Newport News, Virginia Apartment Building Owners Hit with Class Action Over Failure to Fix Elevators

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Nearly 20 residents of a since-condemned Newport News, Virginia apartment building have filed a proposed class action against the building’s owners over their apparent failure to maintain, repair and operate two elevators, even after being ordered by the city and Newport News Circuit Court to do so. 

The plaintiffs behind the 25-page case say that the refusal of Blue Rise Group, LLC; Seaview Apartments LLC; and owner Benjamin Weinstein to fix the elevators at the 15-story Seaview Lofts, which Newport News declared an unsafe structure last month, had a disparate impact on disabled tenants in particular, who were unable to reach or leave their homes and have faced a more difficult time attempting to move elsewhere.

The plaintiffs resided at the Seaview Lofts until they were recently forced to vacate the property on two days’ notice. Per the suit, each plaintiff “either has great difficulty managing stairs or cannot use them at all,” and is considered a “handicapped person” or “disabled” within the scope of the law. 

According to the suit, the defendants’ conduct violates the federal Fair Housing Act. 

The Seaview Lofts was built in the 1970s, the case states. Although the building is not Section-8 housing, the apartments therein are rented “disproportionately” to low-income, minority tenants, a high number of whom are elderly and/or disabled, the complaint relays. 

The lawsuit alleges Weinstein “uses his various corporate shells to own and operate buildings with apartments that are in bad condition and rent them to poor people,” including at multiple complexes in the Northeast. According to the complaint, Weinstein bought the Seaview Lofts in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full effect and, the case says, has collected more than $482,000 in government money intended to cover tenants’ rents. 

Since purchasing the building for a relatively cheap price and receiving both private monthly rents and government money, the defendants have invested “almost nothing” into the building, the suit says. 

“Since taking over, Seaview has been informed of numerous – NUMEROUS – health, safety and codes compliance violations,” the filing relays. “They have gone through overtaxed and hardly paid ‘property managers’ and have rejected maintenance proposals because they were too costly. And now, Defendants have refused to comply even with a state Circuit Court Show Cause Order and Emergency Injunction.” 

The lawsuit describes the elevators in the Seaview Lofts as not maintained and prone to frequent malfunctions, such that they must repeatedly be taken out of service. When this occurs, the case says, the defendants have “delayed restoring service repeatedly and unreasonably,” forcing tenants to attempt to climb the stairs or else become prisoners in their own homes. 

In March 2022, an unknown resident sounded the alarm to Newport News that one of the two elevators in the building had not worked in months, according to the case. Upon investigation, the city gave Seaview Lofts 30 days to repair the elevator, the suit states. 

The following month, two Newport News inspectors discovered that the building’s second elevator was also inoperable, and on June 28 the city condemned the building for multiple violations related to hazardous electrical systems, improperly vented fuel-burning equipment, shoddy fire detection systems, heating/air issues, improper lighting and myriad other issues, the lawsuit says. 

On July 6, the Seaview Loft was declared an unsafe structure, the case states. News reports share that Weinstein appeared in court on August 5 and was informed by a judge that he will be fined $1,000 for each day that the building’s safety issues are not fixed. 

The lawsuit looks to represent all persons over the age of 65 with a physical impairment that substantially limits their mobility up and down stairs, and/or with a record of having such an impairment, who lived on the second floor or higher in the Seaview Lofts apartments at any time within the last two years and during a period in which the building’s elevators did not work for at least one day. 

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