Knoxville family wants ‘substandard' conditions at apartment fixed
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A young Knoxville family is paying a lot of money for what they call a 'substandard apartment.'
They showed 6 News what appears to be violations of the Landlord-Tenant Act. Provisions in the act require a habitable and safe dwelling. For example, the home is free from hazards, and steps are being taken by the landlord to make repairs. The renters we met say they have none of that.
Makayla Phillips is like all mothers. She wants a safe, clean place for her kids. But that's not what she and the father of her children have. They live at Bramblewood Townhomes and apartments in Knoxville. Their lease for $975 a month was signed in late February. But there are problems.
For example, there is no hot water. A video shows a rat skittering across their kids' bedroom. The apartment's back porch is dangerous. It's collapsed. Their refrigerator and freezer is not cold enough. And, there's more.
'So the A/C has not worked. We have not had heat or air for the whole time we have been here. They were supposed to be exchanging parts for it, but it has been left open, wires exposed, and still has not been repaired,' said Mikey Johnson.
What is New World Screwworm? Veterinarian explains potential threat to livestock
'Everything in [the refrigerator] is bad. It will go in and out. We have told them multiple times about it. Every single thing in here and de-thawed, re-thawed. It keeps on going in and out. Sometimes it will leak. That's what this is from. It tore the whole floor up from it leaking,' said Phillips.
We noticed management closed the pool at the complex. What we saw behind the locked gates were appliances. There are a lot of them, and they're exposed to the elements.
'This is one of the refrigerators they just brought us. But they have an old pool down there that is filled with old refrigerators. They just pull it out of there and bring it to us. We clean all the mold, and there is still stuff that hasn't come off,' said Phillips.
Johnson said apartment maintenance moved their stove into the center of the kitchen more than a week ago. The electric burners don't work because the stove is unplugged.
Police seek help to solve 2023 murder of Chris Hill in West Knoxville
'They told us they were going to be getting us a new one. But they said they would not be putting a new stove in here until the rat problem is gone,' said Johnson. He showed 6 News a hole where pest control told them the rats were coming from.
In addition, a hole in the kitchen ceiling has not been repaired yet.
'When we first moved in, we had a water leak that we didn't know about and maintenance didn't catch it,' said Johnson.
The leak was fixed, but the cardboard remains.
'We've had to go and stay at places because of the rats. We've had to go to places to cook,' said Phillips.
The apartment has water, but Phillips says there's no hot water. That's likely because the water heater isn't working properly. In the children's bedroom, we asked about the rats that were caught on camera.
'They're coming here right here in between the wall. They're in the whole building really. Basically, there's been an infestation,' said Johnson.
KCS Superintendent shares insight into preparations for upcoming school year
Outside, there is a dangerous issue with the porch.
'So when we moved in, it was unlevel. I've tried to jack it up and put some boards under it to make it safer. Now the trusses underneath have completely snapped in half,' said Johnson.
We called the apartment office for a response to these issues last week, but no one answered, and the voicemail was full. We caught up with the landlord later by phone. Jim McSpadden blamed the issues on Phillips and Johnson, saying they created the problems. He said they accepted the apartment 'as is' when they moved in three months ago, and he said the couple stopped paying their rent recently. Johnson admits he has not paid May's rent because nothing has been fixed, but he says he did pay March and April's rent. For Phillips, all she wants is a safe place for her children.
'I want to be able to cook for my kids. I don't want to have to worry about where my kids sleep so they don't get bitten by rats,' said Phillips.
Under state law, landlords must make necessary repairs and take steps to keep their property habitable. But it seems like that's not going to happen for Johnson and Phillips. The landlord tells us, since the couple knew of the problems, they accepted their unit as is. He said they made the apartment worse, creating even more issues, and they are behind in their rent. But as Johnson and Phillips told us, they asked that repairs be made, but then gave up, and held back their rent for May. Finally, the landlord told us he would begin legal proceedings to evict the couple.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pinnacle Turkey Creek 5K raises money for older adults
KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — Pinnacle Turkey Creek hosted a 5K race on Sunday morning raising money for older adults. This event raised awareness and money for Send Senior Citizens Love whose mission is to improve 'the lives of seniors around the world.' Tennessee Valley Authority leads Douglas Lake 'Community Day of Service' This was the first year for the event, but there are plans for more in future years, said Gabi Walsh, marketing manager for Pinnacle Turkey Creek. 'We're happy that so many people want to support a great nonprofit,' Walsh said. Ashley Lynch, founder of Send Senior Citizens Love, said it was humbling and amazing to see so many people come out to support this cause. She started her nonprofit in 2019 after the death of her grandparents. 'I wanted to do something in memory of them,' Lynch told 6 News. 'COVID hit, everybody went on lockdown and the seniors were often forgotten, so I wanted to do something to cheer them up.' Morristown hosts the Tennessee State Disc Golf Championships She said she wants to raise awareness for older adults who might feel isolated. Lynch added, 'Next year we'll plan bigger.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Morristown hosts the Tennessee State Disc Golf Championships
