GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — No doubt most have begun to turn up the thermostat as temperatures drop, but one Grand Rapids woman says she has been relying on her stove to heat her home.
She claimed her apartment complex had left her without central heat for two months.
Getting nowhere with the property management, she contacted 13 ON YOUR SIDE, which resolved the problem following an investigation.
California-transplant Carolynn Burks and her two children thought the move to Michigan would mean a fresh start.
“I haven't been in Michigan in 14 years,” Burks noted. “So this is where me and my family had to come.”
Yet within weeks of move-in day at her new Grand Rapids apartment complex she got a notice at her door.
“Days later, I get a letter on my door from property management saying that they're leaving,” she related.
The woman who signed the lease, Burks said, had up and disappeared.
“I'm watching people leave, who were here as maintenance, pest control,” she said. “Then there was nothing.”
The management team may have gone, but the problems Burks said she began to find in her unit after signing with Millbrooks Apartment were there to stay: a leaky bathroom sink, a mailbox that’s missing its door and no heat for two months.
She had been using her oven to keep her family warm as the nights turned colder.
“This is normal,” she explained, gesturing toward the oven.
“This is what I wound up with, to keep from us being without a home,” Burks said, exasperated.
That’s because Burks believed the temperature in her building was controlled from a central location.
Though she said she was initially told somebody would be out to turn it on, the heat had remain off.
I dialed the phone number displayed on a bulletin board in Burks’ building and only reached a pre-recorded message noting the mailbox was full.
That became a theme, getting no response at the complex leasing office next door either.
13 ON YOUR SIDE ultimately called the city’s code compliance office and helped Burks file a complaint.
Within several days, her heat was again fully functional.
13 ON YOUR SIDE attempted to contact the property manager on several occasions, yet initially received no response.
A woman who identified herself as responsible for the complex returned our messages the following week.
They confirmed an employee had left but said the ensuing situation had effectively been a misunderstanding.
Burks’ heat had been fixed, the complex said, after the city had reached out.
They added they weren’t aware at the time and would have fixed it sooner had they known, though they questioned whether the problem may have been within Burks’ ability to resolve independently.
The phone issue, management said, had also since been remedied.
Burks said she was thankful, but would still like to void her lease, given the situation.
If you have a problem you’d like help resolving, reach out to 13 ON YOUR SIDE at news@13OnYourSide.com or via our connection desk at 616-559-1300.
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