Cheryl Whitfield said she and her partner were thrilled to move into Triangle Place Apartments in April 2016. For $1,000 a month, they thought the place was a great deal.
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"It was beautiful. The apartments were clean. The landscape was just manicured, and that is really what caught our attention," Whitfield recalled.
Two years later a new company, Dasmen Residential, took over.
"And that was it. That was when everything just fell to pieces," she said.
Whitfield said maintenance has fallen to the wayside, amenities started to disappear and trash started to pile up.
"All of a sudden, the entire clubhouse was boarded up with plywood," Whitfield said. "The dumpster, at times, is piled high like today and like the weekend."
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Then there are the rodents.
"Rats going everywhere; literally big rats like this," Whitfield said.
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Whitfield also shared photos that she said shows what used to be a large laundry room in the now-closed clubhouse. It is now a single washer and dryer in an apartment unit that doubles as storage for broken gym equipment.
On July 19, she received an email from property management inviting her to enjoy the newly reopened pool. She provided ABC11 with video of fellow tenants swimming in the pool shortly after she received the email.
ABC11 confirmed that the pool was not inspected or permitted by Durham County.
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"The pool is open without a permit. And that's very dangerous," Whitfield said.
Whitfield said she has contacted property management many times about her concerns, but she has not seen any improvement. Still she refuses to move.
"Because we love that place. We love it," Whitfield said. "It's not fair. We chose that apartment; we chose that building; we chose that complex. And it's not fair for this company to come in and run it into the ground."
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ABC11 made multiple attempts to contact the New York-based company Dasmen Residential. None of our attempts at communication were returned.
However, Whitney Gaither with Durham County's Environmental Health Department later said Triangle Place Apartments submitted an application for a pool permit in May. She said on two different occasions she had to postpone her inspection because of renovations at the clubhouse. She is scheduled to try to do the inspection before the end of the week.