Lowell Emerson Apartments: 1102 & 1110 8th Avenue

Executive summary

The two buildings at 1102 and 1110 8th Avenue appear in the City's complaint and violation records 172 times between 2003 and 2025: 108 records at 1102 and 64 at 1110. Of 156 complaints, 83 were filed in 2023 through 2025. Of the 152 cases at the two addresses carrying a closed status, 97 (64%) show no last-inspection date in the public data: 57 of 91 at 1102 and 40 of 61 at 1110. The public record cannot show whether an inspection occurred in those cases.

The City's own Complaint Reports of Findings for nine 2023 complaints give a specific picture. Six ended in "Admin Closure." One was a confirmed violation. Two were "No Violation Observed." Among the administrative closures were a report of water entering the elevator shaft with sewage backing up a bathtub drain and four floors without running water for about two weeks, a flood on the tenth floor, and a report of no heat in the building closed because no contact information was provided.

SDCI's written statements in 2024 and 2025 add three facts the public record alone does not carry. The Department's RRIO manager wrote that "we've never prepared such a report" when asked about the annual report Ordinance 125054 requires. SDCI's senior RRIO inspector wrote that the October 2024 expanded inspections "did not include" a resident's unit, while the RRIO manager later wrote that "All units were inspected." And in May 2025 the RRIO manager reported that roughly two-thirds of units had passed and one-third had documented deficiencies that had to be corrected.

This case study makes no finding about intent. It reports what the record shows, what the City wrote, and where the two disagree or fall silent.

1. The property

1102 8th Avenue (the Lowell) and 1110 8th Avenue (the Emerson) are adjacent buildings in Council District 7. STLCA assigned the district; the City's complaint export carries an address and coordinates but no district field. SDCI correspondence refers to "the properties at Lowell-Emerson" as registered with the Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance (RRIO) program and to "Metropolitan Management's properties." The record reviewed does not establish the legal owner. The operator and the owner are different questions, and this case study reports only the operator named in SDCI's own emails.

Sources: STLCA scorecard dated 2026-09-21 (rows for 1102 and 1110 8th Ave); SDCI emails of Oct 31, 2024.

2. What the complaint and violation records show

Source: LLT_ALL_ADDRESSES_SCORECARD.csv, built from the City's complaint and violation export through 2025-12-31. Issue counts are keyword-flagged from complaint text and are floors, not ceilings; one record can carry more than one issue.

3. What the City's own findings documents say

SDCI issues a "Complaint Report of Findings" when it closes a complaint. Nine of these, all from 2023, are in STLCA's file for this complex. The City's outcome label is quoted exactly.

Source: SDCI116 Complaint Report of Findings PDFs, nine files, dated 2023-04-18 through 2023-10-11. Limit: the "Complaint Location" field is blank in these documents. Two are tied to this complex by the document itself (002076-23CP through the portal record showing 1110 8th Ave; 006403-23CP through the complaint text naming the building). The other seven are assigned by STLCA's file organization and should be confirmed against the portal before publication.

STLCA's automated capture of the City portal for 1102 8th Ave read the findings on 39 distinct complaints and found the same weight: 17 administrative closures, 12 "No Violation Observed," 5 "no contact," 3 in process, and 2 without a parsed outcome. That run finished with a quality-check failure (mostly PDFs that would not parse), so the counts are stated as captured, not as final.

4. Timeline from the RRIO portal records and SDCI correspondence

5. What SDCI has said in writing

Quotations are exact and dated. They are attributed by role, because the point of this section is the Department's position and not any individual's.

On the scope of enforcement

"Some of your questions appear to be about property management, and we do not oversee property management in the City of Seattle. Our job is to enforce the RRIO ordinance and the Housing Building Maintenance Code."
Senior RRIO inspector, Oct 31, 2024

"Once deficiencies are found at the time of inspection notices are issued and may ultimately results in monetary penalties and possible legal action depending on the type of notice issued under RRIO or HBMC ... We enforce the code as written and do not deviate from it."
Senior RRIO inspector, Nov 4, 2024, in reply to a written request about how SDCI ensures RRIO compliance

The reply does not answer the accountability question that was asked, which was what systems ensure that false certifications, missing registration and chronic conditions are addressed. It refers the requester to the ordinance.

On whether all units were inspected

"The expanded RRIO inspections that were completed by myself and another inspector on October 2nd & 9th, did not include your unit, E402."
Senior RRIO inspector, Oct 31, 2024

"It looks like we did inspect all units on this property." (Mar 7, 2025)  ·  "All units were inspected. About 2/3 did, or have since, met the standards in the RRIO checklist." (May 30, 2025)
RRIO manager

These statements were made by two SDCI staff about the same inspections. They are not reconciled in the correspondence reviewed. A resident replied on June 2, 2025 that her unit and the units of other residents she spoke with were never entered. The record reviewed does not say which account is correct.

