Joe Duhownik

PHOENIX (CN) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued the owners of three Tucson rental properties accused of leaving tenants without central air conditioning under extreme summer heat.

Temperatures taken inside units at Sedona Ridge and Sienna Springs have reached as high as 98.8 degrees Fahrenheit this summer. Alongside a litany of other issues, Mayes says the owners and managers of those properties and third sister property Summit Ridge have violated state and local habitability standards dating back to at least 2023.

“The well-funded corporate defendants in this matter have shirked this weighty responsibility, leaving their tenants to suffer in brutal heat and squalor,” the Democrat wrote in a lawsuit filed Tuesday morning.

Continuing her efforts to protect tenants from extreme heat, Mayes now asks a Maricopa County Judge to ban the Delaware-based parent companies from renting to Arizonans until their properties meet the necessary standards.

In the complaint, Mayes says tenants at all three properties have struggled to cool their homes to the required Pima County standard of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Half of Sedona Springs has gone without central air of any kind since March, when Arizona faced a record-breaking heatwave. Those tenants were forced to rely on portable window units that Mayes says often fail to cool more than one room.

“All Arizona residents who enter into rental agreements deserve living conditions that meet minimal standards of habitability,” Mayes said in a press release. “The ongoing neglect Dasmen Residential and Luxford Living continue to display by failing to supply adequate air conditioning to residents at Sedona Springs, Sienna Ridge, and Summit Ridge puts residents’ lives at serious risk, especially during extreme summer heat.”

In 2025, Pima County reported 117 heat-related deaths, 49 of which took place indoors.

The three rental properties were purchased in 2017 by Damsen Residential CEO Michael Katz and several affiliates managed by relative Israel Katz, whom Mayes describes as “an affluent titan of the real estate industry.”

Aside from inadequate air conditioning, Mayes says residents of all three properties have complained of a routine lack of hot water; derelict plumbing, frequent leaks and mold issues; crumbling walkways and stairs; rotting wood balconies; unkempt and hazardous pools; and persistent, unaddressed pest infestations.

Since 2022, the city of Tucson’s code enforcement unit has investigated approximately 130 complaints against the complexes for those issues. In 2022, air conditioning at Sedona Springs went out for “an entire summer.” In November, a tenant complained that the hot water at Sienna Ridge was out for eleven months.

The complexes are some of the few in Pima County that accept Section 8 vouchers and other forms of housing assistance. Many of the tenants are veterans, elderly, disabled or on fixed incomes.

After three years of complaints, Mayes sent cease-and-desist letters to each of the properties earlier this year. Despite temporary fixes like window A/C units, habitability issues persist.

Mayes accuses the companies of misrepresenting the properties to prospective tenants and omitting relevant facts regarding safety and habitability in violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

“Tenants of the properties are lured into signing leasing agreements by the complexes’ slick websites, attractive ads, and verbal promises of ‘luxurious’ living,” Mayes wrote.

Promises that Mayes says are materially false include assurances of in-unit A/C, 24-hour onsite maintenance, balconies and “sparkling swimming pools.”

Mayes also accuses the companies of violating the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act by failing to make emergency repairs to essential services in a timely manner.

Mayes seeks restitution payments in the form of $10,000 per willful violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

The defendants didn’t reply to a request for comment.