King Of Prussia Apartment Complex Beset By Water Woes

By Ben Simmoneau

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (CBS) -- After four days – including Christmas – hundreds of residents at a King of Prussia apartment complex finally have their water back on. But that hasn't stopped a flood of frustration and anger.

"This is insane. It's insane to keep leaving people four days without water," said Paul Perales, a resident of the Marquis Apartments on Route 202 in King of Prussia. He says he now wants out of his lease.

The water first stopped running in the "C," "D," and "E" buildings when a main water pump broke on Christmas morning, which management says affected 213 apartment units. That problem lasted until Tuesday night, and management says repairs were difficult to make because of the holiday.

But then the water stopped working again on Wednesday morning when a pipe broke. That also flooded the garage of building "C."

"We had water for, like, two hours, and that's it. There's no more water after that," Perales said.

Last night "we were able to take showers and stuff, but this morning, I wanted to go to the bathroom and it was off," said Romona James, who was visiting her parents in the "C" building. "I think it's terrible."

"They're band-aiding it ... It shouldn't take three to four days to fix a water problem," said John Waters, the Chief Fire Marshal and Codes Enforcement Officer for Upper Merion Township. "We get more complaints out of the Marquis Apartments than we get from all of the other apartment complexes in this township combined."

Waters says it seems as though the aging complex needs a significant infrastructure investment. He says the township has cited the complex 19 times for various violations just since November, but a spokesman for the management company disputed that, saying it has no record of most of those citations.

The apartments are owned by Metropolitan Properties of America, a Boston-based company.

Waters says Upper Merion is asking for a court hearing "in an attempt to cajole the owners to be more proactive, rather than reactive," he said. "The complex is old. It has an old infrastructure. I would suspect that most of that infrastructure is beyond its life cycle, so the time has come for major capital improvement."

The spokesman for Metropolitan Properties says he believes a court hearing might be a good time for the company to tell its side of the story.