Warner Robins Woman Fighting Apartment Management For Unsafe and Unhealthy Living Environment

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Imagine an apartment covered with mold, bedbugs biting children as they sleep, and rotten floors too dangerous to walk on. This is reality for one Warner Robins woman and she is demanding her complex do something about it.

Berlinda Kennedy moved into her apartment at Savannah Apartments off Ignico Drive this paast January. She says she didn’t notice any problems at first, but it didn’t stay like that for long.

“Rats, roaches, bugs of all sorts just come right in, nothing is being done about it,” Kennedy said.

Walking through her apartment, you can see mildew growing on the walls after her air conditioner leaked and an unattached electrical outlet in the hallway. In her children’s bedroom, you can see the bloody remains of bedbugs on their blankets.

“We have a right as tenants to live in safety, to live in comfort, to live habitable and the law protects that.”

But Berlinda says the apartment management isn’t doing that. Instead, she says its violating her lease by not fixing any of these problems. Now she is refusing to pay her rent.

“As a result of them breaching the repair part of the lease, people stop paying them rent.”

She’s starting a petition against the complex and asking other residents who live in similar conditions to stand up with her.

41 NBC spoke to Leticia Lopez who works in the leasing office to find out if management was doing anything to fix these problems. She told us Berlinda has not come to them with her complaints.

“She’s a mad tenant that is getting evicted so that’s what all this is about,” Lopez said.

But not for Berlinda who says this is an injustice and will do whatever it takes to right this wrong.

Berlinda says she is facing eviction and has a court date set for later this month.

41 NBC found out later Friday afternoon management did stop by her apartment to fix some of the problems. She says she still plans to petition the complex and hopes justice will be served for everyone in the community.