Residents of a notorious Prince George’s County apartment complex are getting a restitution package worth about $11 million after a legal settlement between their landlord and the state of Maryland.
The state’s case against Heather Hill Apartments in Temple Hills was supposed to go to court this month. Instead they reached the largest settlement in Maryland history involving a case with renters and an apartment management company.
It all stemmed from a single phone call from a resident to the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.
“Families have been forced to live in conditions that no one should have to ever endure,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said, announcing the settlement during a news conference in Largo.
When his office initiated action in November, he cited “a parent with a young child vulnerable to respiratory problems from the black mold growing throughout their apartment, mushrooms literally growing out of the living room floor, families huddling together in a bedroom when their heating system failed during the coldest week in January.”
Plenty of tenants also dealt with apartments full of roaches, mice and even bats, according to Brown’s office.
“When residents complained, the landlords neither fixed the apartments nor made them livable,” Brown said. “Instead, they continued to charge rent, threatened late fees and even tried to evict tenants from homes that were never even safe to begin with.”
The restitution process will vary for residents, depending on whether they paid rent while the complex was operating without a license, and whether they still live there. Most will come in the form of debt relief — about $8.8 million worth — for those residents who didn’t make any rent payments during that time period.
The other $2.6 million will be paid back to residents who were paying rent during that time period.
Browns’ office said there were 200 related cases headed for court that will be dropped. Several cases were filed against residents in May. Instead, those tenants will get help repairing credit scores that dropped as a result of the dispute with the apartment management company.
“Current tenants at Heather Hill will receive a dollar-for-dollar credit for past payments that they made during the unlicensed period,” said Karen Valentine, deputy chief of the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division. “Former tenants will receive cash based on a portion of the payments those tenants made during the period that Heather Hill failed to have a license.”
Checks should be doled out to them in the coming months. All told, about $250,000 in cash is going to former residents, while the rest of the $2.6 million will be paid in the form of credits to current Heather Hill tenants.
“If you’re a tenant facing similar, unsafe conditions, don’t suffer in silence,” Brown said. “Contact our consumer protection division.”
Tenants can call 410-528-8662 to reach the division. That’s where anyone who lives at Heather Hill and has questions about their piece of the settlement, or anyone at another complex dealing with similar issues, is directed to call.
Heather Hill began addressing the issues that led to the licensing suspension and eventual lawsuit after it was filed. The apartment complex received its license to operate in January, allowing it to collect rent since then.
“There are countless Marylanders, not just in Prince George’s County, who suffer from landlords who refuse to invest in the property, who neglect the property,” Brown said. “And we’re here to say, we’re going to hold you accountable.”
Brown also said his office was aware of a separate class action lawsuit filed by residents against the owners of Heather Hill, though that’s a case his office isn’t involved with.
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