ATLANTA — Following an 11Alive report stating that residents at a Midtown high-rise were owed money after spending nearly a month without water - one said he was paid back.
The Hue Midtown apartments - formerly known as 'Icon' prior to a management change - reached out to 11Alive, saying management promised to pay them for a hotel during that time, but earlier in December, a resident reported that they'd not gotten a cent.
Following that December report, Jon Diggs, who has lived in the apartments for three years, wrote in to say that he'd received his reimbursement check.
Diggs believes the issues stem from when the pipes burst during a Dec. 2022 freeze across metro Atlanta, which 11Alive investigated in February when the apartment was under another management company.
At that time, residents said some of the issues included only one working elevator for the 39-floor complex and hallways full of trash due to a broken trash chute.
"All the [trash chute] pipes are broken and there's just trash [everywhere], so on all of our floors, we have trash chutes in our doors so you can smell the trash," he said.
When management changed, the complaints continued. When 11Alive reached back out to residents in August, that's when residents said they'd been living without running water for weeks.
RELATED: A nightmare: Residents say they've been without water for three weeks at Midtown apartment complex
Residents who asked to be anonymous sent in videos of dry faucets and shower heads.
"I came back into the apartment, I had groceries and went to turn on the water, and there was absolutely no water," the resident said. "We checked our emails [that moment], we had nothing."
Diggs feels like the situation needs more investigation.
“Someone needs to investigate structurally what's happening in this building... what happened in December? Why did it take so long to get things fixed? And then again, what happened in August? It seems like these points are connected in some kind of way.”
In our previous 11Alive report, we reached out to Hue Midtown, and parent company Bozzuto provided the following statement:
The Hue Management Team was able to give credits to each resident who provided receipts for hotel stays, food, etc., during the time when the building was undergoing repairs to its water system. If there is anyone who was missed and has their appropriate receipts, the team would be happy to give the credits ASAP. We have been meeting and talking through each of their concerns to make sure that they fully understand their options.
The water was shut off yesterday for a final repair. Residents were notified well in advance. To make their experience as positive as possible, we had drinking water available, and served complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner for each resident.
It is impossible to guarantee that there will never be another issue, but what we can say is that the problem from this past summer has been fully repaired.