Residents of an El Cajon apartment complex are demanding answers after unfinished work on the complex roof allowed the recent rain to damage their units.
Families, including many with small children, live at the Courtyard Villas apartment complex near Jefferson and East Camden avenues. After Monday’s storm, the ceiling of the complex had gaping holes, due to an unfinished construction project.
“They woke up [Tuesday] to just leaking everywhere on the roof. Basically, this morning things were collapsing,” said Nancy Moreno, whose mother lives in the complex. “No one even got notice they were going to do roof work.”
Tuesday afternoon, bags of clothes and other property piled up along walkways. One unit didn’t have electricity for a time.
The complex’s property manager, Eduardo, declined an on-camera interview, but later came out in front of our camera telling tenants, “I’m telling you right now, if you want to get a room at the hotel you can. Don’t complain later that I didn’t offer.”
Eduardo said he’s trying all he can to fix this situation and it’s a process. He said he’s offering affected tenants at least two nights at a hotel. When asked, he would not provide the name or contact information of the property owner. He said he did not know the name of the company hired to do construction.
“It makes me feel taken advantage of, but mostly my mom. She’s the one that worries me, as well as everyone here with kids,” Moreno said. “Where are they going to sleep? They have nowhere to sleep.”
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Monica Zech, a spokesperson for the City of El Cajon, says tenants are encouraged to report these kinds of issues to the City’s 24 hour Inspection Request Line at (619) 441-6210. This way, a professional inspector can come out and make sure workers are qualified and licensed and the property is safe.
NBC 7 spoke to one construction worker who said the workers at the complex Thursday were not part of an organized construction company. Rather, they were there picking up side jobs.
