IBERIA PARISH — The owner of Fields Funeral Home says serious maintenance problems inside the building contributed to the financial struggles that ultimately led to a judge ordering the business to vacate the property within 24 hours.
Crews spent Thursday packing up and moving items out of the New Iberia funeral home after the eviction order was issued over more than $200,000 in unpaid rent.
KATC spoke with owner Wilfred Fields, who invited us inside the funeral home to show what he says were longstanding issues with the building that made operating the business increasingly difficult.
Fields pointed to what he described as major maintenance problems throughout the property, including roof damage, water leaks, plumbing issues and limited air conditioning.
Fields says he even got the roof inspected and received a quote for $200,000 to fix the roof.
The building was ordered vacated after, according to city officials, inspectors discovered “unsanitary conditions and improper ventilation” inside the funeral home.
According to Fields, many of those conditions were tied to the state of the building itself. Fields says the roof was in serious need of repair and claims repeated leaks caused water damage throughout the facility.
He says the leaks forced him to remove carpeting from a room previously used for embalming. He also claims mold caused by the leaking roof led to the foul odor reported inside the building.
Fields says the funeral home also struggled with plumbing problems and lacked working air conditioning in large portions of the property. Fields says he was unaware of many of the building’s issues when he first leased the property.
He claims he attempted to work with the landlord to make repairs, but says the problems were never fully addressed. He says he purchased additional cooling units to keep the embalming room operational while relying on only one functioning air conditioner to cool other parts of the facility.
He says the added strain caused his electric bill to rise to nearly $3,500 a month. Fields says balancing those expenses while also trying to maintain the building made it difficult to keep up with rent payments.
Now facing the closure of the business, Fields says he hopes to move on and clear his name. The 62-year-old told KATC that owning and operating a funeral home had been a lifelong dream of his since he was 14 years old.
KATC did reach out to the Iberia Realty Partners, the landlord over the building and to the property manager, Eminent Property management for comment but have not heard back.
