Complaint Review: Sanctuary Walk Apartments

On January 28, I went to Sanctuary Walk apartments in Jacksonville, FL to fill out an application to rent a 3 bedroom apartment. I was previously living down the street from the apartment complex, and have had friends live in Sanctuary Walk apartments before. I decided to rent there because i had never heard anything bad about the complex and it seemed like a nice and quiet community.

When I gave my deposit, the manager told me it would be a 2-3 week waiting period before the apartment was ready. Needless to say more than 2-3 weeks had passed and the manager had every excuse as to why the apartment wasnt ready on time. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited a little longer.

Almost 2 months later, my fiance and I received a call stating that the paperwork needed to be changed because our income bracket was over the maximum allowed for income restricted residences. The manager had us sign papers stating that I had no income coming in and that we were to only use my fiance's income (FRAUD). I signed the papers only because I was getting unemployment at the time and was scheduled to run out of benefits anyway.

2 weeks later we were called into the office to sign the lease (not one time did either of the property managers show me a floor plan of the apartment we were about to rent.), instead we signed the lease and was given a paper by one of the managers, upon her instructions we were to do our own walk through of the apartment and mark off what we were dissatisfied with and they would fix it.

My fiance and I got the keys, and went to the apartment and as soon as we walked in the door it was like walking into a nightmare. The floor in the entry way was filthy, the carpet was stained, the tub was dirty and mildewed, the refrigerator was dirty on the outside, and there were dried up maggots and gnats in the refirgerator. The stove and the microwave were stained with grease and old caked up food from the previous tenant.

We went back to the office the same day and told the apartment manager of the condition of the apartment. She admitted that she hadnt even been to check the apartment and assured us that on the upcoming Thursday (which would've been 48hrs later), the apartment would be ready.

My fiance and I called back on Friday, to check on the results of the apartment and the manager assured us that the apartment was ready and even sent the maintenance man back to the apartment  to double check while my fiance was on the phone with her.

Friday evening we got off from work, and went straight to the apartment as we still had the keys, and not only had nothing been done, it was worse!!! On top of leaving the apartment how it was, the maintenance man had urinated in the toilet and left it for us to see. (all of which we have pictures and video to prove).

We went back to those office and sw both manager who both admitted that they hadnt even been to check the apartment, and we showed them the pics and video of how the aopartment was left, instead of the manager going to check on the apartment herself (being lazy), she sent the maintenance man back to the apartment and her exact words to my fiance and I were, "Go follow the maintenace man back to the apartment and tell him what needs to be done".

My fiance and I were LIVID, we then left the keys on the table with both managers and stated that we would not be renting the apartment and that we would be back for our deposit.Now, every time we try and contact the managers they have an excuse as to why they havent given our deposit back and now they are saying that the owners of the complex will not give us our deposit back because we signed the lease already. The lease should be null and void, because we have yet to move into the apartment, and we were'nt even supposed to be in the apartment because we are over the income restriction bracket.

This is the last attempt to collect my deposit, either pay me my deposit back, or expect to see the video and pictures of the apartment presented to my fiance and I on our local news station.