A Gwinnett County family admittedly doesn’t have the money needed to find a new home. But it doesn’t want to share an apartment with venomous snakes either.
Despite making management at the Bradford Gwinnett complex aware of the snake sightings, the family said it has continued to spot the unwanted guests, including a copperhead, attorney Jason Wilson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The residents have filed a lawsuit in Gwinnett County Superior Court seeking damages and a snake-free apartment.
“This is not just an adult couple living here, there are children there also,” Wilson said Friday afternoon. “These are actually snakes that can harm you. Most landlords would have the common sense to take care of it immediately.”
A message left late Friday at the Norcross complex’s management office was not returned. An email requesting comment from a southeastern representative for Riverstone Residential Group, which owns the complex, was not returned.
Shawn Davis, Paul Patterson and their children and a grandchild moved into their apartment in May, the lawsuit states. In September, the snakes were spotted in their unit and neighboring apartments, the lawsuit states.
“I don’t have roaches, or ants, I’m living in here with snakes,” Davis told Channel 2 Action News. “And I know for sure they’re coming from the basement.”
Davis said she fears a snake will bite her young granddaughter. One snake was found in the apartment’s hallway and the other in a fruit bowl, Davis said. Her husband, Patterson, didn’t tell her immediately about others he had found, she said.
After complaints to the management office, an exterminator was sent to family’s apartment.
“An exterminator was brought in to do a brief and what would turn out to be completely ineffectual job at fixing the situation,” the lawsuit states. “This exterminator would return to the apartment complex twice afterwards — whenever complaints reached a new peak — and perform a similarly cosmetic job that had no effect on the population of venomous snakes in Plaintiff’s apartment.”
Wilson said his clients feel stuck in the situation because of their finances.
“They don’t really have the money to relocate,” Wilson said. “This is a poor family.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
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