease. The staff is FANTASTIC, they do the extra mile and they always reply to my emails on the same day. They are very friendly and accommodating. The maintenance is FLAWLESS, it’s easy to place a service request, they respond really fast, they are very knowledgeable & qualified and they work hard to get the best results. They can be trusted and I find very convenient that they can proceed to the repairs during my absence while I am at work. They even replace light bulbs! The community is safe & clean and I never had any issues with the neighbors. The appliances included I have in my apartment are great brands & models and in excellent condition. I do a lot of trendmill in their 24-hours gym while watching tv. There is a total of about 12-14 machines/fitness equipment. From what I have seen, there are two swimming pools, one hot tub/spa, tennis court and a place for volleyball and racketball. There is always space in the parking. Big K-Mart is right next to it and they have everything. The Brandon Mall is very close too. With the selmon expressway, it takes me about 15-20 minutes to be in downtown south tampa. I think their prices are very reasonable but I am quite new in the area so it’s hard for me to compare. Everything is really well organized, it’s easy to do the payments online and to place service requests. They take my well-being seriously and I thank them for that. Keep doing the great work! -Jean more

This complex LOOKED decent when we first visited. Of course they show you a unit that is nicely filled with furniture and clean of spider webs and dirt all around. When we first moved in it was clean and actually had new carpet which i was happy with. Lived there until a month or two before our lease was up and everyday that i lived there the spider webs and spiders grew and dirt added up on the outside entrance and stairs!! They seem to only clean the units in the front but the unit i lived in they never cleaned. The rent is affordable but if you can afford a little more then i would recommend going elsewhere. Parking here sucked. Depending on the unit you get mostly if it is towards the middle the parking spots will be full and you will have to walk thru the grass=mostly dirt which is why i started to hate this place even more. Maintenance will come and fix per your requests but do not expect their best although they all seemed very nice. Office staff were nice for the most part b/c more

We left before our lease was up for many reasons. When we moved in, the entry closet was never given a door, the knobs on the second bedroom closet were never fitted and the doors never shut properly. At time of move-in it took quite a while to get the smell of body odor out of the back bedroom. The grounds were especially appalling. The yard outside our home was more like a dirt pit. The street lamp outside our apartment had the light fixture dangling from the post. The racquet ball court was always covered with spider webs and insects, and always had puddles. The sidewalks were uneven, and to remedy this they spray painted the cracks orange. The hot tub was always closed for maintenance. Once I was able to get in, but the water bleached my bathing suit from navy blue to purple. The pool was grotesque because of the insects and leaves from the surrounding oaks. I would spend about ten minutes fishing out what I could, and then swim in one corner of the pool to avoid the mess. The trash collection area was always overflowing with garbage. There were times when we could not place our garbage within the container and had to pile it outside with the other garbage bags. Rodents would get in these bags and shred them apart. The garbage would be laying everywhere. In addition to all of these flaws, I have to finally mention the other residents who lived there. Below us lived a couple who fought constantly. They had groups of 3 to 5 people coming and going at 10 minute increments at all hours of the night. One can easily assume that there was illegal activity going on. Pros: Some office staff were polite Cons: Everything else. more