The Oaks at Southlake Commons

When we first moved in, everything was great! The property is well maintained and the apartments themselves are nice. The management used to be amazing and then things took a drastic turn. They will gauge you for every dollar possible. Lightbulb changings, fines for putting your trash out too early, and lockout fees. As we were ending our lease, we asked multiple times from multiple employees about where to leave our keys since we had a 5 AM flight to move across the country. We were told to leave our keys on the counter and email when we did this. Later we found out that since it was 5 days before our lease was over, that it was considered terminating our lease early. No one ever said anything about this especially since we had already paid the month in full. If we knew we would have just waited to send our email on the actual day of our lease ending. We seriously thought we were doing them a favor by giving them access a few days before. Instead we had to pay the early termination fee even though the month had been completely paid. The lady on the phone was extremely rude and stated that it's in our lease. Which we no longer have access to since they terminated our account. We can no longer look at our lease or anything regarding our deposit. The clean facade is not worth living here and having to pay outrageous fees later. Traffic around the area is awful and it takes forever to exit since there is only one way onto the main road. Please save yourself the hassle and live anywhere else. I can't say this enough but please do not be fooled by the initial interactions with staff, the location, and the exterior of the apartments.

I put a work order in on Saturday because there was standing gross water in my kitchen sink, also preventing me from running my dishwasher full of dirty dishes or washing them in the sink. I received an email stating I would be contacted shortly by a member of the staff. I was not contacted. I called the office the next day and was told by the young lady she would make certain maintenance came by to take care of it. Still no one. Monday morning at almost 10am, TWO DAYS AFTER THE WORK ORDER WAS SUBMITTED and I was told lies twice by the staff, someone finally came by to fix it, by this point the pipes under the sink were leaking and my apartment was starting the smell. Started paying $150 for a garage and got the first week I had it, it would be open on its own all the time so I couldn’t even use it for storage. But you bet I didn’t get a refund for that week. All their resident activities are at the same evening time slot, on the same few days of the week every month, meaning all but a handful of residents can’t even participate, yet when asked about it they say “they rotate.” If I could rate NO STARS I would. Worst maintenance staff at any apartment I’ve lived in here in Orlando and I’ve lived in 3 different recently built ones. Worst management and customer service EVER. Office staff has no clue what’s going on or how to do their jobs. I ONLY live here because of the location, the complex itself is incompetently run.

3 stars because the facilities/apartments themselves are very nice and because the maintenance team was attentive and friendly (when they were given the message that something needed to be fixed). We lived at this complex for two years. The only reason why we stayed the second year was because it was inconvenient to move. We had issues with the management team before we even moved in. They changed the move in date on us twice with little notice. They said it was because of issues with the previous tenant. Because of that, I asked to see the apartment before signing the lease because I was worried they'd done some damage. I was fought hard on that but I insisted. If you live here and you need important paperwork, don't expect the management to actually send it or provide it willingly. Our first year, the leasing manager REFUSED to give us a copy of our lease. Her excuse was that they were trying to be "green" so everything was electronic. But there was no electronic lease provided either. It took several weeks of persistence on my end for her to send it to us. At the end of our first year, we were given less than 60 days notice (60 days is how far out you are supposed to let them know if you'll be moving out) about an increase in rent and a change in charges for water and sewage. The notice we were given was riddled with spelling errors and it was not clear exactly what would be changing. By then it was too late for us to not renew our lease anyway. We gave significantly more than 60 days notice when we were coming to the end of our second lease. We signed the appropriate paperwork for our intent to move out. No one sent us a copy of that paperwork. No one notified us when we got to the last month that there was a different way we would need to pay rent. All of these issues are on top of the fact that the management does not respond to emails or messages promptly, they do not pass on maintenance requests, and they are very hostile when you bring up any issue with them. Not once did I come in aggressively on any of the above issues, but each time I was met with passive aggression, dismissal, and gas lighting by the staff who tried to make it seem like I was being unreasonable for asking for basic paperwork.

Living here for 6 months now really starts to show the poor build quality and lack of care that the staff has for their tenants. Cannot wait to leave this place. It looks like a beautiful resort on the outside, but it has to be one of the worst places I've lived in.

