On Your Side helps Mesa woman escape apartment renovation

MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- A Mesa woman claims she’s been living in her apartment while major repair work has been going on. She wants another place to stay temporarily, but property management says they’re not to blame and insists she wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.

The damage happened in a bedroom belonging to Sherry Wright’s young daughter. A closet and bathroom were also destroyed. Maintenance crews have torn out the walls and flooring because a water pipe above the room burst, causing extensive damage.

You could stand in Sherry’s bathroom, look up and see directly into her neighbor’s apartment upstairs. “Tuesday, when I went to work and the man showed me that I could see the apartment above me. I sat and cried for about 18 minutes knowing that I slept or the people above me had access to my apartment,” she said. “I felt so violated.”

Sherry has health issues and worries about the mold and dust from the construction zone. “I’m pretty much stuck in the living room with the couch and an ottoman and my bedroom,” she said. “That’s it and I won’t even cook in here because of the mold.”

Sherry contacted On Your Side, claiming her apartment complex should have temporarily moved her to a safer location while work was being done. So, On Your Side reached out to the company, who was surprised to learn Sherry was still living in the apartment.

In an email, they told On Your Side: “We informed her not to stay at the apartment, provided paid for hotel accommodations and were unaware that she continued to reside at the apartment against our directive. We are working quickly to remediate the issue and apologize for the inconvenience.”

But Sherry insists that’s not true and showed us emails and texts exchanges with apartment employees repeating her request to be moved out.

After On Your Side’s involvement, Sherry was immediately moved to a Marriott hotel which will be paid for until her apartment is fixed.

“I’m very grateful to On Your Side,” she said. “I had sent several emails and visited the office daily and once I contacted On Your Side, they were out here the very next day. You did a fantastic job of reaching out to the community and the very next day I was put in a hotel. On Your Side is the way to go if you’re struggling with anything you can’t control on your own.”

There was a miscommunication somewhere between the two parties. However, Sherry’s apartment should be finished soon.