Portofino Apartments & Townhouses

"I really do not like giving negative reviews and used to give reviews so glowing whenever I was asked to do so on the residents portal where I paid the rent that the accounts manager told my husband that he looked forward to reading them. Now I am absolutely devasted by how I am being treated by the residents' portal and feel that I simply must warn prospective tenants. The residents' portal changed on November 30th with no warning about how the portal WOULD change so I imagine my surprise when I went in to pay my rent at the beginning of December only to find that the exact same account from which I have paid my rent every month ON TIME for the last nine years was considered UNVERIFIED! So I clicked to enter my bank account to have it verified. At this point I was told that the portal was being operated by Master Card and not McKinley, which owns the aprtments I live in. I do not have a Master Card and do not want any credit cards at all. So I backed out of that and was told to manually enter my bank account information. I was fine with that because that is how I did it originall and did so again as instructed by the residents portal , only to be told that my bank accoutn was not permitted to pay my rent and that the verification process would take 3 BUSINESS DAYS! So that means that they can stick tenants like me with LATE RENT penalties because the first came on Friday so nothing can be done over the weekend while banks are closed. I went to the rental office to write them a check. They refused to accept my check. I was instructed to pay with the credit card I do not have. So I got the number of the rent processor from the rental agent in the office because she has no power to help tenants with these matters. I called the account manager and was so upset that I was ready to cry but got only a voice mail. When the accounts manager Karlenn Melendez tol me to go to Publix and get a money order. I walked over the overpass to the Publix on Kirkman Road to get the money orders on her word alone because the residents portal did not give that as an option and Melody, the rental agent who shows the apartments to prospective tenants, had not known that tenants could do that. Well, we can't. Publix doesn't even make money orders that big! So after a very stressful weekend of pure hell, I ran over to the 7-Eleven on Kirkman and Vineland to verify that the 7-Eleven could accept cash payments for rent for the Portofino Apartments behind them. They did not know what I was talking about. That was this morning, Monday, December 4th. So I emailed Karlenn and told her that I was out of options and that I was going to go home and get my stuff ready to move when we were kicked out. because I will not take responsiblity for the fact that the residents portal will not accept rent. I have heard nothing back despite my emails and my calls for the past three days. I shall tell the judge my experiences when thhe apartment company says get out. I refuse to accept this kind of treatment. I had the rent money and still do but to hell with their late fees etc. I will spent what could have been my landlord's money getting myself a new place. Stay away from any McKinley properties. This is a McKinley issue. I would have given them their money, but right now I just want to call the news media and tell them my story. In fact, that is probably a good idea because other tenants are unhappy too according to Melody in the rental office. Let McKinley try to sure me for late rent. I will counter-sue for what I have been through. I have started telline my neighbors goodbye. I have a feeling that anyone who got that portal to work is going to regret it. Master Card is in charge of it now if the tenant updates the way the landlord prefers so they will probably get hit with credit card interest on late fees and probably their rent too because Portofino didn't give us time to take care of "verifying" accounts which have always works fine before."

"Michelle, Meldoy and Kim were amazing, they help us so much to get our apt, it was an amazing experience"

"If I could give them a lowers score I would. The only thing you are being charged here is for location and management will see you as a number so don’t expect much. Also, getting your car messed up or broken into here is a given so I would get cameras."

"I am in Florida relocating and was prepared to secure an Apartment today. Was excited about Portofino. Planned on filling out and signing off. I understood there were no apartments they can show me and my move in date is a few weeks away. Totally fine. I asked if I could at least see the building and the outside of the unit so I could make sure I liked the location. I was told NO. No one is allowed inside unless you are a tenant, for safety reasons. Well needless to say I am not choosing Portofino. For over $2500 a month I would think they could show me the outside of a potential rental. They said once its all paid and approved I could go look. I wont be back! No thanks"

"One star is too much, I left the apartment in May 2021, but incredibly yesterday 01/14/2022 after 8 months, for the first time I received an email from Robert Martes, threatening me to send an outstanding balance created by them to the collection if we did not resolve it as soon as possible. They charged me $150 for apartment cleaning, $150 for carpet cleaning, two smoke detectors missing $60 which cost is only $10 each, among others things. Honestly, I made sure to turn in the apartment very clean, sparkly, and shiny. This was completely disappointing and unfair. I cannot finish this review without saying that the cockroaches drove us crazy, they walked into my baby's bed. Please, don't say that I didn't call pest control because I got tired of doing it and it didn't work. To summarize please do not select this place to live, they are going to take advantage of your money."