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RESIDENTS were left without heat or electricity in their condominium but one resident claimed it could have been avoided.
Joyce Taylor, 92, was one of many tenants, at Clarendon House Condominiums, who went days without power at her Fayetteville, North Carolina apartment for six days.
Taylor’s HOA, Clarendon House’s homeowner’s association argued that the situation couldn’t have been prevented.
The president of the HOA, Tom Lloyd, revealed about 40% of residents were affected by the power outage but described the situation as a “perfect storm,” according to The Fayetteville Observer.
Lloyd claimed that a breaker to one of the transformers in the building blew on March 26, 2022, and they had to find a replacement for the old model.
He said an electrician, from Watson Electrical Construction, was brought out shortly after the lights went out at 9pm but he could not immediately fix the problem.
A letter was posted around the building the next day which said: “Since the type of breaker that is currently being used for the transformer is of an older model, the electrician did not have a breaker in stock that he could replace the breaker with on Saturday night.”
Taylor, who lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment, was able to receive help from her children, Lisa Phillips and Donnie Taylor.
Some other residents supposedly paid for hotel rooms or stayed with family due to the dark and cold early spring conditions.
Taylor’s children claimed they were upset with the lack of urgency in the HOA’s response to the issue.
Phillips alleged that when she spoke to the HOA they said Taylor would have to file an insurance claim and she also claimed that compensation was not offered to residents who left, according to The Fayetteville Observer.
She said: “It’s been handled badly.”
Phillips also claimed that her mother paid $200 a month in HOA fees.
Lloyd disagreed with these claims and alleged that the building’s management team went door to door to check on residents.
He added that an electrician arrived on March 28th to order the replacement breaker, which supposedly could not be ordered new due to the age of the design so a refurbished one had to be found.
Lloyd said: “Even if we had requested overnight, which Watson has done before, it’s not guaranteed.
“You can pay $100 more for overnight, and I can tell you now it could be three days more than that.”
Lloyd went on to blame economic and supply chain issues for creating a “perfect storm.”
He said: “It’s a problem that you’re seeing at every aspect of delivery and supply, not just electrical parts.”
“Believe me, I’m not happy.”
Despite this Taylor and Phillips believed this situation could have been prevented.
Phillips said: “This could have been avoided with updates and maintenance.”
She claimed that she believed the building’s generator or electrics were not regularly inspected
Phillips said: “This place needs to be more up-to-date. That should be done on average.”
Lloyd added that the HOA was looking to make updates to the older building.
He said: “We’ve been looking into replacing the majority of the electrical system here.”
Power was resorted to all residents after six days but Lloyd added one thing he would have changed.
Lloyd said: “In retrospect, if anything the board could have done differently is next time put out more daily communication, posted on where we are.
“I think we probably needed to communicate daily with an update even if nothing’s changed. At least they would know that,”
The US Sun has reached out to Clarendon House’s homeowner’s association for comment.
