Tenants in Government's Murray Apartments in St. George's have fired off a second letter to the new Housing Minister underscoring their concerns about Government hiking rents without making repairs to its houses.

Government increased its residential rents Islandwide by 12.5 percent on the first of this month.

The hike is a part of Government's three-year plan to bring its rents "more in line with market level''.

But residents in the Murray apartments -- which were used as barracks for British soldiers around the 1700s -- have complained that the building on Redcoat Lane is falling to pieces.

They have cited rotting windows, a crumbling upper-level porch, and holes in the floor as some of the main problems.

And according to "a concerned contractor'', some of the apartments have sinking floors, a ceiling "ready to fall'', and "a line heater outlet just hanging off the wall''.

"This,'' he said in an independent assessment, "should be fixed immediately.'' The Murray Apartment Tenants' Association included the assessment in their first letter which was sent to Housing Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons in mid September.

And in their second letter -- dated September 28 -- the tenants repeated their call for Mr. Gibbons to visit the apartments.

"We asked for you to visit the units so that you could have an appreciation for our concerns,'' they wrote. "The residents are anxiously awaiting to hear from you. We re-emphasise that it is not the rent increase we object to, but the increase without the necessary interior work being done first.'' The tenants also noted that the Bermuda Housing Corporation only acted when their concerns were reported in the press.

"For instance, immediately following the front-page news article on September 19, 1995, workmen were at Murray Apartments white-washing the roof,'' they said.

"We were informed that the work programme was to include exterior work.

However, our concerns are simply that work needs to be done on the interior of the units which are most affected.'' When contacted by The Royal Gazette , Mr. Gibbons confirmed that he had received the association's second letter yesterday and met with Housing Corporation general manager Mr. Edwin Cowen.

"We're drafting a reply,'' he said. "When we have done that and he has free time, we will go down there.'' Mr. Gibbons said he could not say when he planned to visit the apartments.