CINCINNATI — The City of Cincinnati has filed a lawsuit against REM Capital, a Florida-based company that owns five different apartment complexes in Cincinnati, according to a press release from city officials.
The lawsuit alleges the company maintains "substandard living conditions" within its complexes. Those complexes comprise roughly 850 housing units in Cincinnati neighborhoods like Bond Hill, Pleasant Ridge, Mt. Airy and West Price Hill.
The city specifically cited the Heirlooms Apartments, located in Roselawn, as being a source of many complaints from residents. People living in the complex have complained of rat and cockroach infestations, raw sewage leaks and a lack of hot water and heat, city officials said.
"We have been crystal clear as an administration: If you are coming into the city, buying up properties and neglecting them, you will be held accountable," said Mayor Aftab Pureval in a press release. "We have been hard at work through policy, investments and litigation to ensure residents have access to safe, quality, affordable homes — and this lawsuit is a continuation of our aggressive work to protect and support tenants throughout Cincinnati."
The lawsuit is requesting the court issue orders for REM Capital to maintain its properties, and to appoint a receiver to improve the conditions for residents living at Heirlooms.
"I want to applaud City Solicitor Emily Smart Woerner and her team for their exhaustive efforts addressing problem properties in the City of Cincinnati," said Sheryl Long, city manager, in a press release. "Everyone deserves a safe, clean place to live. Our solicitor's office is tireless in its work to see that promise fulfilled for all Cincinnatians."
The lawsuit is one of many the city has launched in recent years against landlords and companies that own housing units within the city where neglect and unsafe living conditions have been reported.
So far, the city has filed lawsuits against the Vinebrook Homes, H&E Enterprises/Avi Ohad and the Williamsburg Apartments.
The city sued Texas-based VineBrook in January 2023, accusing it of breaching a 2021 court settlement that required it to fix problems at its roughly 900 city properties and stop its eviction practices. The property company, the largest of several institutional investors acquiring single-family homes in Cincinnati, owns roughly 2,300 other properties around the Tri-State region.
The lawsuit against H&E Enterprises and Avi Ohad was filed after city attorneys said tenants were lacking heat and hot water and had reported hazardous wiring, defective plumbing and gas, mold, roach infestations and water leaks. A criminal judge gave Ohad a suspended sentence of 180 days in jail, a fine and probation after he pleaded no contest in January 2023 to failing to provide heat to tenants at a West Price Hill property a year earlier.
The city sued Williamsburg Apartments and Town Homes in Hartwell on Jan. 10, 2023, weeks after burst pipes flooded dozens of units at Christmastime. The lawsuit described widespread deferred maintenance on the 976 units including water leaks, collapsed ceilings, sewage backups, lack of hot water or functioning toilets, mold, electrical hazards and rodent and insect infestations.
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