CHARLESTON – A Charleston woman says her landlord refuses to allow her and her daughter to move to another apartment despite it having been flooded with sewage this summer.
Clairee Kiewra filed a complaint September 30 in Kanawha Circuit Court on behalf of herself and her daughter Hayden Bush against Vandalia Terrace Housing Corporation. The business operates Vandalia Terrace, which are low-income Housing and Urban Development apartments in Charleston.
According to her complaint, Kiewra’s apartment was flooded with raw sewage from July 20 to July 25 of this year. She says she made numerous complaints by telephone calls, pictures and text messages to maintenance staff and the complex manager asking to be transferred to a different unit and for her apartment to be cleaned.
Karl Kolenich
| klielaw.com
“The plaintiffs were forced to continue living in unsanitary conditions and told that they could shower in an adjacent unit,” the complaint states. “However, they continue to have to live in the unit even though they have continued requesting to be moved to another unit.”
Kiewra says the apartment still has a foul odor, is infested with insects and has carpets soaked and ruined by the sewage. She says Vandalia Terrace won’t clean the apartment or move her and her daughter to another unit.
She calls the company’s negligence extreme and outrageous, and she blames that negligence for her damages and injuries.
Kiewra says she and her daughter have suffered personal property damage, health problems because of the living conditions, emotional distress, annoyance, inconvenience, fear, humiliation and anxiety. She seeks compensatory damages as well as punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
Kiewra is being represented by Karl Kolenich of Klie Law Office in Buckhannon. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Ken Ballard.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 21-C-869