Elevator Repair To Strand Couple In Home
Lawyer: Property Managers Must Make Provisions For Residents
POSTED: Friday, February 5, 2010
UPDATED: 7:52 am EST February 8,2010
TAMARAC, Fla. -- An elderly couple with disabilities said they will be trapped in their Tamarac apartment beginning Monday.
Murray Kandel, 97, uses a walker, and his 88-year-old wife, Shirley, uses a wheelchair. The couple lives in a second-floor apartment in Lime Bay.
Beginning Monday, the single elevator in Building 6 at Lime Bay will be taken out of service for up to six weeks as the association replaces the old elevator.
"We rely on it daily," Murray Kandel said.
The Kandels said the property manager told them to stock up and hunker down.
"My mother-in-law absolutely is trapped in this apartment without the elevator," said Laurie Kandel.
The Kandels are on a fixed income, and a hotel is too costly. Their kids don't have the accommodations to take them in.
Lime Bay's property manager, Randy Seeman, hung up on Local 10's Jeff Weinsier.
An attorney representing Lime Bay said she had nothing to say on the issue.
"This is not our estimate, it's the elevator company's estimate. We told them to try and make arrangements. Otherwise, the maintenance man will try and help carry up packages and help them down. More than that we can't do," said B.B. Guttenberg, who is on the board of directors.
Matthew Dietz, who specializes in fair housing law, said that since Shirley Kandel is in a wheelchair, the association is required to make reasonable accommodations for her under the law.
"They have to do something, either find them a place in which they can get in and out which is acceptable to them or find some alternate accommodations for them," said Dietz.
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