KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Plaza Club City Apartments tout "refreshing apartment living," but renters have been toughing it out with no air conditioning during the recent stretch of high temperatures.
"I moved my mattress out here [into the living room] so we could comfortably sleep at a solid 80 degrees," Morgan Kilmer, who moved to the complex in September 2020, said.
That's even with a window A/C unit, and a fan she bought for herself and her cat.
"There's been a lot of outside expenses that we've had due to the situation," Kilmer said. "People have had their food spoil, their plants have died, animals have been sick, a resident passed out and went to the hospital."
The air conditioning, according to Kilmer, has been out since October when she received an email from the property manager saying they were "working on getting it fixed."
"Every week to two weeks they send us an email promising us that it's going to be fixed the next week," Kilmer said, "and so all of us have just kind of held on saying 'OK, I can deal with this for a week."
But she and her neighbors said nothing has been done.
"Prior to moving in, they didn't even tell me that there wasn't, there was no working AC," Shelby Baker, who moved in two weeks ago, said.
Baker said her apartment reached 93 degrees last week.
"Then after trying to contact them plenty of times, they finally told me that they were aware of the situation and that they were working on it," Baker said.
Plaza City Club Apartments Management provided the following statement to 41 Action News:
Pandemic-related supply chain issues created significant delays in getting the necessary equipment to replace the air conditioning units that could not be repaired. Parts would have taken months to source, so the company purchased three new units. Those units were purchased on June 4 and just arrived this weekend. Two of them were lifted onto a building today and the third will go up tomorrow. They will be installed over the next few days and be completed by Thursday.
Plaza City Club Apartments is committed to the health, safety and comfort of its residents. We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience that this maintenance issue has caused our residents. The pandemic-related production and shipping issues created a significant challenge for our team in sourcing and receiving the units. They arrived over the weekend, are being lifted on the buildings today and tomorrow and will be installed over the next two to three days. Two of the units will be installed and operational by Wednesday and the third one will be completed by Thursday. Along with apartment transfer options, we are providing $150 in rent credits for both May and June and are buying back any AC unit that may have been purchased during this time. We so sincerely apologize to all of our affected residents.
Bradley Bearden moved to the apartment complex three months ago from Texas.
"I get that it's not the highest priority to fix the A/C during the winter," Bearden said. "But at some point, man, you got to make that decision and just fix it. It's too little too late now."
