Carrington Park at Gulf Pointe

As I could not fit my full eight-​page complaint letter initially written to Fogelman Management Group (see the Better Business Bureau website for our full letter), I am forced to summarize the many issues we experienced in our two years living at Carrington Park at Gulf Pointe. The major issues that frustrated us were with regard to the gates being broken and inoperable nearly 50% of the time, management’s lack of attention to trash, poor maintenance of the grounds, and very inadequate maintenance.
As a gated community, one would imagine that maintenance of the gate would be a high priority for management; unfortunately, the gates are broken a large bit of the time, allowing whomever to come in without a remote. Management tells residents regularly that the motor is burned out and they are waiting on contractors, sometimes leaving the complex open for weeks at a time. When the gates are operable, however, non-​residents follow residents in after waiting in the parking lot or – as we have experienced several times – push their way through the exit gate, blocking exiting residents and in some cases breaking the gates in the process.
The trash compactor has never held all of the residents’ trash and is often overrun with extra trash bags and food that gathers on its stairs and into the parking lot. It is a regular occurrence to take our trash to the compactor and find that we must leave it on the curb because we cannot reach the compactor; as you can imagine, the smell is disgusting, as is the view. When a dumpster is brought in while the compactor is being maintained, it often literally overflows and trash sacks partially block the exit drive.
Maintenance issues are recurring. We have had to call for several issues, including a crack in the bottom of our tub, needing to have our tub resealed, a broken air conditioner, and a roof leak. In each case, we were unhappy with how management handled the situation, neglecting to tell us on three occasions how long we would be without a shower or air conditioning, forcing us twice to stay with my parents due to a lack of both amenities, and requiring us to write a letter to the manager to allow them to handle a maintenance man’s inappropriate misinformation of how quickly items would be corrected. The crack was never corrected because they neglected to tell us to vacate the apartment beforehand, and the damage to the paint and sheet rock tape were still in place when we moved five months later despite being «repaired.»
The neighborhood has gone greatly downhill; thefts and car burglaries are not uncommon. We even witnessed an individual arrested after management became suspicious of him walking from building to building. Most residents are rude and very loud, shouting at late hours and revving their engines and playing their bass after office hours. We were very anxious to leave and only stayed a second year because we couldn’t afford to move when our renewal came around; you couldn’t pay us enough to stay. The money is not worth the space and proximity to the beltway. In ten years of living in apartments, this is the worse experience I have ever had. Perhaps the new manager will correct some issues, but we wouldn’t know given that the residents were never notified of the replacement.

Some friends of mine recently moved into a third-​floor apartment in the back of the complex.
Pros: High ceilings in the third story apartments and they have that «new» smell. Very nicely kept grounds. Corner apartments appear to have a diagonal balcony, which is sweet. Very large complex.
Cons: The gates. I’m all for safety but have a unique code so that a person’s friends and families can get in without a hassle. Also, only one gate? There’s another gate closer to my pal’s apartment that has both «no entry» and «no exit» signs on either side. ???
I don’t know what rent is like or what the management staff is like, so this review is purely from a visitor.