Brentwood Councilwoman Stephanie Fox is hesitant to walk up the stairs at one of the borough's largest apartment complexes, Pinetree Gardens.
The wooden staircases outside many of the complexes 204 units have shifted and decks are improperly bolted with some attached to the buildings only by roofing nails, code enforcement officers stated in a February report that outlines problems at the complex, located just off of Route 51 at Pearl and Victoria drives.
“It's just not right. People shouldn't have to live like this,” said Fox, chairperson of council's planning and zoning committee.
Brentwood, on March 6, revoked the rental licenses from property owner Forward Brentwood LLC and management company Forward Management for failure to submit annual rental registration information and payment of an annual licensing fee of $10 per unit by March 1, along with what borough solicitor Brian Maloney called a secondary issue that includes failure to fix code violations at the property.
A separate revocation was issued for Forward-owned Brentshire Gardens, with 163 units, off of Pyramid Avenue, for failure to file annual rental paperwork and pay the $10 licensing fee.
The borough's rental appeals board voted 5-0 Tuesday in two votes to uphold the revocation of both properties.
Attorney John Donovan, who represented Forward on Tuesday, said the company never received a bill from Brentwood for the 2015 rental license fees and that during communications with borough code officers, the lack of payments were never mentioned.
Forward plans to appeal the decision in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, he said, adding that the company is willing to pay the $10 per-unit licensing fee, but not an addition $150 per unit reinstatement fee for the revocation.
“I don't think you've given my client due process,” Donovan said.
Assistant borough Manager Eric Peccon said a reminder notice was sent to the owners of all 2,000 apartment units to submit the annual paperwork and fee.
Borough leaders said that the rules for rental property owners — and the annual licensing process — are readily available.
Forward failed to acquire a rental license when the borough implemented the program in 2013 and was fined $1,000 by the local magistrate, borough Manager George Zboyovsky said. Donovan showed proof that the company paid the borough almost $19,000 last year. That, Peccon said, was for payments for the 2013 and 2014 rental licenses.
There are no plans to evict residents, Donovan said.
Borough leaders, too, have raised concerns about health and safety issues at the complex.
In 2012, Brentwood implemented a process where code enforcement officers would inspect inside each of the borough's nearly 2,000 apartment units at least once every five years.
Code officers conducted an inspection of 54 units at the property in September and found code violations in all of the units, Fox said. The company was given 120 days to make repairs to the issues, that included debris in the basements, not enough smoke detectors, boarded up windows and faulty outlets, Zboyovsky said.
“We have garages falling in,” said Fox, who said residents contacted her about the garbage lying around the complex.
Code enforcement officers returned on Jan. 29 to reinspect and found that “limited progress” had been made, Zboyovsky said. Donovan said that the owners did address the problems in the 54 units.
Owners were given 30 days before an inspection of the remaining units was done, he said.
Donovan said that Forward is willing to fix items that affect residents' health and safety, yet he questioned why the borough gave 120 days to make repairs to 54 units, then he said only 17 days to fix issues in the remaining 3⁄4 of the apartments.
Maloney said the borough should not need to tell the property owner that their “property is in disrepair.”
Problems with rats and raccoons now are affecting neighbors, Fox said, noting she got a call from a tenant one night who woke up with a “raccoon staring at them through a vent,” Fox said.
“There are rats, raccoons,” Leola Avenue resident Rebecca O'Connor said.
Some residents living in the complex spoke Tuesday night saying they love it there.
“It's a country setting,” said Nancy Miller, 65, who has lived at Pinetree Gardens since 2002. “It's just like a family place. I love being there.”