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. (WATE) — Disc Golfers from across the country gathered in Morristown on Sunday for the Tennessee State Disc Golf Championships. The annual tournament tees off every year during the first weekend of June. Morristown proudly calls itself the disc golf capital of the state, and this weekend, that title was on full display at Panther Creek State Park. Sunday marks round three, the final day of the Tennessee State Disc Golf Championships. Tennessee Valley Authority leads Douglas Lake 'Community Day of Service' 'Morristown has really built up a very good core of disc golf courses, and the city governments, the chamber of commerce's, the parks departments, they're all heavily involved and really looking to keep making this a big event every year,' explained Tim Barr the Competition Director for the tournament. This year's event featured five different courses and 529 players, ranging from nine years old to over 75 years old.'There's a lot of courses in Tennessee, but you have to have every single piece in place for a big event like this to come together, and it all starts with government, with the parks department, with the chamber of commerce being heavily involved. That makes a big difference,' Barr Robinson, a Disc Golfer in the mixed pro division, traveled from Asheville, North Carolina to compete. He says this tournament is one he never misses.'This park is a bomber course, so if you like to throw far, this offers everything that you need. You're going to be able to shape your shots. You're going to be able to throw it really far, really hard every time. But also just the area in general has so many courses and so much to offer with, I mean, just the restaurants and the disc golf scene across the state,' said sport itself continues to grow, known for being beginner friendly and budget friendly.'I really like the way the discs float through the air and glide. There's a lot of shape manipulation that you can do,' explained Luke Wondergem another Disc Golfer in the mixed pro division. 'One last family supper' Knoxville coffee shop to close Other Park locations throughout Morristown that were utilized during the tournament included Cherokee Park, Frank Lorino Park, Wayne Hansard Park, and Mossy Creek Course at Carson Newman university. First place finishers in all divisions received a trophy. 'Pro division always impresses, men and women, so every year we watch these players come out and it's just like every year they get better, and they throw it farther and they make longer putts. And it's a lot of fun to watch,' said Barr. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Elon Musk caps off DOGE exit by leaving Trump and Johnson unpleasant parting gift
Elon Musk departed Washington this week, bringing one of the weirdest sagas in the history of the presidency to a close. Not everyone leaves DC with their reputation intact. But most people manage to get through it without their bladder control abilities making it into a New York Times exposé. So ends the Elon show. On Sunday, Washington saw its last gasp — a final, awkward sitdown between Musk and CBS Sunday Morning. Despite an awkward attempt by Musk to change the terms of the interview last-minute and bar any mention of politics, he answered questions about the end of DOGE and the budget reconciliation plan endorsed by Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and the majority of House Republicans. In his interview, Musk made it clear he hadn't gotten the memo that Johnson and other Republicans want their caucus to lie about the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score, which the speaker and others are now unconvincingly pretending is a group of liberal activists. Meanwhile, conservatives in their own caucus — the same deficit hawks who held Johnson to cuts of nearly $1 trillion affecting Medicaid — continue to cite the CBO's methodology as they hammer Johnson and their colleagues for insufficient deficit spending cuts. Musk's comments on that budget bill, released in the lead-up to CBS's interview last week, set off a firestorm in Washington. There was an obvious reason: Musk, in one fell swoop, undermined the entirety of the budget plan and essentially made Johnson out to be a liar — if you believe Musk, who no longer has a reason to play nice in Washington. "I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, doesn't decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told CBS News. Musk's demeanor was similar to the eyebrow-raising performance he delivered during his final press conference this week with Donald Trump — when he seemed visibly distracted by the gold ornamentation of the room and stood in a decidedly odd manner next to the (literally) sitting president of the United States. "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful," he went on. "But I don't know if it could be both. My personal opinion." Oops. With that quote, Musk did damage that was still being felt on Sunday, when the rest of his interview aired. At practically the same moment that his comments were re-broadcast, Speaker Mike Johnson was facing an uncomfortable grilling from NBC's Meet the Press about the bill and whether it cut the deficit significantly, or even at all. "I sent my good friend Elon a long text message explaining it can be big and beautiful," Johnson claimed. He repeated his insistence that the bill is 'not going to add to the debt' during his own interview, despite the CBO's outlook. Certainly, the guy who brought the motto 'move fast and break things' to Washington is going to read that text. Regardless of how that particular conversation turns out, the damage is done. Johnson's problem is simple: his own caucus does not believe his insistence about the 'big, beautiful bill' being deficit-neutral. Why should anyone else? Johnson wishes it were as simple as convincing Americans (and the media) that Democrats are the only ones opposed to his deficit math. In reality, some of the staunchest debt hawks in Washington — all conservatives — are in the same camp. If one needs proof, they can simply ask Chip Roy, one of the leaders of those debt hawks. Roy, in his final statement about the bill's passage in May, explained that he voted for the bill to achieve deficit cuts — but even he lamented that the bill did not go further in that regard. 'The good news is that the bill technically held true to that framework by yielding modest deficit reduction over a 10-year budget window,' said Roy. 'Importantly, it does this by cutting spending $1.5 trillion over 10 years, reforming programs like Medicaid and SNAP with work requirements.' It should be obvious, but just to be clear: 'modest deficit reduction' does not equal a budget that is deficit-neutral. The 'one big, beautiful bill' is still projected to add nearly $4 trillion to the deficit after those cuts, according to the CBO and other analysts. This offhand comment from Musk won't make his life any harder. He returns to Tesla, now bearing the brunt of a stunning drop in profits tied directly to his political activism. By doing so, he exits an unfamiliar arena: Washington, a place where public perception matters and can change on a dime. It will, however, make things a lot harder for Johnson and Senate Republican leadership, the latter of whom will now oversee the bill's fate for the next month. Already, Republicans are talking about changing the bill — including, potentially, by splitting 'one' big beautiful bill into several. Those Senate Republicans only acquired more ammunition to defy the White House and Johnson on Sunday. One of those Republicans is Ron Johnson, who, like his conservative allies in the House, has been one of the most vocal deficit spending watchdogs in Congress. Even before Musk's latest comments, Johnson was publicly prepared to buck the White House over the bill's price tag. After Sunday, the combination of the Musk interview and the Senate's hair-thin margin may give him all the political cover he needs. 'Republican leaders repeatedly say, 'We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem,'' Johnson tweeted before the bill passed the House. 'Right now, it doesn't appear that they are willing to fix it.' 'I am going to insist that we do,' he warned.
