HARTFORD, Conn — Tenants who live at 267 and 217 Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford are calling for accountability after their repeated calls to their landlord to fix poor living conditions have gone unanswered.
The Wethersfield Avenue tenant union rallied Tuesday night to call on city leaders to put more pressure on landlords who do not fix poor living conditions.
“Rats, roaches, the doors don't lock, there’s garbage all over the place. The apartments are in bad conditions, everything you can think of we have,” said Victoria Ramos, a tenant who has experiencing the conditions for months.
Tenants said their calls to the property management group Arlington Management LLC, have gone unanswered and now they want the city to intervene.
“Recently, we lost water for I believe two or three days. We had to go somewhere else to take a shower. I had no choice,” said Ramos.
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City officials said if they receive a call about no, heat, water, or electricity the landlord has an hour to respond before inspectors are dispatched to fix the situation.
Tenants described to FOX61 other issues they’ve been dealing with.
“We also have homeless people sleeping in our stairs, shooting up and doing illegal activities here because the doors don't lock... the back door don't lock and that’s been for over a year and a half. What are we supposed to fix them ourselves? then why are we paying rent for to live like animals?” asked Ramos.
Tenants said recently raccoons have moved into the building. Hartford City Councilor Josh Michtom said this type of behavior by landlords should not be tolerated in the capital city.
“If you’re a slumlord, if you treat your tenants poorly if you snub your nose at our rules, we're going to drive you out of the city. We're going to take your building we're going to take your money we're going to make your life and your business miserable,” said Michtom.
City Officials said inspectors are scheduled to re-inspect the building Wednesday and that the time frame to fix some of the violations has expired and if the landlord has not fixed violations by the time the reinspection is completed the complaints will be sent to the Office of Chief States Attorney for possible prosecution.
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City Officials strongly encourage any tenant with an urgent no heat or other complaint to contact the City of Hartford for an inspector to be dispatched at 860-757-4000, and to contact 311 with all other housing complaints if the landlord does not promptly respond and resolve the complaints.
FOX61 reached out to Arlington Management LLC for comment but did not hear back.
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