By the time city trucks rolled into the Highland Hills apartment complex off Mount Moriah Road on Thursday, the place looked more like a dumpsite than a neighborhood. Crews spent the day hauling off mounds of old tires, busted furniture, stained mattresses, and sacks of rotting garbage after tenants said dumpsters had vanished and trash had been allowed to pile up for months. Residents described swarms of flies, an overwhelming stench, and a growing sense of abandonment as managers were mostly nowhere to be found. The cleanup came only after a steady trail of code complaints and years of court and collection activity tied to the property finally caught up with it.
According to Action News 5, the city’s Division of Community Enhancement sent the crews out and plans to bill the property owner for every bit of the remedial work. Division director Melanie Neal told Action News 5, "We’ll also be charging the property owner for the cost of the city’s efforts," and said workers would stay on site through Thursday evening so tenants could finally get some relief. The station reports the complex is only about 25% occupied, which means a relatively small group of tenants has been stuck living with a very large mess.
Court records show years of legal action
County chancery filings show this mess did not appear out of nowhere. A string of cases has followed the Highland Hills portfolio for years, including a writ of attachment issued in May 2024 that called out apartment buildings at 2831 Fosterwood Drive and related activity on the docket through March 2025, according to Shelby County Chancery records. The docket lays out summonses to Multi-South Management, returns on those attachments and cost-bill entries that collectively trace the property’s recent legal history.
Management shuffle and on-the-ground signs
On paper, Highland Hills is still listed at 2831 Fosterwood Drive with Multi-South Management named as the manager. At the same time, a Tarantino Properties job posting openly seeks a maintenance worker specifically for Highland Hills, a public sign that a new agent may be stepping in to run the show. Taken together, those records suggest management duties have been in transition, even as routine upkeep failed to keep pace with the rapidly growing piles of trash and debris across the complex.
Tenants and neighborhood relief
Residents told reporters they kept quiet about conditions because they were afraid that complaining would get them kicked out. Community activist Patricia A. Rogers told Action News 5, "This succeeds everything that I’ve ever witnessed. This is unbelievable." City officials said they intend to roll in new dumpsters, continue the remediation work, and keep pressure on the owners. They also warned they are prepared to file liens and issue additional citations to recover cleanup costs if the owners do not step up.
What comes next
For tenants, the short-term win is simple and concrete: functioning dumpsters, cleared-out lots, and city crews still working the property. The long-term question is whether any new management team will follow through on basic maintenance or whether creditors and the courts will ultimately push the complex into a sale or broader redevelopment. City officials said they plan to keep pursuing the case in environmental court and to seek repayment of cleanup costs, and the existing chancery docket already shows a detailed paper trail of liens, attachments and payments connected to the property.
