Big Country Chateau tenants and allies from the Arkansas Community Organizations and Arkansas Renters United gathered in front of Little Rock City Hall on Thursday to deliver a letter to city officials calling for help in relocating.
Recently Central Arkansas Water informed tenants of the Little Rock apartment complex that water service would be disconnected in March. This week, Entergy Arkansas distributed notices saying electricity would be cut on Feb. 6. The owner is responsible for paying for both electric and water service, according to the leases tenants signed.
Addressed to Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. and city directors, the letter states:
"Once again, we, the tenants at Big Country Chateau Apartments, are in crisis. The owner, APEX Big Country AR LLC, has not paid the water and electric bills. Our water will be shut off on March 1. Our electricity will also be shut off. We need your help."
The letter also complains of substandard and dangerous conditions, including mold, roaches, water and sewage leaks and backups.
Many residents are elderly, disabled or have children and are struggling to find resources to move to better housing. Residents requested that the city coordinate with service providers, churches and community organizations to aid them in relocating.
"While APEX Big Country LLC needs to pay the overdue water and electric bills, we ask that the Mayor and the Board of Directors to meet with Entergy Arkansas and Central Arkansas Water Authority to urge them to delay shutting off our electricity and water until we are able to move."
Attorney General Tim Griffin visited the gathering and pledged to help.
"All leaders have an obligation, if they can fix something to at least try to fix it, and that's what we're doing on the legal side," Griffin said.
Phillip Harris, a resident for over a year, said he's had to mop up water since moving in.
"My wife, she's a diabetic and has asthma, and I'm sleeping in my living room now," he said.
"There's mold in the closet, up under my sink. You can see from looking up under my sinks, and when it leaks, when she let her water out [of] her sink, it comes up into my pots and I gotta throw it out every morning. Get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, I gotta watch for water. So I'm just tired of it. They want you to pay your $750, but they don't want to give you no living assistance."
Harris said he recently became disabled due to problems with his back and can't lift anything too heavy.
"My wife is a Type 1 diabetic and has asthma, and she gotta go to the doctor again [to] check her breathing. She's been constantly going to the doctor," he said. "She's sleeping all the time. That's from the mold."
He expressed frustration over what he called the apartments' false advertisement of a laundry facility on site. There is a laundry room, he said, but there's a padlock over the door, and when it was open, it had one washer and one dryer for all residents.
"You want your money, but you don't wanna fix anything. It's not the point that we're trying to stay there rent-free. But if you spend our money, at least make our living conditions better. ... As soon as I got the keys to the place, I had to mop water in my kitchen."
Harris is attending online college at South University for business administration, but he said he can't do his course work if the lights are off.
Al Allen with Renters United said many landlords look to purchase property in Arkansas due to its lack of a warranty of habitability -- a law requiring rental property to meet minimum requirements so that it's safe to live in.
"Our renters in Arkansas don't even have a right to a smoke detector if they can't afford a lawyer and the cost of moving," she said. "So although there's an implied warranty of habitability, there really isn't one, and so that's something that we're here to dispel today, but also to raise awareness about how these tenants really need relocation services."
Big Country Chateau is a "last ditch" place, Allen said.
"Tenants are desperate, and a lot of people are afraid to speak out about these situations," she said.
The apartment complex has been in Little Rock environmental court since 2019 when gas service was discontinued. It had an outstanding balance with Central Arkansas Water of $222,931.70 and faced a scheduled shut-off last September. At the same time, Entergy notified tenants that their electricity would be shut off due to an outstanding balance. The electricity stayed on after the $71,000 was paid.
Griffin has continued pursuing a lawsuit filed last August by his predecessor, Leslie Rutledge, against three corporate entities behind the Big Country Chateau complex in Pulaski County Circuit Court over alleged violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The defendants in the case are Big Country Chateau LLC; Apex Big Chateau AR LLC; and Apex Equity Group LLC.
In an order filed Jan. 5, Circuit Judge Cara Connors granted the state's motion to compel discovery after attorneys for the state received no responses from the defendants with regard to an initial set of discovery requests.
On Jan. 18, having received no response to the judge's order from the other side, attorneys for the state filed a motion asking Connors to strike the defendants' answers to the complaint and enter a default judgement of liability against them.
Last year when city officials inspected 149 of 151 units, they identified 337 life safety violations and 975 other violations, according to a memo from Kevin Howard, director of the city's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Programs.
"By holding out these units as available for rent, Defendants indicated that these dwelling units met the standards set by both the State of Arkansas and the City of Little Rock," the attorney general's complaint read. "Knowingly renting properties that do not meet these requirements and failing to repair problems throughout the lease term are deceptive and unconscionable trade practices."
Likewise, the owners violated the Deceptive Trade Practices Act when they took money "for the purpose of paying utility bills but failed to pay such bills," the complaint said.
Violations of the Deceptive Trades Practices Act can yield a civil penalty of up to $10,000 each, according to the complaint.
With 151 units at the apartment complex, the state could seek $1.5 million in penalties if there is at least one violation per unit.
Norma Hoffman (right), a resident of the Big Country Chateau apartments, is consoled by Al Allen, with Arkansas Community Organizations, outside Little Rock City Hall on Thursday. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)