Terminally ill tenant fights for apartment repairs

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - A tenant at Crystal Lakes Apartments in Chesterfield says her landlord is slow to make repairs and sometimes doesn’t make them at all.

At 88, the terminally ill tenant at Crystal Lakes apartments says her quality of life is mostly what she thinks about.

Queen Ann Ray is in hospice care and no longer receives cancer treatment. Still, there’s a legal procedure tenants must follow when repairs are asked for and the landlord is slow to deliver.

“They put me on hospice and the doctor gave me six months to live and that was in May,” said Ray. But Ray looks around and longs for her apartment to look better.

“Look up there. How dirty it is up there. It needs painting.”

Except for a recent ceiling collapse repair, Ray says she has not seen any upgrades or renovations like the complex is now doing inside other units in over eight years.

“Do something with this rug. A good shampoo maybe. I know they are not giving me a new one. Things bother me. Like when I look at my floor how dirty it is and there’s nothing I can do about it," said Ray.

Ray says she gave management a notarized letter back in July. She says she didn’t get a response but received their message indirectly about her carpet.

“They tell me I have get somebody to move this furniture around. 88 years old moving furniture around?”

NBC12 went to the rental office with the tenant’s concerns. The staff knows Ray and her circumstance.

The manager says she has called and addressed repairs with the tenant, and she hasn’t received a letter.

″I don’t want to be rude but this is a place of business so I don’t have anymore comments about it," she told NBC12.

Ray’s life expectancy is short, but she believes miracles do happen. She’s banking on two: A nicer apartment and better days.

“I get tired. I can’t do too much of nothing, so I’m holding onto God’s unchanging hand,” said Ray.

If you have an issue with your landlord, gather proof, give written notice and give your landlord time to make repairs. If the landlord is non-responsive, you can always take it to court.

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