Tenants claim reporting damage prompts evictions - WSMV Channel 4
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Time may be running out for tenants at a Nashville apartment complex. They claim they're being forced out of their homes, not for non-payment, or violating their leases, but for reporting problems to the city's Department of Codes and Building Safety.
"They said they were going to put new roofs on it, put new things seals on the sides," tenant Gary Randolph recalled.
But since Randolph moved into his apartment at Roundtree Village on Old Lebanon Pike in Nashville last August he said conditions went from bad to worse.
"Every time they turn their shower on, it come pouring down through that hole," said Randolph.
Randolph claimed he's gone to the management office several times over the past year with complaint after complaint.
"Holes on the roof, the stairwell is about to fall down."
He even took pictures as evidence. But when he said nothing was done, he turned to Nashville's Department of Codes and Building Safety.
Randolph explained, "The codes lady come out here but she went to the office. She said they told her that we were being evicted so codes went on back to the office and didn't do nothin!"
Instead of getting a repair ticket, Randolph claims he was hit with an eviction notice. And he's not the only one.
Bobby Baker spent the weekend helping some friends move out of their apartment. They can't talk for legal reasons. But Baker can, and did. He showed us what happens every time it rains.
"It just comes out of this hole right there."
Like Randolph, Baker says his friends were also evicted after they complained.
"It was really messed up cause usually they give you a 30-day notice and they only gave her 10 days so," Baker explained. "She's a good person. I don't even know why they were actually making her move, cause she's kept her rent."
As for Randolph, "It's crazy ... I don't know where her, me and my two grandkids are going to go now."
Of course there are two sides to every story.
Channel 4 News tried contacting the management office but they're closed on the weekends. We also called the Department of Codes, they too were closed.
When asked if things were so bad why did he and his wife stay, Randolph said they simply can't afford to move. He's had two heart attacks and is disabled so they live on his wife's social security which is just $700 a month.
Randolph has an eviction hearing Monday morning.
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