Portofino At Biscayne

Whatever you do, do NOT live here! There are roaches everywhere. Everyone one who works here barely speaks English. The Management team is horrible and very disrespectful, they will send you all over the place before your problem is solved. (If it’s even solved) I was supposed to move in into a studio but, the studio they told me I would move in to was occupied so I couldn’t review it until they moved out. So, being proactive I watched the video of the studio and I loved it. But, a day before I was supposed to move in I found it out that the room on the video they showed me wasn’t the room I was supposed to move into. (Big lie) It was literally a mess. Then, I moved into their overpriced 1 bedroom and everyday since I moved in it has been a different problem. I’ve lived here for 10 days and wish I can leave but I signed a 15 month lease. But, at this point I don’t even care about breaking it. It’s just poor business and you pay so much money for filth and lack of respect.

This property does not even deserve 1 star. Dog excrements in the elevator, bad smell, cockroaches and really rude staff!!!
Will definitely not stay here longer than the contract period.
Please don’t go there and find a better place to live a life without those issues!
Community looks nice on pictures, okay on the first look once you’re there.
But when you wake up at night for the third time because the train is practically rolling through your living room, you know it was not worth moving here.

I have lived here for 5 days so far, and this place is a f***ing dump. Roaches EVERYWHERE, the hallways smell disgusting, the people that live here are ghetto. I had already paid for everything before reading these reviews and everything on here is absolutely true, well except the management, we’ll see when I go tomorrow, I’ve been very patient so far. This place deserves negative stars.

Roaches. Roaches. and more Roaches. Ive lived here since April 2015 and it just gets worse, i live in the 60 building. I’m NOT renewing my lease either. 1300 for a one bedroom full of roaches. yuck!!! Ive had pest control come almost every week and no change. The leasing agents suck, they never pick up phone or have any sympathy for there tenants. My friend lives In the 40 building and they have a Rat infestation. They caught 5 rats In one week. then maintenance put Rat poison all over complex, so they ate it and started dying in the wall’s. The whole building smells like dead animals. omg how disgusting. I would never suggest this place to anyone. It looks nice but looks are deceiving. please Do Not Rent from this place. and if u do consider your self warned.

Although I signed a one year lease here, I was barely home due to traveling for work quite often, and it was still the worst and most horrifying experience ever. The negative comments others have to say about the management team, specifically Jim Ruiz and the maintenance staff are true and more.
I was not allowed to see my apt before I moved in, and upon move-​in, my toilet was broken, so I requested maintenance service to have it fixed. While maintenance was working on it, I had already moved a lot of my stuff in, then went shopping at Target across the street to buy more home stuff. When I came home, my apt was completely flooded and the toilet was leaking because it was not fixed properly. There was no after hours maintenance to fix it, so I was forced to grab all the towels I could find to clean and dry my apt. Much of my own property was damaged from this. This was my first day in my apt. Later, Jim Ruiz said that my lease states that I am liable for any damages incurred by the maintenance staff in my apt.
The dog urine, dog feces, noise, and cockroaches were actually the least of my concerns, but to keep this review to a minimum, I will only mention a few more things.
There was a murder in my apt building during my stay here. Police officers are called to this complex weekly due to domestic abuse disputes and more. Oh, and don’t bother calling maintenance when your apt is flooding from the rain, because they won’t come! My windows leaked every single time it rained, and no one ever came to fix it.
My laundry was stolen! I normally always wait for the last 2 mins while my clothes are drying, but this time I came 1 min late, and all of my clothes were gone!
Lastly, upon move out, I learned just how blood sucking, scandalous scum bags they all are. They really will try to rob you of your money.
This place is just a big disappointment

If you are reading this and are considering moving to Portofino, only do so if you have low standards of treatment by management and if you do not mind brown American cockroaches (not all of the Portofino buildings have cockroaches, but some do). Also consider it only if you don’t mind dog pee in the hallway and stairs as a weekly occurrence or random spills in the half-​the-​time-​working elevators alongside leaky broken never-​fixed washing machines. Also, if you don’t mind police vehicles being rushed into the complex weekly. Also continue to consider it if you are okay with your car being towed from in front of the building when you run in to check your mail. Also consider it if you don’t mind the smell of marijuana in the hallway and elevator. If you live here and love it then I am happy for you and wish you all the best. If you have already moved in and are now reading this and realizing how precise it is, my word of advice to you would be to be nice to the manager at all times, or else you will face the consequences. Also keep copies and personal records of everything you exchange with the front office.

