RICHMOND, VA — Residents at a Richmond apartment complex have gone more than two weeks without air conditioning, even after city officials stepped up oversight in hopes of improving conditions. For tenants in the Dogwood building at Legacy at Imperial Village, the loss of cooling has turned daily life into a fight against the heat.
Maelea Tweedie, who has lived there for five years, said the temperature inside her apartment has been extreme enough to make sleep difficult and regular routines uncomfortable. She described the feeling as like opening an oven door, and said a thermometer in her bedroom read 91 degrees on Wednesday.
Tweedie said she pays $1,500 a month in rent, including utilities, and added that portable fans and a small cooler have only provided limited relief.
Chillers failed after a power surge, and the repair date slipped
Property manager Judy Walton told residents in an email last week that chillers in the Dogwood building stopped working after a power surge on August 16. Walton initially expected the problem to be fixed by September 1, but tenants said that deadline came and went without the air conditioning returning.
In a newer email sent Wednesday, Walton said repairs were taking longer than expected because several needed components were hard to find. She also said crews were working to install a temporary chiller by Friday.
Tweedie said the delay has been especially frustrating because the building has already faced cooling problems before. She said the lack of a firm fix has left residents stuck in hot apartments while they wait for parts and temporary equipment.
City inspectors escalated from one violation to a second
Richmond code enforcement cited Imperial with a violation for the air-conditioning outage two weeks ago, city spokesperson Michael Hinkle said. On Tuesday, he said the city issued a secondary violation, which requires management to address the failures immediately.
The move came after residents had already spent days dealing with unsafe-feeling indoor temperatures. The increased enforcement adds pressure on the property to resolve the outage faster, but tenants said they have not yet seen enough change inside their own apartments.
Tweedie said the city’s involvement did little to ease her frustration at first. Still, she acknowledged that inspectors had started to bring some improvements once they were on site.
Years of code cases raised questions about accountability
A prior CBS 6 investigation found that Richmond opened at least 180 city code cases at the property since 2021, but did not issue any fines. City records showed that most of those cases ended in violations, with inspectors repeatedly finding problems at the complex.
That history helped draw attention from Mayor Danny Avula, who ordered broader inspections of the entire complex and a stronger oversight plan. The city’s response marked a more aggressive stance after years of recurring complaints and enforcement actions.
Tweedie said that history is part of what makes this latest outage so upsetting. In her view, the complex had already shown a pattern of problems, and residents were left wondering why stronger accountability had not come sooner.
Some residents welcome the extra scrutiny while others remain skeptical
Not every resident has reacted the same way to the city’s stepped-up role. A caregiver for a resident in a different building at the complex said she was pleased with the city’s action and has seen noticeable improvements.
Tweedie, however, said the new oversight plan did not make her feel better about staying there. She said the city’s presence helped with some small changes, but she questioned whether it matched the seriousness of the living conditions.
Her anger has also been sharpened by the fact that the Dogwood building lost air conditioning in July and then again in August, after the city had already increased its scrutiny. To her, the repeated failures suggest the same underlying problem keeps coming back.
Residents want faster fixes and stronger consequences
Tweedie said management did provide a portable cooler, but she described it as useful only for a small part of her living room. Fans and temporary relief, she said, are not enough when the rest of the apartment remains hot for long stretches.
She believes the city should impose stricter accountability measures so the complex faces more pressure to keep systems working. Her concern is not only about comfort, but also about whether residents can rely on basic building services they are paying for each month.
Imperial Village had not responded to CBS 6’s request for comment as of the time of the broadcast. For now, residents are still waiting to see whether the temporary chiller arrives on schedule and whether the long-delayed repairs finally restore reliable cooling.
More on what homes, rents and new builds are doing near you, on RHS Commoner.
