-- READ THIS BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING AT PIER 8 AT THE PRESERVE…read more
I am writing this from an Airbnb. Let that sink in. I pay rent on an apartment at this property, and I cannot live in it, because it is growing mold on the ceiling, around the HVAC access panel, down the walls, around the vents, in my bedroom, in my closet, and in my guest bathroom. My two dogs are at a sitter. Every night I spend in a hotel and every day my dogs spend boarded is money out of my pocket, on top of the rent I am still paying for a home I cannot safely enter. And management's position is that this is fine, and that I should just keep living there.
Here is exactly how this has gone, with dates, because I have documented everything.
On the morning of October 21, 2026, I woke up to extensive mold growth throughout my apartment, Unit 301. I did everything a good resident is supposed to do. I photographed it. I submitted a service request that same day. Within 48 hours the mold had spread into my guest bathroom, bedroom, and closet.
Management sent a company out to assess it, and their first instinct was to blame me. They claimed this happened because I had not replaced my HVAC filter. That claim is false, and I can prove it with a receipt: I changed that filter less than two weeks before any of this appeared.
I have repeatedly asked management to provide me with the results from the company they sent into my home. They will not give them to me. Think about that. There are professional findings about the air and the walls inside the apartment I pay for, and the people who manage this property will not show them to the person who lives there.
I sent a formal written notice under Florida law. I wrote to them again on Friday, October 23, disputing the filter claim, sending additional photos of the new growth, and asking for a mutual termination of my lease without penalty, so I could leave a home that is making me sick and we could end this cleanly. That email went unanswered.
I have since spoke with them, and here is the answer I got from Community Manager Thai Lee: they are refusing to let me out of my lease. They say they need an opportunity to "clean it," as if mold spreading through a ceiling, an HVAC system, a bedroom, a closet, and a bathroom is a housekeeping issue. And in the meantime, I am, in their words and in their actions, simply expected to live there.
My health is already not in great shape. I told her that. I told her I have two dogs in that home. And I asked her one simple, fair question: would you live in these conditions? Her answer, word for word, was: "I'm not going to answer that question."
She would not answer it because everyone in that office knows the answer.
Let me be clear about what I asked for, because it was not unreasonable. I did not ask for money. I did not ask for compensation. I asked to be released from a lease on an apartment that became uninhabitable through no fault of mine, so I could go find a safe place to live. I offered to have my belongings out by October 31 so this could be over quicly for everyone. A reasonable company says yes to that in one phone call. Greystar, one of the largest property management companies in the country, said no, and then stopped answering.
To anyone considering this property: tour the model unit, enjoy the pool, listen to the sales pitch about luxury living. Then understand that the day something goes seriously wrong in your home, this is the team you will be dealing with. Blame first. Silence second. A refusal third. You will document, you will plead, you will pay for a hotel while your apartment grows mold, and they will tell you to live in it.
As of today, October 26, 2026, the mold is still there, I am still out of my home.
If you value your health, your pets, and your money, live somewhere else.
