St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Bill McClellan, and the publication, STL Reporter have reported on an apartment building in Richmond Heights, 7703 Wise Avenue, that had a change of ownership, affecting the tenants in the process.
They report that no permit from the city was applied for when work to rehab a vacated unit had begun. Also that the construction company began the work without an asbestos inspection, then the company’s inspector wasn’t certified, then a following inspector found no asbestos. A tenant then took samples to the county health department from her apartment which were found to contain asbestos.
The woman spoke at a Richmond Heights City Council meeting and contacted the county health department but got no results. Then she recieved a notice to vacate in 30 days. She moved to Maplewood.
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Where is the building located? Address?
7703 Wise Avenue
Hi, The apartment is located at 7101-7103 Wise Ave at the corner of Moorlands and Wise.
How do you even know what building it is? Who the inspector was? Where are the facts?
This is just awful. Is there anything readers can do to make sure this never happens again in RH?
I suspect that it has to come mostly from the local government. You city building code enforcement, the local housing agency, the local health or enviorment group that would check for things like mold, mildew, asbestos, lead paint. The EPA handles lead base paint issues which I suspect that this building would have had also. They have some pretty stringent rules and policies about working in places that have known lead base paint and it does not sound like anyone was following those. Maybe just reaching out to someone in the news media or the city council rep might help.
It is also something to consider that the deal was done between the owners, the new owner probably went with the cheapest contractor he could find and it sounds like it was going to be done without any permits unless someone said something. My observation is that many renters do not want to speak out for fear of some issue with the new landlord like raising the rent, slow service when they are needed to repair things or even eviction.
I lived in the same building the owner prior to selling gave us zero notice….we would have known when the wrecking ball came. Total slumlord