As the weekend heat cranked up in San Antonio, families at the Fairways 5 Apartments on the Northwest Side say their homes turned into ovens after a power outage dragged on for hours and, for some, days. With temperatures climbing, residents reported sweltering units, spoiled groceries and surprise hotel bills as seniors, young children and entire families scrambled to find cooler places to sleep and wait it out.
Tenants told reporters the outage started when electrical infrastructure was damaged during utility work, then spread when crews tried a bypass that left the entire complex dark. Management later brought in temporary generators to get power back to every unit, a setup its CEO said runs about $30,000 per week. One resident, Jennifer Arguello, said her family spent two nights in a budget hotel and racked up roughly $640 in emergency costs after food in the fridge went bad and her 1-year-old had been sitting in an apartment that neared 90 degrees before they fled. CPS Energy said in a statement that crews "responded and successfully completed all necessary repairs to CPS Energy-owned equipment" and described the initial cause as equipment failure, according to KSAT.
The complex, marketed as Fairways 5, lists its address as 8710 Datapoint Dr and advertises studio through two-bedroom units with on-site pools and other amenities on the community website. The leasing materials also tout the location near the Medical Center and Loop 410, a selling point that residents say makes long outages especially disruptive for families and health care workers who depend on stable power at home.
Tenants' legal options
Under Texas law, landlords must repair conditions that materially affect a tenant's physical health or safety once the tenant gives proper notice. If the owner does not fix the problem within the timeframes laid out in the statute, tenants who follow the required notice steps may have several options: terminate the lease, arrange for certain repairs themselves and deduct the cost from rent within legal caps, or pursue remedies in court. The specific repair-and-notice process and available remedies are detailed in Chapter 92 of the Texas Property Code, as outlined by Justia.
Who to contact
CPS Energy's outage center walks customers through how to report power problems, track restoration work and sign up for alerts, and lists an emergency hotline at 210-353-4357, according to CPS Energy. Tenants dealing with out-of-pocket losses are generally advised to document damage, save receipts for hotels and replacement food, and consider filing a code complaint or speaking with an attorney about whether they can recover any of those costs.
For now, residents say they are waiting to see what follow-up, if any, comes from the property's owner and the utility as the city stays hot. Management told reporters it coordinated with CPS Energy to resolve the outage and insisted resident safety is its "highest priority," while tenants like Arguello say that statement does not go far enough and are pushing for reimbursement and a clearer explanation of what went wrong, according to KSAT.
