Management at a condo hotel without power or water in Kissimmee wants to keep people out. Besides having a private security company in front of the building they have now installed a fence all around.
- Heritage Park Inn now has fence, security
- Former condo hotel still has some residents who can't afford to leave
- Property still under litigation, code violations
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For the most part, many families have managed to move out of this place. However there are still a few who say they can’t afford to grab their stuff and go.
With tears in her eyes Alexandra Acosta showed us the place she used to call home. “This was our home and they took it away from us,” she explained.
Acosta recently moved out of the Osceola Heritage Park Inn. She said she had no choice after the condotel stopped providing running water or electricity to its tenants.
“Next thing I know, two weeks after I pay my rent, the water is cut off,” Acosta said.
The bills aren’t getting paid because the condominium association and unit owners are in the middle of litigation.
“What kind of people are these people? They don't have no heart, no soul because they are abusing their power,” she said. “Their money against people who only are guilty of being poor.”
Acosta went back to the condotel to pick up some of her belongings. She couldn’t help but realize her room was broken into and that her things were stolen.
Coming in and out of the building isn’t as easy anymore because the condominium association has put in an eight foot fence. The county says a permit is not required for temporary fencing like this one.
“They got money for the fence. They got money for security,” she said. “But they don’t have our money to give us back so we can go on with our lives.”
Acosta said residents have been pushed out of the condotel in wrongful ways. She said tenants have been verbally abused by security guards on site, cars have been towed and that tenant’s generators have been tampered with.
A video of a resident and security guard arguing over a generator was sent to us. You can hear the tenant saying, “You just put sugar in my tank?” And the guard responding, “I don’t give a damn, I told you this needed to be removed… And this is just the beginning.”
Acosta said no matter the circumstances, there is no excuse for this kind of treatment.
“They should be responsible for what they did to these people,” she said. “The ones who paid their rent. And give them their money back so they can go on with their life, because right now everybody is struggling.”
The condo hotel has multiple citations with the county. Some of those violations do not allow for units to be rented. The few tenants left living there said they just want things to be done right way.