SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Celia Chavez says ever since new management took over the Villa De oro apartments, they've been making improvements. "They’re going berzerk. They’re putting hammocks, they’re putting BBQ pits, they started doing the fence," says Chavez.
She likes the improvements, but the most recent one not only surprised her, she was shocked when she paid her rent, then they told her she had to pay more. "And I said Ma'am I already paid you the rent. She says no, it's for the backyard. I says backyard? She says yeah, you owe me $300 or you can leave in 30 days."
So she called KENS.
Chavez says she came home one day to find maintenance workers behind her apartment, putting up a small fence. She says management told her she had to pay the $300 for the fence, then in her next months rent they hit her for the fence and a late fee because she said she wasn't going to pay for it.
A few days later, Chavez said she came home to find a letter on her door telling her she had 30 days to move out. Chavez takes care of her 82-year-old mother and says there's no way she could move in 30 days. Frantic about what to do, she called KENS.
We recommended she call Texas Rio Grande Legal Aide. They provide free legal counseling and help for lower income individuals. She says with a couple of weeks, she received a letter from TRGLA saying after speaking with the management's attorneys, they had decided they would stick to the terms of the original lease and Chavez didn't owe any extra and did not have to move out.