Mother's apartment ruined by water leak

(5/29/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- What would you do if the ceiling of your home just caved in? That's what's happened to a family living in a west Houston apartment, leaving a huge mess behind. And the renter says the most frustrating part is, she tried to get someone to help before the ceiling gave way.

"My babies lost everything in this room," Linda Jones told Eyewitness News.

A Katrina evacuee and mother of five, Jones thought she'd seen it all -- until this.

She said, "New bedding I bought, their clothes in the closet. It's like we have to start all over again."

A leaky pipe in an upstairs bathroom caused the entire ceiling in her kids' bedroom to collapse.

"I was glad my kids weren't in here, so glad they weren't in here," Jones said.

The water upstairs is also causing quite a mess downstairs. Jones insists she called the townhomes' emergency hotline Saturday and Sunday and both times talked to an operator and explained her situation. At one point, she says a neighbor called to report the problem. Despite those attempts, Jones says she didn't get the response she was hoping for.

She said, "I felt nobody cared because they didn't come out."

She and her five kids spent the entire weekend in deplorable living conditions. As we were doing our interview, a maintenance man walked in -- three days after Jones claims she called for one.

The worker told Eyewitness News he was there to stop the leak. Shortly after that came a visit from the Knights Landing management.

We asked, "Why is it now taking until Tuesday for you all to come out here and address her concerns and issues?"

"I'm not talking to you on camera," the manager responded.

Off camera they told us based on the description given by the answering service's operator, they assumed the roof -- not the pipe -- was leaking and that it wasn't serious.

Jones recalled, "The lady I talked to told me she did receive the pages this weekend. But if you received the pages why didn't you just send somebody? If I'm telling you the ceiling fell in, use your imagination as to how bad it looks."

While management is offering to relocate her, that's of little comfort to Jones.

She said, "(My kids) don't have nothing to sleep on. What are they gonna sleep on? The bare carpet? That's not fair."

To make matters worse, Jones says she doesn't have renter's insurance and a medical condition has prevented her from working for the past few months. If something this happened to you, would you know your rights are? Click here for a look at the property code and links to some helpful resources.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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