I lived at The Esates for two years, building 15, which is near the center of the main complex. The apartment itself was nice, but some things in the apartment were not in the best condition. They weren't terribly bad--marks on the wall, damage on the desk, damaged but functional blinds--so I didn't really complain about it since this was the first and only apartment complex I used while attending UF. I wish I had written every little thing wrong with the apartment upon move-in. The alarm system does not work, by the way. It eventually stopped beeping when a door opened too. Behind building 15 is a private property. We specifically requested an apartment in a quieter area, but a rooster greeted every day by crowing around four in the morning. But I'm sure this was a minor oversight on The Estates: how could they have known that the farm-like property in the vicinity would have loud animals? They probably weren't liable for that anyway, so it wasn't their problem. The overall grounds were nice in the front and terrible in the back. The patios and balconies were simply unusable and disgusting unless you were facing the parking lot or the roads (20th Ave and 24th Ave). Safety-wise, the gates were there for show. The sidewalk gate did not lock, and the vehicle gates were non-functional for much of the year. The sidewalk gate in particular along 24th Ave remained out of order even when there was a shooting in the area in July 2014. Maintenance workers themselves were very friendly. The management staff was incompetent and unprofessional. I spent as little time as possible in the main office. I would not recommend The Estates to anyone except those who have a soft spot for farm animals and chicken poop outside your door. ...

Management is a joke. All of them truly think that they are at the top of the world and can't be touched. They will tell you what ever it takes to get you in the door. The security systems don't work, the gate is left open half the time, they have 1 good employee on staff and he seems to care but the others need a lesson in customer service. They will randomly inspect your home for what they call furniture preservation inspections, even if they just did one a week before (classified as harassment under florida landlord tenant laws), and come into your room no matter if your asleep/in shower with no warning (staff maintenance will knock twice and yell, temps and office workers will not). From what I have heard they will nickel and dime you when you leave but when you show up no work has been done to fix any issues (nasty carpet, broken bathroom fixtures, etc...). The maintenance workers that are staff try to keep on top of things but their temp workers are always telling you they don't give two #%*+s and they will do whatever they please. Please if you value your safety, privacy, and your things stay away! I will be leaving ASAP and will video tape every corner of my room to ensure if they try to stiff me with a charge about damages beyond "normal living damages" they will have a military veteran going to the news media about their illegal practices. Also on a side note if they do con you to the point of reading the lease please note many many times over they state that your safety is your own responsibility, they will not provide any responsibility to your safety, yet your not allowed to have anything that can be mistaken as a weapon, no stun guns, baseball bats, cutting knives, guns (paint or bb), nothing... However you may call the police and after you do you should call the front office to let them know so they can open the gate (if they pick up), if it is after hours you better hope that the police officer knows the code to the gate or your SOL. Run away and never come back! P.S. As of 8/11/14 Head Management in Tx contacted me about my reviews online and took note of every issue I had and assured me that things would be changing/Fixed. We will see. I will continue to update my posts P.P.S. As of 8/30/14 nothing has changed. Management here in the front office must not care about what Corp has to say because they have failed to contact me. Stay away. I rented from fall 11 through fall 11. ...

Here's the positive: great location, close to campus and on three bus routes,  plus short walk to local grocery store, which is great if you don't have a car.  Also, the regular maintenance is very good - they send people that day or the next, and things get fixed.  Pest control is free, although you do have to request it. HOWEVER, if you switch from one apartment to another over the summer, be prepared for a total nightmare.  Like an old tenant still in the apartment you're moving into (they do all of the transfers during the same two days, so people can be moving out of and moving in to the same apartment at the same time - how can they possibly think this will work out well???) and NOTHING done to prepare the apartment.  NOTHING.  (They admitted that they somehow just forgot to prep our new apartment; they did hustle to get enough prep done so we could move in, mostly due to a screaming parent, but weeks later, many needed repairs are still not done, even tho they guaranteed that all repairs would be done within 2 weeks.  Plus there's an infestation of flying cockroaches, which is absolutely disgusting.   Oh, and the office people aren't too responsive either.  They could have taken responsibility, apologized, and taken some action to make things right, but left us feeling really up upset, frustrated and unhappy. [9/11/11 8:04:06 PM] edenb23: wanna hang on video? I rented from fall '08 through winter 11. ...

Not a quiet location, parking a pain, overpriced. Maintenance was nice and attentive though. I rented from fall '07 through spring '09.