EDMONTON – Natalie Vanoni’s apartment has reeked of sewage for four days. She is livid over how her property management company – avenue living – has responded to the ordeal, which started Saturday evening with a trip to the bathroom.
“I flushed the toilet and it overflowed, sewer backed up into the bathtub, and that’s where it all began,” Vanoni said.
“We phoned the after-hour emergency for avenue living and he came over, he put a snake down, the snake didn’t do anything, it was still overflowing.”
After another service call on Sunday, avenue living decided an outside company needed to be brought in to clear the line on Monday.
Vanoni wasn’t the only resident impacted. One neighbour, Shawn Goings, tells Global News he started to hear the sewage start coming up through his bathtub about an hour after Vanoni’s problems started. He’s now intent on moving his family out.
Instead of moving the affected tenants, Vanoni says the property management company just left them to deal with the mess.
Wearing rubber gloves, scarves around their faces and plastic bags on their feet, she adds they went through more than a dozen rolls of paper towels trying to clean up. In Vanoni’s home alone, she claims the sewage was almost 10 centimetres thick.
“We went through towels, I started throwing my own towels out, it’s costing me money,” she said. “It’s very hard, we’re smelling human feces.”
“My garbage can out there is full of human waste. The health inspector knows…none of this is my fault. We’ve been going to the bathroom now in plastic buckets now for three days.”
On Monday, a professional drain company did clear the sewer line, and the basement was steam cleaned Tuesday – all paid for by avenue living.
In a statement to Global News, the company says it is satisfied with its response, saying:
“As a property management company that prides itself on providing living spaces that our tenants are proud to call home, we take all tenant concerns very seriously. We were aware of the issues noted and took immediate and proactive action. The sewage issue was brought to our attention and we sent a support team to investigate and correct immediately. Any identified concerns are dealt with in the most expeditious way possible, inclusive of provisions of third party services for repair and clean up. The unit was treated immediately demonstrating our intent to be proactive and reducing any possible inconvenience to the affected tenant.
avenue living has a local presence in Wetaskiwin as well as a customer service center designed to field phone calls and concerns from tenants.”
Vanoni says this entire ordeal has been extremely stressful, and she just wants to find a new place to live.
“I’ve got health problems, I just got over a heart attack and I’m diabetic,” she said tearfully. “I don’t need this.”
avenue living says if the families want to break their lease and move out, they are free to do so – and they won’t be charged any fees. The company also says it will reimburse tenants for any out of pocket expenses.
With files from Tom Vernon, Global News
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