AURORA, Colo.—Aaron Chapman feels like he’s out of options. He sits in his living room on a stormy Monday, with all the doors and windows open, as he tries to air out an apartment he believes is making him sick.
Chapman says he moved to Aurora with his wife and kids to help take care of his mother. She was diagnosed with cancer and wanted to remodel her home and started renting out an apartment at The Courtyards at Buckley. After Chapman started living in the apartment for a month, he said he noticed having trouble breathing.
“I was throwing up black fluids and it just got worse,” Chapman said.
After looking around the apartment, Chapman said they found significant mold on the back wall of one of the closets in the apartment.
“Finally after enough complaining I got one maintenance man to remove a panel of drywall from the closet and immediately he was like get your family out of here now,” Chapman said.
Chapman and his family were moved into a new unit, but ended up running into similar problems.
“Past three weeks we’ve had three floods from the neighbor’s toilet upstairs,” Chapman said. Chapman took video on his cell phone of the black mold, and running water as he ran into these issues. He went to the hospital and was diagnosed with chronic asthma, and is hooked up to an oxygen tank. Not knowing where else to turn, he reached out to the Problem Solvers.
“I called you guys for help because now my little girl is having nose bleeds and my kids are coughing and we’re all having headaches and health issues and we’ve got to get out of here.”
The Problem Solvers made several attempts to get a statement from management at the leasing office for The Courtyards at Buckley, but were told to reach out to corporate headquarters. As of Monday night, they have not responded for a request for comment.
The city of Aurora’s Neighborhood Services Department oversees living standards in apartments across the city, and can do inspections for things like mold and water damage.
If you’re having issues at this particular apartment complex, contact our FOX31 Problem Solver Alex Rose at AlexRose@KDVR.com.
You can report issues through Access Aurora.