A family of ten says that their owner hasn’t done anything in four years to stop a bedroom from flooding every time it rains. This means that some of their children don’t have a bedroom. Having eight kids can be a pain. “It was clear that they needed some space,” Preston Sumner said.
That’s why Sumner and his wife chose the house in Moore with four separate bedrooms when they were looking for a place to rent four years ago.
She said, “We wanted a place that would have enough space for all of us.” “Four bedrooms is the biggest room we could find here.” His boys shared the largest room, which was a garage that had been turned into a room with lots of space.
She said, “That’s where their bunk beds were, and they could play with their toys anywhere.” It seemed like a great room in theory. But in real life, they changed their minds after just one storm.
My oldest son Jason rolled out of bed, screamed for us, and his feet hit the floor,” Sumner said. “When we got in, he said, ‘Hey, the floor’s wet.'” “I have no idea what’s going on.” The carpet in the bedroom was wet from the storm.
Sumner said, “At first, we thought it was just coming from the door since it didn’t have a weather seal on it.”
But he quickly found out who was really to blame when his landlord sent workers to clean up the place. “When they came to air dry the carpet, they took it all up, and that’s when we saw the drain.”
Right under the carpet, there was an old garage floor drain that was clogged with concrete. “There are a lot of tiny holes the size of pinheads in there,” he told News 4 as he showed them the concrete that was blocking the drain.
The next time it rained, the room got wet again. Also the next time and the time after that. For the next four years, the loop kept going.
Sumner says he told his landlord about it every time, but his landlord only came out and dried out the room without fixing the problem.
The company that owned the building he lived in was contacted by News 4. The business confirmed that they have responded to many work orders related to the flooding.
The last work order the company got from Sumner, the rep said, was about the flooding in September.
That’s because Integrity Oklahoma is trying to sell the house and took away Sumner’s access to their online upkeep portal while they did that.
Sumner also says that he has emailed the company about the water problems, most recently on Monday. In answer to his email, Integrity Oklahoma just gave him a plumber’s phone number.
But when News 4 called Integrity Oklahoma on Tuesday, a representative said the company would be in touch with Sumner again on Wednesday to talk about the issue further. For now, Sumner’s boys still don’t have a bedroom.
Because the flooding destroyed several bunk beds, the boys have been sleeping on their mattresses in the family room for the past few months.
He said, “They wash the sheets during the day, and at night we take them out and lay them on the floor.” Sumner says the price wasn’t included in the rent he’s paid for four years in a row.
“There are people out there who are charging silly amounts of money for houses that can be lived in,” he said. All rights are held by Nexstar Media, Inc. until 2024. You are not allowed to print, broadcast, rewrite, or give this information to other people.