Locked backdoor as rental dispute brews in Brighton

A landlord and tenant at loggerheads have resulted in repeated visits from the police as the two try to find a resolution to outstanding issues.

Today, 32-year-old Chalise Walkes complained to Barbados TODAY that her landlord Suzanne Cools is making her life uncomfortable after she called the Barbados Fire Service (BFS) to investigate why she has been unable to open the backdoor of the Brighton, St Michael apartment she rents from Cools.

Walkes claimed that since members of the Fire Service informed the landlord in April that she must provide the tenant with the keys to the locked backdoor, Cools has not only asked her to leave, but has since turned off the electricity and water on numerous occasions.

However, Cools, who claimed that Walkes owed her five months’ rent, is adamant that she has the right to cut off the utilities whenever she wants because the bills are in her name. Cools said since April she has asked Walkes and her family to leave her property.

The tenant said since moving into the apartment in November 2020 she has asked Cools for the keys to the backdoor. She said she has been promised the keys, but they have never been turned over by the landlord.

The young woman said sometime in March, after experiencing a minor fire at the apartment, she became worried about the locked backdoor and called the fire officials for advice.

“I called the fire service for her as it relates to the backdoor. From the time the fire service got involved she wanted me to leave. She literally sent me a note by Friday saying I must leave by Monday. I called the police and the fire service came and told her she has to unlock the backdoor and since then she has been harassing me. She calls me until I block her from calling me,” Walkes said.

According to the tenant, the dispute escalated on Monday morning when the landlord visited her apartment. She also accused the landlord of using a car to block her from leaving the apartment, leading to Walkes calling the police to the location once more. The tenant said when she returned from taking her three children to school, there was no water coming from the taps in the apartment. She said her investigations revealed that the landlord had sent a plumber to again cut the water supply to her apartment.

Walkes said she paid another plumber to reconnect the water today, and noted that though police advised Cools to reimburse her, she did not expect to get back her money.

“I already went through the emotions of trying to put this whole matter in court because she was wrong. I believe that she is only doing what she is doing because I brought in the fire service. She never intended to give me the keys. It was a lie from the beginning because she doesn’t intend to unlock the backdoor.  The police have been here eight times and I feel like I’m bothering the police now. If I didn’t know how to turn on the light I would have been out of light all now because she called the electrician three times.

“I don’t have a problem moving out of her property if she wants me to leave because it is her property. But you can’t give me a note a Friday telling me to leave by Monday and failure by me to leave you coming to cut off the light,”

Walkes, who showed Barbados TODAY a number of receipts signed by Cools, also made it clear that she does not owe five months’ rent. In fact, she said her rent had been paid up until April and that she did not intend to pay the landlord any more money because she has already ordered her to move out.

The mother further explained that she and the landlord entered an agreement to make a deduction to May’s rent due to a foul odor coming from another apartment which inconvenienced other tenants.

Cools, who lives on the same property, told Barbados TODAY she made a mistake when she didn’t give her tenant the keys to the backdoor. The landlord said she was upset that although she has been paying Walkes’ utility bills since she moved in, she is still waiting for her to pay the outstanding rent.

The landlord said: “She has one receipt. She hasn’t paid for months. She owes about $800 in utilities alone. I can’t be any fairer to her . . . After she paid me that one month’s rent to move in, that was it. The first month she moved in I didn’t know that was the only rent I would be getting.”
(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)