Residents of a new luxury apartment building in Washington, D.C.’s NoMa neighborhood are furious after their buildings flood and utility bills continue to rise.
Cielo resident Alessandra Torres said the leak started in her bathroom around 1 a.m. Thursday. She and her boyfriend tried to bail out the water with buckets, but a few hours later they were met with a torrent of water and what sounded like a babbling brook outside their door.
“We went outside and saw a ton of water coming out of the elevator and stuff across from where I was,” Torres said, “and the water was coming up the stairs and flooding.”
“The ceiling in the hallway also started to fall onto the floor,” she added.
Maintenance crews and eventually the fire department responded.
A Cielo spokesman said the cause was a valve on the 12th floor and that on-site maintenance staff and contractors were responsible for the repairs. The company is working with affected residents and apologises for any inconvenience caused.
But this wasn’t the first time residents had problems.
“We collect a common area utility fee,” Nick Rogers said, “and it started out really small.”
But residents say the fees can’t stay low and now have to be built into budgets.
“In March, the building’s common areas utility bill was $40,” another resident said. “This month it’s $180.”
The common area fee is included in the lease, but residents say those who were informed directly about it did not expect the fee increase.
“Now it’s about 9 percent of the rent,” Rogers said.
“We’ve already reached out to City Councilman Charles Allen and he’s actually proposing a bill to make this type of billing illegal in the district,” a fourth resident said.
Residents say experiences like this are not uncommon among DC renters.
“There’s a complete lack of explanation and communication,” said another resident.
Residents say there are bigger issues at stake than their building.
“These quality of life and economic quality of life issues are important to the district because we want people to live in the district for a long time,” one resident said.
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