Sick of smelling an overwhelming stench, a viewer reached out to 7Investigates about a dangerous health hazard right outside her apartment complex. The Night Team’s Kevin Ozebek has tonight’s special assignment report: Something Stinks.

Imagine stepping outside your front door and seeing a steady stream of bug-attracting, foul smelling sewage with gobs of toilet paper and solid human waste.

Kevin Ozebek: “Describe the smell out here.”

Michele Davis, resident: “The smell is horrible. It’s ridiculous.”

Michele Davis and others who live at the Lake Shore Presidential Apartments in Northwest Miami-Dade said they have had enough.

Ruby Murray, resident: “It needs to be cleaned up. They need to fix it because we’re paying a lot of money to stay here.”

Residents say sewage pooling in this parking lot has been a reoccurring problem for years, and county records back them up.

We found this code violation from 2018. It says because of a broken sewer line coming from the building to the parking lot “there is overflowing sewer water and the smell is unbearable.”

Kevin Ozebek: “It is really hot out here.”

Woman who does not want to be identified: “Yeah.”

Kevin Ozebek: “I imagine that doesn’t help with the stench coming from this.”

Woman: “It doesn’t help at all, and I am trying to figure out when they are going to come out and have someone clean it up, because it is unsanitary.”

This tenant who does not want to be identified said she complained, but nothing has happened.

Woman: “We’ve gone in person to the property manager. We’ve done everything.”

After we saw the sewage for ourselves, we called Miami-Dade’s Environmental Resources Management division to see if any complaints were filed with their office. None were.

But right after our call, they sent out an inspector.

He then filed this report saying he saw “feces and toilet paper” and “raw sewage Pooled in the parking lot.”

Michele Davis: “This is ridiculous for our kids. We shouldn’t have to stay like this.”

But look at Lake Shore Presidential Apartments now! The county gave 24 hours for the violation to be corrected, and the sewage was cleaned-up.

We even spotted the source of the leak being repaired.

Michele Davis: “They’re getting the job done now.”

But we still wanted to know why the sewage wasn’t cleaned up sooner, so we went to the office of the on-site manager.

Kevin Ozebek: “Is the property manager here?”

No luck, so we went to the offices of Kevin Faith, the registered agent of the company that owns the apartment complex.

Kevin Ozebek: “We are looking to speak to one of the partners of the company.”

No luck again.

But right after we left, his office the faith group sent us an email saying, “We have spoken to management and they have advised us and this matter has been rectified.”

Next we called “Strategic Properties” the company that manages the Lake Shore Presidential Apartments.

Their customer service director told us he could not find any complaints about the sewage in his computer system but promised the problem is being fixed.

Ademir Perea, Strategic Properties Customer Service Director: “Some of our tenants, they’ve been throwing different items through the toilet, and that’s why the situation got worse, so something we are doing is we are unplugging this. This whole situation should be back to normal.”

Kevin Ozebek: “That’s exactly what residents have been waiting to hear.”

Michele Davis: “It’s perfect. It’s a lot better.”

If the sewage and the stench ever returns, so will the 7Investigates team to demand answers.

If you have any environmental hazard in your complex or neighborhood, you can report it directly to the county…