Pavilion vice president apologizes for unfit apartments

After complaints over unprepared rooms and dirty conditions, a Pavilion on 62nd Apartments senior vice president personally apologized Monday to at least two disgruntled tenants and offered to let them cancel their leases, the tenants said.

Along with about 10 others, Enrique Kopetman stood in a line Monday at the apartment complex as he waited to meet with Maureen Lannon, the senior vice president of marketing at Pierce Education Properties, L.P., which purchased Pavilion in late May.

On Saturday, when Kopetman walked into what would soon become his daughter’s new unit, he said there were bed bugs and stains on her bed — and the whole place smelled of feces and urine. Other tenants had similar complaints.

Once Kopetman and Lannon met, after a more-than-two-hour wait, he told her he wanted her to cancel his lease, and she obliged and even offered to return the security deposit, he said.

“When I met with [her], she was very apologetic,” Kopetman said. “She said, ‘This is not the way we do things.’”

Kopetman said his daughter Sara is staying with friends until they can find another apartment for her to move into.

After previously stating he planned to hire a lawyer, Kopetman said Monday he has decided not to take legal action despite his struggle over the weekend.

“I got what I wanted,” Kopetman said.

In a written statement issued Sunday, Bob Hetherington, a representative of the apartment complex, said the problem stemmed from the premature departure of one of two professional cleaning firms hired to help prepare the apartments.

On Monday, in a second statement, Hetherington said Lannon’s conversations with tenants “provided residents with reassurance and the open communication fostered confidence among most participants about the year ahead.”

However, at least one tenant said she was dissatisfied with Lannon’s peace offering.

When Elizabeth Provan’s daughter Carly walked into what she thought would be her new apartment unit Saturday, someone was already living there, Provan said.

“The management did call me today to tell me that they were trying to figure things out, but our apartment we were given was occupied by someone else when we walked in,” Provan said. “It was also absolutely disgusting — I wouldn’t even take my dog there.”

Lannon offered to cancel Provan’s lease, but “that’s just not enough,” Provan said.

“The company put us through an absolute nightmare,” she said. “My daughter has had three or four anxiety attacks at this point and has nowhere to live.”

She said she plans to seek legal action as soon as possible.

Jon Adcock, the director of the office of UF Student Legal Services, said any UF student who wishes to explore legal options should visit the office. The office’s website offers a link to a summary of Florida’s Landlord and Tenant law.

“Whether the company is breaking any law would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis,” Adcock said, “but students who want to explore their options should come see us this week.”