Nine former and current Pine Forest Apartments tenants are suing the complex and GEM Management for damages they suffered when they were, in effect, evicted last year. One of the tenants still lives in an apartment there.
The predicament began in late April 2023, when tenants received a letter stating, “We have discovered foundation issues that need to be repaired to ensure that the building is maintained in a decent, safe and sanitary condition.”
Tenants could choose to “temporarily relocate by May 15, 2023,” or have their lease terminated. If they chose the later, they were given until June 15, 2023 to vacate the building.
But, plaintiffs in the case, filed by three attorneys from Legal Aid North Carolina, allege that if proper maintenance and repairs had been completed in a timely fashion, the would not have had to leave...
