City of Houston sues Montrose complex visited by police 446 times last year

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- After years of monitoring conditions at a Montrose apartment complex, the City of Houston filed a lawsuit against the owners of 1901 Richmond Avenue.

City Attorney Arturo Michel said it usually takes one to two years to file a lawsuit like the Chapter 125 one filed on Monday. The lawsuit alleges the apartment complex at 1901 Richmond is a public nuisance and the owner "knowingly tolerates" and "fails to make reasonable attempts to abate" the activity occurring there.

"The reason it takes so long is this type of lawsuit, which is called a common nuisance lawsuit, requires that certain types of crimes - they're violent crimes, firearms, assaults, prostitution - that those crimes are habitual, which means they go on for a while and they're repeated," Michel told 13 Investigates. "That takes a period of time to watch it and it's not just simply calls for service. You have to have actual incident reports. You have to show that these crimes were occurring and not just that someone called it in and under the law, if whoever manages the property calls it in, that's not counted against them."

SEE ALSO: 13 Investigates: City of Houston sues Montrose apartment complex over crime concerns

Michel said nuisance lawsuits can be filed against businesses or apartment complexes and can allow the city to shut down the property for a year.

"With an apartment complex, what we often do is to seek to appoint a receiver. That's someone who's going to manage the property, appointed by the court," Michel said. "The value of that is the rent that comes in is put back into the property so it can't be siphoned off."

John Geiss, president of the Richwood Place Civic Association, has lived a few blocks away from 1901 Richmond Avenue for the last 30 years.

"I've seen a guy riding by on a bicycle, stealing packages off porches and then later on I see that same bicycle over there at those apartments," Geiss said. "There's people that live across from those apartments that purposely put their children in rooms on the other side of the house just in case any bullets come through their house, so there's a lot of things happening there."

Geiss said residents welcome the city's recent action against the apartment complex.

"I was very happy about it because we've been fighting that for so long and I sent out a mass email to all our members and they all thought it was great news. We know this is just the very first step in a long process," he said.

13 Investigates reached out to Fat Property's owner and its director of operations after the lawsuit was filed, but did not receive a comment from them. An attorney for Fat Property told 13 Investigates that no one was in town and able to comment on the lawsuit.

On Friday, the company's director of operations, Star Epps, told 13 Investigates that many of the complex's 25 residents rely on government assistance for housing, but are being labeled as "criminals or problems in the neighborhood" and "deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."

13 Investigates found Houston police visited the address 1901 Richmond Avenue 446 times last year alone, which averages to at least once every day that police were patrolling or responding to a complaint at the location.

"The assertion that our property is a 'nuisance' due to over 400 calls for service last year is misleading without proper context," Epps said in a statement. "Our property is located at a major city bus stop, which naturally brings heavy pedestrian traffic, including individuals who are not tenants and have no affiliation with the property. Many of the reported incidents involve vagrants and other individuals loitering or causing disturbances after exiting public transit, not the residents who live on-site. Unfortunately, this activity is being misattributed to our tenants, which unfairly maligns their character and reputation."

Still, Michel said he believes the city's evidence is strong and he hopes it will bring improvements to the community.

"Their lawyer will look at our evidence, determine whether they want to work with us, whether they want to fight it," he said. "You need security on there, you need to be able to control access, ingress and egress, so there's quite a bit to be done."

13 Investigates has also learned the property is on the market and could have a new owner soon.

Michel said if there is a new owner, the city will need to reevaluate a few things. He said the city will continue to monitor the property under a new owner to ensure any promises of improvements are kept.

"We typically work with them, get some commitments on the timing of it because they have to relocate the residents, then they have to begin the demolition and secure it in the meantime," he said. "Then you also have to secure it in the construction phase if that happens and you want to make sure that that moves along in a timely fashion. We'll continue to monitor it."

Contact 13 Investigates

Have a tip? A problem to solve? Send a tip below. If you don't have a photo or document to include, just hit 'skip upload' and send the details. (On mobile? You can open our form by tapping here.)