Tenants To Building Owner: Pay SWL&P Before Disconnection

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SUPERIOR, Wis. – There was growing worry Sunday for tenants of an apartment building in Superior after a notice was placed on the building that it could be disconnected from services provided by Superior Water Light & Power.

The reason for the disconnection isn’t because of tenants, according to SWL&P.  The company says it’s because the building owner hasn’t paid its bill for at least 90 days and hasn’t made any arrangements with the power company.

The building, known as Lund Hill Estates, is located on the 900 block of Tower Avenue, next door to Kari Toyota.

There are roughly 90 tenants in the building.

Sunday, some of those tenants spoke out to FOX 21’s Dan Hanger.

They say many of the people who live in the building are low income, have no other place to live and are frustrated with the lake of support from building management.

“We all know here that you can call Bachand repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly for not so serious a problem, but sometimes for serious problems. They won’t get back to you,” explained Mary Chaffey, a resident of more than five years.

“They haven’t paid their bills for three months, and yet they are building a brand new building down the street,” said Bob Nelson, a resident of Lund Apartments for more than 10 years.

The building Nelson referred to is about a block down on Tower Avenue and will become the future headquarters of Bachand Group, which manages the Lund Hill Apartments.

Hanger reached out Sunday evening to the emergency contact for Bachand who identified himself as one of the top officials at the company.  The official had no comment at the time, as it was after business hours.

Meanwhile, a daughter of one of the residents said she just wants the owners to do right.

“I would just like for them to pay the bills — fix what needs to be fixed around here,” said Jennifer Kuehnow. “There’s not enough housing; there’s a lot of slumlords, ya know, and you take what you can get. You don’t want to be on the streets,” she went on to say.

Superior Water Light & Power released the following statement Sunday involving the disconnection notice:

“Our goal with any customer is to avoid disconnection of service.  In this particular situation, we have tried to contact the customer responsible for the building numerous times by telephone and through written notices but they have not responded. The disconnection notice is the next step in the collection process when an account is 90 days in arrears and to provide advance notice of the disconnection. We hope this action will encourage the customer to contact us so we can work with them to bring their account current.” – Amy Rutledge, SWL&P spokesperson.

UPDATE:  Bachand Group owner Adam Bachand released the following statement Monday about the situation:

Bachand Group has no ownership in the Clifford Lund Apartments in Superior.   Bachand Group serves as the management company for the building but is not responsible for paying outstanding invoices for the ownership group.  This is the typical arrangement between Bachand Group and its hundreds of owners throughout the Midwest.

Per the ownership group, all outstanding invoices have been paid in full as of 8:30 Monday morning. Bachand Group was informed that this error was caused by the utility invoicing passing through the incorrect department within the ownership group; this confusion was a transitional error due to the upcoming sale of the building. The ownership group apologizes for creating concern and regrets to have put undue stress on its residents.