If you read but 1 page, let it be "BIG Worries Ahead!"
There's so much more that exemplifies
how it is to live in Walden Woods South:
Management (CRF) here were cowards from the start. They misrepresented the homes and the community, took our money and failed to live up to their obligations then refused to deal honestly with the residents clamoring for what they paid for and what they continue to pay their rents for. Then after three years of malfeasance they simply cut and run. They suddenly and without prior warning handed control (so they allege) over to Nobility Homes/Prestige Homes, in what appears to me, on the face of it at least, to be a rather incestuous arrangement.

During CRF's tenure Nobility/Prestige had the exclusive right to sell the homes they manufactured to CRF who in turn resold them to be located in Walden Woods South. Now we are told (after the fact) that Nobility/Prestige bailed CRF out. Not out of their $61 Million bankruptcy, but they allege to have taken over (or wiggled out of) CRF's Walden Woods South indebtedness to Wells Fargo Bank. So this park is now assured to have the cookie-cutter look of a typical mobile home/trailer park. If you want to read more about CRF's bankruptcy refer to the August 6, 2010 edition of The Ledger, a Polk County Florida newspaper. The article is on page C6.

And here's a list of other items to consider about how this place is managed:
  • Like frequent electric blackouts - reminiscent of my time in the Third World
  • Like the shortage of furniture in our clubhouse - they'll be building more than 200 homes (that means 400-425 occupants) in Walden Woods South but they have tables and chairs only for about 30 and when asked for more CRF refuses
  • Like CRF showing off a clubhouse with a complete kitchen to prospective buyers - only the stove is disabled so it can't be used as the 'kitchen' it appears to be
  • Like the swimming pool rendered useless because of a dead heater - and when repeatedly asked to replace it CRF replies ""But it costs $3200 " - we thought that that''s what we pay our lot rent for - the amenities
  • Like the dead Jacuzzi - repeated requests to CRF to fix it go unheaded. When asked to replace the dead heater CRF replied: "But it'll cost $3200!". Well that's why we pay hundreds of dollars monthly to CRF as lot rent: So CRF can maintain the facilities they used to attract us to buy a home.
  • Like the shortage of furniture around the swimming pool - they currently have 25 homes occupied (about 40 residents) and they have only nine lounges and so far CRF has refused to buy more. There's not enough chairs for us now with only 40 residents; it's going to riotous when we have 425 residents! - not to mention the other 900 residents next door who CRF permits to use our amenities. Can't you just imagine more than 1300 retirees fighting over 9 poolside lounge chairs?.
  • And like whatever comes next!


Park management has been asked numerous times by various residents to ensure our safety by keeping the door to the clubhouse locked and the entry gate closed and issue either individual entry codes or keys or magnetic swipe cards to residents of Walden Woods South. They have refused all requests. We've had two thefts of expensive electronics from the clubhouse yet they still refuse to lock the door. Residents have entered the clubhouse only to find prowlers inside who immediately ran. And nearby construction workers feel free to park their trucks outside the clubhouse, go inside and use the bathrooms reserved for residents, effectively turning them into public toilets.

This has allowed our community to become degraded by being used as a public dog park and bicycle path, being used by outsiders for walking their dogs, bicycling, golf cart riding (one outsider even uses his golf cart to chauffeur his dog to our streets to crap then it's driven back to wherever they came from, leaving he feces where it fell). Dog owners from outside use our complex to let their dogs drop their feces for us to deal with, and young twenty-something parents from the surrounding area walk, jog, bike and stroll baby carriages around our streets as if we were a public park.

But by far the most dangerous incident came on a restless night at about 2:30 a.m. when I looked out my living room window and saw a car halfway up the street parked in the dark with its lights off. I turned on a table lamp and the car noticed me and turned on its headlights and began to roll towards my home. I ran out the front door so I could be there when it passed by but it sped by with its lights off so fast that I couldn't describe it or the occupant(s) or get a plate number. I notified the park manager and reported that we had a prowler. The next day the head of our Home Owners Association and I tried to guess what the prowlers agenda was: rape, burglary, armed robbery or 'casing' a home for later a break-in, or had our deserted streets become a parking spot for taking drugs and/or having sex? Time will tell as nothing was done about it - management still refuses to keep the gate closed and to fence around our perimeter. And when asked why Walden Woods South is presented as a 'gated' community when it really isn't, their response is: "There are many interpretations of the word "gated". Oh brother!

Ah, such is like in Walden Woods South. Stay tuned for updates to this 'journal/blog' as they occur.
 Photos
"Walden Woods South lied!"
"Our dream is lost!"
"I know. So is our money!"
"The sales reps sold us all a phoney bill of goods from day one!"
(I can't reveal who made this direct quote but it's someone in a high position who definitely knows!)
Families Warned: