Unpaid Bills At 60 Unit Building In Foreclosure Leave Tenants Dealing With Accumulated Trash, Periodic Water Shutoffs

In Alton, Illinois, The Telegraph reports:

• Sanitation workers Monday cleared away more than a month's worth of garbage that overflowed large trash receptacles at Belle Manor apartments and disgusted its tenants. "It's a mess out here; it is ridiculous," said one of two tenants who called The Telegraph in recent days to complain about the mountains of smelly trash. "It's horrible. I've been here three years, and it has never been like this." [...] She claimed no one had picked up garbage at the privately owned complex of 60 units since "right after Thanksgiving.

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• In what could be related to the problem, records at the Madison County Courthouse show the 60-unit complex [...] is in foreclosure.

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• The lack of trash pick-up is only the latest of Belle Manor's tenant woes. In September 2007 and July 2008, tenants suddenly lost water service with no warning. The first time, the water was off for more than seven hours. [...] Tenants' faucets then unexpectedly went dry 10 months later on July 17, when the complex's owner failed to make a timely payment on a $7,120 city sewer bill. One of the tenants said that shut-off, in 90-degree-plus heat for about 26 hours, was the fourth such time in the three years she had lived at Belle Manor.

For more, see Taking out the trash (Piled-up garbage removed from Belle Manor). ThetaTenantRentSkimming