Residents at Rocky Hill apartment complex evacuated over unsafe conditions; AG Tong explores legal action against management

It’s been 48 hours of chaos for hundreds of residents at the Concierge Apartments in Rocky Hill. The freezing cold temperatures over the last two weeks in Connecticut caused broken pipes and flooding in multiple buildings.

On Thursday, residents in two of five buildings had to be out by midnight due to frozen sprinkler systems. Now, according to a letter sent to residents in the remaining three buildings, all residents had to be out by midnight.

One resident, Ryan Callahan, and his family were part of the second wave of evacuations. They said the property has had issues going back for months, but recent conditions crossed the line.

Residents had been without heat and/or hot water for days. The initial damage, before the evacuations, prompted a scathing letter from Attorney General William Tong and local leaders to the apartment’s management company. Tong also criticized the company’s initial refusal to pay for other accommodations for residents seeking shelter before the mandatory evacuations were in place. The letter also criticized the company’s lack of communication and transparency with the residents.

In total, about 600 units were affected. Rocky Hill Mayor Allan Smith said renters were being put up in local hotels, but those were also causing some strain due to the demand.

NBC Connecticut reached out to the property owners, JRK Property Holdings, for a response, but hasn’t heard back yet.

However, the company did get back to Tong’s office.

In the letter, the company said that it has spent millions on improvements to the buildings since acquiring it in 2013, and that there “are currently no open violations or citations relative to plumbing.”

The company insists that all units currently have heat and running water and said that, despite reports of widespread heating loss, “only four of 500 units experienced heating loss.” They acknowledge that they were aware of 61 units with at least one fixture lacking hot water. The company said it expects repairs to be completed by the end of next week.

Despite Tong stating such in his initial letter, the management company said they did not see a basis for allowing tenants to break their leases.

Tong released a new letter responding to the management company on Friday, saying in part:

Your response is worse than tone deaf, it is callous. In this extreme cold – projected to be -2 and -3 degrees, respectively tomorrow and Sunday – your response could at best be characterized as indifferent,” the letter states. “Whether your client spent $22 million in the past or expect to spend $2 million now proves only one thing — Concierge Apartments has clearly not done enough to keep these residents safe and honor the legal and ethical obligations to them and their families. No doubt Concierge has put a price on their safety and whatever that price is decided to be is wholly inadequate.

It is unconscionable to demand that tenants, who are mostly working people now struggling to put a roof over their heads during the coldest stretch in recent memory, honor their contractual obligations to a Los Angeles-based real estate empire that boasts $15 billion in real estate assets under management in 23 states. This is particularly appalling when Concierge itself may be shirking their legal and contractual obligations. I am hard pressed to believe that a Connecticut court would see it any other way – and I anticipate that a Connecticut court would strongly consider these contracts to be voidable. This catastrophe has made Concierge, and its shadowy web of ownership interests, the posterchild for everything that is wrong with private equity owning a stake in basic goods and services.

In the meantime, residents can file a claim with the Rocky Hill Fair Rent Commission here.

The attorney general’s office said it is exploring “all legal options and expects to take additional action in the coming days.”