(WSVN) - Residents at an apartment building are fed up and speaking out about poor living conditions.
7’s Karen Hensel investigates the conditions of this apartment building.
The Modera Skylar building in Miami touts its apartments as “chic, modern, sophisticated,” inviting people to “embrace the art of living in Miami.” But some residents who are living here are not exactly embracing it.
Chloe Morgan’s Instagram video: “On the daily, there is pee and poop in common areas.”
Sparked by growing frustration they turned to social media and 7Investigates.
Rachael Wells, resident: “Even my family and friends were like, ‘You live here? Like you actually live here? You go home to this as your house?'”
Rachael Wells and other residents have documented roaches, people sleeping outside the entrance, and dirty conditions both inside and out.
Rachael Wells: “The trash is a very big issue.”
But the biggest safety concern is the broken elevators.
Rachael Wells: “This is crazy. Just how I wanted to start my day.”
This is Rachael in a walking boot because of torn ligaments and a fracture. So when the elevators are out, she is forced to navigate down the stairs from her 15th-floor apartment.
You can see nails sticking out of one of the stairs, which could make someone trip.
Rachael Wells: “Anxiety, like every single day. I don’t know if I’m going to actually have the elevator working, and it gives me stress every morning. And I’ve had multiple residents that have told me that they’ve had to be carried down the flights of stairs as well as I was carried down the flights of stairs the day that this happened.”
Residents say they have even been stuck inside the elevators and forced to call 911. In fact, Miami Fire Rescue tells 7Investigates they have responded here 24 times for calls about the elevators just since January.
Chloe Morgan, resident: “It’s hard because if the elevators are always down and the stairwells aren’t clean or safe, it’s just making it really hard to live here.”
Chloe Morgan is the resident who posted the Instagram video, which was shared on Only in Dade after she says she got nowhere when she complained to building management.
Chloe Morgan: “It’s just getting frustrating that none of the concerns are being addressed and they don’t answer our emails.”
Other residents have displayed their displeasure by writing these profanity-laced messages on a door in the stairwell: “Fix the (expletive) elevator (expletive) manager and (expletive) you.”
And the advertised “stunning rooftop pool and hot tub,” actually in December it was green and looked like this.
Instagram video: “The pool and deck are still closed.”
Now it’s not even accessible.
Rachael Wells: “They closed the door and locked them and bolt them shut on December 4th and didn’t tell anybody like zero.”
Karen Hansel: “So you’re paying for a pool and amenities you don’t get to use?”
Rachael Wells: “Correct.”
Rachael got so fed up, she emailed city officials. Miami Code Compliance issued a violation earlier this month for “failure to maintain property.”
Rachael Wells: “In Miami itself, we’re held at like this highest standard of like, ‘Oh, we have the rich and famous. We have such nice amenities. We have this like infinity pool’. And like they kept all the photos the same on Modera and people are still moving in because they’re actually selling a lie.”
Karen Hansel: “I’m Karen Hansel with 7News.”
We took residents’ concerns to the office at Modera Skylar and were quickly told to leave.
So we contacted the management company’s South Florida headquarters, Mill Creek Residential, in Boca Raton. They have not yet responded to our calls and emails.
Karen Hensel, 7News.
CONTACT 7 INVESTIGATES:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
7Investigates@wsvn.com
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