Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett kicking out tenants of his apartment building so repairs can be made
By Jessica Vallejo
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MIAMI, FL (WFOR) — Tenants of a Miami Beach apartment building are upset and frustrated after their leases were terminated and they were given 45 days to leave.
“All of the sudden it’s like you have been doing your part but we have failed to do our part. And we will continue to fail to do our part because now we are asking you to leave and we will not provide you with anywhere to go in the meantime and no other financial assistance,” said resident LeeAnne Drucker.
Last Thursday, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett ordered the residents of his building, The Lois Apartments at 2001 Bay Drive, to leave.
In an email to his tenants, he said the building needs to be empty so ” a tremendous amount of work can be done on the structure, which was battered by Hurricane Irma in 2017.”
The complex has had crumbling balconies and a faulty elevator.
Drucker and other residents said this has been going on for years.
“We have been dealing with this situation for quite some time now, it is unfortunate that it has taken this amount of time for any kind of resolution to take place. I don’t know how you can even consider this a resolution,” she said.
The building was deemed unsafe by Miami Beach’s building department during the hurricane four years ago.
Burkett said the building will be repaired and undergo a 40-year inspection, which will be completed one year early.
“We will have to do the fire system in the whole building which is gonna require us to get into every apartment. Essentially we will have to renovate the building and it is just unsafe for our tenants to be in the building while we have heavy construction going on,” he said.
The mayor said tenants will receive some compensation.
“We will be refunding their deposits, we’re refunding any unpaid rent, and we will refund the September rent too once they move out,” Burkett said.
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