A source of complaints

Waz — which owns and operates properties under several corporate entities — is controlled by brothers Isaac and Benjamin Ouazana. It is among the 10 city landlords that The Sun identified as having the most tenant complaints.

The company and its affiliates own more than 100 units in about 80 properties, according to a city database of registration records obtained by The Sun through a Public Information Act request. Since 2015, tenants have filed 32 escrow actions against the company.

City inspectors issued 111 violations against properties owned by the brothers’ companies from 2010 to mid-2016. And the city’s housing prosecutors are pursuing two actions against them for nuisance properties.

Maryland’s Department of the Environment has assessed two fines — one for $27,500 and another for $22,000 — against Waz for maintaining properties out of compliance with lead laws, records show. Their failure to comply at both properties, according to the complaint, “created a potential danger to human health.”

Scurti took the rare step of holding Waz in contempt for failing to make repairs in a timely fashion in several cases.

Benjamin Ouazana said the company believes its properties are properly permitted when it rents them, but has sometimes been mistaken.

“We didn’t know,” he said. “Sometimes you buy a property and don’t know it doesn’t have a occupancy permit.”