City inspectors find serious safety problems at apartments

February 23, 2011

as we showed you last night at ten, we snapped photos of the problems and took them to city inspectors -- who started an investigation. here's investigative reporter jeremy jojola--- who asked the manager if she would live in such conditions. jeremy. this morning, the city told us there are so many code violations, it's still counting them. from sagging balconies, exposed wires, to crumbling walls. this morning we paid another vis to the skylight apartment complext on juan-tabo near i-40. and so did numerous city inspectors. they found problems everywhere. here a holes in a cieling exposing water heaters and wires to rain. and then there's e crumbling walls and a fear that part of the building could collapse. "you can see further rot and decay down in here which would require a structural engineer to evaluate it.." some tenants are not happy. "i mean the outside structure...i'm afraid something is going to fall." we watched inspectors count dozens of safety and fire code violations from top to bottom. "jj: you don't need to be a certified building inspector to see the problems here. from exposed wires like this, to the exterior of the building rotting away." we found the manger who didn't like the media exposure and our questions. "jj: would you live in this apartment complex? would you live here?" "could you take the cameras and leave please?" "do you have any explanation...there are public resources here fixing your managements problem. do you have anything to say, anything explanations about the problems here?" "turn the cameras off if you want to talk to me." she refused to go on the record---but there are people here who say management is not to blame. "the place is old you know it's got problems ...but as far as i can tell..the management has done a great job of trying to resolve any issues and make all the tenants comfortable here." today the city says they tagged 12 units substandard-hos e units were empty. but the fire alarm still isn't working so fire marshals will have to remain on the property until it's fixed. next week the city says it will deliver an official order to the owner listing all the things that must be fixed. back to you. we were also there in 2004 when police raided the skylight towers apartment complex because of safety concerns. during that search they found serious gas leaks - among other code violations