Tenants at The WerX said multiple problems had gone unaddressed for months. Now a new owner is fixing those problems.
SAN ANTONIO — The new owners at The WerX Apartments have a lot of work ahead of them after buying the property last week. Still, Implicity Management Company told KENS 5 they are already fixing problems and tenants are going to see progress. Some fixes have already been made.
Tenants said the previous owner had left the apartment complex a complete mess.
Since January of this year, tenants had called code enforcement 161 times, the city had given the old ownership 86 code violation notices, and at least 30 of those notices had gone unfixed and were resulting in court dates.
When KENS 5 visited the property last week, we found piles of trash around dumpsters, dumped mattresses and tree limbs, a water leak sending water down one of the apartments’ streets and a sewer leak sending green fluid into a drain.
Tenant Franco Romo told KENS 5 the problems had been getting progressively worse since April and tenants didn’t know what to do.
“It’s almost like everything fell apart at the same time,” Romo said. “It’s gross. It’s toxic water. raw sewage. There are things that have accumulated over time and just get worse and worse.”
San Antonio Code Enforcement had left multiple violation notices on the doors of the office. Those notices were directed at “Blanco Road Property Owner LLC.”
KENS 5 attempted to contact the company previously responsible for the property multiple times last week but never heard back.
But then, on Wednesday, Implicity Management Company (IMC) took over at the property. IMC owner Jody Marquez went on-record with KENS 5 about the work they are doing to fix the apartment complex.
“I want them (tenants) to know that we are there, we will be available to them at all times and definitely progress is going to be made,” Marquez said. “Not only with their apartments and addressing their work orders but also with the property conditions.”
Marquez said the company was prioritizing the water and sewer leaks on the property first. KENS 5 found one of those leaks already fixed on Friday. Tenants were concerned those leaks might lead to inflated water bills, but Marquez told KENS 5 that IMC would absolutely not pass on the cost of the leaks to tenants.
“We will ask SAWS for a credit against that. We will not bill the residents for that water leak,” Marquez said.
The owner said the piles of trash and dumped furniture would get tackled this week. The issues with landscaping would get worked on later in the week and IMC is also getting bids to fix the pool.
Marquez said at least one tenant who was planning on leaving the property has now decided to stay. While some issues will get fixed sooner that others, Marquez said they will stay in communication with residents as repairs are made.
“The main issue is making our residents feel comfortable because they have been through so much,” Marquez said.
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