The Wilmont apartment complex was once a beautiful building, and it was the home of many NCSU students since its construction back in the 1930’s. Now the Wilmont buiding has degraded and have become a shadow of its former glory.
The story started back in October 14, 2008, when a city official inspected the Wilmont apartment complex due to a tenant’s complaints. When the Wilmont failed to pass the inspection, the city of Raleigh then gave David House, LLC, the owner of the Wilmont apartment complex since 2002, what it thought was a reasonable amount of time to make the needed repairs.
Since House was not able to make the needed repairs, the City of Raleigh declared the Wilmont apartment complex unfit for human habitation as of April 24, 2009.
Brandon Casperson, a Wake Tech student, said, “I’ve had a lot of fun here. I mean it’s an old building with problems but he never did anything about the problems.”
Dana Trenatlage, a graduate from NCSU’s graphic design department, said, “We hate living in this squander. We have no heat, no hot water and sometimes no water at all.”
On April 27, 2009, House informed the tenants that due to the city’s decision of the Wilmont apartments being unfit for human habitation, he had been forced to terminate all of their leases and ask the tenants to vacate the premises as of May 10, 2009. According to the letter from House if any tenant would remain after May 11 then he would have to initiate the eviction process on that tenant.
Many of the tenants felt like Trentlage, “Pretty much we’ve been kept in the dark.”
Miles Holst, a senior in Arts and Design in Communications Media, said “that the owner was forced to sell the property, so he terminated our leases in May, but he said that we could stick around while they did repairs. Then we got court summons because we had stuck around after our leases were up, so that sent conflicting messages. “
Thus many of the tenants have decided to pursue a lawsuit against House in hopes of reimbursement for the damages.
During the month of May, workers were coming in and out repairing the apartment as they pleased. On Saturday May 30, the tenants were presented with a notice that stated that they could stay at the Wilmont rent-free until June 4. If any tenant were to stay after June 4, then the tenant would have to pay the month’s rent. Many of the tenants felt relieved to hear about his news because it would give them enough time to move out of their home at the Wilmont.
As it turned to night on Saturday May 30, the tenants then had one final party, which was shut down when an officer from the Raleigh police department came to address a noise complaint.
An interesting note to mention was that many of the tenants presumed that the Wilmont was on the national registry of historic places but according to the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, the process of turning the Wilmont apartments into a historic place was started in 1991, but it never saw completion. Thus the Wilmont apartment complex is not an official historic site.
The latest news concerning the Wilmont was that Roger Bonning, the Housing Inspector Supervisor OEP said, “the Wilmont has been brought back up to code as of yesterday [June 2, 2009].”
As far as the city is concerned the building is now fit for habitation but it is up the owner to decide what to do with the Wilmont. Many of the tenants felt that the owner would sell the apartment to someone who would strip the apartment complex and then turn it to luxury condos.
“I can’t keep throwing money into it,” said House, “everything has gone way out of hand.” According to House, he felt that if everyone was treated like he was by the city then everyone would be homeless.
As far the future of the Wilmont goes, will the new owner try to make the Wilmont a historic site or will he strip the complex down to build luxury condos? Only time will tell.