Only live here if this is the only place you can afford. I’ve been here almost 5 years… the management staff are really mean & will gang up on you. They’re very experienced at dismissing whatever issue you might want to discuss and won’t let you get a word in. Every time I visit the management office I leave almost in tears. It’s very aggravating trying to resolve ANY issue with them. They are shuffling you out of the office before you even finish explaining anything. They’ve made lots of physical changes to the property which have mostly been lovely but don’t be fooled by the façade. The maintenance do a nice job & are somewhat friendly but brush up on your Spanish in order to communicate with them. They keep saying they’ve changed their pet policy but new dogs move in every month. I can’t stress enough how MEAN the management staff are. They are very mean.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this place, so prepare for a long review because I think this place has both good and bad things to be talked about. I’ve been living here for 6 months in a studio apartment and shockingly it’s a decent space for my boyfriend, myself, and my cat. I love the wood floors and the little window in the kitchen. The closet is a blessing, I can fit e v e r y t h i n g in there. The amenities aren’t bad either. The location is great, convenient to get everywhere yet it feels kindof quiet being in the back of the whole complex. I don’t have many complaints as long as I don’t have to contact any of the management. Jennifer is the sweetest most helpful person, but the other people I’ve dealt with are seriously so rude, and it takes a lot for me to say that about someone. They also never answer the phones, which is a pain when you just have little questions about keys or something minor.
My friend was going to stay over the summer and we wanted to register the car so we wouldn’t have to call the gate every time they came in and so they wouldn’t get towed. We were prepared to pay any fees necessary. The lady who «helped» me didn’t even hear me out and said absolutely not unless they are on the lease. So I said fine and was on my way. I stopped by Jennifer’s office to see if it was possible and she registered the car for me with no problem, seeing as I always pay the rent early and have never had an issue.
The next day I received a call from Jennifer saying that she got in trouble and that the other lady told her I had thrown something at her and stormed out. Seriously?! This infuriated me, seeing as I would never be that disrespectful. I’m still bitter but whatever, we sucked it up and payed to fee to add to the lease and it’s done.
Another things that’s really weird is that I think when they saw how young I was, they decided to put me in the back building, or as most refer to it, the «ghetto» building. It’s beyond me how one building in a decent complex can be ghetto, but it is. I guess they just put all the college kids in this building since it’s the furthest one from the rest of the complex. The fire alarm is constantly going off at night, it’s happened at least 6 times since I moved in, so that’s like once a month. I also had another resident one night tell me to be careful because they were robbed in front of the building — I don’t really know how true that was but it is a concerning thing to hear. When I moved in there was some girl who dragged a trash bag down the hall and got crap everywhere — and I mean literal crap it was a bag of dog poo. Thankfully the cleaning staff is incredible and I appreciate what they do so much, they cleaned it up right away. I always see them cleaning and they keep this place great for there being so many people who don’t clean up after their pets. I have never seen a bug despite what everyone complains about, personally I think it’s all about how clean you keep your own unit because everywhere in Miami has such old buildings that you’re guaranteed to have bugs if your space is dirty.
They’re currently repainting the buildings so it’s starting to look really nice, and they’re resurfacing the parking lots and as much as they look nice I think they’re just covering the road with tar because it’s just as bumpy as it’s always been. The gate security is great, they take their job seriously and call every time you have a guest. Some people get annoyed with that but I love knowing that not just anyone is coming into the complex.
Overall I think it’s a great space if you like to keep to yourself and don’t cause any problems. But if every little thing bothers you, this isn’t the place for you.

Management is the worse. No matter how loyal you are if you make one mistake they will make you pay and will show no emotion. They don’t value their customers. I would advice paying a little more at a location where you are valued. Carlos the manager is someone you never want to meet.

