Tenants Of One Texas Apartment Are Being Threatened With Eviction For Complaining About Rat Infestations Within The Building
Landlords are not always responsive to tenant complaints, but you would think that residents of senior living apartments would be treated with a high degree of care and respect, considering that their advanced age sometimes makes them unable to remedy problems within their apartment units themselves. In one notable case of landlord mistreatment of tenants, a senior living apartment, Laurel Plaza, located in New Braunfels, has long been infested with rats, but those who have complained have fallen victim to vengeful acts or threats of reprisal and eviction by the apartment’s management.
According to numerous tenants, and many relatives of tenants, Laurel Plaza has been crawling with a vast number of rats for a long time now, and the infestation seems to be getting worse by the day. Several tenants have described the failure of the building’s management to local news reporters, but the residents demanded to remain anonymous in fear of reprisals by the building’s management team. This failure has been putting the residents at the mercy of rats for a long time. Naturally, many residents of Laurel Plaza fear for their health. Apparently, the rats infesting the building often bring an odor along with them that residents find unbearable. One San Antonio resident whose mother lives in Laurel Plaza says he is “at his wits end” trying to have the manager address the extensive rat infestation. Another relative of a Laurel Plaza resident finds the stench of dead rats to be so bad that he must wear a respirator upon entering the building, and this is really saying something, considering that this man works in sewers for a living. Both calling and physically visiting the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs in an effort to hold the management team responsible for the rat infestation has, so far, proven to be a waste of time. Several residents have been threatened with eviction if they continue to complain, and the management team deprived the residents of their regular social gatherings within the apartment courtyard by enforcing a curfew. Although news of this story only recently broke, hopefully state or federal authorities will make and effort to have the rats eradicated sooner rather than later.
If you had a relative living within a rat infested home that was being neglected by management, would you pursue a lawsuit against the property management company?