Salt Lake County Renters Raise Stink Over Sewer Backup Response

SALT LAKE CITY — A big “stink” was brewing at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County, with multiple renters claiming not enough was being done to help them after a sewer backup left one unit apparently condemned, and three others damaged.

The renters said the trouble started Friday when sewage and water began bubbling up into their units at the Holladay Hills Apartments located at 3690 South and Highland Drive. They said the problem hadn’t been totally remedied on Sunday.

“Sunday coming back from the hotel, there was still feces — full feces, full people’s feces — all over my house,” said Jessica Rexford. “They left their shop (vacuum) full of feces — absolutely full of feces — under my dining room table. They will not pay for a place for us to stay, they will not have anybody in that apartment. There’s nobody helping us right now.”

Nicholas Shrewsbury and Brittney Mackenzie, who live in another one of the units, also registered concerns about how the situation was being handled.

“There’s still poop behind my water heater, behind my furnace,” Shrewsbury said.

“Our child with autism was just playing in the water,” Mackenzie added.

Shrewsbury said something similar had happened before Christmas.

“We asked them, you know, can you compensate us for the hotel we had to pay for, take some money off our rent for the day that we were out, help take a little off our electric bill for these high-powered fans we’re having to run, and they said, ‘that’s what renters insurance is for,” Shrewsbury said. “When I told them, you know, how frustrating that was for me, they told me I wasn’t allowed to contact them anymore.”

After KSL’s attempts to reach management on Tuesday and Wednesday, a woman who identified herself as a manager over the apartment complex declined to comment on the matter Wednesday afternoon.

Shrewsbury said the affected renters believed the management should have done more to help them.

Rexford said because of the condition of her apartment, she has not been allowed to go back, and she doesn’t know where she’ll live.

“They’re doing the least possible because we are in a low-income apartment, we need to sit down and take it,” Rexford said. “It is terrible.”