I would happily write this place with negative stars if I could but Unilocal insists I provide at least one. These are the worst apartments in all of Miami… There’s roaches ALL OVER THE PLACE. Everything is always broken and the pool is cloudy with urine.
Portofino at biscayne is essentially a bunch of project buildings without the «Portofino Housing» signs.
People will threaten you if you asked them not to smoke in the elevator and the apartment manager Jim says «well that can happen anywhere».
Stay far away from these people… If it looks too good to be true it probably is… There’s no reason it should take 7 minutes to get approved to live somewhere desirable.
Everyone smokes and all the buildings reek of cigarettes… There’s piss in the hallways, piss in the elevators, dog excrement in the stairs (who knows it could be human excrement)
If you have a problem with the apartment complex they’re going to insist that the problem is you and that this problem could happen anywhere, don’t let them convince you that these poor conditions are normal because this is not a normal lifestyle.

Whoever runs this crap hole and everyone who works at the office you guys need to stop scamming people and screwing people over. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had to be so dishonest to make a living. I would never charge that much for rent when the conditions of the building isn’t even up to code, I have seen lower income homes waaaaay nicer than that such as, the Eclipse in Fort Lauderdale.

Stay away from this community; it is one of the noisiest places ever and there is one of the most irresponsible management I have ever seen in my life.
I have lived here for one year and will be moving out next month as they are raising the rent by nearly $ 80 a month! From very first day up to now I have had roaches almost everywhere, in the room, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and have tried everything to get rid of them. Our neighbors on all sides are sooo noisy. They are constantly running up and down my hallway and it even drives me more insane when they slam the door at 2 AM and wake me up. The walls inside my apt are super thin that you can easily hear the TV, radio or music playing by neighbors on all sides. There is almost always marijuana smells in the hallway that is supper annoying.
The bathrooms are small and have no medicine cabinet. The kitchen has only one electrical outlet and a very small counter and if I put only my microwave on it, there won’t be any other room for putting other things on the counter. There are only 2 washers and 2 dryers on each level many of which are constantly broken here and those that are operational have always plenty of pet hair as the washer and dryer do not remove hair pet as they are ancient and this is absolutely so disgusting and gross to me! The gym here sucks, there are only a few machines that are all ancient and mostly broken; the restroom inside it is extremely horribly dirty. There are two small and old treadmills one of which has been broken from the very first day I moved in.
The trees in the parking lot have screwed up my car paint. The sap tree has stained all my car. I paid $ 82 to busy bee to remove the spots and sap but after they removed it. there is still some tracks left.
This is supposed to be a gated community but the gate is broken every other day and there is always some clueless security guard there who lets ANYONE in if he/​she feels like it. Within the second month I moved in, while they have the so-​called security guard, someone broke into my car that was parked in the parking lot, I reported it to the police and also wrote to the management and letting them know, but the management NEVER replied to my email! The manager «Jim Ruiz» hardly writes «HELLO/​HI» or «PLEASE» in his emails. Like today, I emailed him asking regarding my «deposit» and he NEVER said «HI» and just mentioned: «Deposits are returned from NY within 30 days of vacating» That is also very ridiculous! To be able to move into my new place, I need my deposit now that is equal to TWO MONTHS RENT. They are taking advantage of my deposits AFTER I move out. The management and the rules here simply sucks!
The benefits of living here is «NOTHING»! Do not ever think of experiencing living here or you will regret it; they just eat your money without delivering any good and satisfying services.

