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Review 2/14/2011
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I purchased a beautiful 3 level (3 bed/2bath) condo in their Athens Terrace development. I moved into the property from November 26 – December 1. In mid-December, California experienced massive rains. My fire alarm started going off. I wasn’t cooking so I had trouble figuring out what was alarming. Eventually, I followed the siren into one of the bedrooms on the second level. There were a couple of drips coming from the alarm. I had to unhook the alarm to stop it from ringing. When I did, water came gushing out of the alarm. I ran to the third level to see what damage was going on up there to cause damage on 2. The water was sinking down from my closet. There is an emergency exit/hatch on the third level so I crawled up to see what was going on with my roof. I felt over the hatch and discovered that there was no sealant to stop water from collecting around my hatch. I was later to realize that water seeped in through the seams down my closet wall, pooled on the third floor, and was puddling in my fire alarm. In other words, this was getting ready to cause some type of electrical fire. I called the management company, Wilshire Pacific Equities, which has its own set of problems. The people that they hire could not come out that day because there were so many problems. They promised to come the next day—Monday, December 20, 2010. On Monday, they called and told me that they were at another place that was flooded. Later I was to find out that it was the unit up from me. In the interim, the finally came 6 days later, Friday, December 24, 2010. They put tarp up because mold was forming and have not been back since, in spite of my repeated calls to the Management Company.
On December 31, 2010, I was showing on the third floor. My mom was staying with me for the holidays. Thank G_d! She is an older woman and didn’t go to the third level, but that morning she came running up the stairs. My showering caused sewage to back up in the downstairs kitchen sink. I called the management company who informed me that the HOA is not responsible for what goes on inside of the condo. Remember, I had just moved in 30 days earlier. I called a plumber and a restoration service. The plumber could not find any cause for the problem inside of my condo. He ran the camera outside of the condo and determined that there was a break in the main line under a tree in the common area. I contacted the management company and knocked on the door of the president of the Homeowner’s Association. The management companies told me that I could get the mainline fixed and submit receipts; the HOA would pay me “back when they get the money.” I asked what she meant by the phrase: “when they get the money”. That’s when she informed me that my HOA is broke; she stated that she can barely get the water bill paid. [There is a whole bunch of stuff that goes here but let me just get back to The Bedford Group]. I started talking to other homeowners and discovered that there had been sewage backups, roof leaks, underground water that destroyed garages, and just a host of problems since Athens Terrace started selling home in 2007. In addition to speaking with other homeowners, I had a second plumber come out and I had the environmental health department out. The second plumber ran his camera through and saw the line break that the first plumber saw but he also saw a place where there is a deep bend, meaning the line will break at that point, and he saw where the landscapers (presumably hired by The Bedford Group) hammered the stake used to hold baby trees through the line; this is a third problem waiting to happen.
If all of that weren’t enough, I’m going to give the reader too much information here: I usually bathe in the mornings. I run my water and add additional water if I discover that it’s too hot or cold. On Friday, February 11, 2011, I ran my water and used the restroom. I flushed and got into the bath. The bath water was too hot so I decided to add cold water. Early in the morning, I don’t like to turn on the light because the light is too harsh for my eyes. So, with light from the street lamp beaming through, I realized that my bath water was getting darker. I’m trying to figure out what is going on then it hits me that it’s toilet water running into my bath. I screamed and jumped out of the tub. I turned on the light and sure enough it was turning brown. So, repulsed, I had to stick my hand in it to unplug the stopper. I continued to run the bath water but could not bring myself to get in the tub. So I used water from the bathroom sink to take clean out my tub. It dawned on me that morning that instead of using separate pipes, the Bedford Group probably used one of those connecting “Y-pipes” that are used in a kitchen sink to connect the bath tub and toilet.
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