Real Scumbags Series: Who is Slum Lord and Real Estate Investor Nanik ‘Nick’ Bhagia?

LIT Commentary

This article tries to unravel the many family members and Texas corporations for the Real Scumbags known as the Bhagia’s and highlights the tragic death of a toddler due to the slum lord’s refusal to invest in the basic upkeep and legal requirements to own and operate rental accommodations in Houston, Texas.

The University of Texas provided an extensive report “Out of Order: Houston’s Dangerous Apartments Epidemic”, detailing the failures of our elected officials in overseeing rental apartments in Houston and highlights, for example, that Texas does not charge ‘inspector’ fees for violators, where other states do, so the taxpayer is footing the bill for these slum lords.

This lack of oversight has allowed Real Scumbags like the Bhagia’s keep all the rental income as profit and allow tenants to live in squalid condition and also face the prospect of more fatalities at the hands of these profit-driven, greedy landlords.

In 2007, Nanik ‘Nick’ Bhagia was Criminally Charged

With intentional Release of Sewage to Pollute Water at Condemned Vista Bonita Apartments, 9313 Tallyho, Houston, an Investment Rental Property that Injured, Killed and apparently was subject to Fire and Flood regularly under the ownership of New Sun Coast Apartments, LLC, one of the many Texas Corporations registered and operated by the Bhagia’s.

The charges would subsequently be dismissed.

Owner to close Houston apartments where boy drowned

No home for the holiday. The owner of a squalid southeast side apartment complex has decided to shut it down — just days before Thanksgiving

NOV 18, 2008 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: MAY 10, 2022

Bhagia pledged in a letter to help with relocation by giving back rent and deposit refunds, but the timing left many tenants distrustful and angry.

“I don’t see how they can get by with this,” said Bonnie Whitsett, a disabled resident, who moved into the property after fleeing New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. “This is legal? How can it be legal to put people out of their homes before Thanksgiving?”

Residents like Whitsett, who has a heart condition and lives on a fixed income, were scrambling Tuesday to make plans to move and worrying whether they could afford it.

City inspectors have cited the owner more than 300 times in recent years for faulty utilities and interrupted natural gas service.

Whitsett, for example, has been without gas service for three weeks, leaving her with unpleasant cold showers and frigid floor tiles. She and her family, which includes a disabled niece, dined on crab cakes cooked on an electric hotplate Tuesday afternoon.

The decision to vacate the half-empty, 144-unit property, between the South Loop and Beltway 8 along the Gulf Freeway, comes weeks after a 23-month-old boy died there in a cloudy swimming pool.

Sgt. Robert Torres, the lead homicide investigator on the case, said the Oct. 27 drowning was an accident that likely happened because Conar Mathew Rose reached the pool by climbing through gaps in a damaged fence. State law requires secure fencing and latching gates around such pools, and city inspectors cited the owner for the damage and the water quality.

Torres said the toddler’s mother and stepfather were home when he wandered outside into the nearby courtyard. Their front door had been left open for fresh air, Torres said, because management had cut off power to the building for maintenance.

After a frantic search around the complex, the family found Conar’s body floating in the pool. The parents are suing Bhagia and the holding company listed in tax records as the official owner, Sun Coast Apartments, LLC.
Owner pledging refunds

In a brief phone interview Tuesday, Bhagia repeated his pledge to refund November rent and security deposits. He said he also would pay residents’ application fees at new complexes, but ended the call when pressed for specifics.

Some tenants have said the office often is closed, and they were not sure Tuesday how to take advantage of his offer.

Bhagia later e-mailed the Chronicle to say that tenants “will be paid when they turn in the keys and do not take away any of our appliances. We are not running away.”

The child’s death prompted more scrutiny from city inspectors, who descended again on the property and issued dozens of new citations. Residents say Bhagia blamed conditions on Hurricane Ike, but the city has been issuing tickets for years.

“We took a hard line with the owner, and gave him a list of steps to get his place in a habitable condition,” Mayor Bill White told reporters Tuesday.

Bhagia’s decision came as he faced a looming deadline to fix those problems. City officials had hoped Bhagia would make repairs, but inspectors hinted that they would close the property by revoking its occupancy certification if he did not.

Such an action by the city, more common in recent months, could have ordered properties closed without the possibility of refunds.

“It would be the right thing for him to do to reimburse us,” said Romeo Baskin, a resident who said he had trouble finding comparably priced apartments with vacancies.

Baskin acknowledged the poor conditions, which include leaky roofs, moldy drywall and sewer leaks, but said residents felt a sense of community at the property. He said they also felt safe from crime.

“This is all we have,” he said.

Seeking relocation help

Unlike in past cases involving forced closures, however, city housing officials were not planning to visit the property to help residents relocate.

Doug Anders, a Houston police officer working in a new position aimed at improving conditions at complexes, said he was seeking relocation help for the residents from the Houston Apartment Association.

The uncertainty has left renters, who pay $350 to $450 a month, worried about their next move. Others doubted the owners’ refund pledge.

