(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Conflict is brewing at Broadmoor Park Tower, an apartment complex in Colorado Springs, between a tenant and property owners. The renter claims her apartment is unlivable, but her landlords argue that she is creating the conditions.
The apartment is infested with roaches, and the property owners claim they’ve attempted to address the issue several times, but the bugs keep returning.
“I have been living in a nightmare situation,” said Diana Winiarczyk, the tenant who is having problems with the bugs.
It’s a site no one wants to see, let alone live with.
“It’s progressively gotten worse over the last six months, and particularly uninhabitable over the last three to four months. The building is completely infested,” said Winiarczyk.
“They’re in my furniture, they’re in my bed, they’re in all of my food, [and] in my pantry that has to be destroyed,” she said.
Winiarczyk said that if you walk the halls at night, the bugs are hard to miss. To make matters worse, she claims a pest control company used poison to fix the problem, which led to health issues.
“It’s making my cat sick. We’re not sure if we’re sick from the bacteria, from the roaches, or if it is from when the property management stepped in and started spraying for the problem.”
According to the property owner, CMS Multi Family, pest control has treated the apartment five different times since the end of June. The property owners claim that Winiarczyk has turned down pest control on multiple occasions and that code enforcement inspected the property and is taking all the appropriate steps to fix the problem.
“It is important to note that on at least one occasion, access to the unit was denied, which can impact the effectiveness of treatment,” said Kevin O’Brien, an employee with CMS Multi Family.
“I started emailing the regional manager, Kevin O’Brien, and got no response until one afternoon. He told me he was absolutely not going to do anything for me,” said Winiarczyk.
Now Winiarczyk is hiring a lawyer and demanding to get released from her lease, moved, and reimbursed for the money she spent on the problem.
“It is not a safe environment for his residents; he doesn’t respond to emails… [He] refuses to pay for all the food that I have to throw away because of this situation,” said Winiarczyk.
Property managers also added, “Our priority remains providing a safe and comfortable living environment for all residents, and we will continue to work closely with this tenant and pest control services to fully resolve the matter.”
