WASHINGTON (7News) — It’s known as the bustling, up-and-coming NoMa neighborhood. Within it, you’ll find big homes like Cielo Modern Residences.
“I’ve lived at Cielo for about 14 months now,” Ciara Lopez said. “I am one month away from my lease ending.”
However, Lopez said she won’t be resigning.
Recent floods have filled the stairways, elevators and hallways.
But the indoor waterways aren’t the only reason she won’t be calling Cielo home much longer.
“As of recently, it’s been flooding and even our utilities bill being upwards of $240, and I live in a studio apartment, just for common room utilities,” Lopez said. “I would say maybe 9 to 10 months into my 10-year [lease], they introduced that they would be charging us these bills. They weren’t explained very well what they are, what it would look like, what the cost is, or where it capped at. Come to find out, they would never be capped, and we wouldn’t be given a fair breakdown of what exactly we’re paying for each month.”
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Resident Nikki Peele and plenty of her neighbors have also fallen victim to the common utilities in addition to personal utilities.
“Imagine that you went out and you found an apartment to live in, you were told the rent was ‘X,’ and then you find out, ‘OK, add another 10% on top of that that you did not know,'” Peele said.
These tenants took the issue to their Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen who plans to introduce legislation in the fall centered around what he said are somewhat like junk fees.
“It’s not $5 or $10 a month,” Allen said. “We’re talking very substantial amounts.”
Allen said D.C. residents need to be aware of what they’re paying for before they put pen to paper.
“We’re still researching it. I found in some buildings that are actually more transparent about what the costs are, in those cases the residents know what they’re signing up for. In these cases, for the residents, it’s like a hidden fee,” said Allen. “I think it’s predatory. I don’t think it’s transparent, and I think we need a law to be able to help protect our residents from those kind of egregious fees that are being tacked on.”
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When 7News’ Lianna Golden asked Cielo management about the fees and the floods, a building spokesperson replied only addressing the latter:
A valve on the 12th floor at Cielo caused the building to experience flooding. Our on-site maintenance team immediately coordinated with the contractor to identify and repair the issue. We are proactively working with the residents whose homes were impacted to mitigate the damage and assess the immediate next steps. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused to our community.
We are not kicking residents out as a result of the damage at Cielo. We are working directly with the few residents that have been displaced by the damage to find alternate accommodations while repairs are being completed, including transfers to other apartment homes. We are doing everything we can to ensure residents are impacted as minimally as possible and have made ourselves available for any questions or concerns.
Residents said they feel differently and don’t plan to let this go anytime soon.
“It is devastating for a lot of people, and people feel helpless living here at Cielo,” Peele said. “It [hidden fees] needs to be illegal in The District because this cannot stand.”
“All of us together, it feels like there’s more power in numbers,” Lopez said.
“I think the legislation and the law can make sure we protect people with transparency and with accountability,” said Allen.