Sonoma Southside Condominiums

A few months ago, I would have written a wonderful review about this place. However, my opinion has changed since then. When I first moved in (July '10), we went down the list of things that needed to be fixed. Within 4 days of moving in, the maintenance man had fixed everything that needed addressed. One of the issues that needed to be addressed was the A/C was not cooling off the unit. It turned out all it needed was freon, and everything was good. 100 degree temperatures at that time of the year. I set my A/C for 75, but it would not go below 78. I blew it off as it was still comfortable in the house. I figured it just must of been too hot outside. Winter arrived. Although the house remained warm, our master bedroom (in a 3 bedroom unit) was freezing. We bought a room heater, and said hey.. older unit.. sliding glass door must not be installed very well. Spring came and went with no problems. A/C stayed consistently at 76, and every member in the household was happy. Fast forward to now - June 2011. A/C started to not work about 3 weeks ago in May. The house stayed at 79 or 80 during the day. We went to the office, whom at this time, had recently gone through a management change. They sent the maintenance man over within 10 minutes. He added 10 lbs of freon (yes, 10 lbs) and said all done. Give it a day to start cooling off. So we gave it a day. Nothing changed. A couple of days later he was back after we complained again. This time he said that the closet in which the air handler was in was too full and we needed to clean it out to circulate some air. So we clean it out. A few days pass - no change. Maintenance man comes back. This time he says now that the closet is cleaned out - we must keep the closet door open at all times in order to keep the air circulating. Okay - we do that. A few days pass - no change. So now our A/C is not working at all. Temperatures are now in the high 90s / low 100s. Temperature in the condo is 88 degrees during the day. We complain every day for a week. Finally the maintenance man comes back.. this time our themostat is broken. WTF. He says he will order it and he will be back in a couple of days to install. A couple of days pass and there is a no show. We complain AGAIN. He comes back - spends an hour in the condo.. says he has finally found the problem! Broken valves in the air handler. He says he will order the part.. give it a couple of days. We were like WTF it is 88 degrees in the house, we have an INFANT - I have ASTHMA and I can't breath. Oh well he says. This is the best he can do. A WEEK PASSES. NO F-ING CHANGE. We call corporate, regional manager, etc. Finally three days ago they say we got the part from another complex, we will be over today to fix. What do you think happened? NO ONE SHOWED UP. We have been told ""tomorrow"" every day since then. We have been miserable for a month now and NO ONE in the office seems to care. We have gotten an attorney. We have documented all of this and will be filing a lawsuit due to me having 2 asthma attacks because of the heat. I do not wish anyone to live here. Not even my worst enemy. more

rented here for two years after graduation. nice neighborhood, really liked the size and layout of the condo. had to move since commute was too long after my offices moved from baymeadows area to orange park. Pros: size, location Cons: proximity to my new office more

We moved to Jacksonville from out of state two and a half years ago. The availability of condos and houses was pretty overwhelming since we weren't familiar with the area. We had targeted either the San Marco or the Southside area after doing some research on-line. We had a great realtor with Century 21 out of their Baymeadows office. Ultimately, we found that the square footage of the places in our price range (~$130,000-150,000) in San Marco was just too small and the condo units weren't that nice. My wife and I went to about 15 different condo complexes in the Southside area after ruling out San Marco. We ultimately decided on a unit in Sonoma (a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom) since the square footage was much larger than any other area we had looked at (a few other condos had some more amenities like a larger porch or more expansive fitness center, but the unit itself was often cramped). Our experience so far in two and a half years has been great. Our son attends Twin Lakes Academy and loves it, and we've got really quick access to the beach (15 minutes), downtown (about 15-20 minutes) and the St. Johns Town Center mall (a nice upscale mall with great restaurants like PF Chang's and Maggiano's). The only reason we give four stars is that we're a little disappointed that the value of the home has dipped somewhat because of the lousy housing market! But we're very happy with the unit and the neighborhood in general so we definitely recommend it to anyone making the move to Jacksonville. Pros: Floorplan size, appliances (washer/dryer, fridge, etc.), playground area, LOCATION! Cons: Market values (we think they'll bounce back soon, though), more