8 News Now Investigators first visit property in 2021
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A condo complex near the Las Vegas Strip experiencing sewage and structural problems now faces a $10,000 fine due to a lag in repairs.
The Desert Inn Villas at 356 E. Desert Inn Road near Paradise Road are six, three-story buildings connected with breezeways. The complex was built in 1963, records showed.
The 8 News Now Investigators first visited the property in 2021. There were pieces of toilet paper where some sewage had dried on the ground around exposed pipes.
A Clark County inspector visited the property in February 2021 and found the drainage system is clogged, “creating backflow into lower tenants’ sinks and other interceptors,” a report said.
Due to ongoing sewage problems, the Southern Nevada Health District fined the homeowners’ association $10,000 for failing to comply with a Solid Waste Management Authority order issued in June 2022, documents said.
As recently as July, an inspector found “active sewage overflows and unsecured sewage cleanouts,” documents said.
“So many people have moved out, it doesn’t back up like it used to,” Carl Osborne, a tenant who moved from the building in December, said.
During the 8 News Now Investigators’ visit this week, gray water from apartments pooled in the complex’s parking lot.
The Department of Building & Fire Prevention issued the homeowners’ association a second notice of order and abatement in 2021. The notice mentions “evidence of potential settlement at several locations around the six condominium structures and the two elevator structures. It appears the settlement may be caused by the irrigation system and raw sewage being discharged between the structures, evidence of which was visible in the concrete around the pool deck and surrounding interior concrete walkways.”
Though fencing no longer surrounded the front of the building, the entrance remained closed this week.
“The front of the building is still shut. The ground is starting to cave in,” Osborne said.
Osborne was on the property taking care of a friend’s apartment.
“You can walk around this place almost any time of day and smell raw sewage inside peoples’ homes,” he said.
A representative from the building management company said in 2021 that the aging building and plumbing system was costing the association upwards of $1 million to fix. He did not return multiple requests for comment this week.
It was unclear if the fine was paid to the health district as of Wednesday.