GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cesar Martinez had just moved into his new apartment. The unit was nice and clean, and Martinez was excited about the move.
“I liked it,” Martinez said.
Then one day not long after he moved in, he noticed a lot of water outside his front door. It appeared a pipe burst or was leaking in the unit above his and water had started to puddle. Martinez said at first, he didn’t notice any issues inside his apartment, which was more of an inconvenience.
He did notify management about the leak, but it didn’t appear anything was done right away. A few days later after returning to the unit after being gone, Martinez noticed someone from management had been inside his apartment and cut a hole through the drywall above his door.
It appeared a maintenance person was trying to access the pipes between the walls.
“This (hole in the wall) is how I found it when I came home,” Martinez said.
He again called and asked why they left the hole in the wall and wanted to know when someone would be back to fix it. A few days later, Martinez started to notice water was dripping on the floor by the front door.
“I guess a pipe burst, and they never came back out, it has been like this for a couple of months,” Martinez said.
The issue became progressively worse, and mold started to grow around the walls by the door, Martinez said the unit started to smell bad, and yet his calls to management seemed to have no impact.
Martinez started to sleep elsewhere and, on some nights, slept in his truck because the smell and odor were so bad. After about three months his mom decided enough was enough and a decision was made to move all his items out of the apartment and find another place to live.
Martinez again reached out to a manager, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. After moving out, he contacted News 2 to see what could be done.
When we met Martinez at the apartment, he had cleared out his belongings, but the unit still smelled, and several walls were covered in mold. Martinez had paid rent for two months despite maintenance not addressing the issue.
We contacted the manager at the complex to better understand what took place. We were directed to speak with someone in the corporate office who told us he would investigate the situation and get back to us.
After a few days, we were told the company had recently purchased the complex and there was a communication mix-up. It is unclear exactly how the mix-up happened, but we were told that a work order was never placed.
The corporate executive we spoke with was unaware of the issue and did not know Martinez had moved out of the unit because of the leak and the mold.
He reached out to Martinez and his family and informed them the complex would be issuing them a refund for two of the three months he was there.
“I wanted to say thank you to 2Wants to Know, without them I would have never had the situation handled properly,” Martinez said.