LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Residents who live in a Lexington apartment complex say property managers have left serious maintenance issues unfixed for months.
Lexington Villas tenant Hildi Singer showed us around one of her neighbor’s apartments. The neighbor does not speak English, and Hildi has been advocating for them.
As you walk up the steps in the apartment, each step creaks and appears to sag. There are noticeable cracks in the wall by the stairs.
Pieces of the ceiling are peeling off, she says due to water damage. We spotted large bugs in the bathroom and on the thermostat.
Simply put, Singer says the apartment is falling apart.
She says the residents asked the property managers for months to fix the problems, but they didn’t until Hildi contacted law enforcement. At the time, the apartment, she said, had no working heat.
A crew worked to fix a leak above the kitchen, but Singer says it led to a significant amount of water falling into the kitchen. She said it was only after she let property management know that they had contacted a news outlet that they patched up the hole in the wall.
She says it is no way to live. She has faced issues in her own apartment too.
“This complex has, in my experience, done nothing to fix issues until code enforcement is involved."
When LEX 18 asked the property manager about the complaint - that the building would only make fixes once code enforcement was involved - we were told they had “no comment."
Sure enough, code enforcement came by the apartment during our interview for a follow-up. They took pictures of unresolved issues, like broken lights and the unfinished kitchen. We saw code enforcement visit another apartment as well.
Singer said the family only moved to America from Mexico in the past few years. She said after the death of her own son, she has, in effect, adopted the family.
“I don’t have the money to move them someplace decent, I don’t have the money to fix this, I am only reliant on management to do the right thing by these people,” Singer said.
