Heavy rains forced them out of their homes and eight months later, 40 people in West Hartford still have no place to stay.
On Oct. 24, heavy rain caused serious damage to a building in the Twin Oaks condominium complex. Those units are still off limits and residents have no definite answer on when they can return, the Hartford Courant reports.
To add insult to injury, they are also being forced to pay for repairs. The Courant reports that a contractor doing roof repairs on the building prior to the storm lacked the proper insurance.
Now, all Twin Oak residents are paying a special $400-plus monthly charge to raise $200,000 for emergency roof work, utility safety tests and repairs.
Two of the owners in the damaged building are now in court, facing foreclosure, the newspaper reports.
"We still have to pay the mortgage, plus the common fee, plus the special assessment. Our insurance only covers inside the unit, not what happened outside," Elizabeth Hodge tells the Courant. "We never chose the contractor, but now it's all on us."
The contractor's attorney tells the Courantthat he advised his client not to discuss the issue publicly because of the "potential for litigation." The contractor had done roofing work in the past for Twin Oaks.
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Residents say they were told the units should be fixed in a week or so, but repairs stopped in early winter when the condo association and town argued over the extent of costly safety tests.
The president of the Twin Oak Association tells the Courant it's too soon to know when the work could be done and people allowed back in.
