Current, former residents of Hyde Park building filing lawsuit after being displaced during winter storm

CHICAGO (CBS)-- Current and former residents of a Hyde Park apartment building are expected to file a class action lawsuit against the management company.

It comes after they were displaced during last month's dangerous winter storm that hit before Christmas. The storm brought dangerously cold temperatures and high winds. 

Residents of the Algonquin Apartments in Hyde Park saw their power and heat go out on that Friday and then again on Saturday before some were displaced.

Those residents and former residents now planning to file a lawsuit in the Cook County Circuit Court Thursday morning against MAC Property Management LLC, they say, over grossly negligent maintenance of these apartments.

In the lawsuit, they allege MAC installed individual window heating units without permits from the Chicago Department of Buildings, which led to the power outage and residents being displaced. 

 At the time, MAC had sent an email to tenants blaming the outage on a transformer failure that affected two of their buildings and said they were working with ComEd and the city.

The city though at the time said that MAC would have to work with ComEd on infrastructure that could support the demand. It would have required electrical engineers and proper electrical permits. 

No word yet on the status of that work.