Daniel Shaw

I recently moved to Florida with my family to attend graduate school here in Miami. I am retired from the US military and have lived in apartments all over the country as well as in other countries for more than 20 years. I have seen good communities and bad communities and Four Quarters Habitat definitely falls among the worst. I am also a small business owner and have worked in upper management for the past five years and I will say that in terms of value, the problems that come with the cost of living here do not create value for the residents as our lives are constantly interrupted by negative issues. -The Good Great location with many dining options nearby and reasonably fast access to the turnpike. If you get the right maintenance worker for a maintenance issue, he will do a thorough job and be quick about it. The grounds are always clean and maintenance staff do a great job with landscaping and maintaining the overall cleanliness of the community. The Bad -Towing In mid-March, we called and asked for the paperwork to pay out of our lease, that same evening, the community managers attempted to tow our vehicle. One of our vehicles had a tag from another state replaced with a temporary Florida tag a few days prior. The vehicle had the issued parking decal that we pay for monthly displayed in the correct location. The vehicle was the vehicle listed on the lease and matched it in every way. At approximately 3:30am one morning we heard a tow truck and my wife looked outside to see our car being pulled up on the truck about to be towed. We went outside and spoke with the tow truck driver and he called the "Parking enforcer." The parking enforcer explained that this wasn't the vehicle on our lease and that we had switched the decal which was illegal. He said that the car on our lease was a Jeep Renegade, not a Jeep Latitude. The gentlemen in charge of towing vehicles on the property clearly did not understand the difference in a model names and trim packages, so I explained the unfamiliar concept to him, but he was still adamant about towing our vehicle despite knowing that he had made a mistake. The tow truck driver was very polite and professional and eventually had to tell the parking enforcer in so many words that he isn't going to tow this vehicle. Essentially, the vehicle was clearly the vehicle on our lease, based on at least five factors and it was parked in front of our home. Any reasonable person would understand that the towing attempt was a violation of the lease agreement on behalf of the property managers and it should not have occurred. This community tows many vehicles weekly without due diligence. The tow truck driver told me that he does not know how they get away with this. Instead of a simple apology or any attempt at consolation, the property managers make excuses and avoid any admittance of fault. -Parking. If you get home past 8:00pm you are going to have a difficult time finding a parking spot. I always find one, but it's usually about 100 to 300 yards walk from my home. -Constant Maintenance Issues with shotty patchwork and plumbing. -Poor to non-existent communication with property managers. No one in the office answers the phone, ever. Voice mail messages are not responded to. The only time we have been able to speak to the management team on the phone was when my wife left a one-star review after the towing incident. The property manager called the next day. We have brought the compilation of the aforementioned issues to management lately and have been met with defensive diplomatic exchanges with the managers providing disingenuous responses to concerns.