New apartment owner evicts tenants with little notice

CHARLOTTE — Dozens of families living in north Charlotte apartments are being forced to move the day after Thanksgiving.

Residents at the Tanglewood Apartments on Dalecrest Drive said they got a letter Tuesday stating they must be out by Nov. 29.

However, the letter didn’t explain why they are being vacated.

Channel 9′s Tina Terry spoke with families who live at the apartments and contacted the new owner.

Many of the families said they’ve lived in deplorable conditions there for years but stayed because the rent was affordable.

Now, many don’t know where to go.

“We can’t just jump up and say, ‘Let’s move.’ In that case, we wouldn’t be here right now,” said tenant Taneka Brown.

The letter surprised her.

“Nobody warned me about anything. Our lease was up in February, but nobody came and gave me any paperwork,” Brown said. “I asked about it. They were, like, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. New management is coming through.’”

The apartment complex owned by Tanglewood Owners LLC was sold to Dalecrest PO LLC on Sept. 12 for more than $8.2 million, according to documents obtained by Channel 9.

Charlotte leaders told Channel 9 in a statement, “The previous owner had a number of code violations” and “Code Enforcement currently has 26 open cases” with “20 of the complaints originating in the past year.”

“We have roaches, dilapidated floors, water coming through the ceiling,” Brown said. “We made reports. I was told, ‘Oh, we don’t have the money to pay.’ That’s not my problem.”

Tenant Stacie Carter got the same letter and said her apartment has needed repairs for months.

“It’s been a lot,” Carter said. “They don’t fix anything. All they do is threaten us.”

However, she can’t afford to move with little notice.

“At this point, give me the summons to go to court,” she said. “What more do I have? I’m not just moving out of here as much as I would love to. I don’t have the funds.”

A spokesperson for the current owner said Wednesday that residents who got the letter “either have an expired lease or a lease expiring within the next 30 days.”

He said they learned about the code violations after the sale. The spokesman said people who can’t be out in 30 days should make an appointment with the office manager who will try to help.

The city said its “displacement protocol has been activated and our partners will be on-site this week to coordinate support activities including meeting with residents, conducting an assessment of their needs, advising on their legal rights, and if necessary, providing relocation/rehousing support. We believe that approximately 50 of the units at Tanglewood are currently occupied.”

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