Montgomery County housing inspectors have been ordered to check every unit at a White Oak apartment complex where dozens of housing-code violations have been uncovered in recent months.
The stepped-up inspections, announced Tuesday by County Executive Marc Elrich, come after the county’s Department of Housing and Community Affairs went through a quarter of Enclave’s 1,169 apartments in November and documented 37 units with mold and nearly 30 with either rat or roach infestations.
A lack of smoke detectors, broken appliances, unlabeled circuit breakers, leaking sinks and bathtubs and chipping paint were also found, according to the inspection reports.
Elrich said inspections would start immediately and, in a statement, said “it is unacceptable to live in such conditions.”
The Donaldson Group, the management company for the apartments, took over in the spring to “address a wide range of problems caused by years of deferred maintenance,” the company said in a statement issued after a Bethesda Beat report last week on the code citations.
The Rockville-based company said rain during much of last year slowed remediation work.
“TDG is fully committed to working with the ownership and the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs to make all necessary repairs and improvements to The Enclave’s individual apartments and common areas in order to provide a safe, healthy, and welcoming living environment for residents,” the statement said.
The three-building complex, just off Columbia Pike, opened in the mid-1960s.
The county noted “an uptick” in resident complaints – 113 were received in 2018 compared with 41 between 2014 and 2018.
A new “tenant protection measure” requires a more aggressive inspection timetable that aims to check multifamily units and will lead to an online “Troubled Properties List” published by the county.
In his Tuesday announcement, Elrich also said the housing department would intensify a public outreach and education program for tenants.
