Baltimore tenants sue apartment complex landlord, alleging ‘dangerous’ conditions

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More than a dozen tenants of a Baltimore City apartment have brought a lawsuit against their landlord, alleging dangerous conditions in their apartment complex and seeking to have the city’s district court establish a rent escrow account.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in Baltimore City District Court, 17 tenants of the Sharp Leadenhall Apartments allege the 192-unit, multi-building complex has a variety of unsafe conditions, including rodent and insect infestations, damaged windows, water damage, mold, and ineffective trash removal that residents say exacerbates unsanitary conditions.

Residents have also cited security concerns that have impacted their ability to feel safe leaving their homes at night, according to the complaint.

Residents say management for the property, which is subsidized through state and federal financing and subsidies from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, failed to provide them safe, habitable and sanitary homes and failed to provide promised services.

According to the complaint, residents formed the Historic Sharp Leadenhall Tenant Council and in February sent management letters describing their concerns. In April, residents met with property management but ultimately decided to take legal action through Maryland Legal Aid after seeing few changes in property conditions.

A spokesperson for the Sharp Leadenhall Apartments declined to comment Wednesday.

Vivian Johnson, a tenant at the Sharp Leadenhall Apartments, said the roach infestation at her home is becoming increasingly worse and property management has failed to clean up trash piles that often build outside her corner apartment next to trash dumpsters. She says she is extra careful of the health and safety of her home because she lives with her mother, who has Stage 4 cancer.

Johnson recently became involved in the tenant council and says the council’s meetings have allowed residents to come together, voice their frustrations, ask for help and help others.

“They’re ready to do whatever needs to be done to make this a livable area,” Johnson said of the tenant council. “They’re championing for people, which is very good to have people on your side, especially when they live in the area. They understand things that are going on and they want better for the community, because this is a community.”

Caroline Tripp, staff attorney at Maryland Legal Aid and counsel for the tenants, said many residents fear retaliation by property management for withholding rent because of the conditions or lack of licensure for some of the buildings. The last time Tripp visited the property, she said she received a notice that she would be considered a trespasser and would be arrested if she returned, although she had been invited by tenants to visit their homes and document conditions in preparation for filing rent escrow actions.

“People put a lot of work into creating (the tenants council) and it’s really meaningful,” Tripp said Wednesday in a phone call. “Having management tell them that the attorney that represents the council and that they know represents the council can’t be on the property … there’s already a bit of a divide between tenants and management because of the failure to make repairs and things like that, but I think that’s going to widen that divide.”

Tenants are asking the district court to order property management and owners to repair the alleged dangerous conditions, abate the monthly rent to $0.00 until certain buildings of the complex obtain a valid rental license and order payment of prospective rent into escrow, among other requested remedies.

Johnson said she and others are hoping for “a fresh start” in the form of new management and new ownership.

“I’m very vocal, especially when it comes to my mom, because I’m not going to settle for less. I’m not going to have her living in any type of condition in which she’s not able to live in,” Johnson said. “If anything comes out of all this for the betterment of this neighborhood, that’s what I would like to see.”