JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – City records show at least 80 code enforcement complaints have been made this year against the San Remo apartments in Arlington.
A collapsing ceiling led Jacksonville code enforcement to condemn a unit on July 20. Inspectors also noted the air conditioning didn’t work and the door frame was damaged.
Jakari Christian told News4JAX he lives in the unit.
“The things I can’t control should have been fixed before it had even gotten to this point,” Christian said. “They’re not giving me no options to move elsewhere and I don’t have any other options elsewhere to move, I’m stuck here.”
Of the 80 complaints made against San Remo Apartments since the beginning of the year, 37 are open as of September 1 and two of them date back to 2020.
Among the complaints are no hot water, leaks and roach infestations.
Resident Evelyn James invited the I-TEAM into her unit. She said two weeks after moving here in July, her roof was leaking and she didn’t have hot water.
“We have to boil our water and take a bath,” James said.
Houston-based KPM Property Management manages the San Remo Apartments, as well as six other complexes in Jacksonville, according to its website.
But a comparison of city records and the apartment sizes listed online shows San Remo apartments have had the most complaints of KPM complexes by proportion– for example, the Shore House Apartments have 616 units and 48 cases— while the San Remo Apartments have 228 units and 80 cases.
A Senior VP at KPM tells the I-TEAM quote “we bought these properties with large numbers of open work orders.” They go on to say, they understand that residents may be upset, but now instead of calling management, they call code enforcement. They say they’re looking to hire additional maintenance help- but it’s difficult, and it’s also difficult to get parts with supply chain issues.
As for the San Remo apartments, KPM says it purchased the property recently and inherited issues from the previous owner and is pouring money into repairs.
City records show the property was last sold January 14. “It shouldn’t have to come to September of 2022 for you to now want to say that you’re trying to get these things addressed,” Christian said.
Nearly a month after his unit was condemned, Christian told code enforcement management hadn’t made any repairs.