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Tenant: Living Conditions Deplorable Inside Hartford Apartment Building

Tenants living at an apartment building in Hartford are questioning living conditions.

Barbara Ashvy lives inside a first-floor apartment at 183 Wethersfield Ave. with her husband and three children. She says her bathroom is full of mold and fungus.

“I had trees going out of the walls. I had to stop my kids from going in the bathroom.”

A social media post by a family friend with pictures showing what the family says are the current condition of the apartment caught the attention of Hartford city officials.

“I never called the city. I went straight to Michelle. I called the super myself and said look at my bathroom!” Ashvy told NBC Connecticut.

Barbara said Michelle, the building super and property manager, has not been responsive to her concerns. When asked about it, Michelle had no comment.

“I told them multiple times about the ceiling leaking, they put the complaint in. Whatever going on in the apartment above me is causing my ceiling to grow trees and mushrooms and fungus,” Ashvy said.

The social media post prompted a handful of Hartford city officials to respond Wednesday.

Darlene Robertson-Childs, a Hartford housing code enforcement supervisor, spoke with Ashvy at the scene.

“We require all rental units to have a certificate of occupancy prior to renting. She’s been here six months, there’s no way we woulda’ approved this apartment because the floors are not impervious to water, there’s problems with the walls and a few violations I can see just looking at it,” Robertson-Childs told NBC Connecticut.

City records show this isn’t the first time the city has had issues with the building. Inspectors have investigated resident complaints going back to 2012.

We found mice in another unit in May. Robertson-Childs said the rodent issue was addressed at the time.

Ashvy said her family can’t live like this and need the problems fixed.

“She never contacted our department so we knew nothing about conditions in her unit, so we’re hearing about it for first time on social media, and we’re responding,” Robertson-Childs said. “She did exactly what she’s supposed to do, but because of their neglect, she’s in situation she’s in.”

Robertson-Childs added that the city was not aware of the issues, and if it had been reported, the building’s owner would have been cited.

NBC Connecticut spoke with one of the two owners of the building by phone, who said he wasn’t aware of any of this and that he’ll speak to his building super to get her version of events and address the problem.

A past building owner said mold in the same apartment years ago was brought on by the lack of fans in the bathroom.

City officials said the property manager will be given time to fix the issues.

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