After taking a tour of Urban Style Flats, I had a hard time believing the reviews I had read online. It seemed nice and clean, everyone was friendly, and the leasing office answered all of my questions. The first annoyance I found was that despite paying nearly 800 a month for my single apartment, I had to pay separate for parking in their parking garage. For covered parking it was 60 a month and for uncovered 4th floor parking it was only 30. I chose the cheaper price since the place was at the limit of my budget. The next annoyance was the bad smell coming from my refrigerator. They told me there was nothing wrong with it and to just put baking soda in it. This did almost nothing, they offered no more assistance beyond this, and since I was too afraid to disassemble the fridge to try to find the smell, I have bleached my fridge bi weekly just to deal with it. Because I moved in during October, the AC was not needed.
Fast forward to July in Florida, and the AC unit spits out chunks of dirt and dust because there has been absolutely no filter upkeep, which, according to the lease, is their job. Occasionally I found a small roach or two, but I chalked it up to having left a dish in the sink or not swept my crumbs. I sprayed my place with a repellant every month and had small traps in all the corners, however as time went on, my battle with roaches seemed only uphill. I would kill 5-10 per night, come home to them crawling on my walls, and plenty more overflowing the traps. Some of the roaches are over 2 inches long. It got to the point that I had to find alternative sprays for killing them because I was getting ill from the out of roach spray I was being exposed to. I would spray my counters with bleach every single night, not even wiping it up, just leaving wet bleach to try to keep them off. Each time I walked down to the office to complain, they would write it on a sticky note and sometimes pest management would come and spray, and sometimes absolutely nothing would happen. Because I am new to renting, I always walked into the office instead of sending an email, so I have absolutely no paper trail to prove how many times I complained and therefore, no ability to legally seek action against them. I have no pets nor frequent visitors, these roaches are coming from inside the walls and vents from my neighbors. I even see roaches in the hallways. I had what was identified as a brown recluse spider IN my apartment, and when I brought the dead spider to the office, they again wrote down my apartment number, told me they would send up pest management, and it wasn't until two weeks later that they sprayed my apartment. From seemingly nowhere, a mold has started growing in random places on my ceiling. When I asked them to come look at it, they told me they would send someone up. I have yet to have anyone come look at it, and it's been two weeks.
On May 30th the elevator in the parking garage broke for the 5th time since my move in. It wasn't fixed until the first week of July. Since I cannot afford to park on a lower floor, this meant that every time I had to bring something to school or work, or bring groceries home, I had to carry it up and down 4 flights of stairs in the 90 degree summer florida heat. They also have handicap spaces available on this floor and only stairs available for the entire month. The parking garage is supposed to be secure, however for months at a time the card swipes to get into the garage are broken so they leave the doors unlocked, and multiple times the gate to the garage has been broken and left open. My parents visited for 10 days and never had to use the cars swipe because the gates were open for the entirety of their stay. Because of the price of parking many residents park in the 2 hour street parking in front of the building so there is absolutely never a spot for visitors to park in after 7pm. The only place for them to park is in the less than 20 spaces on the top floor of the parking garage. So if someone wants to stop by for 20 minutes, the resident must go to the front desk, ask for a parking pass, provide all info about the driver and their car, bring it to the visitor, then get in their car with them, be driven around the block back to the parking garage entrance, where the resident has to use their card to get the gates open, then they drive to the top floor, and most likely have to walk back down the stairs, then to the other end of the block where the building entrance is located. The entire ordeal often lasts no less than 15 minutes all because what should be visitor parking is taken by residents that can't afford over $360 extra a year to park in the garage.
One of the things that made the price of this place seem reasonable was the amenities. However upon attempting to use them, I have found that at least half of the machines in the gym are broken in some way, the pool is either covered in an oil slick of tanning oil or closed without warning for 2 days to be treated. No one enforces any pool rules and I have seen broken glass bottles on the patio and other residents smoking pot out of bongs in the wide open. The package and mail delivery system is very standard however when the latch on my mailbox broke, the front desk person told me to write a note and put the broken piece in my mailbox because the postal people have to fix it. So I did. The piece was removed, my box was never fixed, and my mail could realistically be taken by anyone who knows to just pull on my door. One time I paid my rent through the online service and through a computer glitch instead of it paying the $815 plus service fee, the system only took $8.15 and the decimal version of the service fee. If you use the system, it has your rent amount already in the box, it is not something that the user types in. There is no user error to be had. A few days after this transaction that I hadn't noticed messed up, they charged me a late fee. When I confronted them they told me they didn't know what happened, but I hadn't paid my full amount. After going to my bank to try to have it removed, and resent, it was basically a gridlock and I ended up having to pay the remainder rent PLUS the late fee. Anytime you go in the office you can expect to be greeted by a wall meant to keep residents from speaking to anyone actually in charge. They simply write your apartment number down and send you away. They are only open business hours so if you too work business hours, you can expect to spend a week or two going back and forth with notes and emails before anything is accomplished.
I moved here because I thought this place had everything. I mean the place is grogeous and it is downtown. However I was told that they could offer me any type of cable. The concierge also told me this and the door man. However once I moved in I realized I could only get brighthouse and not Verizon Fios which I love. this really upset me because I have had Fios forever and now I am stuck with Brighthouse. When I told the office about it they just smiled and acted like I should accept it and learn to love Brighthouse. I am planning to move and its too bad because other than that this is the perfect place to live.