This community has in its premises two parks. I have two small children, my son whom just turned three years old this past Monday and my daughter who’s one and a half years old. Both of them would love to go running in the parks, and this is one of the reasons why we chose to move in to the Portofino. However, my husband and I have found that our children can not play freely in neither one of the parks for a couple of reasons. First, the Portofino at Biscayne has not made neither park child friendly nor added a play ground. Second, many of our neighbors own pets. The pet excrement is found scattered throughout the parks. Many of the ‘mindful’ neighbors do not leash their pets, thus causing the pet to, playfully or not, run towards my children scaring and upsetting them and sometimes even knocking them to the ground. For this reason we have opted not to use the parks so that our children are not affected by this situation. Due to this situation, when my children walk through the hallways, they are at times spooked by the loud barks of the neighbors’ dogs, I don’t want my kids to be scared of dogs I would like to get them a pet in the near future and this is just making it harder.
As I walk with my husband and children through the hallways, I also can not help but notice how often there is tobacco and even marijuana smell in the halls and elevators, and wonder why the Portofino management team does not enforce a tobacco free environment inside the buildings. The enclosed smell of smoke in the tight spaces of hallways and elevators can adversely affect and cause serious respiratory problems on any person let alone small children. It is inevitable to notice how the halls can go for two weeks at a time without being cleaned when dog hair is abundantly spread throughout the floors and water comes out from the laundry room and remains stagnant in front of the elevators, where my son slipped and fell the other day because of it. This does not resemble in any way the sign at the entrance of the community that reads «Portofino at Biscayne Luxury Rentals».
None of this helps living comfortably in the community. From the moment we moved in to the building, when they gave us a form to fill out and write in it the conditions in which we received the apartment. We noted in it the presence and abundance of roaches in the apartment. The paint from the bathroom tub and sink pealing off revealing that this bathroom was never renovated as they told us when showing us the apartment, only covered with paint to mask its age and filthiness. We also noted the kitchen sink’s water faucet being loose from its base. None of these issues were ever addressed after turning in the form along with the form for the car’s registry. Instead, their ‘great’ customer service staff at the management office took the forms from my hand and only spoke to ask «did you pay the fifty dollars?». As these issues continue, my son has developed an odd and extremely irritating rash in his body that has been ongoing for over three months now, which, as lab biopsies reflect at the dermatology clinics the doctors infer that the rash may have been caused by the roach infestation in the apartment. Therefore, if you ask me, neither in the community nor inside the apartment have we felt like we’re living comfortably.
I have learned that when some one tries to mask their faults they would normally create excuses rather than solutions to fix the flaws. And that is the attitude I find in the management team at the Portofino at Biscayne. Rather than eradicating the infestation of roaches in the building the decision taken is to paint the building, just like my bathroom tub. Which made me decide not to waist my valuable time pointing out the obvious only for it not to be resolved. And after seeing how much the management office starting from the Manager down, lacks in people skills, it would completely be a waste of my time. The times I’ve approached the office, it looks like it takes them a real effort to even acknowledge that someone has walked in the room. A simple smile or hello is ever absent. They will continue to talk among themselves or do their desk works until you repeat your hello at least three times. And I will not get into their tone of voice and seemingly angry demeanor. We’re ready to move out once the lease is up and it hasn’t even been six months yet. This may just be our experience, but from the looks of other reviews, these issues are more common than I thought.

these negative reviews aren’t over-​exaggerating!!!

One star is too much, this place is over price the management manager is so rude staff is horrible. INFESTED with roaches. They don’t clean the hallways and there’s always dog feces, pee and trash on the hallways. Do not move here you will regret it!!!

KEEP THE H*LL AWAY!
The Maintenance staff does not speak any english, you will swear your in latin america, they don’t know how to fix anything. The management staff sucks, the are all queer and disgusting attitudes. They dont want to help you with anything. I was new to the area and it was in my budget, I thought it was going to be good since they had a gate and a guard, however they don’t do anything they let anyone in. The grounds are filthy it looks like a jungle on the property. The gym sucks, nothing works in there, I was once in there and a leg machine snapped as someone was using it. There is a damn train track outside the property and I swear that train runs non stop from 2am until 7am. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE, its better to just live in a crappy place in Hollywood florida and save yourself easily $ 500 bucks. THIS PLACE HAS BEEN A HELL FOR ME, I broke the lease and let them keep the deposit!
Oh yes and Let me also mention that most of the tenants are Prostitutes both male and females, How do I know they come home wearing their work outfits, this is not a place for families. This place seemed more like a Housing Project.

