A year after 17 residents of Baltimore’s Sharp-Leadenhall Apartments sued their landlord over rodent infestations, water leaks and electrical problems, tenants say the complex finally looks and feels different. Repair crews have been showing up. Mold has been removed. A judge has even started dismissing some of the tenants’ individual cases after the work got done. But for longtime resident Paula White, progress has come with an asterisk: a wall in her townhouse that workers already repaired once has started leaking again.
White, who has lived at Sharp-Leadenhall for eight years, was part of the original lawsuit and says she believes a deck off her third-floor bedroom is the source of water intrusion and flooding that has plagued her unit. As reported by WBAL NewsRadio, she has now filed another lawsuit even as repair work remains underway at her home. The recurring leak is a reminder that not every fix at the 191-unit complex has held.
The August 2025 lawsuit, filed by 17 tenants against Sharp-Leadenhall Apartments and its management company, claimed residents were living in dangerous, unsafe, uninhabitable and unsanitary conditions. Tenants complained of water leaks, electrical problems and extensive rodent burrowing throughout the property, and said management had ignored their complaints for months. The suit leaned on Maryland’s Tenant Safety Act of 2024, a state law that took effect that October and, according to the Maryland General Assembly, allows groups of tenants to file collective rent escrow actions in district court without first putting up individual deposits.
A Long Road Before Court
The legal fight didn’t come out of nowhere. Residents had formed the Historic Sharp Leadenhall Tenant Council in 2024 with support from Maryland Legal Aid, sending formal complaint letters in February 2025 before turning to litigation after an April 2025 meeting produced only minimal repairs, according to Equal Justice Works. Court filings from that period cited persistent pest infestations, structural water leaks, broken windows and trash accumulation, including one account of a resident caring for a mother with Stage 4 cancer next to uncollected dumpster piles, per the Maryland Daily Record…