A judge has ordered the owners of West Atlanta’s Fairburn & Gordon I and II Apartments to pay a $25,000 fine as a penalty for the more than 300 housing code and nuisance violations city inspectors have found at the residential complex.
Municipal Judge Christopher T. Portis levied the fine Thursday morning after attorneys for Fairburn & Gordon’s parent company, A&B Apartments LLC, and its owners, Behzad Beroukhai and Abraham Beroukhai, entered a consent agreement to remedy a list of maintenance problems over a span of 30 to 90 days, according to court documents obtained by Capital B Atlanta.
The fine doesn’t include an estimated $11,000 in anticipated fees, which brings the total penalty to about $36,000, Portis said.
It’s the latest development in an ongoing saga involving one of the city’s most dilapidated federally subsidized apartment complexes, where tenants, nearly all of whom are Black, say they’ve spent years living with potentially deadly health hazards, including mold, chipping paint laced with lead, and exposed electrical wiring, in addition to deteriorating walls, huge rats, and busted air conditioners.
Capital B Atlanta documented some of the tenants’ deplorable living conditions in a video that went viral on TikTok last December.
It’s been two months since HUD officials confirmed plans to cancel its contract with Fairburn & Gordon’s owners after they failed to bring the complex up to code by the agency’s Feb. 28 deadline.
HUD posted a notice on the doors of Section 8 tenants living at Fairburn & Gordon earlier this month informing them that they will be “required to move” due to the complex’s unsafe conditions.
“HUD will engage a relocation contractor to assist you in locating and moving to new, suitable housing,” the notice reads. “An initial meeting will be scheduled in the next 30-45 days to inform you of the details of the relocation process.”
Tenants such as Crystal Brown were pleased to hear the news.
“I’m glad to know something cause no one was telling us nothing,” Brown told Capital B Atlanta via text message earlier this month.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the last name of one of the owners of the Fairburn & Gordon II Apartments. The owner’s name is Abraham Beroukhai.