“We’re just doing the best that we can,” said Willie Fortune, a disabled 22-year resident who worried he would have to spend his limited holiday savings on moving costs. “It’s just bad.”

Parents sue Houston complex where toddler drowned

Conar M. Rose died at the Vista Bonita apartments. The complex owner denies negligence.

Nov. 11, 2008

The family of a toddler who drowned two weeks ago at a south Houston apartment complex has filed a lawsuit accusing the owner of leaving gaps in a fence police say may have allowed the boy access to a swimming pool.

The suit was brought by Misty Lynn Campos on behalf of her 23-month-old son, Conar Matthew Rose, who drowned at the Vista Bonita apartments Oct. 27.

The complex, at 9313 Tallyho in south Houston, has a history of safety-related violations, according to municipal court records.

Conar’s parents allege that the owner, New South Apartments LLC, and its representative, Nanik Bhagia, did not repair a chest-high iron fence surrounding the cloudy, algae-filled pool.

City officials have said that both the fence and water conditions violated state and municipal laws.

“His death was caused by the negligence of defendants, including failing to maintain the fence around the pool and failing to keep the pool water clear,” the suit reads.

“Such negligence was a proximate cause of the death.”

Mother’s role questioned

Bhagia denied negligence Tuesday but declined to discuss the case in detail.

“I am not able to comment right now because I need to speak to my attorneys,”

he said.

“I don’t think we are negligent.”

The suit, filed by Corpus Christi attorney Bob Hilliard, also asks for a temporary restraining order to prevent the owner from tampering with any evidence in and around the pool.

Hilliard also seeks permission to have an expert examine the scene. He said Tuesday that his case was clear-cut.

“To have a fence where someone’s 2-year-old can slip through, that’s grossly negligent,” he said.

While the lawsuit challenges the apartment complex, police investigators have said that the boy’s mother was distracted, which allowed him to go outside the apartment unsupervised.

Inquiry was conducted

Child Protective Services launched an investigation, and Conar’s mother and stepfather agreed to place his 7-year-old twin brothers and one-month-old sister with the maternal grandmother pending the outcome of an investigation by the agency, spokeswoman Gwen Carter said.

That probe was closed recently, but the children remain with the grandmother pending the parents’ completion of social services, such as parenting classes, said another CPS spokeswoman, Estella Olguin.

She said the agency regards incidents involving unsupervised children differently. For example, she said, a child injured while a parent is briefly distracted can be less serious than a case in which a parent was under the influence of alcohol.

“You can’t keep your eye on your children 24/7,”

Olguin said,

recommending “child-proof” precautions on outside doors, for example, so children cannot wander outside while their parents sleep.

After the drowning, city inspectors issued at least 80 citations for health and safety violations at the complex.

Inspectors documented plumbing, electrical and structural code violations on the property. Some vacant buildings have been left unsecured and dangerous, according to inspectors.

The Parents Lawsuit

SETTLED FOR $507K

On November 07, 2008 a DAMAGES (OTH) case was filed

by Campos, Draven Xavier, Campos, Juan Jr (As Next Friend Of Draven Xavier Campos And Tristan, Campos, Misty Lynn (Individually And As Representative Of The Estate, Campos, Tristan Hunter, Rose, Christopher Michael, Rose, Conar Matthew, represented by Hilliard, Robert Carl,

against Bhagia, Nanik, New Sun Coast Apartments L L C, Vista Bonita Apartment, Vista Bonita Apartments, represented by Harberg, David Burke, Ramey, Robert L., in the jurisdiction of Harris County.

Assigned to Judge Rabeea Collier

In 2008, Nick and his wife Sarojini’s “Fire” Insurance Payout is Kept by Elias DaSilva and they want Bank of America to Cough Up $115k.

The case would be dismissed for want of prosecution (failure to prosecute the case as it percolated for years, finally being dismissed some 6 years later, in 2014).

LIT notes that Nanik Bhagia is using the name Dr. Nick Bhagia. For the majority of the lawsuits over the years, he is referred to as Nanik Bhagia.

What Doctor Nick holds a doctorate in, we have been unable to identify, but we find it interesting that he failed to keep using this moniker anytime after 2008 or thereabouts.

The Bhagia’s Operate their Business and enjoy a Partnership with The Shani’s

This Bhagia Residence in Katy Has Been Pivotal Over the Decades, to Register Many Texas Corporations

The following sections of this article focus on the Texas Corporations, the family members, the relationship with the Shani’s of H-Town as well as the deluge of litigation, past and present. You will note the family had a close relationship with sanctioned Texas Attorney Jerry Schutza, however, the reliance on his services have diminished as a result of a growing number of family members becoming Texas lawyers, e.g. Jay Shani and Sheroo Bhagia.

Another home on the lake.

The Skies Have No Limit for The Bhagia’s and The Shani’s

202012994

KAPUR, RAMESH vs. BHAGIA, NANIK

(Court 215)

It is alleged by Plaintiff Ramesh in a recently dismissed case (2022) before Judge Palmer (the recipient of a reelection donation from Bhagia), that Nanik Bhagia refused process of service at his residence and claimed to ‘know the game’.