ATLANTA — A resident of the Reserve at LaVista Walk in Atlanta came home to a moldy, flooded apartment after spending Christmas out of town.
Franco Roberts has been trying to get out of his lease one month early to move elsewhere but claimed management wouldn't give him the documents to do so.
"It was inhabitable," he said. "I couldn't breathe. The smell was intoxicating."
His rent was due Jan. 1. He said on Jan. 5, he could be getting hit with late fees, even though he's requested to terminate his lease after finding black mold in his walls, toilet paper, ceiling, and other areas.
He shared photos of the mold, which he said started growing after a sprinkler burst on Christmas Eve.
“The floors were waterlogged, it was humid because of all the water in the actual unit. None of the lights worked," he added. "There was only one set of lights that worked. None of the lights worked in the bedroom, or the bathroom."
11Alive went inside other apartments on his floor, which also had black mold growing. Residents said they were offered to move to another unit in the building.
However, Roberts asked to terminate his lease a month early. He said the complex agreed, but to this day, it has not sent him the termination documents.
On Wednesday with our cameras rolling, he showed up to find that while his key to the building still works, his door lock was changed.
"As of today, I have not gotten any notification that my lease has been terminated. As you can see, the door locks have been changed. I’m getting emails about my rent being late. I’ve never been late on my rent," he said.
Roberts said he's tried reaching out to management multiple times. He said he has emailed them twice, gone in-person more than two times, and called two times.
"Each time that I’ve tried to call, the property manager is on a conference call as they say. So at that point I realized I was going to get the runaround. My insurance company was going to reach out to them too and they haven’t been confirmed that my apartment was damaged," Roberts said.
11Alive tried to reach them all day Wednesday. We called multiple times, messaged them on Facebook, and via email. We also went to the office in person with no luck.
We are continuing to reach out to management for answers and will follow up as we do so.
In the meantime, Roberts has already moved out to another place and said he doesn’t plan on paying rent for this last month.