ATLANTA — It’s been a loud three weeks for residents of the Camden Phipps apartments in Buckhead. They tell 11Alive the buildings are undergoing renovations on the exterior that are disrupting them daily.
Ashley Peterson's apartment windows have already been boarded up.
"They’re here from nine to six Monday through Friday, and it’s jackhammering, drilling, it’s very loud," she said. "My dog is terrified at the noise; I can’t imagine having small children or babies. It’ll make the sanest person go crazy listening to nine hours of construction."
She's kept a PDF of all the email communication the apartment complex managers have sent out.
"We recommend you closing your blinds during the project," she said while reading an email out loud.
She said what has not been communicated, though, is a tarp they'll be setting up inside the apartments.
“They’re going to be 3 to 4 feet against all exterior walls and windows, putting up a temporary partition barrier with a tarp," she said.
She found out about the incoming tarp from her neighbor, Ally Powers, who said she was told about it by the property manager.
“She starts talking about how they’re going to be taking the windows down, the walls down, taking 3 to 4 feet of our apartment, putting up a fake wall and a plastic tarp to every single building," Powers said. This isn’t just me. This is everybody."
Powers has lived in the apartments for two years and Peterson for nearly ten years.
"I live in a small unit I have about 825 square feet. My first thought was my bed and couch have nowhere to go," Powers said. "What would be taken from me is 3 to 4 feet of my living room which is one fourth of my living room and one third of my bedroom. There’s nowhere to move it to."
Frustrated, Powers decided to write a letter and put it on the doors of all residents in the complex.
"It sickens me that Camden hasn’t told anyone about this," she read. "I went back through all of the emails to look. The answer I got was that they were not legally obligated to tell anyone this is happening."
They said they were initially told this project could take up to five months per building to complete. There are six buildings in the complex, and only one is being worked on currently.
"After they’re done with my building, they’re going to 4,000, 3000, 2000, 1000 until all the buildings are complete," Peterson said. "This is going to be a year plus renovation process."
Peterson showed 11Alive phone conversations proving management did mention the tarp would be 3 to 4 feet into the apartment. So we reached out to the management company for answers.
In an initial statement, Camden Property Trust writes:
"The safety and happiness of our residents are always our priority. We are in the beginning stages of making significant exterior upgrades and repairs to the community, which will benefit all residents and enhance their overall experience. As with any project involving exterior construction, such as weather-proofing and windows, there will be some disruption during the day for residents. We are confident we can keep this to a minimum. While we will be completing construction on the façade of the building as well as replacing windows, the intent of the dust barrier is to guard against the potential dust from the construction on the outside of the building. We have already offered residents who work from home alternative options during the work day and are happy to work with any resident to make their experience during the project as pleasant as possible under the circumstances.”
We reached back out with more questions about the so-called tarp and the length of this construction.
Originally, they replied, "Our communication to residents incorrectly stated each building would take 3-5 months to complete. That’s actually the timeline for the entire project."
On the week of October 10th, the company reverted and said construction will, in fact, take anywhere from 3-5 months to complete each building.
And regarding the tarp, they write, "Some residents seem to believe that we will be closing off part of their apartment along the exterior wall during the project. That’s not the case. We will put up a dust draping, a thick piece of plastic directly on the interior wall, if needed, as an additional guard against potential dust from the exterior work and window replacement (Windows will be replaced same-day)."
The dust draping, they add, will be optional for residents who decide to use it to protect their furniture.
They add that they offered:
- Reserved co-work space as an alternative to those who work from home
- Offered to provide doggy daycare to pets
- Made noise-canceling headphones available
But Peterson and Powers said that to them, those are not solutions.
“They need to offer financial compensation through our rent, they need to offer to relocate us to another comparable unit in a Camden property, or put us in a hotel," Peterson suggested.
Peterson said her dog has a hot spot from scratching after the anxiety of the construction noises. She's had to take her to the vet to get checked.
"Honestly, it’s very disruptive to my daily life. A lot of people work from home. Having a team come in to put up this barrier is very disruptive to me and to my dog," she said. "She's terrified of the sounds, the people outside the windows."
Both said the lack of transparency had made this more of a nightmare than the noise and lack of parking.
"They need to let me out of my lease because this is a huge invasion. This is unprecedented," Powers said. "I’ve never heard of anything like this. They’re trying to basically get away with renovating the units while we live in them."