Town of Perinton taking ‘Pines of Perinton’ to court

PERINTON, N.Y. (WHEC) — The town of Perinton is taking the owners of "Pines of Perinton" property to court over code violations. We took you through some of those units in February that had mold, mice and more. The town had given The Pines a compliance order by the end of July to rectify those violations. Current tenants at the Pines tell News10NBC’s Stephanie Duprey there is still a long way to go.

The Pines were issued six appearance tickets for 26 code violations in six different apartments. Some tenants say this court appearance should have been issued a long time ago.

"I feel like the town wants a pat on the back for doing their jobs,” Tiffany Porter said, whose parents live inside the complex.

READ MORE: Some Pines of Perinton tenants frustrated by ongoing maintenance problems

This isn’t our first interview with Porter or her family. She says almost six months later now, her family, including other tenants are still waiting on code violations to be fixed. That, taking it to court should have already happened.

“The fact that they actually went through with it, is good but you need to know probably every apartment in there needs to be assessed by the town.”

Town officials say the violations currently documented are water leaks, drywall damage, bathroom repairs, window repairs and rodent infestation. The town says WinnCompanies, owners of Pines Of Perinton only completed two of eight current violations. Those violations were issued on July 13th and had a compliance date by the end of July.

“Code enforcement is a serious matter and one that we do not take lightly in the Town of Perinton,” said Hanna. “The Town will continue to do our part to hold the Pines of Perinton accountable for providing safe and healthy living conditions for their almost 1,200 residents. Our Perinton Building and Codes officials have made every attempt to work with the Pines management and maintenance staff to see repairs made. We are very disappointed that only two of the eight current violations were addressed. The town shares in the frustration of the residents, and we will take all necessary steps to ensure these health and safety issues are addressed.”

"We gave what we believe was ample time for the Winn group to address these issues by the end of the month and they failed to do so which triggered the next step,” Jason Kennedy said, the commissioner of public works for the town of Perinton.

It’s not a question that the town wants immediate action from WinnCompanies, both said they don’t see these issues as "Life-safety issues". Porter says otherwise.

"I think it’s very foolish of them to keep going on this narrative that it’s not life or death especially when they don’t live there, it is absolutely life or death, and these people have nowhere else to go.”

In a statement from WinnCompanies, a spokesperson says:

“Our maintenance team and contractors have completed 4,100 work orders in the 508 apartments at the pines of Perinton so far this year. We have been and continue to be highly responsive to resident needs and have worked hard to address maintenance issues at this 50-year-old property.

We have tried to address the maintenance issues in these six apartments multiple times in the last three weeks, but the residents have not cooperated with our maintenance teams or repair vendors. In some cases, our teams and vendors have been met with hostile and abusive language, threats of harm and inappropriate conduct. In others, contractors have been repeatedly denied access to apartments on the scheduled day of work. These challenges have made it impossible for us to make repairs.

It is important to note that in all six of these apartments, the inspection citation does not involve life-safety issues. The citations we have been trying to address are for routine but needed repairs to cabinet doors, window frames, bathtub caulking, loose toilets, faucet leaks and the like.

We are committed to resolving these issues as soon as possible and hope the residents of these apartments cooperate with our efforts.

The Pines of Perinton court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday, August 16, 2022, at 3 p.m. unless the violations are successfully remediated before that date.