Sacramento apartment tenants say they've been without hot water for nearly two weeks
SACRAMENTO — Tenants at a Sacramento apartment complex say they've been without hot water for nearly two weeks – among a host of other problems.
No hot water, leaky roofs and backed-up sewage are just some of the concerns and issues inside the Waverly Flats apartments in Sacramento's Greenhaven neighborhood. With the holidays coming up, tenants are at their wit's end.
Tiffoeny Pitts is fed up after spending nearly two weeks without hot water in her apartment. She said it was "the last straw for me."
"I was told that it's lukewarm, but like i keep telling everybody, I am not a scientist but lukewarm and hot is not the same thing," she said.
Pitts has lived at Waverly Flats for eight years and has seen a notable change since new management took over. So, too, has Michael Grant, who has been there for four years.
"There's a lack of care here," Grant said. "There's not just water. There's a bunch of things that are just being neglected around this property."
The problems go far beyond just a lack of hot water. One tenant told us of maintenance requests, including for broken sink pipes, that had been repeatedly ignored.
"We've been forced to wash our dishes in the tub and the tub is broken now, and they sent someone to fix it but they started and didn't finish," the tenant said.
On top of exorbitant water bills, there's a feeling that tenants' lease agreements worked one way but not the other.
"It's ridiculous," Kennisha Estes said. "It's not cool at all for the amount of rent we pay, and things have been like this for a while."
The city said Waverly Flats would be violating code if it endangered residents, but at this time, the city deems it isn't endangering.
Tenants like Pitts say that is simply not good enough.
"The fish rots from the head down, and the way your on-site staff conducts themselves is indicative of your company and it shows that you do not value your tenants," she said.
The property management company, Avenue 5 Residential, is based in Seattle. While we were on the premises, a local manager presented notices to residents, saying they would be in Friday to check for leaks. That was met with skepticism from tenants who told us they already did this last week.