We first moved in last August after waiting an extra month longer than our original move-in date-- however despite the wait we have been so pleased with our community. We have a pool view room on the first floor, and at night you can see and hear fireworks coming from Disney! The pool area is very clean, and so is the club house and fitness center. Maintenance responds quite promptly to problems within, and pest control has been great. There was just a pretty big rent increase, but we've decided to stay because we feel safe here. And of course, the proximity to Publix and La Isla are bonuses for groceries. Not to mention, living off of 192 and just a few miles from i-4 makes this community so ideal, we never have to travel too far for shopping or entertainment.

5 months behind schedule. Took a lot of people's money and left a lot of people without places to live. Not worth it.. STAY AWAY!

I can't say from experience that this property will be worth the wait, but I have been "homeless" for nearly two months waiting for my apartment to be ready. Thankfully I have a friend to stay with during the transition period, but this is ridiculous. The property manager is not running operations on site, and she rarely visits the property to update future residents on the progress. My recommendation is to find a place to live elsewhere until this complex has fulfilled its promises with the tenants still hanging on to the hope of moving in soon.

I agree with the other review here. I am rarely one to complain, and I would rather talk problems out directly with the company. Things are usually misunderstandings. But, this management company has been the absolute hands down worst management experience I've ever had. I'm sure the complex will be beautiful if it ever gets finished being built. But, I have been nothing but taken advantage of from minute one with this business relationship. And if that is any indicator of how this management company will MANAGE this property once it's open, I would stay as far away from it as possible. We were promised the sky and the stars just so they would get our application money and then told nothing we were told in writing would happen, and at the very last minute. It's costing thousands and thousands of dollars to correct this mistake because this company hung us out to dry. We are moving from over 1000 miles away and will now be homeless thanks to not being told until it was too late that our unit wouldn't be ready on time. Not to mention the entire process seems to drag on forever, almost as if they are intentionally taking their time so that more people will leave and get over accommodations, thereby SACRIFICING their non-refundable fees. Then when we ask for updates, we basically get the same cut and paste email over and over again under the pretense that they are "keeping us in the loop".Thanks a lot for taking care of your customers guys. Remind me to never ask you to actually do anything when I'm a tenant since it won't be taken care of until a year after my lease is up. Do yourself a favor and find somewhere to live that actually respects customers.

I hate complainers. In my line of work it means they are trying to manipulate a system to milk it for something free. I believe that you can catch more bees with honey than a stick. That being said, however, the following are reasons why I found it necessary to rate The Oaks apartments with 2 stars, and write a review of malcontent. No one is a bad guy here. The Oaks at Southlake Commons is a beautiful complex with a lot going for them, and I understand that reaching the caliber of promises they have made takes time. The people who work for management, whom we have communicated with, have been as gracious and accommodating as they possibly can. Being the middle man between construction and the prospective tenants is a difficult place to be in, and in no way is this a commentating plight against them. However, and this is where my words take a turn, my wife and I may have been made promises that caused more inconveniences than accommodations. My wife and I have been in the process of moving cross-country for the last 5 months. We found the listing for The Oaks here, and we invested and signed to a move-in date of June 1st. We gave proper notices to our jobs, we rented and packed a truck, and are now in the process of moving from one end of the country to the other. We planned every bit of our lives around the date we were given and signed for. Two weeks before our travel dates, we were sent more contracts to sign, namely a Construction Addendum that rid the complex of liability for any further set backs. We signed, thinking it was just a small contingency if the pool wasn't done, or paint needed to dry. This was our mistake. Having had all of our plans made, trucks signed for, hotels booked and everything paid for, we had no choice but to continue on our trek across the U.S.. Now that we are two days away from our final destination, our moving in is looking hopeless. After reading reviews and calling certain electric companies and management services, all answers we have received are tentative and contradicting. Which, with a moving truck and nothing left but a few dollars to spend, we have found ourselves deep in debt with having to pay for contingency plans to otherwise accommodate a move-in date we were promised, but have had pushed back. That being said, if you have even the slightest bit weighing on moving into this complex, I would seriously recommend that you look elsewhere until the parties that be have a more definitive answer to questions.