FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Water at a Fort Pierce apartment complex was shut off Thursday without notice, and people who live there are frustrated.
Contact 5 investigator Dave Bohman learned that the water was shut off after the complex’s owner fell several months behind in paying utility bills.
The water in the more than 100 units at Pine Creek Village, finally came on Friday morning. However, the people who live at the complex said they never have had to do without it.
“And then you can’t bathe, you can’t flush the toilet, you can’t wash your face, you can’t brush your teeth,” said a tenant.
The Pine Creek Village tenant didn’t want WPTV to name her or show her face.
She fears property managers might retaliate, possibly even evict her and she can’t afford that.
“It’s been real tough, because I have kids and I have a disabled son,” she said.
Like so many others at the Pine Creek Village complex, she wants to know why she went a day without running water.
In an email to Contact 5, a spokeswoman for Fort Pierce Utilities Authority said the water was disconnected due to the following:
Disconnected following protocol for extended nonpayment. …FPUA works with our customers to provide extensions and ensure continued service where possible. …(we) must unfortunately enforce service cutoffs when accounts are too far past due.
Contact 5 wanted to know why the accounts were past due. The property manager directed WPTV to Apartment Management Consultants of Utah.
That company directed us to Franklin and Johnson of Homestead Florida, which did not return our calls.
“If they cared about us, they’d get stuff done,” the tenant said. “They’d get stuff fixed.”
The utility told Contact 5, it received a payment from the property owner this morning.
People who live here said it’s just unfair that when the owner of the unit fails to pay the bills, the tenants are the ones who pay the price.