Dive Brief:
- Washington, D.C.’s attorney general sued the owners and managers of two apartment buildings in the Brightwood neighborhood for allegedly allowing conditions to severely deteriorate and for retaliating against tenants who advocated for fixes, according to the complaint filed June 29 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Civil Division.
- Attorney General Brian Schwalb found evidence of “acute and long-running housing code violations” at 1355 Peabody Street NW and 6000 13th Street NW, per a June 29 release from the AG’s office. Both buildings are owned by Saifur Khan and Monna Khan through two companies, 16th St. Heights Aaron LLC and Ahmed Inc. Schwalb alleges that the Khans and their firms violated D.C.’s housing and consumer protection laws.
- The lawsuit also claims that the owners threatened, intimidated and harassed residents after they formed a tenants’ association for the properties. Multifamily Dive reached out to the entities named in the lawsuit for comment, but did not get a response as of publication time.
Dive Insight:
The two multifamily buildings, located one block apart, contain a total of 96 units — and issues in them are not new, according to the release. The attorney general’s investigation and the DC Department of Buildings’ inspections found “extensive and dangerous property maintenance and housing code violations throughout the two buildings dating back to at least 2022.”
Per the complaint, issues at the properties include:
- Heating outages in winter lasting days or weeks as well as a lack of cooling.
- Chronic mice, cockroach and bedbug infestations.
- Broken doors, windows and locks.
- Damaged walls, ceilings, floors and appliances and the presence of apparent mold.
- Fire-safety and electrical hazards, such as lack of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, exposed wiring and electrical equipment exposed to water.
In addition, the Khans and their agents allegedly threatened to call the police if tenants held meetings, issued eviction notices to the president and vice president of the tenants’ association days after they helped organize OAG visits and played loud music to drown out tenants during a rally about how their living conditions were impacting their health, according to the complaint.
Tenants at 1355 Peabody went on a rent strike in 2023 following years of issues, DCist reported. In 2025, tenants at the Peabody and 13th Street buildings launched a different rent strike with the goal of forcing the defendants to remedy the repair issues, per the complaint.
The Khans also allegedly warned tenants not to allow OAG staff into their apartments and pressured them to stop working with volunteer tenant organizers, according to the complaint.
The goal of the attorney general’s lawsuit is to address the alleged maintenance and housing code violations and get restitution and damages for harmed tenants, as well as civil penalties.
“Every DC resident deserves a safe, healthy place to call home, and when tenants advocate for better living conditions, it is illegal for landlords to retaliate against them,” Schwalb said in the release. “The owners and managers of these properties have flouted DC law for years, collecting rent while forcing their tenants to live in squalor.”
In April, Schwalb filed a lawsuit against Mid-America Apartment Communities and its subsidiaries, Mid-America Apartments LP and Post 1499 Massachusetts LLC, for allegedly charging junk fees and hiding the true cost of rent from prospective tenants.
Schwalb also sued RealPage and 14 landlords in 2023, alleging that they used RealPage’s pricing software to conspire to inflate rents at more than 50,000 apartments in D.C.
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