The owners of a Mesquite, Texas apartment complex are facing lawsuits by city officials and residents after years of complaints about non-functioning air conditioning, roach infestations and deadly mold buildup.
Summit Hillcrest owners are being sued by the city for code violations, while two residents are suing over injuries they say they sustained when a roof collapsed, according to the Dallas Morning News. Another resident told the newspaper that her mother, who suffered from a respiratory illness, died after being exposed to black mold in her apartment.
The 1970s-era complex is owned by two companies named in the city’s lawsuit. One is a Montgomery, Alabama-based private limited company called Summit Hillcrest Apartments, which is owned by Jonathan Killough.
The other is CC Hillcrest LLC, which is managed by Code Capital Partners LLC in New Canaan, Conn., and Windermere, Fla. Jared Remington is named in the suit as the manager of the private equity firm that oversees CC Hillcrest. Remington is also named a managing partner at Code, according to his LinkedIn.
The Mesquite lawsuit filed on Monday alleges the owners of the complex put residents’ health and safety at risk by violating a laundry list of city building codes. The city says it had been aware of the issues at Hillcrest for years, as it issued more than 100 citations in the last two months alone.
The lawsuit was filed after a forum last week where frustrated residents pleaded with the Mesquite City Council to take action.
Mesquite Tri-East NAACP President Henry Brown, who is running to be a Dallas County justice of the peace, spoke at the citizens’ forum on Feb. 7, telling the city “enough is enough.”
“I know a lot of these units are not connected together. But they are all bad. All of them are bad,” said Brown on Saturday. “There’s only so much the city can do by not owning this property. This property is owned by an absentee person. And that person, to me, they’re not investing anything back into this unit.”
Hillcrest tenants have complained about chronic AC outages for years. In July 2015, local station NBC 5 reported that tenants went without functioning AC for a week.
“I haven’t had AC in my apartment in over 7 years,” said Regina Scroggins, a 10-year resident of Hillcrest. Though she has purchased her own portable AC unit, she said she can’t use it in one of her rooms because the wall is covered in mold.
Scroggins told the Dallas Morning News that her mother, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, went to the hospital after she had difficulty breathing in the apartment in June 2020.
She spent two weeks in the hospital and then, less than a day after being discharged with a clean bill of health, she woke up and told Scroggins she couldn’t breathe.
“My mom died the next day,” Scroggins said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long-term exposure to indoor mold can lead to upper respiratory tract issues in otherwise healthy people. People with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, allergies or with a suppressed immune system are at a greater risk for health problems tied to mold exposure, the agency says.
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The owners are also facing two negligence lawsuits from former tenant, Francisco Llorca, and visitor, Vivian Perez-Carrillo. Both individuals claim they suffered multiple severe injuries after apartment ceilings caved in and fell on them in July 2019 and are seeking damages “in excess of $50,000 but less than $75,000,” according to the lawsuit.
Perez-Carrillo said she and Llorca had complained to property managers several times in the past, according to the suit. One complaint was filed about a week before the ceiling collapsed on her.
“As long as they get their rent, that’s all they care [about],” Perez-Carrillo told Dallas Morning News.
As North Texas rents and housing prices skyrocket, many lower-income residents can’t afford to move when faced with uninhabitable conditions.
Tenants have few options in Texas, according to Sandy Rollins, executive director of the Texas Tenants’ Union.
In many states, they could withhold rent or pay it into an escrow account until repairs are made. In Texas, withholding rent usually results in eviction, Rollins said.
[Dallas Morning News] – Maddy Sperling