JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local woman says she’s being forced out of her Auburn Glen apartment after her ceiling collapsed following months of complaints about plumbing and other maintenance issues.
Tarin Rogers says she was lying in her bed when sparks started to fly from the ceiling fan. Within minutes, video Rogers recorded shows water starting to pour and the ceiling starting to come down. Her belongings were soaked in water.
Two days later, when Action News Jax showed up, it was no different.
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“Literally water coming from the light fixture in the closet,” Rogers said, describing the day she says her life changed. “My mattress got damaged, my TV, the floor. It just looks disgusting in there. It smells like dead bodies are living in there.”
Rogers says property management moved her to a model unit unfit to live in. And eventually, they settled on asking her to leave the property for good by Friday.
“They told me that you know, we’re done with all this. Actually, just sign this paper, here’s our ultimatum. You sign this paper; we give you $1850 and then you leave the premises and we’re done,” Rogers said.
This document she was asked to sign says due to her “unit becoming inhabitable due to flooding from upstairs unit,” the lease is “null and void.”
Rogers says this follows months of these complaints to the city of Jacksonville code enforcement, and she believes it’s retaliation.
“So me signing this paper, where am I going to go? And they were like, well, that’s up to you to figure out. But you know why we’re doing this. And it’s because I’ve called the state on them multiple times,” Rogers said.
She says Auburn Glen Apartments management wrote the check and gave no other accommodations. Her belongings are not covered because her renter’s insurance has expired.
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“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Rogers said.
Action News Jax gave the office a call and sent an email Wednesday to clarify the circumstances. We did not get a response.
We went back to the property Friday, the last day Rogers would be allowed to stay.
The property manager refused to answer our questions and told us to leave the property. Rogers says she’s forced to start from square one.
“I’m kind of screwed, you know?”
Rogers had family come to Jacksonville, where she lives and works, to help remove her belongings. She says she will have a place to stay temporarily in Georgia with family but risks losing her job here if she can’t find a permanent place to live.
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