Landmark at Grand Palms

My fiancé were looking to move here and decided not too. Here are some reasons why we decided not and why it was considered.
First of all this complex had won a series of awards noted in the apartment guide. We also liked the idea of the car ports for residences. Knowing a couple living there we had heard that it was accessible to only residents but only residents. We liked this idea.
However, after the most recent award this has changed and they are now forcing residents to pay over 15 $ a month per spot or be stuck walking long distances in many instances. This was actually a was a positive change from 15 $ for one and 40 $ for two.
Another positive was the complex seemed very bright and pleasant and the lake was highlighted very well.
However, I noticed the age of the complex and it didn’t seem that kept up as far as the actual apartments go. The appliances were especially aged.
My final positives are, office staff and the floor plans that included fireplaces and washers and dryers. The office staff were especially pleasant.
As far as negatives go, they seem many and have been compounded by recent stories from my friend who is a current resident.
First, my resident friend continues to be charged the «optional» valet trash fee despite not choosing or using it because they live right by the dumpster. This is an additional fee to the normal trash fee. It’s not «optional» if there is no real choice.
Furthermore the kitchens are being upgraded finally, this is a good thing for new residents as they will get new kitchens and carpet. However, for those who are resigning leases and not moving to another unit, they will be subject to the increased fee that the apartment complex is now charging and be stuck with all the same, very old appliances and carpeting. Unacceptable.
The units have washers and dryers which are very old, we have our own so we wanted to se if the complex would let us switch them out. It turns out the complex charges its residents for the «free» washers and dryers. The complex said it would take out their units for free but would still charge us the fee for using their machines even though the machines we would be using would be ours. Also unacceptable.
My resident friend also noted the major wasp problem and continuous issues with his air conditioning, washer and dryer units and plumbing.
In the end it seems like the awards have gone to the heads of this complex and they are abusing their power and notoriety to steal the hard earned money of those who have less and less to part with every month, but more and more being taken away.
This complex had great potential but it will take a major ethical turn around of the management and a full overhaul of every unit, top to bottom. My advice is save your money and find someplace else to call home. That’s what my friend is doing when his lease is up.

Unfortunately as my year of living here comes to an end, I have to downgrade my original rating by one star. I mean absolutely no disrespect to the staff, the community, or any of the wonderful people here, but these apartments were built in the 1980s and they need a bit of work and unfortunately they need more work than maintenance can do alone.
First I will highlight what we liked about the community and the apartment. Large porch with storage. Fireplace. Washer and Dryer, no extra charge. Dishwasher. Vaulted ceiling. Walk-​in closets. Nice view of pond/​fountain from porch. 3 community pools (no hot tubs). Pretty decent community gym, and decent size, for only a slight additional fee. AND THE RENT IS THE RIGHT PRICE. We paid about $ 900 for 2 bedrooms 1100 square feet.
I do think the price is going up because they begin doing trash pick up 5 nights a week. We did not need to utilize trash service that much because it was sometimes difficult to meet the 6 to 8pm time frame for getting it picked up.
Now what we did not like so much…
A significant number of windows were missing screens. We requested new screens and the office and maintenance kept making excuses about back order. It has been a year and still no screens.
Dryer vent. We moved in and ran the dryer for hours but could not dry, all we could smell was electrical fire smell. I made multiple maintenance requests and they would come and try to pull some lint/​animal hair out of the wall from behind the dryer and claim it was fixed but it was not. I took apart about 6 wire hangers and tied them together, took a stepping stool outside, and had to fish all the lint and animal hair, I think previous owners had a giant husky dog, out of the ventilation myself to get any results. After I did that, the dryer worked so-​so, I have definitely seen better. As we approach one year here, I have begun to notice a decline in drying power once again.
Bugs. I know bugs are a reality in Florida. And honestly I am surprised that we only found a handful, probably less than 5 cockroaches all year, especially because the fireplace and chimney looked like easy access. WASPS AND ANTS!!! These were the problems. I must have gone through 20 bottled of Raid. See the problem is the screens are not perfectly sealed. We complained about this early in the lease. Rotten wood and other edges of the screens are deteriorating and/​or had holes. Maintenance patched the holes and used caulk on the rotten wood. I re-​caulked a few times during the year, but it just seemed futile. The building continues to shift and settle. You can tell from creaky floor boards this is the case. And I would not mind had the settling not allowed ants and wasps into the screened in balcony.
Wasp nests are all over the building. I complained once and asked maintenance to take care of it. Not sure if they did. They did not come into my apartment, so they would not have left me a copy of the work order. Usually I just used my own can of Raid. But the wasps just would not go away.
They treat for pests inside. But the treatment seemed ineffective. If there was even one grain of sugar spilled in the kitchen, ants would start coming out of a hole in the wall or from behind a cabinet, or my favorite (NOT) an electrical socket… It did not matter if the pest control had sprayed us 1 day ago, 1 week ago, or 1 month ago, ants wanted that sugar. I swear there was a different breed of ants living in each wall. Of all the bugs, the ants here bothered me the most. Maybe other buildings are not as bad as mine, but apartment 1506 has not been my favorite apartment in the world (note that I have seen much much worse and 3 stars is an A-​OK rating, I just want to fully explain every issue to make clear why this is not a 5 star apartment).
Sliding door always squeaks. Maintenance tried to fix it, and we did too. WD-​40 would only help for a day or 2 and then it would start squeaking again.
Drain. It was like clock work, every month the drain would be clogged in the shower and we would have to call maintenance and have them snake it. They would usually get it snaked within a day or two, and we did have another shower we could use, but it was an inconvenience to have to use the guest shower instead of the master bedroom shower because it was filling up with gross water.
Leaky A/​C. Maintenance blew the drain pipe out once, and it helped some, but not enough. The pan would fill up and start dripping on even mildly warm days. Unfortunately, the dripping ruined some of our suitcases that were stored below the A/​C unit.
Ultimately, If they completely re-​did the screens and railings on the balcony and tore out the rotten wood, overhauled the drainage for the showers and A/​C and had a professional come in and clean out the dryer vent, I bet this place could easily regain a 4 star rating. Mechel is friendly with great service. We were just spoiled by our last apartment.