OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – A garbage bag ripped and trash spread by the front door. Dirt scattered across the bedroom floor. A big gash through the kitchen’s stovetop.
Those were just a few of the issues that greeted Peyton Howard, a junior mechanical engineering major at Mississippi State University, when he walked into his apartment during move-in day Aug. 14 at the Yugo Starkville Campus Common on Ace Avenue off Oktoc Road.
That is once he got into his bedroom.
“They had to get a drill and drill my lock off because they told me … nobody’s been able to open this door for about two years,” Howard told The Dispatch on Thursday. “… And then the second you open my room, it is just dirt (and) dust. … (My room) didn’t have a chair, desk, or bed, and then you walk into the bathroom, and (it’s backed up).”
While the area was cleaned by apartment complex staff, Howard, his roommates and their parents are still awaiting a response to requested repairs to broken appliances they found during move-in, including to the stovetop, washing machine and dryer.
The conditions were a far cry from the “move-in ready” Howard said residents were promised.
Even though he and his roommates are frustrated by what they allege was a breach of their lease agreement due to the room’s condition, Howard said they feel lucky compared to other tenants who are dealing with more distressing issues like mold, insect infestations and broken air conditioning units.
Natasha Olive, the mother of an MSU student living in the apartments, said she and her son were some of those less fortunate who found animal droppings, dead bugs and broken appliances in the apartment.
But even after cleaning the room themselves, the issues did not stop Friday, Olive said.
“Now the issue we’re having is his air is not working,” Olive said. “He had to go and buy a fan to try to keep cool. The air is messed up. … The stove is horrible. The outside of the complex looks like it’s nasty. They’ve either just swept down all the trash from the top level, and … it dropped behind the stairs. It’s just filth. … I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
Olive and Howard agreed that they, alongside dozens of other residents experiencing issues, plan to ask the apartment complex for a partial repayment of their first month’s rent or alternative compensation considering the conditions they found their apartments in last week.
Both Olive and Howard said they had previously taken tours of other apartments at the complex that were not in the same condition as the ones they leased.
If those requests for repayment go unanswered, Howard and his two roommates expect to break their lease agreements and file a civil suit for breach of contract against the company.
“We want either some kind of compensation, like get all of our utilities fixed within this time frame, lower the rent, something,” Howard said. “We need some sort of compensation because the way that it was in here, that’s not something you can just let slide.”
In an emailed statement to The Dispatch, Yugo Global Communications Director Jo MacAdie said that the company is aware of “a small percentage of units” at the complex requiring additional attention since move-in. She declined to comment about whether tenants would be compensated for how the rooms were found.
“We are addressing the concerns raised by affected residents and are focused on helping them settle into their new homes,” the statement reads.
Howard said as someone who moved to the area after two years at Jones College in Ellisville, he was shocked the county didn’t have a code enforcement officer or building codes for apartment complexes or other residences.
“I think that there almost needs to be some kind of county representative that inspects these buildings themselves,” Howard said. “I would say there needs to be somebody hired for the county that comes in and inspects these buildings because they’re just screwing people out of money. … It’s false advertisement at its finest.”
Wayne Carpenter, county administrator, said the board of supervisors ultimately cannot do anything to deal with these sorts of issues.
“The county has no apartment codes or rental codes or anything of that nature,” Carpenter said. “We’re treating this the only way we can treat it, which is, this is a civil matter, breach of contract between the lessee and the lessor.”
But issues like those at Yugo highlight the need to implement something, District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said.
The board since February 2025 has been mulling over the implementation of county-wide building codes as part of its updated comprehensive plan, which covers county goals, land use, transportation and community facilities. During public discussions for that plan, residents voiced concerns over the implementation of invasive zoning and building codes, but there was largely support on the board for implementing a baseline.
In January, the board approved moving forward with the first phase of that plan but left building codes and zoning out for the time to develop a better idea of what it wanted to implement.
“You have got to have guidelines,” Trainer said. “People have got to know what the expectations are. And it’s like there’s no way you can know all the laws on the book, but the law needs to be on the book to where if you (have) an idea (then) you can research it, and your research will give you what you need to be in compliance. … It’s just a process where we (have) got to have something in place, and we (have) got to move on it. And I’m not saying the sky’s falling, but this thing didn’t just all of a sudden happen.”
During a supervisors’ meeting Monday, there was discussion of developing a staff position to handle code enforcement as well as deal with planning and development broadly in conjunction with the county engineer and other county departments, Carpenter said.
Trainer said for that position to really have an impact, the county needs to flesh out a foundation of building ordinances that is specific in their requirements for homes, apartment complexes and other properties built in the county.
“(We have to) try to cover it from all angles,” Trainer said. “I mean, there’s no way I can spin it or twist it. I mean, just start with something, and then one thing about a law or code, you can always come back and amend it. But if you don’t have anything, what can you amend?”