PK Management Lawsuit: $17M Fire Verdict, HUD Audits, Tenant Complaints

The most significant PK Management lawsuit to date is the $17 million verdict an Alachua County, Florida jury returned on April 11, 2025, finding the Cleveland-based affordable housing manager and the property owner negligent in a Gainesville apartment fire that burned a mother and her young daughter. That case sits at the end of a longer pattern: two HUD Inspector General audits flagging missing tenant files, tenant complaints and suits in New York, Indiana, and Kansas, congressional criticism, and, in December 2025, an announced headquarters closure and 67 layoffs tied to lost contracts.¹²

The Carver Gardens Fire and $17 Million Verdict

Alaquana Wells and her daughter Aariona Williams sued after an April 24, 2022 fire at the Carver Gardens complex in Gainesville. A can of FlexSeal aerosol sealant had been left inside a broiler drawer during renovations. When Wells used the oven, the can exploded and produced an eight-foot fire. Wells suffered burns over more than 27 percent of her body and spent three weeks in a hospital burn unit. Williams was burned on roughly 8 percent of her body, including her face and arms.³

PK Management oversaw the renovation work at Carver Gardens. Court records showed the company renovated about 100 units, but Wells’s apartment was one of three that never received a post-renovation inspection despite being flagged for follow-up. The plaintiffs argued that a proper inspection would have turned up the aerosol can and revealed that the drawer was a broiler rather than storage. The jury found that the defendants violated both federal affordable-housing inspection requirements and their own internal policies.¹

Fault was split 65 percent to PK Management and 35 percent to the property owner, Foundation for Affordable Housing (FFAH Carver Gardens). Wells was awarded $15 million and Williams $2 million. The defendants had tried to shift blame to the plaintiffs by pointing to alleged marijuana edible use and a post-hospitalization drug test showing Xanax. The jury rejected that argument.³

Where the Case Stands

FFAH Carver Gardens filed a motion for a new trial or, in the alternative, a reduction of damages. By May 21, 2025, the plaintiffs had asked the court to deny that motion, and their filing noted that PK Management itself had not filed its own post-trial motion and was now time-barred from doing so under Florida procedural rules. No notice of appeal had been filed as of that date.⁴

HUD Inspector General Audits

Two HUD Office of Inspector General audits identified similar recordkeeping problems years apart. A September 2014 report (2014-AT-1011) concluded that PK Management received $216,749 in ineligible housing assistance payments and another $218,676 in unsupported payments because tenant files lacked required eligibility forms. Investigators reported that senior managers had instructed property-level staff to sign and backdate HUD eligibility documents, in some instances to dates before those employees had started working at the company. The OIG recommended reimbursement and administrative action against the responsible managers.⁵

An August 2, 2019 audit (2019-PH-1003) of the company’s Philadelphia-region operations found similar gaps. Of 60 tenant files sampled, 23 lacked eligibility documentation such as background checks, citizenship forms, and Social Security verification. Another 27 were missing compliance records including lead-based paint disclosures and unit inspection reports. The OIG questioned $497,762 in housing assistance payments and told PK Management to produce documentation or reimburse HUD from non-project funds. The 2014 reimbursement recommendations were still open at that point.⁶⁷

PK Management’s counsel disputed the 2019 findings, saying many deficient files had been inherited from prior owners and that some documents were in off-site storage rather than missing. HUD later closed both 2019 recommendations, one in April 2022 and the other in October 2022.⁷⁶

Tenant Lawsuits and Complaints in Other States

In Gary, Indiana, a 2017 lawsuit was filed against PK Management and the Gary Housing Authority after a seven-year-old boy fell three stories from a window at the Gary NSA III public housing complex. The child’s mother, Gia Melton, alleged she had repeatedly reported malfunctioning windows to both defendants but that nothing was done. The child required ongoing treatment for neurological problems and used a brace for walking. PK Management declined to comment on the pending litigation but said it addresses maintenance complaints promptly and that all windows at the building were being replaced.⁸

