COLUMBIA, S.C. — Residents in a Columbia apartment complex say they're frustrated after receiving little help with broken air conditioning units.
It's been a stressful week for William Cramer.
Cramer has been an Austin Woods apartment complex resident for nearly a decade. He said a week ago, his air-conditioning unit broke, bringing the temperature of his apartment to above 80 degrees. Suffering from COPD and other health complications, Cramer worried the high temperatures could risk his well-being.
"I can't go back upstairs to do normal things, like maybe wash a load of clothes or whatever it is. I don't have a routine here anymore because I wake up over there, I feel like I'm in a jail cell." He explains it's weighing on his emotions and mental health, saying, "There's nothing I can do about this, you're going to have to sit there and be sweaty. Nothing I can do, nobody I can call."
He has been sleeping on his living room couch because the upstairs rooms are too hot. He said he called his property managers multiple times and was told someone would be sent to fix the unit.
He said that person never arrived.
"[The property manager] told me on the phone, 'Mr. Cramer, I'm drawing you up a work form, this is two or three weeks ago," he said. "It's awful, I don't think anyone should be treated this way, whoever you are."
Residents from other parts of the complex described some of the situations they've dealt with.
"When I called, I let them know. They were like, 'Oh well, we don't know what's about to come because you're not the only one; it's about 30 of you without air,'" one woman who wanted to remain anonymous said. "And I'm like, 'Y'all don't think that's a priority to get our air fixed in the middle of the summer in South Carolina?'"
Residents said they haven't been offered alternative places to stay, reimbursement for cooling equipment, or compensation for the inconvenience.
A person in the leasing office at Austin Woods said they had no additional comment but are working on the air conditioning units.
When News19 tried the phone number linked to the front office, it went to a voicemail box that couldn't receive messages.
News19 also tried to reach someone from ORE Living, the company that maintains the property but did not receive any response.
Emily Blackshire is an Appleseed Legal Justice Center and Equal Justice Works attorney.
She said landlords have a requirement to provide safe and healthy living conditions.
"If air conditioning goes out and it's a hundred degrees outside for weeks at a time, as we're all very familiar with in South Carolina, that materially affects the health and safety and the physical condition of the property when it's hot and not ventilated because there no air conditioning, the rest of the property can also deteriorate," she said.
She said residents in a similar situation do have rights. According to Blackshire, tenants can provide their landlord with a 14-day notice stating that they have not been fulfilling the terms of the lease agreement. It is the landlord's responsibility to make a good-faith effort to resolve the issue within that time frame. If they fail to do so, the lease may be terminated.
Blackshire said residents need to list all the ways their landlord is in material non-compliance with the lease agreement or with their duties as a landlord.
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