D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is asking a court to appoint a guardian who would be responsible for managing Marbury Plaza, a dilapidated 674-unit apartment complex on Good Hope Road SE that’s home to more than 2,500 people. 

The extraordinary step of seeking a receiver for the building – only eight housing conditions cases since 2016 have resulted in receivership – comes just over two years after former Attorney General Karl Racine first sued the property owner for failing to address numerous housing code violations. 

Tenants at Marbury Plaza allege they have lived without heat, air conditioning, and hot water; endured pervasive pest infestations and sewage leaks; and lived with failing plumbing and electrical systems, among other issues. Taken together, the conditions issues “[expose] tenants to serious threats to their health, safety, and security,” the District’s motion alleges. 

While the property owner, an entity called MP PPH LLC, initially agreed to a June 30, 2022 deadline for a series of repairs and assessments, tenants told Street Sense last year that conditions continued to deteriorate despite involvement from the attorney general.

At the time, D.C. argued in court that the property owner failed to comply with 16 requirements of the consent order, and should be found “in flagrant violation” of it. The consent order required the property owner to “remediate mold, leaks, flooding, failed plumbing and electrical systems, insect and rodent infestations, nonfunctioning elevators and chairlifts, and other serious housing code violations affecting the health, safety, and enjoyment of the residents of the complex,” the District wrote in a filing. (MP PPH LLC argued in a court filing that it substantially addressed most items outlined in the consent order, but that some were too cost prohibitive to resolve. Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) 

Schwalb is now asking a judge to appoint a third party receiver to oversee the repairs and assessments that should have been made last year.

“Defendants’ failure to abate these conditions demonstrate a pattern of neglect for over a period of 30 consecutive days, which poses a serious threat to the health, safety, and security of the tenants,” the filing reads. “Because Defendants are incapable of prioritizing tenant safety, the District requests this Court appoint a receiver who has the skills and expertise to develop and supervise an abatement plan for the rehabilitation of Marbury Plaza.”

Among the most pressing issues D.C. is encouraging the court to consider are ongoing pipe leaks that are “endemic” to the building, Schwalb’s office said in its filing. It cited a July 2023 assessment conducted by a third party plumbing company that identified hundreds of active leaks in tenants’ apartments. One tenant alleges she encountered three separate flooding incidents in her apartment over the course of five weeks this summer.

Schwalb’s office also cited ongoing mold contamination issues, arguing that the property owner has only reviewed 285 of the complex’s 674 units for mold to date. One tenant with asthma and inflammatory pulmonary disease was hospitalized this month for breathing issues, the District wrote in its most recent filing. (In a July filing, MP PPH claimed that it inspected all but eight units for mold contamination.)

The District also alleges that tenants were left without warm water and air conditioning in recent months, “exposing them to extremely unsanitary conditions in the peak of summer,” it said. 

As a result of these ongoing conditions issues, a judge ordered the property owner in April to provide roughly $5 million in retroactive rent reductions to tenants in the building, an abatement that will remain in effect until the property owner repairs the complex. The rent reduction will increase to 75% if the court finds MP PPH out of compliance with the order by October 23. 

While receivership is among the strongest steps the D.C. government can take to compel repairs at a building, the process is time consuming and lengthy, often taking several years to resolve.

A 2016 lawsuit Racine filed against notorious landlord Sanford Capital concluded just last year, a tumultuous and high-profile dispute that ultimately saw the company driven from D.C., forced to offload seven of its apartment buildings.