Seminole County apartment residents get one week to leave unsafe units

Pebble Creek tenants in Lake Mary were given a week to get out after county inspectors had already declared parts of the complex unsafe, turning a long-running repair failure into an immediate displacement crisis. David Subramanian and Haley Burns said a notice taped to their door on June 16 cut off their lease immediately and told them to vacate their unit at 780 Creekwater Terrace within seven days.

The couple said the stairway outside their second-floor apartment still had not been fixed when the deadline arrived. Burns family members had already left for other housing for several weeks, then returned while waiting for repairs, only to find themselves back in a building that Seminole County had not cleared for occupancy.

The county’s engineering report traced the crisis to a Feb. 27 fire in building #717, below the stairwell and landing connection above unit #113. The report said unpermitted welding during stair repair work sparked the fire, exposing severely deteriorated exterior wall framing and second-floor framing members. A March 20 inspection found those damaged elements were part of the structure’s bearing wall system and the primary bearing elements for the second floor.

County inspectors later found widespread deterioration across the 472-unit complex, which has 28 buildings. One report said 53 stair systems across 21 buildings were unsafe, with many showing fatigue, heavy lack of maintenance and, in some cases, no longer properly attached to the buildings. Local reporting said two buildings were structurally unsafe and a third had structural concerns, while another county report described numerous issues throughout the property.

Seminole County said the building’s unsafe status had not changed since March and that it had not authorized tenants to return. County officials also said they were not handling the eviction process. In the months after the fire, many residents were moved into other available units inside the complex, while Seminole County Emergency Management and the American Red Cross assisted displaced households with immediate needs.

The confusion deepened after management told residents in April that they could transfer to another unit or break their lease without penalty, with security-deposit refunds and moving-expense reimbursements of up to $750 with receipts. Some residents later said they returned at their own risk after being told they could go back, even though county officials still considered the units unsafe.

By the time the June 16 notice was taped to Subramanian and Burns’ door, the question was no longer whether the building had problems. It was where displaced tenants were supposed to go next, and why a complex county inspectors had been studying since March was still leaving families with only seven days to move.