At the 179-unit Rip Van Winkle House in Poughkeepsie, New York, tenants organized against PK Management after an October 2017 electrical fire displaced residents. Complaints that winter included intermittent heat and hot water, with one resident documenting an apartment temperature of 39 degrees, along with unexpected rent increases, high electric bills, and difficulty reaching management. Poughkeepsie’s building department issued a formal violation requiring documentation of how heating problems were resolved, and Dutchess County invoked its sanitary code authority to mandate a minimum apartment temperature of 68 degrees.⁹¹⁰

A larger civil case, Riley et al v. PK Management, LLC et al, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas (Case No. 18-2337). It involved more than 90 individual plaintiffs and multiple co-defendants including Aspen Companies Management and Young Management Corporation, and was categorized as a real property action. The available court record does not reflect a final outcome.¹¹

U.S. Representative A. Donald McEachin of Virginia publicly criticized PK Management over conditions at a building in his district that reportedly included sewage backups, structural hazards, and rodent infestations. “Enough is enough — we need to stop wasting taxpayer dollars with this company, which has appeared to mismanage properties across the country,” McEachin said.¹⁰

A Related Federal Contract Dispute

A separate entity, P.K. Management Group, Inc. (PKMG), incorporated in 2005 with offices in Doral, Florida, held a HUD contract to manage foreclosed and custodial properties for the Federal Housing Administration. Available records do not clarify whether PKMG and PK Management, LLC are related. PKMG initially claimed $53,812 in bi-weekly inspection fees it said HUD owed on custodial properties between October and December 2017, later expanding the claim to more than $418,000. HUD said those payments had been made in error because of a programming mistake and that the contract already covered such inspections under a fixed monthly fee. The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals sided with HUD in August 2019, and the Federal Circuit affirmed on February 4, 2021.¹²¹³ A 2016 HUD Inspector General audit of PKMG’s property preservation work found that 82 percent of sampled properties had deficiencies including exposed electrical wires, mold, and unsecured doors.¹⁴

Company Status After the Verdict

PK Management, LLC was founded on January 1, 2008 and is headquartered in Richmond Heights, Ohio. The company manages affordable family and senior housing along with conventional properties, including units funded through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and HUD Section 8 project-based rental assistance.¹⁵ In December 2025, the Cleveland Business Journal reported that the company was closing its Richmond Heights headquarters and eliminating 67 jobs, with the layoffs scheduled for 2026. The closure was attributed to the loss of management contracts.²

1
WCJB. $17 Million Awarded to Mother, Child Burned in Gainesville Affordable Housing Apartment Fire
2
Cleveland Business Journal. PK Management GHC Housing Partners Low Income
3
Expert Institute. $17 Million Verdict in Apartment Explosion Burn Injuries
4
Trellis Law. Plaintiffs Response to FFAH Carver Gardens LLC PK Management LLC Renewed Motion for Directed Verdict
5
HUD OIG. Audit Report 2014-AT-1011
6
HUD OIG. PK Management LLC, Richmond Heights, OH, Did Not Always Maintain Required Documentation
7
HUD OIG. Audit Report 2019-PH-1003
8
CBS News Chicago. Suit: Boy Falls After Landlords Ignore Complaints About Windows
9
Poughkeepsie Journal. Rip Van Winkle Tenants Lawsuit
10
Poughkeepsie Journal. Follow Through on Rip Van Winkle House Assistance
11
GovInfo. Riley et al v. PK Management, LLC et al
12
Civilian Board of Contract Appeals. P.K. Management Group, Inc. v. Department of Housing and Urban Development, CBCA 6185
13
Bloomberg Law. P.K. Management Denied Additional Costs in HUD Contract Appeal
14
HUD OIG. Audit Report 2016-CH-1008
15
PK Management. Who We Are