Indianapolis threatens to sue Lakeside Pointe at Nora owner for nuisance

In an unprecedented move that will test the limits of cities' authority to use the state nuisance statute against negligent landlords, Indianapolis officials announced Tuesday that they intend to file a lawsuit against the owners of the beleaguered Lakeside Pointe apartment complex.

The city is sending a letter to the owners of Lakeside Pointe, a nonprofit group called Fox Lake AHF, informing them that the city plans to sue on the grounds of the enormous number of health and housing violations at the apartment complex.

The city gave Lakeside Pointe until Monday to fix the alleged violations, or be sued. A lawsuit, if the city wins, could result in Lakeside Pointe paying Indianapolis for past emergency services and other monetary damages and being forced to fix violations.

“It is imperative that we pursue every legal avenue available to the city to protect the tenants of Lakeside Pointe,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a news release. “There must be real consequences for charging Indianapolis residents to live in squalor. That should not be a way of life in any city, but especially not in our city.”

Lakeside Pointe has been under heightened scrutiny in the past year by state lawmakers, tenant advocates, local churches, and the Attorney General’s office, which unsuccessfully attempted to obtain receivership of the property.

IndyStar reporting had previously exposed a pattern of repeated and severe housing violations over multiple years by the owners at Lakeside Pointe and their six other properties in the city, all while they benefited from millions in tax breaks.

More: Tenants at Lakeside Pointe suffered years of neglect. Then, their homes caught fire.

The city will lay out three specific conditions that the owners must meet to avoid being sued. The owners and property management company of Lakeside Pointe did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

First, the owners have to remedy all 19 emergency housing violations filed against them by the Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation. This past few weeks, there have been a substantial number of immediate threats to the health and safety of residents, including no heat and no hot water, according to Marion County Health department public records.

Second, the owners have to attend demolition hearings for two derelict and unsecured buildings that were damaged in fires last year, and comply with demolition, if required. The city’s department of business and neighborhood services held a demolition hearing on Jan. 11 but it was continued to February because the owners did not show up.

Third, the owners have to fall into immediate compliance for zoning violations related to trash — the property has unenclosed dumpsters.

The letter states that the immediate litigation deadline will not apply in the event of a change in ownership at Lakeside Pointe occurring prior to Monday.

More: 'Afraid the whole building was going to collapse:' Bills would fight negligent landlords

Advocates hope the threat of a lawsuit will incentivize the owners to finally comply with the city housing code. This may be a first step to addressing a long history of dangerous conditions at the apartments.

“Our neighbors at Lakeside Pointe deserve to feel safe in their homes; many of the families we are working alongside have already been forced to flee their homes once, as refugees, due to ethnic persecution and fear for their safety,” said Patchwork Indy executive director Claire Holba, who has advocated for residents for more than two years.

Complex has troubled history

The complex saw one fire in 2019, four fires in 2020, and seven fires in 2021.

A fire in April 2021 was likely the result of a failure of a building heat source, the IFD found, while a fire in March 2021 appeared to originate from a storage room with aerosols and paints, according to an IndyStar public records request, although the cause was ultimately undetermined.

A massive November 2021 fire that cost at least 25 residents their homes is still under investigation. A gas leak was found at the scene.

Since 2017, Lakeside Pointe has incurred more than 600 housing code violations from the Marion County Health Department, according to the press release, ranging from lack of hot water, air conditioning and heat to water and sewage leaks to structural problems.

And in the past 12 months, the complex has seen 112 housing code violations at the Lakeside Pointe complex and 19 emergency filings — dangerous conditions that require immediate attention — in the last two weeks alone.

Lawsuit would be a test of state nuisance law

The lawsuit would be an experiment in how much enforcement authority the city and health department have over unsafe buildings under the state nuisance laws and to what extent they can seek damages from problem landlords for frequent 911 calls or fire calls to neglected properties.

The city has, up until this point, pursued civil enforcement action against the property — demolition orders, ordinance violation actions from the health department, Hogsett said.

"What has been less certain, however, is the scope of the city's authority to sue an owner when a pattern of violations adds up to a public nuisance," he said.

A 2017 bill passed in the Indiana legislature has been interpreted by courts in such a way as to greatly undermine the utility of the nuisance statute as an enforcement tool for city governments, Indianapolis had previously told IndyStar in mid-January.

In particular, a 2018 Court of Appeals decision regarding the Towne and Terrace apartments, another neglected and unsafe complex in Indianapolis, kicked the legs out from under municipal governments in enforcing law against nuisances. It found that Indianapolis was barred from seeking damages for sending emergency services such as police responders to the Towne and Terrace property by the 2017 bill.

The city is now in year seven of the long-drawn Towne and Terrace legal battle.

However, the lawsuit the city is threatening Lakeside Pointe with marks a renewed effort by the city to test the current state of the law and see if they can get a more favorable opinion this time, the deputy Corporation Counsel for Indianapolis, Matt Giffin, told IndyStar.

"That legal question was not settled," Giffin said.

Deputy Mayor Jeff Bennett said that this "test case" will help clarify existing discrepancies and a lack of clarity within state law on this question, and help the city in the long term to hold other bad actors landlords accountable.

The city said that there are three main reasons it decided to escalate legal action against Lakeside Pointe now.

First, they found a way to "creatively" apply existing laws: the lawsuit will be filed under the joint authority of the city of Indianapolis and the Marion County Health Department, which is something that has not been done before.

Second, there is real interest at the Indiana general assembly to take action on landlord-tenant issues with bills proposed that seek to address uninhabitable conditions.

Third, it is important to seek clarification at both the General Assembly level and the court level on the lack of clarity within state law on how much authority cities have to pursue nuisance claims.

Tenants made appeals for years, seemingly in vain

The lawsuit comes after months and years of appeals by the residents and tenant advocates for help.

Speaking at the press conference Monday, Hogsett said that he has heard "a parade of horror stories" from residents at the complex for years.

Eight-year-old Nora Beck, who attends Nora Elementary school alongside children who live at the apartment complex, wrote a letter to Mayor Joe Hogsett beseeching him to act.

The girl's mother shared the letter with IndyStar.

“I am writing this letter to you to try and convince you to help us with the apartment’s (sic) Lakeside Pointe,” the hand-written letter that she sent on Dec. 3 to the mayor’s office read.

“If you still aren’t convinced well then I will give you a few reasons: 1. Some people are getting hurt, 2. You could help us with fixing up the apartment’s because if we don’t fire’s will just keep happening.”

After the 20 Nov. fire, a group of residents took their safety into their own hands, devising a rotation system whereby one neighbor is awake and in the building at every hour of every day.

“That way I don’t feel so vulnerable and all of us in this building will have a better chance of surviving if there’s a fire,” 69-year-old resident John Brent said.

Brent took on the graveyard shift – staying awake every night until 8 a.m., sleeping from the morning until 4 p.m. He soon ceased the arrangement after realizing his body could not handle it.

Contact IndyStar reporter Ko Lyn Cheang at kcheang@indystar.com or 317-903-7071. Follow her on Twitter: @kolyn_cheang.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis threatens to sue Lakeside Pointe owner for nuisance