CITY: LANDLORDS MUST VACATE SITE UNTIL REPAIRS MADE

When Christine Grigsby moved into her first-floor apartment last December, she assumed she would stay dry when it rained. During a rainstorm Dec. 28, water ran down the wall of her kitchen.

Grigsby, who lives at 604 Jefferson Ave. with her husband, Robin, said she complained to the landlord, who told her it was a leak from the shower from the tenant upstairs.

With every rainstorm that followed, more water came into her apartment. Huge pieces of her ceiling fell in. One night, rain leaking from her ceiling woke her up and, when she went to call the landlord, the phone was wet, Grigsby said.

By March 6, tired of being rained on, Grigsby filed a complaint with the city. In July, the city ordered the landlords, Kyle Thomas of Sikeston and Mark Baker of Jackson, to fix the four-apartment complex by Sept. 1 or vacate the premises.

On Wednesday, the city issued summonses to Thomas and Baker for failure to maintain minimum property standards. They must evict their tenants, cannot bring in any new tenants until they bring the property up to minimum standards and, if convicted, face fines of up to $500 or up to 90 days in jail.

Reached by phone, Baker said he didn't want to talk about the situation without talking to his attorney.

Richard Murray, the city's chief building inspector, said he bends over backwards to give landlords time to fix their properties, but these landlords have run out of time.

The roof on the structure has leaked for years, Murray said.

He said Baker and Thomas said they hired someone to work on the roof, but he didn't work out. Murray said he thinks they are looking for someone else to do the work.

Indeed, as of Thursday evening, the structure had a scaffold set up and boards in place to help a roofer with his footing. The outermost layer of shingles, doesn't cover the entire roof. An observer standing across Jefferson can see tar paper covering parts of the roof, and an older layer of shingles underneath the tar paper is visible in parts of the roof.

Tenants had occupied three of the four apartments. Grigsby, who is recovering from injuries from a near-fatal car accident, and her husband, who is between jobs and collecting unemployment, are close to finding a new place to live.

They have lined one of their walls with buckets for catching rain. Ceiling panels with water stains sag. Some panels are missing, some held up with tape.

"Just put yourself in our shoes," Robin Grigsby said. "It starts raining in your kitchen. You get things out of the way and set the buckets up. You spread your towels out on the floor. Why should we have to live like that?"