Skyhouse Uptown tenant suing property management company over flooding issues, lack of maintenance

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - A tenant at the apartment complex Skyhouse Uptown is calling his home a ‘luxurious lagoon’, after repeated flooding and what he calls slow and unsatisfactory response from the maintenance team.

Shermaine Liggions says repeated efforts to find a long term solution to the problem failed, leading him to take action against the property management company, Greystar.

When Liggions signed a lease at SkyHouse Uptown, he says he was expecting serenity.

“Aesthetically, it looked great,” he said.

A few months in, he says he got much more than he bargained for.

“There was a leak coming from the water heater or the washing room area,” he said. “Water had pooled on the floor and I’d reported that to maintenance.”

He says he waited two days for a response.

“The action taken was simply to explore for what they what was causing the leak, there was no remediation,” he said.

Liggions works as a property and casualty insurance manager.

“I know that those usually require immediate responses to stave off the potential for the development of mold or any other toxic environmental concerns,” he said.

He says he asked for the maintenance team to do more.

“Eventually management did get someone to come extract the water,” he said. “That was some days after the water had pooled. So the water was sitting there for some time.”

He says it happened a second and third time, and after each incident he says he had to repeatedly follow up with maintenance to do more than just stop the leak.

“I’m left with the water that had pooled within the hot water closet yet again, and within the area where the washer and dryer is,” he said. “Eventually, management provided an extraction company.”

After the last leak, he says he was left to live with loud machinery for several days.

“My allergies flared up,” he said. “I had red eyes, I had watery eyes, I was coughing and sneezing. That while living within this apartment that had machines that were supposed to run 24/7, very loud machines and when I reached out to management to ask for an alternate living arrangement, at least temporarily, they pretty much brushed me off.”

He’s not the only tenant feeling wronged by Greystar.

40 complaints have been filed with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office statewide and 12 within the city of Charlotte.

Several of the complaints in Charlotte are related to maintenance issues.

“It wasn’t the first incident that caused me to take action,” he said. “It wasn’t the second incident. In fact, the third incident could have been understandable had there been more of an empathetic response from management. We’re only talking because management pretty much brushed me off, telling me that I needed to live within the conditions that I was subjected to as a result of its negligence. That’s unthinkable to me.”

Liggions filed a small claims suit against Greystar for rent abatement.

“I feel as though the conditions I’ve been subjected to are not on par with the lease I’d entered into pay,” he said. “They’ve abdicated their responsibilities and they need to be held accountable for it,” he said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for SkyHouse Uptown told WBTV:

“Skyhouse Uptown does its best to address maintenance issues within 24 hours. Some maintenance issues require ordering of materials and replacement parts, which could extend the timetable of their resolution. Our records show our team has responded to all of this resident’s maintenance requests within the appropriate timeframe. We are unable to go into further detail because of pending litigation with this resident.”

A few months after this story aired, Liggions told WBTV a judge ruled in his favor for a portion of the claimed amounts and he received compensation for one month of rent plus fees.

Related: Charlotte apartment complex goes without running water for days

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