FERGUSON, Mo. – Taping up his front door is what Andre Frenchie does every night just to keep his house warm.
“It’s been kind of miserable, you know, sitting in the living room cold. You get out of the shower and the bathroom is cold,” he said.
Frenchie has also been using six portable, plug-in, floor radiator systems, driving up his average wintertime electricity use.
“My heating bill is about $500 a month," he said. "You just have to pay what you can pay to keep it on.”
So why’s he so desperate to fend off the cold as a major winter storm approaches the area?
His family’s one and only furnace hasn’t been working for about two months.
“I turned it on a couple months ago and it wouldn’t turn on,” he explained.
Frenchie said he has repeatedly reported the problem to his landlord, Renter’s Warehouse.
“They keep saying they’re sending someone out, but no one shows up,” he said.
But so far, Frenchie said no one has come out to fix or replace the broken furnace. And that’s partially what led him to contact 5 On Your Side.
He also said he’s worried about his family’s safety.
“It needs to be repaired. It’s about to start leaking carbon monoxide,” he said. “I think it’s in a condemned condition.”
He said his family has lived in the rental property for 10 years and have been model tenants.
But he feels like they’ve suddenly been left out in the cold with no explanation.
“They haven’t done anything. They just want to renew the rent, but they haven’t done anything,” he said.
5 On Your Side reached out to Renter’s Warehouse on Wednesday. A representative said a request to order a new furnace was just approved, and that they’ll be reaching out to the family about installation.
The representative also included this statement:
We were deeply disappointed to learn that one of our tenants has been waiting too long for her furnace to be repaired. We spoke with the service company tonight and they assure us it will be fixed tomorrow. The tenant says she is covered with space heaters in the interim and declined our offer to provide them.
While we conduct our own internal investigation to determine how this lapse happened, we want to express our sincere apologies to our tenant and will contact her directly to make this right.
This is not at all typical of our response level and we will make immediate improvements to ensure this does not happen again.
If you feel like you’re in a similar situation, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office offers a lot of resources for tenants and landlords. It’s recommended you get in writing a list of the “wear and tear” repairs you’ll make versus the things your landlord will be responsible for fixing.
For more information, click here.