On the annual report required by Ordinance 125054

"On the report you are asking for, we've never prepared such a report. I checked with our team and our (now retired) director when you first made the request ... We get very few calls under that section of code."
RRIO manager, Mar 7, 2025

The same email states that the code section cited in the ordinance ("22.206.180.J") does not exist and that the relevant provision appears to be 22.206.180.I. STLCA reports that statement as SDCI's position and has not independently checked the code text.

On verification of the 2023 violations

In a May 20, 2025 exchange over a public-records appeal, SDCI's Director of Organizational Strategy wrote that the Department "need[s] additional time to gather responsive documents" and that she was "not able to answer the rest" of the questions. The request concerned the final inspection reports, verification of corrections and methods used to confirm compliance for violations recorded as closed in September 2024. The correspondence reviewed does not show the outcome of that request.

6. Elevators

The scorecard flags 18 records at the two addresses as elevator-related (14 at 1102, 4 at 1110). Two 2023 complaints, 000537-23CP and 000538-23CP, both filed January 14, 2023, were still in "Open Duplicate" status in the data extract reviewed, more than three years after filing. An "Open Duplicate" status, on its face, defers a complaint to a parent record; the parent record STLCA identified (000216-23CP) concerns hot water. A December 18, 2024 elevator certificate inspection at 1102 8th Avenue recorded "Passed with Conditions" with seven corrections, including a lobby intercom, an emergency telephone and water in the elevator pit.

Sources: scorecard issue flags; STLCA complaint analysis of the citywide master file (2026-09-12); portal printout of Certificate Inspection 5478006 (printed 1/29/2025). The current certification status of each of the three elevators on file was checked live on 2026-09-12 and must be re-checked before public use.

7. Fees and penalties

SDCI has written that notices "may ultimately" result in monetary penalties. The public record STLCA has reviewed for this complex shows notices of violation and compliance dates, but STLCA has not yet captured the Payment and Fee Detail for each notice. For that reason this case study reports no penalty total. Whether penalties were assessed on the 16 notices of violation, and in what amounts, is a question the City's fee records can answer directly, and the asks in section 9 call for it.

8. What this case study does and does not show

9. What oversight must do

1. Produce the verification file for the 2023 notices. Provide the final inspection reports, verification of corrections and methods used to confirm compliance for the notices closed in September 2024.
2. Reconcile the October 2024 inspections. State in writing which units were entered on October 2 and 9, 2024 and which were not, and correct the record if "all units inspected" is not accurate.
3. Publish the fee status of every notice. For each of the 16 notices of violation at the two addresses, state whether a penalty was assessed, the amount, and the collection status.
4. Close or explain the "Open Duplicate" complaints, beginning with 000537-23CP and 000538-23CP.
5. Show the evidence behind each administrative closure. For the six 2023 administrative closures above, state what was inspected and the basis for closure. The same standard the City asks of a landlord's records applies to the City's.
6. Produce the Ordinance 125054 annual reports for 2017 through 2025.

Held for human review

Methodology, sources and limitations

Record counts come from STLCA's address-level scorecard (2026-09-21), built from the City's complaint and violation export through 2025-12-31; issue counts are keyword-based and are floors. Findings documents are the City's SDCI116 Complaint Reports of Findings. Portal facts come from printed Seattle Services Portal records. SDCI statements come from email messages the requester sent and received, read in full. The 1102 8th Ave capture summary comes from STLCA's automated portal capture (run 2026-09-14) which finished with a quality-check failure and is used only for counts stated as captured. No records were added, removed or estimated. "Closed," "Completed," "Admin Closure" and "Withdrawn" are treated as record states, never as proof of correction.

Sources cited: STLCA scorecard 2026-09-21; SDCI116 Complaint Reports of Findings 2023-04-18 to 2023-10-11 (nine PDFs); Seattle Services Portal records 002076-23CP and 001-0102479 related-records list; SDCI emails dated Apr 29 and May 1, 2024, Oct 31 and Nov 4, 2024, Mar 7, May 20, May 27, May 30, Jun 3 and Jun 4, 2025 (subject lines: Record Number 1055966-VI; Lowell Emerson Apartments RRIO inspections; Request for Accountability in RRIO Enforcement; Follow-Up on Status of 100% RRIO Inspections – Lowell Emerson; Notice of Extension: Appeal to SDCI Disclosure Office); STLCA calculated-fines file for 1102 8th Ave (run 2026-09-14); STLCA case study draft 2026-09-12.