SYLVANIA, Ohio — Melody Metz lives with many of her prized possessions and beloved belongings, like her dog, Sugar. But there is something she's living without: her deceased mother's belongings.
"We had a bunch of boxes and stuff we needed to go through like her pictures and her knickknacks," Metz said.
She had been living at Hunt Club Apartments in Sylvania for about three months until a fire broke out on July 15, 2022.
"I went down out the door and I look up and there's black smoke rolling out of the apartment two down from me," Metz said.
She grabbed what she could and got out of the apartment.
After an investigation, the state fire marshal deemed the building unstable. Metz was left to find a new place to live and hoped she could eventually reclaim her mother's items.
A few weeks after the fire, the apartment's management agreed to let everyone sign a liability waiver and go back in.
"They said we're going to let you guys go into your apartment, we're going to give you each fifteen minutes to grab your things," Metz said. "I grabbed my grandmother's bible, my grandmother's antique candy dish that was on top of the fridge, a couple of items that I knew I really needed and that was it."
Fifteen minutes is not much time to move multiple items out of an apartment. But, the Hunt Club Apartments supervisor told WTOL 11 that while the employees for the complex were there for 15 minutes unlocking apartments, they gave residents the whole day to move things out. She added that multiple people got all of their belongings out that day.
Metz said she signed the liability agreement, in case something happened while she was inside.
The supervisor claimed that Metz's first signature was for the typed statement, the liability agreement. The supervisor said when Metz left the apartment with her things, the typed statement was crossed out and replaced with the handwritten statement: "Have received what ever items that could be gotten out of my apartment."
The supervisor claimed Metz then signed again on the bottom of the form, in agreeance with the handwritten portion.
But Metz claimed she doesn't remember that handwritten portion being on the form and said she wouldn't have agreed to that.
The supervisor said the agreement was revised like that because they wanted all of the documentation in one spot and didn't want to lose anything.
Metz said she just wants her pictures back.
The building is expected to be demolished, but there is no set date yet. The supervisor said the building is too unstable to let anyone in and that's their decision. The supervisor said the state fire marshal determines a building's stability, but it's up to the complex to decide whether to let people in or not.