Maintenance Woes Irk Colonial Point Tenants
Claim that Carabetta Management is unresponsive
Residents of the Colonial Point apartment building on Audubon Rd. in Wakefield are not happy. They say that the building is poorly maintained and that their concerns are ignored by the company that owns and manages the building. And they point out that many of these issues are not new and have been going on for years.
The tenants’ grievances include a main entry door that currently locks only intermittently, parking areas that are poorly lit or have no lighting at all, a swimming pool that’s been closed for months and a trash room smell that was so bad last month when the building’s air conditioning went out for four days that the Health Department had to be called in.
But the overarching complaint voiced by frustrated tenants at the Colonial Point Apartments is that Carabetta Management Co., the firm that owns and manages the high rise, is unresponsive to their ongoing concerns. Tenants say that they call and leave messages, but typically get no response.
Repeated calls to Carabetta’s Revere office seeking comment for this story were not returned.
A committee of tenants has been formed to try and address the problems at Colonial Point and they claim that a large majority of renters have joined the tenants’ association and endorse the committee’s goal of improving conditions in the building.
According to Carabetta’s web site, the Colonial Point building consists of 176 one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. Online rental agencies list the one bedroom apartments at $1,285 per month and two bedroom units at $1,425.
Carabetta owns and manages apartment buildings in Connecticut and Massachusetts, including Malden Towers in Malden, Water’s Edge in Revere and Colonial Point in Wakefield.
On its web site, Carabetta crows about its maintenance services. “Carabetta Management Company conducts frequent periodic reviews of each property for preventative maintenance items to identify potential problems before they occur,” the web site claims. “Our maintenance program has proven to keep costs down, build value in the properties as well as maintain the attractive and aesthetic appeal of each property.”
But, the Colonial Point tenants insist, Carabetta does not keep their building in decent repair and ignores renters’ complaints. “They don’t believe in preventative maintenance,” said one tenant. “They wait until something breaks down and then they take their time fixing it.”
“It’s a great building,” said another tenant. “We all love it. That’s why we’re here. If things were in decent repair, these would be luxury apartments.”
Matters came to a head during the four consecutive days in July when the building’s central air conditioning was not working. Tenants describe an overpowering foul odor emanating from the building’s indoor trash room. A call was made to the Health Department that handles the towns of Wakefield and Melrose.
Colonial Point’s indoor trash system consists of chutes on each floor from which trash bags can be dropped down into a compactor in the first floor trash room, where a number of dumpsters are also located. Tenants say that at the time that the air conditioning went down, those dumpsters were piled high and overflowing, leading to an “obnoxious stench” in the building.
Health Inspector Kristin McRae says that when she responded to the complaint she found that the trash room was not in bad shape, but added that she suspects that conditions were worse when the initial call was made to the Health Department. McRae says that she did inform management that the trash room floor needed to be cleaned and that the seal under the door to the outside should be tightened with rodent proof stripping.
McRae says that she also inspected the building’s indoor swimming pool, which tenants describe as “filthy.” It has been closed for three months and is unfit for swimming, according to tenants, due to lack of maintenance by Carabetta. Still, on its web site and in its listings, Carabetta lists “heated indoor swimming pool” among the amenities offered at Colonial Point.
Tenants say they have repeatedly complained to Carabetta about the pool’s water quality, adding that the water is supposed to be tested each day and they have asked for those results to be posted. That has not happened, according to tenants.
McRae says that as a result of her recent inspection, she determined that repairs to the pool are needed. She will re-inspect the pool after those repairs are made before allowing it to be re-opened.
McRae stressed that if tenants have future health-related complaints the Health Department will respond and address them.
Tenants also point out that Carabetta is aware that the locks on the sliding glass doors in the pool area have long been broken. Wooden sticks have been placed by tenants in the tracks to prevent the sliders from being opened from the outside.
In the ground floor hallway outside the pool area, tenants point to a smoke detector hanging from the ceiling by wires and a mysterious stain spreading across the ceiling. Both were reported to Carabetta weeks ago, according to tenants.
Colonial Point tenants say that they share a maintenance man with seven other Carabetta buildings. “We hardly see him,” one tenant says. The building used to have its own full-time maintenance person, and residents claim that Carabetta has promised to again provide full-time maintenance service for Colonial Point, but that hasn’t happened.
“We’ve been promised a lot of things,” says another tenant.
One family that has lived in the building since 2003 says that a hole in their shower leaks through to the building’s lobby. They say that they have reported it often over the last six months, but repairs have not been made. In addition, they say that according to the lease agreement, wall-to-wall carpeting in the apartments is supposed to be replaced every five years, but areas of carpeting in their living room are now completely worn through.
Tenants report that lighting in the parking lots around the building is poor and in some parking areas, non-existent. They claim that after the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency told Carabetta to correct the lighting problems, the company redirected a few lights and cut some tree branches. But residents point to areas in the lot that remain poorly lit or have no lights at all.
Tenants note that Carabetta has also been notified that a panel of lights in the building lobby designed to alert the security guard when one of the building’s emergency doors has been breached does not work.
Residents say that Carabetta views Colonial Point as a “property,” but to tenants who live there, it’s a community. “We see it as a neighborhood, like a street,” one tenant explains. “But instead of houses, we have apartments. Even though it’s their business, it’s our home.”
“We’re paying rent,” another tenant said. “Things are broken. We’re not asking for the moon.”
[This story originally appeared in the August 7, 2009 Wakefield Daily Item.]
Filed under: Community, Feature stories, News, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: affordable housing, apartment, apartments, Bristol, Carabetta, Carabetta Connecticut, Carabetta Construction, Carabetta Development, Carabetta Malden, Carabetta Management, Carabetta Management Co., Carabetta Management Company, Carabetta Massachusetts, Carabetta Organization, Carabetta Revere, Colonial Point, Colonial Point Apartments, Colonial Point Apartments Wakefield, Colonial Point Wakefield, comercial developments, commercial real estate, Connecticut, Daily Item, development, Hartford, housing, landlord, landlords, lease, maintenance, Malden, management, Mark Sardella, Meriden, Middletown, New Britain, New Haven, Norwich, properties, property, real estate, rent, renter, renters, rents, Revere, tenant, tenants, Vernon, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wallingford, Waterbury, Willimantic
Search this site
Categories
Flickr Photos
Archives
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
Recent Comments
John terravecchia on High school math John Michael Terrave… on Brave New World Mark Sardella on Brave New World John Terravecchia on Brave New World Carole Scovel on Sentimental journey Blog Stats
- 351,766 hits
LINKS
No Responses Yet to “Maintenance Woes Irk Colonial Point Tenants”