Raw sewage has been flowing through the parking lot of The Palms at 8800 apartment complex on the Northeast Side since the weekend, pooling in an area where children ride bikes and play. Tenants say the smell is overwhelming, the mess includes toilet paper and wastewater, and as of Tuesday, management still had not fixed it or called them back.
Tenant Alyssa Gustafson, who moved into the complex in July, told KSAT she first noticed the sewage problem Saturday night into Sunday morning. She said the smell was overwhelming and that the sewage could make people sick. Gustafson, who is pregnant with her second child, submitted an emergency work order through the tenant portal and called the city's water utility to file a report, but as of Tuesday she said she had not heard back from the property.
When she reached out to San Antonio Water System, she was told the issue was a property problem rather than a city one. That lines up with SAWS policy, which specifies that the utility is only responsible for main lines in public rights-of-way and cannot perform plumbing repairs or clear sewage blockages on private property. That leaves the fix squarely in the hands of the complex's property manager, Houston-based Tarantino Properties Inc., which oversees the 318-unit complex at 8800 Starcrest Drive.
Kids Forced to Walk Through Contaminated Area
An anonymous visitor to the complex told the station that people could become contaminated in the area and expressed concern about children living there. The visitor said children must walk through the contaminated area on their way to school and reported that the sewage flooded a large portion of the parking lot over the weekend. Tenants say the problem started Saturday and worsened from there, and as of Tuesday they were still waiting for the area to be fully repaired and properly cleaned.
A Palms at 8800 maintenance worker told a tenant that someone was coming to fix the problem, but no timeline was given. When a KSAT crew attempted to speak with management Tuesday afternoon, a staff member locked the office door as the reporting team approached, and the property did not respond to the station's request for comment.
What San Antonio Code and Texas Law Require
San Antonio's Minimum Housing Standards require that residential properties, including apartment complexes, be kept in good repair, sanitary condition, and completely free of sewer leaks, according to the City of San Antonio. Property owners who receive a formal notice of violation typically get a 10-day window to fix the issue before the city issues citations or pursues court-ordered abatements. Violations cited in municipal court can carry fines up to $300, while criminal misdemeanor charges for non-compliant landlords carry up to $500 fines that can be doubled for repeat offenders, per the San Antonio Report.
Texas law generally requires landlords to make a diligent effort to repair conditions materially affecting tenants' health or safety, KSAT reported. Under Texas Property Code § 92.056, seven days is presumed a reasonable timeframe for a landlord to make repairs after written notice, though emergency health hazards like raw sewage typically demand a faster response within 24 to 48 hours. If a landlord fails to remedy such a hazard after proper notice, tenants can legally terminate their lease without penalty, deduct repair costs from rent, or sue for one month's rent plus $500 in civil penalties. Gustafson said she may have to leave or seek legal recourse if the situation doesn't improve.
A Complex With a History of Neglect
The property at 8800 Starcrest Drive has faced maintenance troubles before. It previously operated as Star Club Apartments under Shippy Properties, where tenants in 2022 documented severe neglect including water leaks that caused ceiling collapses, as detailed by the San Antonio Report. Built in 1975, the complex is among the city's aging mid-tier apartment stock that has repeatedly struggled with utility failures under different ownership.
San Antonio also runs a Proactive Apartment Inspection Program, launched in 2023, that creates a public registry of repeat code violators among complexes with five or more units and subjects non-compliant properties to mandatory city inspections. It's a tool that mirrors what happened earlier this year at Villas de Sendero on the West Side, where city notices followed weeks of overflow before management finally cleaned up the mess. Whether The Palms at 8800 will face similar scrutiny remains to be seen, but for now, tenants say they're still waiting for answers, and for the smell to go away.
