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Renter's Nightmare: Flooded Apartments, No Help

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Renter's Nightmare: Flooded Apartments, No Help

By Jonathan Vigliotti

MILWAUKEE - Some Marquette students living off campus say their landlord has ignored repeated complaints of leaks for the past two weeks. They say Thursday's heavy, wet snow was the breaking point. But even then, the landlord did not help. Student Monica Praljak came home to her apartment on Kilbourn and found all of her belongings drenched. "It was literally pouring in here last night and paint was falling. We thought the ceiling was going to collapse on us," Praljak told TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Jonathan Vigliotti. She immediately called her landlord Jaunita Werra, who came to the apartment. "She basically told me to put a bucket under it and move my things away from it and that's it," said Praljak. The buckets did not work and Werra was never heard from again. By Friday, the apartment was so saturated that water seeped through to the apartment below. Four students were rained out of their own home. "I have midterms next week; I'm leaving in a week for spring break. I didn't want to come home to a room filled with rain," said Marquette student Christy Smith. Smith added that the problem could have been prevented had the landlord dealt with their first complaints two weeks ago, at the first sign of a problem. Landlord Jaunita Werra had no comment. She finally got in touch with the renters and offered to refund March rent. Marquette University has offered the students special housing.