Urban Style Flats Reviews
After taking a tour of Urban Style Flats, I had a hard time believing the reviews I had read online. It seemed nice and clean, everyone was friendly, and the leasing office answered all of my questions. The first annoyance I found was that despite paying nearly 800 a month for my single apartment, I had to pay separate for parking in their parking garage. For covered parking it was 60 a month and for uncovered 4th floor parking it was only 30. I chose the cheaper price since the place was at the limit of my budget. The next annoyance was the bad smell coming from my refrigerator. They told me there was nothing wrong with it and to just put baking soda in it. This did almost nothing, they offered no more assistance beyond this, and since I was too afraid to disassemble the fridge to try to find the smell, I have bleached my fridge bi weekly just to deal with it. Because I moved in during October, the AC was not needed.
Fast forward to July in Florida, and the AC unit spits out chunks of dirt and dust because there has been absolutely no filter upkeep, which, according to the lease, is their job. Occasionally I found a small roach or two, but I chalked it up to having left a dish in the sink or not swept my crumbs. I sprayed my place with a repellant every month and had small traps in all the corners, however as time went on, my battle with roaches seemed only uphill. I would kill 5-10 per night, come home to them crawling on my walls, and plenty more overflowing the traps. Some of the roaches are over 2 inches long. It got to the point that I had to find alternative sprays for killing them because I was getting ill from the out of roach spray I was being exposed to. I would spray my counters with bleach every single night, not even wiping it up, just leaving wet bleach to try to keep them off. Each time I walked down to the office to complain, they would write it on a sticky note and sometimes pest management would come and spray, and sometimes absolutely nothing would happen. Because I am new to renting, I always walked into the office instead of sending an email, so I have absolutely no paper trail to prove how many times I complained and therefore, no ability to legally seek action against them. I have no pets nor frequent visitors, these roaches are coming from inside the walls and vents from my neighbors. I even see roaches in the hallways. I had what was identified as a brown recluse spider IN my apartment, and when I brought the dead spider to the office, they again wrote down my apartment number, told me they would send up pest management, and it wasn't until two weeks later that they sprayed my apartment. From seemingly nowhere, a mold has started growing in random places on my ceiling. When I asked them to come look at it, they told me they would send someone up. I have yet to have anyone come look at it, and it's been two weeks.
On May 30th the elevator in the parking garage broke for the 5th time since my move in. It wasn't fixed until the first week of July. Since I cannot afford to park on a lower floor, this meant that every time I had to bring something to school or work, or bring groceries home, I had to carry it up and down 4 flights of stairs in the 90 degree summer florida heat. They also have handicap spaces available on this floor and only stairs available for the entire month. The parking garage is supposed to be secure, however for months at a time the card swipes to get into the garage are broken so they leave the doors unlocked, and multiple times the gate to the garage has been broken and left open. My parents visited for 10 days and never had to use the cars swipe because the gates were open for the entirety of their stay. Because of the price of parking many residents park in the 2 hour street parking in front of the building so there is absolutely never a spot for visitors to park in after 7pm. The only place for them to park is in the less than 20 spaces on the top floor of the parking garage. So if someone wants to stop by for 20 minutes, the resident must go to the front desk, ask for a parking pass, provide all info about the driver and their car, bring it to the visitor, then get in their car with them, be driven around the block back to the parking garage entrance, where the resident has to use their card to get the gates open, then they drive to the top floor, and most likely have to walk back down the stairs, then to the other end of the block where the building entrance is located. The entire ordeal often lasts no less than 15 minutes all because what should be visitor parking is taken by residents that can't afford over $360 extra a year to park in the garage.
One of the things that made the price of this place seem reasonable was the amenities. However upon attempting to use them, I have found that at least half of the machines in the gym are broken in some way, the pool is either covered in an oil slick of tanning oil or closed without warning for 2 days to be treated. No one enforces any pool rules and I have seen broken glass bottles on the patio and other residents smoking pot out of bongs in the wide open. The package and mail delivery system is very standard however when the latch on my mailbox broke, the front desk person told me to write a note and put the broken piece in my mailbox because the postal people have to fix it. So I did. The piece was removed, my box was never fixed, and my mail could realistically be taken by anyone who knows to just pull on my door. One time I paid my rent through the online service and through a computer glitch instead of it paying the $815 plus service fee, the system only took $8.15 and the decimal version of the service fee. If you use the system, it has your rent amount already in the box, it is not something that the user types in. There is no user error to be had. A few days after this transaction that I hadn't noticed messed up, they charged me a late fee. When I confronted them they told me they didn't know what happened, but I hadn't paid my full amount. After going to my bank to try to have it removed, and resent, it was basically a gridlock and I ended up having to pay the remainder rent PLUS the late fee. Anytime you go in the office you can expect to be greeted by a wall meant to keep residents from speaking to anyone actually in charge. They simply write your apartment number down and send you away. They are only open business hours so if you too work business hours, you can expect to spend a week or two going back and forth with notes and emails before anything is accomplished.
I moved here because I thought this place had everything. I mean the place is grogeous and it is downtown. However I was told that they could offer me any type of cable. The concierge also told me this and the door man. However once I moved in I realized I could only get brighthouse and not Verizon Fios which I love. this really upset me because I have had Fios forever and now I am stuck with Brighthouse. When I told the office about it they just smiled and acted like I should accept it and learn to love Brighthouse. I am planning to move and its too bad because other than that this is the perfect place to live.