 Residents of the University Oaks Apartment Complex off Atlanta Highway say they've been dealing with some serious issues including flooding, mold, non-functioning AC units, and the lack of security that management has been unable or unwilling to address. This is Leslie Ann. I stopped by her apartment to see what was going on. Around April, things started to get pretty bad. So I ended up with the kitchen sink leaking, the kitchen ceiling leaking, the dishwasher leaking, the water closet leaking, and the bathroom leaking all in one week. This is separating. So what used to happen pretty much a few months after I moved in into again the newly renovated unit was every time it rained, it would rain inside. She's been dealing with these problems constantly, but says maintenance staff has been slow to respond. They're constantly understaffed. These buildings were built in 1960. There's about 500 plus units, I think closer to 520 units. Most are occupied. They have five maintenance guys. But this whole thing is, he just replaced this, but like this whole thing has rotted out. In the winter it bangs. It sparked once I told him I can send you that email. And they won't replace it? No, he said we'll wait and see. And this is a newly renovated unit. Leslie says that every building in the complex is dealing with the same problems, some much worse than hers. So this was advertised to me as newly renovated and pretty much the only difference between my apartment and some of the ones with real issues is the paint and the floorings are different. Then we went to visit a neighbor of Leslie's who has also been dealing with major flooding and air quality issues. I have a drain here to catch stuff. All this mold and remildo. And if you look up in there, you can see the insulation is black. Mind the low, so it should be yellow. Yeah. And this I kept is what our air filters look like after just a few weeks. So this is originally where it happened. And you can see that is what our tackboards look like. That's all been soaked. But you can see that it started to mold and mildew. So what happens when you call them and ask them to fix something? They don't like. So when you call and ask them to fix it, depends on who I guess you're talking to. They normally come out, look at it and then never come back. There's consistently new maintenance guys because they always quit. The office is consistently understaffed. And instead of this large corporation with multiple units in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, instead of them fully staffing the office, what happens is there's constant and consistent chaos over there. And then the office staff takes it out on us and maintenance does the quickest possible fix that they can to say that they addressed X amount of issues in a day. And it just, the tenants end up paying for it. Leslie had had enough. So she decided to organize her neighbors to do something about it. No one's leaving reviews about what's going on. So I decided that I would do these posters and encourage my neighbors. And if they don't know how to leave Google reviews, I would take the time and teach them. I put these posters up on about four buildings before I accidentally put one on a maintenance worker's door. He called management. I'm littering. You're calling the police for what now? What are you calling the police for notices on the building? So you need to stop Hey, good evening. This is Joseph Bornaud. I am the manager of the university hopes apartment building. Yes, sir. There is a resident putting notices on all the doors. People are throwing the notices on the floor. She's littering the property. I'm not littering there for littering. You're going to have me arrested because I have an issue. Is it 20 to 60 us run? Yes, it is, ma'am. And you said she lives in. She lives in apartment. She's littering the community, putting notices on the door and not authorized to. Okay. Where was she last seen it? Can you explain to me how that's illegal job? That's a C building right now. Can you explain to me how my actions are illegal? Would you want to leave with an officer? Would you please stop filming me? Sir, did you want to please stop filming me? Hello, ma'am. Yes. Did you want to move an officer? Yes, ma'am. Did you want her bar from the property? I would like her bar. Absolutely. If she is a resident, you won't be able to bar her if she has. I just want her. I want to bar her from the common area. I mean, she can stay in her apartment but not authorized to put notices. Is she white black or Hispanic? No, she's black. Do you know what the flyer say? Yeah, the flyer say has management addressed issues in the apartment. It's been read, it's highlighted in red. Were you informed of crimes committed on site? Okay. Do you see any weapons on her? No, I don't. Not that I could see on her. Oh, of course. He said that he didn't know if I had a weapon. A four-car showed up. Four-car showed up for one girl. And thank God that at this point, my neighbors who had been watching me, they come right over like, oh, like they're going to be witnesses for this. Like they came right over to make sure I was okay. If you guys addressed it, the tenants are not allowed to be united and come against it. You know, not on private property. This is, you know, you may live here but you don't own this property. Permission from somebody in one of these buildings to do that. You've seen a lot of this. I am absolutely allowed to. That's why he made up a crime and said to them that I was loitering and littering and intimidating people, none of which happened. Here's the thing. The police don't matter, right? Because anybody can come through here and put notes on doors. Exactly. They put car wash notes, all of that. Now, two police cars have showed up for someone who lives here. It's constantly fighting and having to remind them like, I have already lost friends to COVID. Like that happened to be very early in this thing. And I lost my friend because he had asthma. And when you're being exposed to black mold, you will get sick that migrates to your lungs. That puts you at risk of dying of COVID. And in a pandemic that has already taken two people, I am sitting here fighting with my leasing office and property manager and the district property manager to take this seriously, to pull it out so that I am not breathing this in or for you to let me out of my lease. If I could have a true resolution, it would be that none of the tenants here have to live like that. And that Athens, I know that Georgia doesn't have much tenants right laws, but Athens is 60% renters at this point. There should at least be a local ordinance, maybe even just for COVID, that they can't do this to us. You can't just put up a board over mold that you know is there. We both saw it. So that would be my ideal resolution, honestly, that not just my apartment gets fixed or even just this complex that Athens would really consider looking at some legislation around this.