Lark on 42nd

"I've lived at The Lark for over 3 years and it's one of the best places I've lived. The complex is usually clean, and the staff always hold fun events during the semester with opportunities to win great (worthwhile) prizes. The pool is always clean, and so are the lounge areas. The reception staff is always friendly and have been helpful any time I had questions. The maintenance team is also fantastic. I've never had an issue with maintenance taking too long or something not being fixed well. The location is great because it's within walking distance to USF, but there is also access to great restaurants and shopping if you go down Bruce B Downs. Lettuce Lake Park is also close by if you like to hike or get outdoors to bike in a safe area when traffic is heavy. I know there are some other reviews of complaints, and no place is perfect, but I'd totally recommend this complex to anyone, especially students at USF. If I did have a complaint, it would be the coffee shop attached to the complex (which is not even affiliated with The Lark), has pricey coffee."

"Dealing with Lark is a nightmare! My roommate and I wanted to renew our lease, but they hit us with ridiculous rules. They basically said either I move into a new place with two random people (a guy and a girl, no less!) and pay $200 to stay with my roommate, or stay in the same place with three randoms. We both signed to renew for next year but unfortunately, my roommate signed late and was assigned to a random apartment. We're asking Lark administration to change the random person assigned to our apartment for him, as he has another spot in the same building with the same floor plan. It's a fair and completely reasonable request as it would only require them to change the random person for him. However, they are completely unapproachable and only make the problem worse. Several of my friends have lived here, and I've seen how they've made special accommodations for them, but they claim they can't do it for all. They don't care about us at all, just about squeezing money out of our pockets. If you're thinking of moving here, think again! Look for a place that actually cares about its residents' happiness."

"Does not meet sanitary practices!! Living in Lark has been a terrible experience. Not only have we had multiple issues, but when we try to contact lark about it they ignore our requests and refuse to help us. Since I moved to lark, my apartment has flooded 4 times and only once has lark agreed to send someone to clean it, since it flooded with dirty sewer water and it smelled incredibly disgusting. The other three times we have had to clean this unsanitary water ourselves. Our AC has been broken for a month, and after complaining multiple times to lark for over a week they finally agreed to set us up with a window AC. When we asked if we could get one for our rooms as well, they rudely replied "Don't you have fans?". After a month, our AC has still not been fixed. My roommates closet flooded due to humidity and she got extremely sick, and some of her stuff was ruined. Also, the hallways are extremely dirty and unsanitary. There has been vomit in the first floor hallway for around a week, and when I notified Lark about this, they ignored my request. The vomit has still not been cleaned and the whole hallway smells like puke. In the grills outside, we found way too many larvas moving and living there, and again, when I notified lark about this, they completely ignored me. I mentioned that they are failing to meet sanitary practices and that this could get them in legal trouble, and instead of trying to meet these practices or to clean the grills or the hallway, they responded that they have contacted their legal team to defent themselves. I don't understand why they couldn't have just disinfected the grills and the hallway. They would rather get into a legal fight than take responsibility and do some cleaning. Not only does lark offer a bad service, but it refuses to help residents who complain, and the building does not meet basic sanitary practices. If you point this out, they will do anything BUT try to meet the sanitary practices. I guess they simply don't like cleaning. Regarding the gargage stairway, I believe it has never been cleaned, not even once, since for the two years that I have been living here, it still has the same dirt spots. We have had a lot more issues with lark but it would take me way to long to tell them all. Do yourself a favor, and do not move to lark. Extremely high price for such a terrible service. I cannot post videos, so I tried my best to take screenshots of the dirty sewer water and the larvas in the grills. The larvas were all alive and moving, and there's easily more than 100 larvas beneath just one side of the grill."

"In my opinion, this has been a great living experience overall. I think Lark has the best overall appeal of off campus housing around USF. It has a very smart apartment layout, modern finishes and appliances, and extremely friendly staff. Lark makes a great effort at keeping their public spaces clean with a very hard working custodial staff that is constantly cleaning hallways and more. I also have to say that the rooms have the perfect size and decent closet space. Since I moved in, everything has been smooth sailing for me from the leasing, to the move in, to living here for almost a year. My one recommendation is to look out for those deals because Lark is constantly offering something new with signing!"