“I was scared to even bring them (newborn twins) home, but we don’t have anywhere else to go,” Romante Gravely, tenant.
After repeated complaints from residents, the Northview Garden Apartments on Stultz Road have begun addressing longstanding repair issues, according to Martinsville Mayor LC Jones. Following his recent intervention, the property management company, Vista Capital Management Group, has started maintenance on multiple units, though concerns remain about unresolved issues that may affect tenants’ safety and health.
Residents report various problems, including leaking shower pipes, ceiling holes, water damage, mold growth, and lack of heating/cooling. Jones said he reached out to Chari Hatcher at Vista’s corporate office in late October. “I met with her on Friday, Nov. 1, and showed her photos of the damage in three apartments. Maintenance came out that day and again on Monday to address some units,” Jones said, noting that repairs had only reached two of the three apartments identified.
Jones said maintenance went to two of the three apartments he told them were dealing with issues.
“So, two out of the three they have had some fixes up there. I haven’t been back over there to kind of move around and talk to everybody, because a lot of people had heat issues and stuff like that,” he said.
To help deal with the issues tenants are having, Jones said a new maintenance worker was hired to help tackle the backlog of repairs, with a start date of Nov. 4. He noted that while most of the apartment complex lies in Henry County’s Collinsville District, two units fall within Martinsville city limits.
Residents like Romante and Deeana Gravely have struggled with ongoing issues for more than two years, starting with a leak in the pipes of the upstairs shower, which caused water damage to the living room ceiling, leading to a bubble of water that eventually burst, damaging personal belongings. When maintenance responded, “all they did was pretty much cut that rectangle out and spray some mold killer. They didn’t stop the leak. That’s all that they did. They said they’d come back when it dries up, and they never came back. We’ve pretty much been dealing with the maintenance not coming at all pretty much since day one of moving in,” Romante Gravely said.
“They said they’d come back, but we haven’t seen them since. I have to keep a tote under the leak, and it’s half full after about a month and a half,” Romante Gravely said, adding the leak is ongoing, A large tote was placed under the area to collect the water that drips from his ceiling into the living room. “It’s about halfway full after being there for about a month and a half. Before that, the whole floor that was soaked,” he said.
Heating issues persist, and the family relies on portable heaters as temperatures drop. Mold is also a concern, particularly near the living room vent, where Romante Gravely believes it may have impacted his health.
“When the air was on, before they sprayed the mold killer or whatever, I felt myself getting sick. The air was constantly blowing, and I was always right there” in front of where it was blowing. “I was wondering, ‘am I getting sick? What’s going on,’ but I think it was just the mold because it’s forming right there” in the living room, “and it’s a ton in the bathroom just because, pretty much, how moist the air has been,” he said.
Deeana Gravely said the bathroom fan doesn’t work either, so the bathroom can’t be aired out.
The Gravelys, who recently brought home newborn twins, are particularly concerned about their living conditions — their newborn twins came home in late October.
“I was scared to even bring them home, but we don’t have anywhere else to go,” Romante Gravely said.
Other residents, like Gerald Mills, echoed concerns about mold, water damage, and the lack of consistent repairs. Mills, who has lived at Northview for four years, said he experiences mold and leaks from his shower. When he requested a repair, maintenance staff recommended he purchase a shower liner himself. “They said they didn’t have the money to fix it,” Mills said, noting that his cough began after moving into the apartment. His doctor recently recommended he see a pulmonologist to determine if mold exposure is the cause.
He also had to contend with allegedly missing rent payments. “They came up, this was over a year later, they’re like, ‘you’re missing two payments.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not missing two payments, I give you my money every month.’ I don’t get no assistance, I pay all my own rent,” he said.
After he found his payment receipts, Mills said he took them to the property manager and asked why it hadn’t been corrected yet.
“She was dumbfounded, and I reminded her that when the lady from Lynchburg came, she told you all to make a copy, you made a copy and gave me my original back,” he said.
Mills said he was told the corrections hadn’t been made, and the management is checking to see where his check was cashed. “That has nothing to do with me, I pay you. That’s on your end, not mine,” he said.
Tenants report various incidents where repairs were insufficient. One resident, Felicia Preston, recalls that before she moved in, her tub had fallen through to the living room. “If the bathroom leaks, all that water comes right down into my living room,” she said. Preston believes her family’s health has declined since moving in, with frequent coughs and other illness symptoms.
For longtime resident Tenisha Thurston, frustration stems from the contrast between the rent demands and the level of upkeep. “We’re expected to pay rent on time every month, but we don’t get what’s in the lease,” Thurston said. Her water smells of sulfur, forcing her family to use bottled water for basic tasks. When she previously raised concerns about mold, she says the response was to “get some bleach.”
Some of the tenants also experienced a loss of water pressure and access to clean water earlier this year in July.
Henry County Public Information Officer Brandon Martin explained that the county lacks a maintenance code, which restricts its oversight of privately owned rental properties. “We don’t have inspectors ensuring property upkeep. If the issue is related to safety or drug activity, we can address it, but we haven’t adopted a maintenance code to cover property repairs,” he said. Martin noted that implementing such codes countywide would require significant resources.
If residents believe there are health hazards, they can contact the health department, which can assess living conditions and issue recommendations.
“They could make a recommendation to the property owner of things that they must fix or something that they have to evacuate if it’s not safe to live there,” he said.
However, officials say that tenant advocacy remains a challenge under current regulations.
Neither the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Population Health Manager, Nancy Bell, nor the management group, responded to requests for comments.
