Stillwater small business owners say apartment complex owes them thousands

STILLWATER, Okla. (KFOR) — Several small business owners say the management company for a Stillwater student apartment complex has not paid them each thousands of dollars for work the company hired them to do.

The owners of three Stillwater-based small businesses told News 4, between the three of them, the owners of Apex on Perkins Apartments owe them near $80k for work they’ve already performed.

“In April of 23, we signed a contract with Apex for 12 months for lawn care and maintenance of the whole facility,” said Kyle Wanless, who owns Evergreen Lawn and Landscape.

“So we started working for them in August of last year, doing the carpet cleaning and water restoration on all their apartment complexes,” said Brandon Stokes, who owns Aladen Carpet Cleaning and Restoration.

“We started working for Apex off and on for about three years,” said Tiffany Citizen owns Absolute Carpet and Tile Restoration.

Wanless, Stokes and Citizen all share a couple things in common.

“We’re small businesses,” Aladen Carpet Cleaning and Restoration owner Brandon Stokes said. “All small businesses in a small town.”

And they all say Apex has not paid them for work they’ve already performed.

“They haven't paid us one penny,” Stokes said.

“It's been a fight to get payment since April [2023],” Wanless said.

“We haven't received a payment since 2023,” Stokes said.

They told News 4 anytime they’ve approached management at the complex about getting paid, they’ve been met with empty promises.

“Excuse after excuse,” Stokes said. “It's… we're going to get you paid. We're going to get you paid. Give us give us a week. Give them a week. Give us two weeks. In two weeks, give us a month.”

All three of them told News 4 they’ve tried emailing and calling the vice president of Apex Student Living, a Connecticut-based company that owns the complex, but eventually stopped getting responses.

“She started to act like she was going to get us somewhere,” Stokes said. “And then she just kind of quit emailing all of us.”

The bills have really stacked up.

“They owe us $13,000 or so,” Stokes said.

“We’re owed right at $21,000,” Wanless said.

“They owe us a little over $40,000,” Citizen said.

It’s created a burden their small businesses weren’t built to bare.   

“It affects our employees, our families, our children,” Citizen said.
You know, we're not a franchised businesses.”

“Being in the lawn care landscape industry, it's a seasonal business,” Wanless said. “We sometimes rely on these contracts to help pay employees as we keep guys on staff.”

“It allows us not to be able to donate to the charitable places here in town,” Stokes said. “I mean, we help the schools out quite a bit. That's what we donate a lot of our money. But, you know, you got $13,000 you can’t donate.”

News 4 stopped by the complex’s office on Wednesday. Before News 4 even said anything, a manager said “No comment” and asked News 4 to leave the property.

The manager declined to give News 4 contact information for Apex’s corporate office.

To that—those small business owners have one simple response.

“We did the honest work,” Stokes said. “We just want honest payment.”