Residents displaced by Midtown apartment fire ‘let down’ after moving company mix-up
ATLANTA - A mix-up with the moving company hired to pack and ship what remained of former Bell Collier Village residents’ belongings has left some feeling frustrated in the months since a devastating fire at the luxury apartment building.
"(We’re) exhausted…there’s a lot of therapists that are going to be getting paid after this," Anisa Brenee told FOX 5.
Brenee says despite the July incident at the apartment complex she was scheduled to move out of just two weeks later, she was given hope she’d be able to salvage her things when she was allowed inside and found her unit had minimal damage.
"Some residents were able to go inside, gather a few items…essential items…we were told that our belongings would be packed up by Metro Contents Moving Company and from there, we would be reunited with our things," she told FOX 5.
The former resident says after residents were notified on Aug. 22, and she confirmed with the moving company, that hope quickly turned to hopelessness last week.
"I found out on Sept. 27 that I am not on the list to be packed up," she stated.
"I decided to drive up to the moving company, Metro Contents, and the girl just said she’d made a mistake, and she was looking at the wrong list."
Another former resident, Kim Olguin, says she was also told what she heard was a mistake.
"Honestly, that’s very stressful to be told you to get your things back and then get turned around and be like no you’re not getting anything back," Olguin explained.
Olguin says most of what she had was brand new as this was her first-ever apartment.
"I lost everything…clothes, shoes, appliances…It’s just been really hard and stressful having to move forward with nothing," she added.
While Brenee says attempts to reach out to Bell Partners have been unsuccessful,
Olguin says she was told there was nothing they could do.
A statement to FOX 5 from a bell Partners spokesperson reads:
"All former Bell Collier Village residents were informed on August 22nd of the process being implemented for retrieving, transferring, and storing salvageable belongings.
‘Retrieval of belongings from individual apartments has been underway for several weeks and many items have been transferred to a climate-controlled storage facility located in the metro area. We anticipate this process will be completed no later than next week. In some cases, however, damage to individual units was determined by inspectors to be a total loss.
"Once items are received at the storage facility, our storage vendor has notified former residents via contact information provided to schedule an appointment for pickup."
It’s unclear how those determinations were made. Both women say they’re now coming to terms with the reality they’ll likely have to start over.
A group of residents has since filed a class action lawsuit stemming from the loss of personal items. Brenee says she is now considering joining that group.
FOX 5 reached out to Metro Contents Movers for comment on this, but have not yet heard back.