Charlotte apartment tenants win half-million dollar settlement over unsafe conditions
The former owner and manager of the Lake Arbor apartments have agreed to pay $547,500 to tenants over claims they improperly collected rent despite ongoing health and safety violations.
The settlement would end a class action lawsuit from former tenants of the west Charlotte apartments where all renters were removed last year, sparking outrage from housing advocates and changes to the city’s code violation policies.
Attorneys for the tenants called the settlement a win for their clients and a warning to landlords who neglect health and safety violations on their properties.
“These landlords kept taking the rent and taking the rent, all the while refusing to fix serious safety problems in tenants’ units, as found by the city,” former tenant and plaintiff Serita Russell said in a statement announcing the settlement. “I hope other landlords take this as a lesson on what happens when a landlord cares more about making money than the safety of its tenants.”
The former owners, Lake Arbor Dean TIC LLC and Lake Arbor 80M TIC LLC, and its property manager maintained they were not liable in the case, but settled to avoid the time and cost of a trial, said Erik Rosenwood, an attorney for the defendants.
The settlement money will be divided among 97 tenants, pending approval from the N.C. Superior Court. Tenants were represented by the North Carolina Justice Center, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy and Robinson Bradshaw.
History of violations
For more than a year, tenants of the 288-unit west Charlotte complex off Tuckaseegee Road complained of pests, unsafe wiring, broken appliances and water damage. Charlotte code inspectors subsequently found numerous violations.
Then in July 2019 residents found letters on their doors announcing the then-owners were removing all residents and planning to renovate. That triggered outrage from tenants and affordable housing advocates who said swift displacements would result in homelessness.
While conditions at the complex deteriorated, many tenants said they couldn’t afford to move elsewhere or challenge management.
It also garnered widespread attention from public officials, who highlighted the situation as an example of Charlotte’s struggle to maintain naturally occurring affordable housing, typically older properties with more modest rents.
Lake Arbor prompted a series of changes to city housing policies, including strengthening penalties on landlords with code violations, as well as an increased emphasis on identifying properties with numerous infractions.
In April the complex sold for $14 million to New York-based real estate investment company URS Capital Partners, Mecklenburg County property records show.
The company’s website shows plans to spend $8 million to redevelop the “deeply distressed property” into Nova Ridge Apartments and Townhomes, described as a “best-in-class workforce housing option.”
“Although badly neglected, the bones of the property, along with its location, made it ripe for an URS reposition,” states a description of the project, noting its proximity to uptown and the Amazon distribution center in west Charlotte.
A new website for Nova Ridge shows apartments are available to lease, with 1-bedroom units priced between $850 and $1,025.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 2:53 PM.
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