Tenants sue owner of large downtown Sacramento apartment complex for poor conditions
A tenant at a downtown Sacramento “luxury” apartment complex is suing the owner alleging a slew of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
Brooke Rose, tenant at Governors Square Apartments, filed a class action lawsuit against the San Francisco company that owns the complex.
The suit, filed earlier this month in Sacramento Superior Court, alleges an unusable pool, lack of security, unusable exercise room and frequently broken laundry machines, mailboxes and elevators.
“This failure resulted in harm to (tenants) insofar as they paid for luxury housing, but in fact resided in sub-standard housing with deteriorated and unsafe common areas,” the suit, filed on behalf of hundreds of tenants in the last four years, stated.
A San Francisco company in 2000 bought the complex, which sprawls from Third to Fourth streets and from N to P streets, a few blocks from the Golden 1 Center.
The complex is owned by Governors Square Apartments LLC, according to county assessor’s records. Susana Watt is listed as the agent for the LLC, according to California Secretary of State records, with a San Francisco mailing address. The Secretary of State records also show that Susana Watt and Kin Yuen Watt are the CFO and CEO, respectively, for a San Francisco-based company called Watt Property Management.
A representative for the complex did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
In 2021 and 2022, the city’s code enforcement officers determined the property was dangerous or substandard, according to public records, the lawsuit alleged.
There is at least one open code enforcement case against the property currently, according to a city webpage.
Residents have said sewage has leaked into the parking garage, the lawsuit alleged. The pool is closed due to algae, vandalism and deferred maintenance. Residents did not receive mail for several weeks due to broken mailboxes.
In addition, tenants have had no access to long stretches at a time, due to unreplaced boilers and circulation pumps, the suit alleged. One tenant reported to the city that he had no hot water for three months.
The property also has had cockroach and rat infestations, the suit alleged.
Apartments at the property are available for monthly rents between $1,950 for a two-bedroom and $2,950 for a three-bedroom, according to the complex’s webpage.
The suit seeks damages for the residents, including restitution for rent paid for “uninhabitable” conditions.
