HOUSTON – After months of frustration, a Houston area solider is getting some relief.
Trey Blackwell is proud to serve in the United States Army Reserves. He contacted KPRC 2 after he got orders for deployment and tried, with no luck, to get out of his apartment lease.
“I found out in November of 2022 that I was going to be mobilized in Fort Bliss for a year in support of my Unit’s mission,” said Blackwell.
Active-duty members are usually allowed to end their lease early with no penalty under the Service Members Civil Relief Act, but Blackwell says a technicality kept him from the early contract release at Woodlake on the Bayou Apartments in west Houston.
In 2020, he moved his father from South Carolina to Houston. His dad is battling throat cancer, and Blackwell says his finances took a hit with his health.
“His credit was in shambles, so I put him as a co-lease holder on my lease,” said Blackwell.
Because of that change, Blackwell says the apartment complex, managed by Richdale Group in Omaha, Nebraska, told him that his father would be responsible for the rent.
“Which equates to about $14,000, which he nor I can pay,” said Blackwell. “I told them what kind of situation I was in and that I was over a barrel. I thought I was doing right by my father, and it ended up being an Achilles heel.”
KPRC 2 reached out to Richdale Group and was told it was a complicated situation.
Hours after our calls, the company agreed to a mutual termination of Blackwell’s lease.
“Letting us out free and clear,” said Blackwell.
He calls it an answered prayer.
“It was weighing heavily on me, and it was making it very difficult for me to do my job not knowing where my father was going to end up,” said Blackwell.
He and his father plan to sign the lease termination agreement soon, then they will get to work finding his dad a new home.