By james art 
Lubbock, Texas (KCBD) – For months, some Lubbock and PlainView tenants tell the KCBD team that they have dealt with the drain of sewage, unexpected water shutdowns and loss of electricity without notice.
While these tenants live in different places, the properties are owned by the same company.
Thunder Sun Homes owns and operates hundreds of South Plains units, including a mobile home park near Lubbock Airport, and two mobile home parks in PlainView.
On January 7, 2024, we opened the Lyubbok Department, an administration of codes, environmental health and animal services in Lubbock on the spot, investigating complaints in the property located on 302 East Partyu Street.
City authorities told us that the water would be closed in the park due to a crowded sewer.
The tenant Paul Lopez said he was not surprised.
“After these new owners went, we just had many problems,” Lopez said. “Just a bad communication. It takes us repeatedly, calls, requests to actually get them to get really information. “
According to the central area of Lubbock Central, Thunder Sun, Incorporated purchased the property near East Purdue Street in August 2023.
In addition to the lotus fee, Lopez said tenants also pay Thunder Sun for their water and electricity. He said that while he pays his bills on time, the company seems to not.
“Most recently, it was right when it started to cool, it was a few more days without electricity. They said there was an unpaid balance of the batch. If we pay on time, I do not feel that we have to suffer for it, “Lopez said.
Ida Bosque also lives in the mobile home park and said that without office on the spot it is difficult to reach management.
“I called and called and they wouldn’t answer, so I made the support request two or three times and said it was the third day and I still don’t have electricity,” Bosque said.
Bosk said they also had problems with their water.
“Sometimes we would have been without water for six days,” Boske said.
The KCBD team is investigating an open -minded request to Lubbock to find out how many times the water has excluded to Lubbock home park due to non -payment. We are still waiting for an answer.
We also applied for the files of the Lubbock City City Division and Codes related to the property.
As Thunder Sun took over the property, inspectors repeatedly documented repetitive overcrowded sewers, stagnant water in an unsecured pool and water leaks.
On several occasions, inspectors have noted that they cannot reach management.
We have also discovered additional reports documenting the problems with the sewage in two complexes Thunder Sun Apartments in Lubbock, one near the 50th and Avenue U and another near the 50th and Avenue SS
Our investigation took us to two mobile home parks at PlainView.
Mark Roth says he lived in Mobile Home Park near Dimmitt Road, just west of I-27 for nearly 20 years.
Roth said he owns his mobile home, but pays Thunder Sun to hire a batch that includes utilities. He said water was the problem.
“The way I understand it, they get a total account for the park. They divide it by the number of tenants and then tell each of us what our account is. We pay the bill; They do not pay the city. Our water is cut off, ”Roth said.
Roth said the tenants went five days without water.
“No warning, without a note,” Roth said.
Roth said an notice was eventually sent to all tenants who informed them that the water was off, but he said there was no indication of when it would be turned on again.
Roth said he drove to Thunder Sun’s mailing address to Lubbock, but learned it was just a drop of mail.
“It’s so, so disappointing. My wife is subjected to chemotherapy, the gentleman in the back corner is a Vietnam veteran, which is blind and deaf, “Roth said. “I saw a gentleman here as a third world country when he was raining, he was here trying to dip water from a hole so he could wash his toilet. This is quite ridiculous in the US ”
Jack Smith is also a longtime resident in the park near Dimita.
“I am here in this park with trailers for 18 years and Thunder Sun is the oldest people in this park with trailers. They made us worse than everyone, “Smith said.
Smith said the recent exclusion of water created the effect of dominoes.
“When they turned off the water, my water pipelines froze, when they turned it on again, they all fell apart. I have been without water for weeks because of them, “Smith said.
The City of PlainView confirmed that it turned the water to the park for non -payment on November 4, 2024 and again on January 2, 2025.
Demeria Erwin said tenants in Thunder Sun’s mobile home park just minutes from Quincy Street deal with similar problems.
She made a video of a leak she said he had lasted about three months.
“We called and called, we can’t get anyone on the phone,” Erwin said.
The KCBD team is investigating the owner of Thunder Sun Homes to report water problems in PlainView.
The company sent a plumber to repair the leak.
A tenant who did not want to be identified for fear of revenge said that problems with water and billing were her major complaints. She said receiving answers from Thunder Sun Homes is difficult.
“They actively avoided our calls. They did not respond to our messages. I called the code application and the application of code told me that there was a list of questions, but the main question was not paying, “the tenant said.
The City of PlainView confirmed that he had turned off the water to the park near Quincy for no payment five times since Thunder Sun purchased the property in September 2021.
This does not include the number of tenants lost due to other problems such as leaks.
We also revealed dozens of code violations.
The owner of Thunder Sun Homes, Austin Hughes, agreed to sit with us on January 21st.
Hughes said his company owns and manages 581 units.
“We have a leading property manager. We have an assistant property manager. Each of them processes various aspects of the overall load and then we have a team of several leasing agents, “Hughes said.
“So, really, two certain property managers for your 580 plus units?” We asked.
“This is the title, yes, but I will say that leasing agents, much of their role and what they do is take care of the residents,” Hughes said.
We asked Hughes if he thought he had to grow his team to adequately maintain properties.
“We are always growing our team, but many people are surprised by what can only be done in small businesses of the instruments available today,” Hughes said.
Hughes said he last went to the properties a few months ago.
We asked him what were some of his biggest problems with Mobile Home Park near East Purdue Street in Lubbock.
“We did a lot of work on infrastructure, things like sewer lines, we have invested a lot of money there. I know there were some recent sewer problems. These are the problems we had with our residents who hit tampons, towels, rags and things that do not belong to the sewer. We have to go down there and pump it and it causes damage, “Hughes said.
Hughes said he was aware that the tenants were left without water due to non -payment and leaks, and he said his team was taking steps to deal with the problems.
“I want to provide good homes for people. I’m really interested in, ”Hughes said. “We have taken major measures in the communication department.”
We reviewed some of the tenants we originally interviewed to see if the properties had improved as we were talking to the owner.
“I feel that they have communicated much better since you will start watching them,” Lopez said.
Smith agreed and there is a theory why.
“Because KCBD Channel 11 news is here,” Smith said.
Roth said he felt the same way.
– Absolutely. This is the only reason why they do everything I feel of, “Roth said.
Tenants said they were hoping for the improvements to continue and would have a better idea on February 1, when the next water account was due.
We also asked Hughes about abandoned trailers of his properties, which are in trouble.
Hughes said the removal of these can take time because they have to track the titles.
Through our investigation, we learned that the city of Lubbock had condemned two of Thunder Sun’s properties near a depot.
We attended a hearing at the Municipal Court, where we learned more about these cases and other homes around Lyubok, which the city wants to demolish and the places can surprise you.
We will have this story when KCBD continues to investigate Wednesday, February 5, 2024 from 10pm
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