Displaced Austin Tenants Formerly At Lakeview Apartments Sue Landlord After Mass Evictions

Austin, TX -- Former tenants of the Lakeview Apartments -- now the site of a future Oracle Corp. campus after a property sale -- filed a lawsuit on Monday against their former landlord for terminating their leases early.

Last year, dozens of residents at Lakeview Apartments were unceremoniously evicted from their homes with short notice. Oracle Corp.-- the world's second-largest software company -- later separately announced plans to build a huge campus on the site where Lakeview Apartments is located, yielding the reason why the residents have been evicted in the first place.

The land was sold to Oracle Corp., where plans call for not only a corporate campus but a luxury apartment complex for employees who want to live near work. It was only after Oracle disclosed the plans that residents learned why they were being asked to leave, something the landlord never revealed to them, according to former residents previously interviewed by Patch.

The lawsuit against Cypress Real Estate Advisors accuses the landlord of terminating leases early, deceptive practices, discrimination and failing to make repairs, "...forcing the residents to leave so the property could be made ready for the Oracle sale," officials with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc. said in a statement.

The lawsuit is bring brought against the landlord by 69 former Lakeview residents, 24 of whom are children "...who were forced to move abruptly during the school year," officials noted.

"Claims range from breaches of contract for illegally terminating leases early, failure to repair months-long threats to health and safety, failure to return security deposits, interruption of utilities, unlawful lockout, fraudulent inducement, statutory fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fair housing, officials detailed.

"After nearly a year, residents are still recovering from the hardship of being displaced," claimants' lawyers said. "If residents were successful in finding new housing, they saw an average increase of $240 per

month, which was a 28% percent increase."

Former residents attested to the hardship.

“The stress and heartache we went through was cruel and unnecessary,” said Lakeview resident Roxana Castro. I“They wanted us out and knew they could get away with lying and intimidating us into leaving. Some residents lost everything they had.”

Another resident detailed the conditions under which residents were forced to live after maintenance requests were ignored ahead of the property sale to Oracle.

“Our rent money lined their pockets as we lived in slum conditions," Lakeview resident Isidra Aguirre said. "Then they decided it’s time to kick us out to make even more money. We lived with rats, roaches, leaks, and mold at Lakeview, but we still had to pay rent every month or we got charged late fees or were evicted, and the landlord got to cancel leases whenever he wanted. How is that fair?”

Residents seek monetary damages in the lawsuit, but also filed the litigation to shed light on issues sucdh as the Lakeview incident affecting low-income renters in Austin.

For their part, officials at Oracle have not addressed the issue of tenants whose displacement they indirectly caused. Officials at Oracle have not returned calls and messages previously sent by Patch.

Former resident Robin Wilkins is among the former residents who lived at Lakeview with children. She cares for three children -- an 18-year-old daughter, a 9-year-old son and a six-year-old grandchild. Forced to move before her lease was up, Wilkins found a new place but at an exponentially higher rate than she had been paying at Lakeview.

Her rent went from the $625 monthly rent at Lakeview to $1,151 a month for her new place off Riverside Drive in Montopolis. She said her son, in particular, is still having difficulty adapting to his new school after being yanked from Metz Elementary he had attended since kindergarten to Allison Elementary in southeast Austin.

"It's not about money," Wilkins said of the lawsuit filing during a telphone interview with Patch. "This is mainly so they can't do this to other people. There were a lot of people who were displaced still feeling the repercussions of what happened over there."

>>> Photo by Tony Cantu