TERRELL, Texas — Heating issues continue to plague a Terrell apartment complex despite the out-of-state property owners continued promises of restorations.
TERRELL, Texas — Heating issues continue to plague a Terrell apartment complex despite the out-of-state property owners continued promises of restorations.
The City of Terrell is fining the owner of the 120-unit Virginia Anne Apartments $2,000 a day and has done so for the past six days, according to City Manager Tory Edwards. “The city staff is on the ground inspecting and monitoring the repairs everyday,” he said.
The apartment complex continues to have problems with the underground pipes responsible for delivering hot water from a central boiler to warm the individual buildings in the complex. The aged pipes are bursting in several different places resulting in sporadic outages of heat throughout the complex.
Wednesday night, a repair crew told inForney.com the heat had been restored before they finished working for the night just before 10 p.m. However, a new leak caused a different unit to be without heat that night resulting in six straight days of sporadic outages complex-wide.
The outages are nothing new. During a similar cold snap in November, several buildings were without heat.
Residents are forced to use space heaters to warm their apartments. Some residents are even turning on their oven and leaving the door open — a very dangerous solution to the problem.
The out-of-state owners are reportedly in town attempting to remedy the issue but skipped out on a planned meeting with the city. “We have a standard in Terrell,” said Edwards. “We expect to hold them accountable to that standard.”
Edwards says the owners have also offered hotel accommodations to the residents until the problem is resolved, but, they “have not satisfied that commitment."
Overall, Edwards says the residents have a “desire” to stay and the city will continue to “keep pressure through the municipal court.”
Efforts to reach the property owner were unsuccessful.
