LEWISTON – Less than a month after assuring people that his buildings would always have heat, Travis Soule’s tenants at 153-155 Bartlett St. told police Sunday that their apartments were without heat again.

“It’s a bad situation. I called the owner about three or four times, but he didn’t respond to my questions,” said Mohamed Elmohna, 45, looking on as his wife, Rabaa, sat huddled in bed under several blankets with the couple’s newborn. “I’m not looking for a problem. I’m looking to fix the problem.”

Temperatures in Lewiston on Sunday ranged from an early morning low of 14 below zero to a high of 23 above in the afternoon.

A lack of heat isn’t new to the Sudanese immigrant, who has lived in the building with his family for six months. In a Sun Journal story published earlier this month, Soule’s tenants said they complained to the landlord several times with the assistance of a Sudanese community liaison about the building running out of heating fuel. Elmohna said he’d been calling Soule since Friday about the building being without heat. He finally called Lewiston police on Sunday afternoon.

Police Sgt. Randy St. Laurent said investigators are trying to determine who actually owns the building and will likely be in contact with the city’s code enforcement officials Monday.

Gil Arsenault, Lewiston’s code enforcement director, said Sunday evening that Soule revealed plans to sell the building during a meeting with him late last week. He told Arsenault that the new owner was expected to assume responsibility for building maintenance this past weekend. Not including Sunday’s complaint, code enforcement records show the city has received 11 complaints this winter about six buildings owned by Soule. Two involved the accumulation of trash. Nine were for lack of heat.

Repeated attempts to contact Soule Sunday evening were unsuccessful.

By 7 p.m. Sunday, John Ragan, Soule’s building manager, said the heat was back on at the Bartlett Street building. He said the problem wasn’t a lack of heating oil, but rather a broken oil line that needed repaired.

Soule, 44, of New Gloucester, recently told the Sun Journal that he’s had trouble keeping heat in his buildings this winter due to problems with his furnaces, broken pipes, a change in building management and financial struggles stemming from last winter’s high oil prices. In a Jan. 17 article, he assured people that his tenants wouldn’t go without heat again.

“He puts in a little oil and that works for like 30 minutes and then it goes off again,” said Nasra Ali, 17, another tenant in the building.

Tenants said Sunday evening that they, too, were under the impression that the building had either been sold or was in the process of being sold. But as far as they knew for sure, Soule and Ragan were still their points of contact.

“I need to think of my family’s safety,” Elmohna said, adding that he’s looking for another apartment. “You can’t accept that situation, especially not with a newborn.”