Metro Loft Management under fire by Sonder for Legionella Accusation

News surrounding a disease outbreak has come to light and this time, it’s not about COVID-19, but an airborne pathogen called legionella. 

Sonder has accused Metro Loft Management of attempting to hide and failing to contain a legionella bacteria outbreak in the Financial District building at 20 Broad. Specifically, Sonder is accusing the landlord of flushing the building’s water system before the city’s health inspectors could test the water for bacteria. It wasn’t until a week after the inspection that the findings came to light. In that time, Sonder guests were being potentially exposed to the bacteria. 

Sonder did its own inspection and found traces of legionella throughout the building as well as ‘insufficient’ levels of chlorine to neutralize the bacteria. 

The rental platform claims to have attempted to work with Metro Loft in order to find a remedy for the outbreak that ended up falling flat. 

Sonder has stated its disapproval with the landlord after it failed to develop a proper plan for the contamination. 

Metro Loft’s own lawsuit against Sonder was based on unpaid rent from the rental platform. The landlord bases its claim that Sonder is looking for a reason to vacate the property without having to finish paying off its lease and that the legionella claim is a pretext for that.