“It seems they just don’t care”: tenants got angry after there was no heat in the Akron residential complex for several days

ACRON, Ohio. Ashley Brown hasn’t had heat in her apartment for days.

“They just don’t care about their tenants,” she said of her landlords.

She told 3News that the heat went out on Christmas Eve, which was even more stressful for her and her 8-month-old daughter.

“We keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t get too hot or too cold,” she explained.

Brown is one of dozens of Timber Top Apartments tenants in Akron who say they have to contend with the cold in their home. Management says the frozen pipes burst, leading to heating problems that have yet to be fixed.

“You made people freeze, babies freeze,” exclaimed Brown’s neighbor Starlyn Angel angrily.

Just over two months ago, a woman died in the same complex as a result of a carbon monoxide leak from the boiler of one of the houses. Angel believes the whole situation could have been avoided.

“This should never have happened, it should never have happened,” she said. “These boilers should have carbon monoxide detectors.”

Several others, including Linda Brymer and her son, were exposed to the carbon monoxide leak and forced to leave their homes for several weeks.

“We fell asleep because of a carbon monoxide leak,” Brymer recalls. “One man saved my life that night, saved my son’s life that night.”

Neighbors say they are frustrated that serious problems that create big security problems keep piling up, and management doesn’t seem to care. They fear that another tragedy could happen.

“They should come here and fix the problems,” Brymer said. “They should come to our homes, see what we live in and correct the mistakes.”

Timber management told 3News that they are offering hotel rooms without heating to tenants, but the tenants we spoke to claim they were never notified of this at all.

In October, Danielle Novak, managing director of AIY Properties, the company that oversees the complex, told WKYC that they would be purchasing carbon monoxide detectors for all 1,500 apartments. The tenants objected that this has not yet happened.

“They said that after the incident, all units will receive carbon monoxide detectors,” Browns said. None of us got them.

Nowak says they are still working on a solution to the heating problem and hope to restore it in all divisions “as soon as possible.”