CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Jacob and Abbygail Gonzalez live on Gordon Street in Corpus Christi, saying their toilet and walls are leaking water and feces at their apartment.
Their toilet is wobbly, their sink clogs up, and they said the pipes have not been properly patched up.
The Gonzalez family said maintenance and a plumber told them the pipes in the apartment complex are connected, and they said they get backed up water from other units. They said because their toilet is backing up and leaking, they are having to resort to throwing away feces by hand into their backyard.
“That’s fricken' disgusting," Jacob Gonzalez said. "I don’t know anybody whether they’re low class or upper class that would want to live like that at all."
The Gonzalez’s lease ended last November and now they’re renting month by month, but they said they’re being asked to vacate for speaking up to the landlord.
When asked why they didn’t just leave because of the problems before they were asked to vacate, they said because they want to fix their credit score.
They also said they don’t have the money and don’t want to inconvenience their son who would have to switch schools.
“We shouldn’t have to adjust our lives because they can’t fix the problems when it needs to be fixed,” Abbygail Gonzalez said.
They said this all started in January. Their landlord’s son, Bruce Collins, who came forward on behalf of his mom, said it was hard to get a plumber after the freeze. But when they did, the plumber found no problems.
Collins said the Gonzalez's lease specifies they need to notify the landlord in writing about any plumbing problems and claims they haven’t. Collins said they’ve put more than $900 into the plumbing, also having maintenance take a look.
“He found out that a lot of these plumbing stop-ups were caused by grease in the sink and excessive toilet paper in the toilets that were causing the block up,” Collins said.
Collins said he had maintenance take pictures of the Gonzalez family apartment and said they’re not respecting the property, leading to them being asked to vacate.
The Gonzalez’s said they’re speaking out to make future tenants aware.
“Just to inform the community that there are people like this and that you know….some people just don’t really care about what goes on,” Jacob Gonzalez said.
The Gonzalez’s did contact code enforcement and code enforcement gave them and Collins a notice saying the plumbing fixtures need to be fixed. Collins is currently appealing it.
Corpus Christi Code Enforcement said they would be coming back within a week to check if apartment management has made any changes.
