From Mount Washington to Independence... from Burlington to Miami Township.. families must live in terrible conditions. Tonight, criminal complaints say a single landlord is to blame. Lanny Holbrook owns everything from marina's to apartment buildings all across the Tri-State. But Local 12's Rich Jaffe has discovered Hamilton County's Housing Court could send him to prison for violating orders to fix serious problems. Problems exist at many of Holbrook's properties, including the Beechbend Apartments. Holbrook is currently named in almost a dozen criminal cases that stem from the building code, health code and fire code violations inside the buildings-for things like broken windows, dangerous decking, and electrical violations. In the laundry room we found putrid standing water in the broken laundry tub and clearly no hot water. However there was plenty of water outside the laundry room, soaking the carpet and the walls.Paying $400 a month, Rikkiana Teater and her kids have lived here since February with no hot water. "It's horrible, thankfully my parents live across the hall cause I wouldn't be able to give my kids a bath, cook, do dishes, nothing. Only way I can do any of that is go across the hall to my parents house. It sucks." The owner of the property is well known local attorney Lanny Holbrook. In the last few weeks, his companies have been in the news because they also own the storm damaged bug infested Heritage Park Apartments, and the Clermont County mobile homes that owe $100,000 in water bills. They owe Duke more than $3500 for electric at these apartments. There are also open warrants and complaints on Holbrook out of Hamilton County Housing Court for extensive violations on his properties. Bev Mills moved in to Beechbend in March. With no refrigerator for a month, she had to use the one across the hall. "I said look, I can't live in two apartments, this is crazy. I need to be able to move into the apartment that has a stove and refrigerator. So we had to come over here, clean out all the garbage, molded dishes out of the sink everything...then we had to rehab this apartment while still living in 20...at your own expense...at our own expense." I've done stories on Lanny Holbrook for years and frankly the situation here is no different than it is at many of his properties. What is different is these cases are being prosecuted in Hamilton County's Housing Court...and because of that, Holbrook's facing criminal charges, up to $1000 on each violation and up to six months in prison. We'll see what happens. Jaffe tried to contact Holbrook today but was unable to reach him. A property manager told Jaffe that the company is going through hard financial times. In December, a judge in Fairfield hit Holbrook's company with $129,000 worth of fines for code violations there. At the time, the judge said she wished she "had the power" to have him live in his own buildings. Cincinnati Water Works has set Thursday as the day they will turn water off to the Beechbend Apartments in Mt. Washington. Residents have also been ordered to vacate the property if certain repairs aren't made. "We have mold issues. We have issues with vacant apartments," said Beverly Mills, a resident at Beechbend. Posted on the apartment doors were notices for residents to vacate by Sept. 9. The water is being shut off over non-payment. The on-site property manager told 9 News Tuesday evening that Heritage Management "guaranteed" that Beechbend Apartments would be "in compliance" by Sept. 9. Heritage Management is owned by Lanny Holbrook, who is an attorney in the Tri-State. Read more: http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/region_east_cincinnati/mount_washington/apartment-residents-ordered-to-vacate#ixzz1Welp8vII The residents of a local apartment complex say they're paying the price for the property owners years of neglect and mismanagement. Today that landlord was supposed to be in court to answer for it. A last minute deal with the prosecutor kept Lanny Holbrook out of court today... temporarily. Holbrook is a well known local attorney who owns properties across the Tri-State and is facing numerous criminal charges for not maintaining them. The case was in Hamilton County's Housing Court this afternoon, but Holbrook was a no-show. Local 12's Rich Jaffe was there. At the last minute, Holbrook ducked his court appearance and got a continuance until August 30th based on a deal that has him expected to plead no contest to criminal charges of not following city orders to fix up a couple of his properties. This one, Beechbend is one of them, and residents here are already under city orders to get out. According to residents and building inspectors, Beechbend Apartments are moldy, dangerous and bug infested... so much so the city has ordered the properties vacated by September 9th, forcing residents, like Jason Miltin, his wife, and baby to find another place to live. Miltin and many others are angry with property owner, Lanny Holbrook. Jason Miltin, Resident: "He's a bottom feeder in my mind, he's definitely taking advantage of people who don't have the ability to be taken advantage of, they can't fall on family necessarily, they can't fall back on extra savings money, everybody here is check to check." Lanny Holbrook, along with his partners Lena Sandlin Holbrook, and Robert Griffin, who's also the district manager, are all charged criminally for not complying with city orders to fix up two of their properties. However, the deal struck today would see Lanny Holbrook plead no contest in exchange for charges against the other two being dropped. "It makes me sick that he gets away with it legally, it makes me sick that he's a man of the law, a lawyer and he is outrightly taking advantage of people." Residents at Beechbend have also been notified their water will be cut off August 18th for non-payment. Robert Griffin, however, says they have nothing to worry about and the company's hard at work fixing all the problems here. Robert Griffin, Heritage Management Group: "We believe that no one will have to vacate, Mr Holbrook wants to be in compliance, property wants to be in compliance, I want to be in compliance. There was a shut off scheduled for the water, since then a payment has been posted and we have had the address changed for the office as well." Right after I spoke with Robert Griffin, I checked with Cincinnati Water Works as did one of the residents here. We both received the same response, no payments have been made, and the water is still scheduled to be shut off here in a few days. Read more: http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/KY-Burlington-Burl-Park-Apartments-1312205.html#ixzz1Weq0oos7 I rented from fall 10 through winter 11. ...