NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — More than 80 former residents of a condemned apartment complex in Newport News, and their representing attorneys, have newly filed an amended lawsuit seeking financial compensation and relief for an abrupt building condemnation in 2022.
In newly filed court documents obtained by 13News Now, former tenants of the Seaview Lofts apartment complex and their legal representation are incorporating new details about the year and a half experience after code violations forced city Code Compliance officers to shut the building down.
On June 29, 2022, code compliance officers condemned the property after finding problems with a malfunctioning elevator, a broken boiler system and more emergency code violations.
Between compensatory damages, treble damages, rent abatement, punitive damages as well as attorneys' fees and costs, the amended lawsuit seeks $50 million in damages for the collective group of plaintiffs.
“Really what it comes down to is this, the bare minimum, is that the tenants are made whole again at the very least. All of their out-of-pocket expenses [paid] but even then I think that’s an injustice," John Maravalli said, who is one of the attorneys representing the tenants in the case for Consumer Litigation Associates.
The original lawsuit, filed in August 2022 and weeks after the initial condemnation, was filed into Newport News court, citing building owner Ben Weinstein had violated the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act as well as the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.
The amended filing, incorporates new updates since the initial condemnation, such as including the death of a man inside one of the apartment units and the lived experiences of the displaced residents.
It reads:
For the ten months that Seaview Apartments was condemned, the Seaview Tenants were deprived of housing and unable to access personal belongings beyond what they carried with them following the condemnation. The repercussions of Defendants’ misconduct were severe: tenants experienced homelessness, living on the streets or in their vehicles, other tenants, slightly more “fortunate,” shouldered the expense of high-cost hotel stays, and a “lucky” few were able to reside with relatives.
The original filing included 58 plaintiffs, whereas the newly filed lawsuit included 82 former tenants.
Maravalli said that even though class action lawsuits are not allowed in Virginia, Consumer Litigation Associates was able to add tenants to the amended complaint because each of the plaintiff cases is being looked at individually.
“Some people didn’t have their belongings for months, others never even got it back," he said.
The new filing now includes updated tenant testimonies, including estimated costs incurred because of the sudden condemnation of the apartment complex, including lost wages, hotel stays, food expenses and other out-of-pocket expenses.
The new filing incorporates information about the second condemnation of the building as well:
On August 30, 2023, just four months after some of the residents had resettled in Seaview Apartments, the building was once again condemned after an electrical fire resulted in a complete power outage in the building. Consequently, Seaview Apartments reneged on its leases, leaving the Seaview Tenants, again, without access to their belongings and scrambling for alternative shelter options.
The amended filing incorporates more explicit details, seen below:
The lawsuit demands a jury trial, since the two sides could not settle during mediation, but a trial date has not been set as the amended lawsuit has only just been filed.
This is a continuing and developing story.