If you want to wave to the «Cops» camerman from the background, this may be the place for you!
I lived here for almost two years, and it is a total health code nightmare. The cockroaches are everywhere, I was spending about $ 20 a month on bug spray and I begged management to do something and they told me I wasn’t permitted to use my own spray. They didn’t do anything, so I moved out. I had two attempted break-​ins. There are drug-​dealers constantly in the parking lots. The person above me played loud music until 3 or 4 in the morning, I asked the office to talk to him, they said there was nothing they could do… So I spoke to him, and the music stopped, he told me they never contacted him –turns out he was a nice guy. The stray cats will sleep on the warm hood of your car and scratch your paint when they jump down, mentioned it to Carlos the manager he said «not my problem.» The gym? Every pad on every machine is ripped, machines constantly broken, and they expect you to tell people they can’t go in without a key. The pools were typically dirty, except the one they show you on the tour. The elevators and hallways constantly have dog pee and sometimes worse in them. The janitors clean early, and by afternoon its disgusting again. They booted my car claiming my registration was expired, it wasn’t but they told me it was $ 80 to remove the boot.
This place is dirty, its not safe, and its not like they show you on the tour or in the pictures. I highly recommend you watch this video I found on youtube about Portofino:
I moved out more than a year ago and I haven’t looked back.

I rented a 2 bedroom at Portofino. A week after moving in I purchased a brand new TV and a brand new mattress along with personal items. One night after returning home from work my apt key did not work. I had to wait to the following day to get a replacement key. When I entered the apt EVERYTHING WAS STOLEN !!! when I say everything is everything including the trash, shower soap, and even cloths (including TV and brand new mattress of course)…The apt. looked as if was ready to be rented out gain. I talked to scumbag office manager Carlos who quickly said to me «What kind of friends you have? it sure looks like someone you know did it…» what a scumbag, hell is waiting for him… Police was called and to make the story short I moved out the same day !!! I contacted property manager Pilar, another scumbag, and she couldn’t care less… BEWARE maintenance workers will get into your apt and steal from you!!! CARLOS AND PILAR ARE SCUMBAGS THEY WILL NOT HELP YOU !!!

I visited one of my closest friend who moved to Miami over a yr ago, this past weekend she brought me to place.
I was pretty amazed, i love how they had hardwood floors. She lives in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. Very spacious and the balcony view isn’t much to look out of BUT from a far you can see the ocean.
This location has a very convenient security system to get in. Off of the main street. a lot of near by stores.

Cockroaches have taken over the community…
I’ve lived here going on 6 years. In the beginning I was happy with everything. The price, the staff, the residents, etc. Well the honeymoon is definitely over, and we will be moving in June and here is why:
–The residents are mostly scumbags. don’t get me wrong not ALL of them, but most of them are ghetto, pot-​smoking, rude and I find myself wondering how in the hell can they afford to live here??? Are they just squatters who came up with the deposit and moved in?
–The buildings have a serious cockroach infestation, even though they spray once a month. It’s never ending and progressively gets worse every year. I believe management really doesn’t know what else to do about it. I think that they try, but…
–Last year when I signed my lease I was tricked when it came to how much I was actually supposed to pay, the difference being $ 80/​mo. When I checked my acct a couple of months after signing the lease I sent an email to Carlos (manager) and he emailed me back that it was a mistake and he would fix it. Another month goes by and it still shows that i’m behind in rent so I contact Pilar (manager) who tells me that Carlos was wrong and that the lease I signed states the inflated $ 80/​mo difference. Mind you their leases are very difficult to understand and do not actually state the amount that you have to pay every month. They do this to trick residents into signing contracts when they are told a different amount up front. I told Pilar about the email and she said, «oh well, you signed the lease». Portofino is owned by Stellar Management out of New York. So I contacted Stellar Management via email and never got a response. They obviously don’t care.
–A few years back I was actually stalked by one of their employees (maintenance worker). When I called Pilar to inform her of the situation she suggested that I move out and she will let me break my lease!!! WTF??? After living there for 3 years and paying rent on time every month she would rather lose a resident than fire a creepy maintenance worker??? I told her she lost her mind, so then she said she would change my locks and the office wouldn’t have a copy of my key. Whatever, the employee still worked for them another 6 months…
Portofino could care less about the residents. They just see them as dollar signs. I cannot wait to GTF out. There’s a special place in hell for people like Pilar and Carlos…