By Emily Bregel | Arizona Daily Star
Karen and John Lewis own a rental property in Solano Estates and are owed $16,000 by Tucson-based Rathbun Realty, the massive property-management company that declared bankruptcy last fall.
But the Washington-state-based couple – clients of Rathbun for a decade – is not optimistic about recouping their losses, despite this week’s order from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court that Rathbun pay almost $1 million to 300 creditors.
“There’s a long list of creditors, and it’s unfortunate. But we, as the owners of the home, who have suffered the most, are kind of at the bottom of the list,” Karen Lewis said in a phone interview Friday. “I don’t think we’ll see a whole lot.”
Rathbun, which managed nearly 800 properties in Tucson before losing its license in February, was ordered this week to pay $950,000 to creditors after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in September. A Chapter 7 filing – liquidation bankruptcy – allows the debtor to sell nonexempt property and transfer the proceeds to creditors.
