The frenzy started with a Facebook post. “DO NOT SIGN AT THE CANOPY APARTMENTS!” it said.
This message was posted in about four Facebook groups, warning students to beware of what they considered “the worst apartment complex in Gainesville, Florida.”
The lengthy post contained immaculate detail of one student’s experience at The Canopy Apartments in Gainesville. Her post detailed incidents of her apartment flooding, short-notice and terrible paint jobs to the walls, false charges and rude employees.
“Please take your business elsewhere and not to Canopy apartments,” the post said. “There are much better complexes in Gainesville and, Canopy is only interested in making as much money possible from college students.”
This post in the four groups received a total of 47 comments and one share of students describing their incidents with corrupt management in Gainesville, most commonly The Canopy Apartments.
Some students shared their stories in detail and with different perspectives. Nikka Bakhtiar, 21, is a fourth-year physics student at the University of Florida who has lived there since August 2018. She said that recently the entire management staff quit and now “The Canopy” sign at the front of the complex had a “For Sale” sign without notifying residents.
“The staff is wholly incompetent,” she said. “[They] do not care about their residents at all.”
Bakhtiar also said she paid for a parking spot at the complex each month. She went to the front office about white powdery residue that fell all over her car and came from a sick tree above her spot. She asked for a hose to wash it off and the staff member gave her a watering pot.
“After that, I just told the front guy to change my parking spot so I don’t have to be under a tree anymore,” she said. “When he went to look for my name on the map, I wasn’t even on there.”
She said she asked to speak to management twice about her incidents but management was out of office both times.
Denisse Flores, 20, is a telecommunications junior who has lived at The Canopy Apartments since August.
“I dread my decision more and more,” she said.
She said that the complex towed her car even though she had the complex parking sticker on it and charged her $470 for towing. Along with this, she said the study rooms in the complex never have the air conditioner on and that it lacks basic commodities.
Unlike Bakhtiar, Flores said she had a good experience with the student workers and had a problem with management.
On Facebook, many comments on the initial post indicate that The Canopy was “the worst company ever” and had details of problems in units, such as finding pee stains on the carpet upon moving in.
This Facebook frenzy lead to a well-known reputation against The Canopy Apartments in Gainesville.