Two Sam Houston State University students returned to their apartment at The Arbors Sunday evening after the Easter break to find their two-bedroom apartment completely disheveled.
Criminal justice senior Alex Layfield and his sister mass communication senior Lauren Layfield have lived at The Arbors since August 2013.
“My experience with The Arbors has been fairly good until now,” Alex Layfield said. “They are slow when given maintenance request but eventually have solved the issues we’ve had.”
According to Alex Layfield, the two were confronted with an apartment full of portable dryers with no explanation as to why.
“It turns out that there was a water leak in the apartment above ours, and these dryers were there to supposedly prevent any water damage to our apartment,” Alex Layfield said. “Our furniture was moved to the center of the rooms and all of our stuff had been carelessly thrown into the middle of the rooms as well. We were unable to live there with all of the stuff the way it was.”
According to The Arbors property manager Helen Calhoun, the water leak was caused by the tenant above the Layfields on the third floor of building nine, who “stepped on the supply line to their toilet.” Calhoun said that the water leak happened around 12:30 a.m. Friday and her only concern at that point was stopping the water from damaging personal property—not necessarily notifying the tenants in the three total apartments affected of their entry.
The leak affected three apartments total: the Layfields’ as well as the one above and below theirs.
“We’ve done everything that we possibly can in our power,” Calhoun said. “The only thing where I failed was not calling [the Layfields]. I would not have done anything differently.”
According to Calhoun, she “overslept” the next day after the water leak and was unable to contact the tenants prior to their arrival home.
“The Arbors responded claiming the reasons for not notifying us was simply due to exhaustion of working on this issue,” Alex Layfield said. “This was not thought out because there was an outside contractor involved, and they were the people hired to place the dryers. They are also responsible for the air quality and making the determination of whether or not we can go back in. Therefore, the Arbors assumes no responsibility for the damage to our stuff, if any, and for the dryers. However, it was the Arbors place to notify us of this issue, which they did not do.”
According to SHSU Student Legal Services attorney Gene Roberts, the relationship between tenants and landlords are dictated by the Texas Property Codes which suggests that landlords are supposed to “diligently” address issues in a “reasonably time” period which is considered seven days.
“From a legal standpoint, I don’t know if the property code requires notice by email or a text message or something prior to entry—that may be something required in contract,” Roberts said. “One would think that with the nature of this event and with the ease of technology the landlord could have provided some type of notice to the tenants that there was a leak and repairs were being made so the tenants could come and try to mitigate damages and remove their own property like clothes, furniture, that type of thing.”
The Layfields acknowledged that in an emergency situation, tenants did not need to be notified prior to entry however they said they were under the assumption they would at least be told afterward, if at all.
According to Calhoun, she has offered to put the displaced tenants up in hotel rooms until they can return on Wednesday, which have been declined. She also offered to provide compensation for electricity and water used by the complex to prevent water damage as well as money for gas used to transport the tenants between Huntsville and their home two hours away in Kerens, Texas.
In addition, the Layfields have made an agreement with The Arbors to get out of their lease a month early without penalty.
Alex Layfield said that especially after this instance, he would not consider The Arbors as being the best apartment complex in Huntsville, despite their winning that title for the past two years.
“I’ve never considered the Arbors to be the best in Huntsville, but I cannot compare it to anywhere else since I have only ever lived in the Arbors,” Alex Layfield said. “I will say that I did not vote for them, but I did not vote against them either.”
Disclaimer: Lauren Layfield is the Assistant Campus Culture Editor of The Houstonian.