MIAMI – Families living in a Little Havana apartment building say they’ve been given just weeks to move out of their homes.
They say they’ve been told their building needs too much work, but the city has no record of any of that.
Aside from the creaky stairs and termite damage, what really shellshocked residents was a city notice on the door in August that was headlined “Unsafe Structure Violation.”
“We don’t know if this is going to fall down,” said resident Daniela Calvino. “We contact landlord right away when that happened months ago and they never gave us any response.”
It turns out that the building never did its required 40-year inspection. That’s all the city flagged it for, not any specific damage.
But then earlier this month the owner of the building posted a sudden eviction notice, telling residents “the building is safe - but requires repair and renovation that can only be completed when the building is unoccupied.”
“It feels like this is happening because they trying to implement any price now,” said resident Tony Mendez.
The owner apparently took the opportunity to cut short the leases, even those they rented to after the initial citation, like Mendez.
The three story 1930′s building located a block from Little Havana’s tourist strip is still posting at least three available apartments.
Meanwhile, current tenants can’t get answers or security deposits.
“Everything is almost double the price for this same space in this area,” said Mendez.