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INDEPENDENCE, Mo. —

Residents at two Kansas City-area apartment complexes are threatening to withhold more than $60,000 in rent from their landlords after months of unmet requests and demands.

KC Tenants announced on Friday that tenants at Independence Towers, 728 N. Jennings Rd. in Independence, and Quality Hill Towers, 817 Jefferson St. in Kansas City, Mo., voted to authorize rent strikes at both of their complexes.

The action would mark the first-ever rent strike escalation by KC Tenants, joining a nationwide effort targeting properties with federally backed loans.

Federal financing provided by Fannie Mae has underwritten loans at both complexes. Tenants say the landlords at both complexes should be held accountable by federal regulators with the Federal Housing Finance Agency to the conditions in both apartments.

FTW Investments originally financed the loan at Independence Towers with Fannie Mae. A judge eventually appointed Trigild Inc. as receiver at the property.

Tenants say Trigild has gone silent in response to their demands since a meeting with a company representative in June. KMBC 9 Investigates has not heard a response from the company since then, either.

“We still haven't gotten any responses from any of the people responsible for the reason that this building is the way it is,” said Independence Towers Residents Elliot West.

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West has helped lead the tenant union at Independence Towers, which has 65 percent of the 63 occupied units in the building. Tenants at Independence Towers have raised concerns about fire damage, flooding, a broken HVAC unit, and an unusable parking garage.

A 3-year-old boy fell to his death earlier this summer, too, from an apartment window at Independence Towers.

The Quality Hill tenants union includes 63% of the 234 occupied units. Sentinel Real Estate Corporation is responsible for that building.

Sentinel and Quality Hill responded to a KMBC 9 Investigates request for a statement Friday saying management has been working with the union "in good faith" for more than a year.

The statement goes on to say that the work being demanded by the union has either been completed, or is already underway, and adds that a rent strike will only impede the property's ability to complete necessary repairs.

The tenant unions at both complexes are demanding rent caps, new ownership, and collectively bargained leases, among other items.

The strikes would start Oct. 1.

Full Quality Hill Tower Management Statement:

“Management has been working with the union in good faith for more than a year and continues to respect and affirm tenants’ rights to organize. However, claims being made by the tenant union are false. The work being demanded either has already been completed or is underway – proposing a rent strike will only impede the property’s ability to complete these necessary repairs. What’s more, rental increase examples being used are those of residents switching from long-term leases to short-term or month-to-month leases, which automatically result in their rental rates adjusting from a meaningful discount to comparable properties in the area to market rate for similar units. Since 2020, residents who choose to renew their leases have seen annual increases of approximately 3% on average, which is in line with the renewal rate increase cap the tenant union is requesting. We have also at times offered concessions of $250 to $750 to residents who choose to renew rather than move out or go short-term/month-to-month.”