Saturday, April 29, 2017

Water & Power Shutoff At Student Housing Owned By Bill-Stiffing, Rent-Skimming Landlord Facing Foreclosure Results In Over 20 Pittsburgh College Students Facing Final Exams Into Untimely Move

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WTAE-TV Channel 4 reports:
  • The shutoff of water and electricity service to the Pittsburgh Athletic Association building in the city's Oakland section has forced more than 20 student tenants to move out of their rental apartments. The PAA's ongoing hard times are making for some tough times for those students, with University of Pittsburgh finals just two weeks away.

    PAA is facing potential mortgage foreclosure and sheriff's sale of non-real-estate property and it's several million dollars in the red.

    "It's been crazy. The water was shut off last week and then the electricity was shut off on Monday. And we've had to move out, Nicholas Logan, a PAA tenant told Pittsburgh's Action News 4. Logan is a soon-to-be-graduating Pitt senior, who has been living in a PAA rental apartment for about a year.

    "We decided this is unfit for us to live here. It's just unlivable," said Louis Cherry, a Pitt sophomore who has lived in a PAA apartment for two semesters.

    "The morning that the water went out, I went to take a shower and it wouldn't turn on. So I went downstairs and they said it would be on the next day. And that seems to be what they say every day is, it will be on the next day," Logan said.

    "We could do without the water for the time being, because we have resources on campus for that. The electricity just hit it home," Cherry said.

    "When the electricity went out, I was in the middle of doing homework, and then it turns off," Logan said.

    PAA owes nearly $60,000 in unpaid Allegheny County drink and hotel taxes, more than $300,000 in Pennsylvania taxes, and more than $500,000 in federal taxes.

    Pittsburgh Athletic Association officials did not respond to Pittsburgh's Action News 4 requests for comment.
Source: New PAA troubles: water and electricity shutoff forces 20+ student tenants to move out (The shutoff of water and electricity service to the Pittsburgh Athletic Association building in the city's Oakland section has forced more than 20 student tenants to move out of their rental apartments).