'He's A Slumlord': Bellwood Tenant Said She's Not Getting Heat Despite Complaints To The Building Owner
BELLWOOD, Ill. (CBS) --The bitter cold means a cold apartment for one woman in the western suburbs. She reached out to CBS 2 for help.
Her landlord did not like that. Now he appears to be retaliating. CBS 2's Jim Williams has the story.
Tanya Erving's oven door is open while pots of steaming water are on the stove.
"The radiators are ice cold. Nothing is coming through. Haven't had heat since Saturday," Erving said. "Honestly, I have a very nice unit, but when it comes to the wintertime, it is like a living hell."
Erving showed a photo of the thermostat in her Bellwood apartment. It read 64 degrees. Bellwood, like most communities, requires a minimum of 68 degrees in winter during the day and 65 at night.
"No one wants to wake up five, six o'clock in the morning, when the house is freezing cold," Erving said.
She has lived there for three and a half years, and in all that time, she said she's complained to the owner of the property. She gave CBS 2 text exchanges with the landlord.
"No one has ever come out to do a sufficient, check on the heat whatsoever since I've been here. It's always been him," Erving said.
CBS 2 called the landlord. His name is Luke. He didn't want to talk on camera, but on the phone he blamed Erving, insisting that when she keeps the oven door open, it make her apartment so warm it, causes the heating system in the entire building to malfunction.
"How is it when I come home from not being here for 24 hours, nothing is on in my apartment. It's reading 64 degrees and I haven't had heat since," Erving wondered.
CBS 2 spoke by phone to other tenants there. They too said the building is not nearly warm enough.
"Landlord came and put a termination of lease on my door."
Shortly after CBS 2called the landlord, he told Tanya Erving, who has a month to month lease, she would have to leave the apartment in 30 days.
"He does not care what we go through here," Erving said. "And if he did, this would not be going on for three to four years. He's a slumlord."
Tanya Erving said she'll move and plans to sue the landlord. The landlord said CBS 2 that on Tuesday, he'll ask inspectors from the town to examine the building's heating system.