Jefferson Parish woman evicted by landlord with history of code violations

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A Jefferson Parish landlord with a history of code enforcement violations in two parishes evicted a young single mom from one of his apartments. She admits she stopped paying rent, blaming deplorable and unsafe living conditions inside.

But as we discovered in this FOX 8 Defenders investigation, renter protections vary sharply depending on which parish you live in, and housing advocates warn more help for tenants is needed universally.

Inside Alexis Scott’s Harvey apartment, there are holes in the wall where she believes rodents sneak in. Scott also said there is mold in her bathroom, a broken window in the front of the home and a gap beneath the front door.

Upstairs, the thermostat read over 90 degrees, despite Scott pointing out that it is set at 50 degrees.

Between another hole in the wall and a soft spot in the floor where it feels like it could give way, Scott said this place isn’t safe for her or her seven year old daughter.

“I’m just constantly worrying,” Scott said.

Speaking about her daughter, Scott said she “doesn’t deserve this.”

“She never lived like this before; it’s kind of a slap in the face,” she said.

During the seven months she called this apartment on Destrehan Avenue home, she said her repeated complaints to her landlord Cuong Nguyen went nowhere.

“When I would ask him to fix certain things, he would be like, ‘You do it, just take it out the rent,’ or ‘I’m gonna have somebody come do it.’ He would send me a number for somebody to come do it; nobody would ever show up, nobody would ever answer and like I said, the maintenance man lives next door to me,” Scott explained.

She claims the maintenance man was little help.

Scott said one month, she paid more than $1,000 to an A.C. technician, only for the thermostat to continue reading 90 degrees.

Fed up and unable to afford all the repairs needed, Scott admits, she stopped paying rent.

Nguyen evicted her.

“Generally the landlord is required to keep the property in suitable condition for living, but if the tenant withholds rent, they’re likely going to find themselves in eviction court and likely evicted,” said Christopher Kerrigan, an attorney focusing on Medical-Legal Partnership at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Under Louisiana law, a landlord must maintain the property by making all necessary repairs, unless a problem is caused by the tenant.

If the landlord fails to make the repair within a reasonable time frame, the tenant can make the repairs and demand reimbursement or deduct the money spent on the repair from the rent payment.

But Kerrigan questions how feasible it is for tenants in low-income housing to facilitate repairs.

“I think tenants are in an uphill battle with a landlord who is refusing to make repairs and force the tenant to then go out and make the repairs themselves and find someone to do it. Really puts the tenant in an unfair disadvantage,” Kerrigan stated.

Nguyen didn’t show up to Scott’s eviction hearing last month. Instead, his wife and property co-owner Kathy Le represented him.

We asked her if, as a landlord, she and her husband feel that it’s their responsibility to make repairs to the property.

“We have the maintenance who works in there and does the repairs and all that,” Le responded.

When pressed about if she knew about issues inside the apartment, Le continues, “Whatever they report, we have the maintenance that come and check on it and then he asks them to call the people to fix it and then we deduct the rent from that.”

At the same time Scott was being evicted, Nguyen faced Jefferson Parish code enforcement citations on the four-unit building for exterior siding disrepair, overgrown vegetation and yard debris.

But not a single violation addressed conditions inside. Inspectors didn’t go into Scott’s unit.

“There are no laws in Jefferson Parish that are specific to providing entry into a unit or a home that someone is allowing entry into,” Jefferson Parish Code Enforcement and Compliance Director Liza Caluda explained.

Unlike New Orleans, where code enforcement inspectors routinely cite interior rental violations, Caluda said enforcement remains limited because Jefferson Parish laws are different.

“There’s no specific code articles or code sections that speak to that type of enforcement, so there is no enforcement that we do for that,” Caluda stated.

Caluda said Jefferson Parish code enforcement can only cite for interior issues like no hot water or no working A.C. or heat. But housing advocates said oftentimes that leaves tenants powerless against mold, infestations and other hazards.

“I think a lot of people look at it like a private property rights issue, but when we’re looking at it, it’s also a health and safety issue, and it’s one where folks have to balance those two issues,” Kerrigan said.

A week after Scott’s eviction hearing, Cuong Nguyen was ordered to a Jefferson Parish code enforcement hearing. He didn’t show up, and again, his wife and co-owner of the property appeared in his place.

Le agreed to pay a $500 fine for “recurring violations” and $150 for hearing costs.

Inspectors noted pictures show the violations on their property were taken care of. Yet minutes later, FOX 8 crews found a hole still visible in Scott’s former window frame and roof soffit.

When we told Caluda about this, she said her team would go back out to re-inspect the building.

Le told FOX 8 she and her husband own eight properties in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.

New Orleans records show a pattern of citations on their W. Coronet Court property dating back to 2009, including 26 code violations in 2021 alone, additional complaints in 2023 and one this past August.

Back to Destehan Avenue, Nguyen was legally permitted to evict Scott after she admitted she failed to pay rent. But advocates said her situation exposes a systemic gap in basic renter protections.

“It’s the ones who are the most vulnerable in society who are impacted by these inequities the hardest,” Kerrigan stated.

Scott and her daughter are currently staying with relatives as they search for a new place to live, working to overcome an emotional ordeal, both for her and her young daughter.

“I cry, but don’t let her see me cry. It’s gonna get better. It’ll get better,” Scott said.

Despite our requests and interviewing his wife, Cuong Nguyen never responded when we asked him to sit down for an interview.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.

Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.