Complaint Review: Veranda Senior Apartments - Homestead Florida

Veranda Senior Apartments opened in July, 2012, which was when I moved in. From the beginning, there have been serious problems due to the incompetence, inconsideration, and active harassment of the manager, Ana Santiago. First, she gave me a lease with the wrong address on it. As I did not know that it was wrong, I put in a change of address request that sent my mail to the wrong address. When I discovered the mistake, I made another change, which turned out to actually be the manager's office instead of my own apartment. The manager told me that she would not give me any of my mail that arrived at her office. I missed several letters, etc, because of that.  She never apologized for her mistake, but rather became terribly upset that she had to change the address on the lease.

Ana became enraged when I asked to go over the condition report of the apartment, and burst into obscenities when I challenged her evaluation of the condition as uniformly excellent. She refused to walk through the apartment to check the condition with me, which is the usual procedure. I had almost filled out two copies of the condition report when, looking over shoulder, she reached out and tried to snatch both copies from me. She got one, I kept the other.  

Thus began an unending series of incompetence, abuse, and harassment. In Florida renters have the legal right to request 24 hour notice before a non-emergency entry of their apartment.  I have since been told that she habitually enters tenants' apartments when they are out; one tenant has actually installed a camera  in her unit to record such invasions. Ana also refers to the tenants as "trash". A few months ago Ana showed up at my door, demanding entrance. When I reminded her of the 24-hour rule, she became verbally abusive and threatened to call the police. Instead, I called the police; an officer arrived who informed Ana that she was obligated to follow the law. I then let her in. She later telephoned a former supervisor of mine and told her that she was going to report me to the police and have me arrested. This was of course nothing but slander.  

Ana visited the apartment again in mid-October 2012 with the pest controller man, who, it turns out, is supposed to spray each of the apartments once a month. She did provide 24-hour notice that time. The pest controller took one look at the kitchen sink, shrugged his shoulders, and left. He was supposed to spray in the kitchen and the bathroom; he did not. There have been no such visits since then (as of 5 January, 2013).  I have recently been informed that Ana has accused me of refusing to give entrance on subsequent visits. This accusation forms the basis for the accusations contained in a letter I recently received. Other accusations include: having dirty rugs (there are not now nor have there ever been rugs in this apartment), refusing (on December 28, 2012)  to allow workers to install a new front door (this is not due to happen until 11 January 2013), and refusing entrance to a pest controller (also 28 December).  She (presumably with the agreement of someone in management) in this letter also threatened to have me evicted in as little as one week. This action is illegal in Florida.

I have several times reported these problems to the managent--both online and with telephone messages--with no effect. Randy Rieger, co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Housing Trust Group of Florida, L.L.C. I have been told by a former Veranda employee that he has read the online messages. He has made no response to me. 

I urge those considering applying to live here look elsewhere until such time as a new manager who is competent, accurate, and considerate is hired to replace Ana Santiago.