On Friday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court against Buenas Communities LLC, which operates the 400-unit complex. The suit — which cites delays fixing the complex’s broken air conditioning as well as a host of other issues — calls Buenas Communities a “predatory corporate landlord” that targets “particularly vulnerable populations.”
According to the lawsuit, which cites Phoenix New Times’ reporting, Mayes is suing the company for “willfully neglecting to provide habitable conditions for its residents.” Most notably, the suit seeks to permanently bar the company “from renting real property to Arizona consumers” in the future.
“The ongoing neglect and deplorable conditions at Buenas Communities’ properties have put residents’ lives at serious risk, especially during the record-breaking heat this summer,” Mayes said in a statement.
By filing a lawsuit, Mayes is following through on a threat she made in July. After several news outlets reported on the conditions at Buenas earlier that month, Mayes sent a letter to the complex’s owners on July 19 demanding that the air conditioning be fixed. The letter required that action be taken to “satisfactory repair … the air conditioning system for all the units” by July 26.” Otherwise, the letter read, “further action would be taken to enforce that law.”
The complex responded by giving residents temporary chillers and window air-conditioning units, but residents told New Times that they provided little help and that a permanent repair would take four months. Nor were the chillers suitable to keep Mayes at bay.
Mayes’ lawsuit claimed the chillers and less-than-effective portable window units had “not proven adequate for all tenants” and said the conditions at the complex violated several Arizona laws, including the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.
The suit requests a permanent injunction requiring Buenas Communities to make the necessary repairs and bar the management company from renting to Arizona consumers in the future — essentially putting them out of business in the state. The suit also seeks restitution and civil penalties for the harm caused to residents, as uninhabitable conditions created by the management company have landed at least one resident in the hospital.
As of Monday, no hearing date had been set in the case.
The heat in her apartment sent Sally Rivera to the hospital with dehydration. Afterward, she contacted news outlets and the Arizona Attorney General's Office about the lack of air conditioning at Buenas on 32nd.
Itzia Crespo
‘Vulnerable populations’
Mayes’ lawsuit accuses Buenas Communities of egregiously taking advantage of some of the city’s least fortunate residents.According to the lawsuit, Buenas on 32nd is one of a handful of apartment complexes in Maricopa County that accept forms of state housing assistance, such as Section 8 housing vouchers. That means many residents are “members of particularly vulnerable populations,” such as older people, individuals with physical and mental disabilities and people on low or fixed incomes, including families with children or pets.
All of them have been without working air conditioning for two months during some of the hottest months in city history. Phoenix’s heat is expected to break records this year. According to the National Weather Service, the Valley’s average temperature will be nearly 100 degrees this summer, breaking last year’s record of 97 degrees.
Without working air conditioning, residents have relied on temporary window units, avoided cooking their own food and spent as little time in their homes as possible to survive. The chillers, which residents received in late July, had air “coming out a little cold but not as cold” as it would with a normal air conditioner, resident Raquel Límon told New Times on July 26. Mayes’ lawsuit cites another resident who was given two window units to cool her home, only to find out that using both would cause a power outage in her apartment.
The lawsuit claimed that resident’s apartment would still reach 89 degrees — far beyond the requirements in Phoenix City Code, which mandates that landlords ensure all habitable rooms remain at 82 degrees or cooler. The suit said another resident complained to the Attorney General’s Office that maintenance staff set her temporary wall unit to cool the apartment only to 87 degrees.
And while this summer has been particularly brutal, residents say air-conditioning issues aren’t new at Buenas. Sally Rivera, a five-year resident of the complex who wound up in the hospital this summer with dehydration, told New Times that broken air conditioning is a yearly issue.
“It’s been happening every year,” Rivera said, “but this is the longest we’ve been without air.”
A window air conditioning unit hangs out of a boarded-up window at the Buenas on 32nd apartments, which has lacked working air conditioning all summer.
Morgan Fischer
A litany of problems
Broken air conditioning may be the most pressing of the problems at Buenas, but it’s hardly the only one.Buenas has been cited for 105 violations of city code since 2016, only 18 of which had to do with the heating, cooling and ventilation of apartments. Three of those cases — one from 2023 and two from this year — are still open. Though Mayes’ complaint referenced 123 violations in that span, that total is incorrect, according to city of Phoenix data.
The 87 code violations not related to heating, cooling and ventilation concern a host of other issues, which Mayes’ complaint summed up in a long, damning paragraph that labeled the complex as “uninhabitable”:
“Most units have windows barely boarded up with a thin piece of plywood backed by duct tape. Water leaks, broken glass, unsecure mailboxes, prior fire damage, loose stairs and wobbly railings are prevalent throughout the Complex. Walkways, connecting a portion of the Complex’s northern three-story dilapidated buildings, dip downward, on the verge of collapse. Mattresses, allegedly thrown out because of rampant bed bug infestations, are strewn about the Complex and litter the trash areas. Putrid green, still water fills the unusable swimming pool. The courts and playgrounds are in dire need of repair.”
The lawsuit also claimed that Buenas Communities threatened to evict residents who complained to media outlets.
According to the lawsuit, after two residents complained to local media about the lack of air conditioning, a manager of the complex threatened to evict them. Soon after, those residents were informed via email that their lease renewal had been canceled, with no reason given as to why. The lease was reinstated only after the Attorney General’s Office contacted complex management.
“These threats are exceptionally serious to residents who utilize forms for state assistance,” the lawsuit stated. “As they remain fearful of being left without alternative housing.”
Rivera, who spoke to local media outlets after her hospitalization and helped bring the matter to Mayes’ attention, witnessed that intimidation firsthand. She tried to recruit other residents to speak out about conditions at the complex, but many feared they’d lose their housing by doing so.
“If I didn’t talk,” Rivera told New Times, “nobody would have talked.”
