Missing ashes, sewage leaks, and asbestos; Topeka tenants' 'nightmare' experience

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Tenants of the Fontainebleau Apartments in Topeka say it all started with the water shutting off in May and that everything has been downhill since then.

"I can't keep dealing with this stress," Colleen Houpt said. "I've already been through enough. It's like I wake up in a nightmare and it continues."

Houpt, a tenant of the apartments, said she got a notice at the end of May saying she would temporarily be without water due to a maintenance emergency. The notice also said "if you need to access water you may utilize the clubhouse."

Houpt said she was without water for over a week. Her neighbor across the hall, Zachari Perri, said he was visiting family in Florida when the problems started. He only discovered something was wrong when he saw his electric bill.

"I got a weekly email saying my electric use for the week went from a dollar for a week, which is what I was expecting," Perri said, "to $28 for the week. That was an insanely high jump for me, especially because I never set foot in the apartment."

Even though she wasn't using them either, Houpt said she saw a spike in her utility bills as well. When the tenants thought things couldn't get worse, they got another notice.

"They disturbed asbestos," Houpt said. "Then we couldn't come in here for anything."

When they were finally able to get back into their homes, they were shocked to find missing items, as well as items still inside that were listed as disposed of due to asbestos contamination.

"My mom was military," Perri said. "She died in the service. I had a teddy bear with her dog tags on it that got disposed of I can no longer find but was not a part of our list of things that got disposed of. That's heartbreaking."

With tears in her eyes, Houpt told 27 News she was also missing something that money can't buy.

"My husband's ashes," she said. "He just passed away in December. That's what I worry about. I mean, anything else I can replace."

Nick Blessing is a staff attorney for Kansas Legal Services. He specializes in landlord-tenant law and says the best way to deal with the problem would be for the landlord and tenant to be working together. Perri says that's not what's happening at Fontainebleau.

"Our housing manager locked herself in her office," Perri said, "turned on the closed sign and made it seem like she wasn't there, while we were having this conversation with the Service Master about things going on with our property. That seems highly inappropriate to me."

According to Blessing, these situations can be incredibly dicey for tenants because of how expensive legal counsel can be.

"Here's your fundamental problem; there's an imbalance of power," Blessing said. "Landlords have money to hire attorneys and tenants generally don't."

Blessing says pro bono help may be available and that his firm sometimes offers those services. He says the best place for tenants to start is keeping a record of everything that happens.

"Pictures, written maintenance requests," he said, "and any correspondence between the tenant and the landlord."

Blessing also says he's hosting a community legal education session Sept. 3 at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library at 6:00 p.m. to discuss tenant-landlord issues.

27 News made multiple attempts to contact the leasing office during business hours. After finally speaking with management, they said they had "no comment." Management provided 27 News the corporate number for Worcester Communities.

Several more attempts to contact the company at the number provided during business hours led to an automated voicemail. Messages were left with contact information and requests for comment. No phone calls have been returned at the time of publishing.

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