COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — Nearly 150 families who were evacuated from their east Columbus apartments more than a year ago due to unsafe living conditions will soon be getting thousands of dollars in settlement payments.
Starting April 1, 149 households forced to leave their homes at the dilapidated Latitude Five25 apartments will receive a lump-sum payment of $10,067, the Columbus city attorney’s office announced Monday. Former tenants will still be allowed to sue the owners of the complex, New Jersey-based Paxe Latitude, after receiving the settlement.
The apartments have been vacant since Christmas Day 2022, when burst water pipes and a lack of heat forced residents to vacate the property . But the pair of towers on Sawyer Boulevard had been under the city’s scrutiny for months before that for repeated bug infestations, feces-contaminated stairwells and other unsanitary conditions .
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Last February, a judge ordered Paxe Latitude to pay nearly $4.4 million in fines and outstanding utility fees , including $2.5 million to compensate the former tenants. The court also found that contractors the owners hired to rehabilitate the building didn’t properly handle asbestos, leaving many residents’ belongings contaminated with the cancerous fibers.