Our list of the worst and best landlords from each year has become an annual tradition here at the RentConfident Blog. Every December we go through the news to bring you a curated list of the worst offenders and the most generous ones.
This year we were faced with something of a challenge. With small local newspapers closing down all over the country, it was very tough to find a collection of "nice" landlords to balance out the many horror stories of terrible landlords. We have turned instead to Yelp to round out our list of "nice" landlords. Without further ado...
The Naughty:
Landlord: Thomas Fallon, Castle Shannon, PA
Crime: Caught on camera entering a tenant's apartment and masturbating onto her laundry pile. Learn More.
Status: Arrested, charged with burglary, criminal trespass and criminal mischief.
Landlord: Michele Jachalke, Klamath Falls, OR
Crime: Stealing over $15000 from her tenant over a three year span from October 2013 to November 2016. Learn More.
Status: Pled guilty to aggravated first-degree theft. Sentenced to 30 days in jail, 36 months of probation, and $16,940 in restitution to the tenant.
Landlord: Regency Property Management, Austin, TX
Crime: Rekeyed the locks for multiple apartments in the same building to a single master key. The error was discovered when a tenant woke up to find a stranger in her bedroom, who had apparently entered the wrong apartment using his own keys. (Note: the management company is not named in the link provided, but their phone number was shown in the video. We have connected the dots from there.) Learn More.
Status: Currently under investigation by the Austin police.
Landlord: Equity Residential, Chicago, IL
Crime: Owned by Sam Zell, Equity Residential is the third largest property management company in the country. Many of their buildings are in California, where state law requires that late fees must be calculated based on actual losses incurred rather than based on an arbitrary figure. Equity Residential charged a flat rate of "$50 or 5% of the rent," compounded monthly until the debt was settled. In this manner they gained millions of dollars from tenants throughout their California holdings. Learn More.
Status: Now subject to a class-action suit to determine if the fees were excessive and in violation of the law.
Landlord: Mid-America Apartments, Memphis, TN
Crime: If Equity Residential is big, Mid-America is even bigger. In fact, they are the biggest landlord in the country, housing thousands of tenants across nearly 100,000 apartments. However, they are in hot water for refusing to rent to anyone convicted or charged with a felony or a select list of misdemeanors in at least 55 of their buildings throughout the southern half of the US. This violates recent rulings that blanket denial of housing for those with criminal convictions disproportionately affects racial minorities. Learn More.
Status: Currently party to a federal civil rights lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia brought by the Equal Rights Center seeking "injunctive, monetary and declarative relief."
Follow ups from previous lists:
Arthur Holmer, profiled in our 2015 list, was fined $250,000 and 250 hours of community service for lying to a mortgage lender. In the fallout from the first case he also faced foreclosure suits that led him to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. In October of this year he was ordered by the US Bankruptcy Court to sell off $41 million worth of buildings, including the two he lied about in the first place.
Ephraim Vashovsky, profiled in the 2016 list, was sentenced by the New York State Supreme Court to 20 hours of community service and a $350,000 fine for starting to demolish a building with a family of 7 still living inside.
The Nice
In an environment where most landlords consider it "going above and beyond the call of duty" to send their tenants a greeting card or waive a late fee at Christmas, it doesn't take much to stand out from the crowd. However, a lot of the stories we saw about landlords doing generous things had a self-serving aspect to them. We feel that these five are actually deserving of inclusion on the "Nice" list though. Please note that inclusion on this list does not constitute an endorsement from RentConfident.
Landlord: Atia and Mash Hafezjee, London, UK.
Good Deed: In the face of strong anti-refugee sentiment in England, the Hafezjees found a home in a vacant two-bedroom apartment for a destitute family from Syria. They are also working to persuade other private sector landlords to help with the overwhelming number of Syrian refugees by working with government and non-profit agencies. Learn more.
Landlord: 20 Exchange Place, Manhattan, NY
Good Deed: Replanted dead landscaping at request of a tenant that was throwing a party. Offered a pizza and beer party to apologize to tenants that were inconvenienced by an unforeseen elevator outage. Learn more.
Landlord: Ardmore Winthrop Properties, Chicago, IL
Good Deed: Overwhelmingly positive reviews on Yelp for a low to mid-rent vintage Chicago landlord. Less than 10 violations in the past 12 months across 8 large vintage buildings, a feat practically unheard of in Chicago's vintage rental market. Commended by tenants for their friendly staff, well-maintained buildings, free detergent in the laundry room and prompt response to service calls. Learn more.
Landlord: Rental Management Group, Houston, TX
Good Deed: With Hurricane Harvey bearing down on Houston, most people stayed home and braced for the worst or evacuated the city. But Leslie of RMG was praised by her tenants for going in to work, riding out the storm from the office, staying in constant contact with everyone, both owners and tenants alike, and going the extra mile to get flooded rentals repaired in a quick and efficient manner. Rental Management Group is also running a "YouCaring" fundraising campaign with a goal of $10,000 to help renters affected by the Hurricane. Learn More or Donate.
Landlord: Unnamed Landlord, Naperville, IL
Good Deed: Following Hurricane Maria, Cynthia Ruiz moved her family of six from Puerto Rico back to Naperville where she grew up. After being denied for 3 apartments due to the size of the family, one landlord (name unknown) rented to them and provided them with a free fresh Christmas tree. Unnamed landlord, if you see this and would like us to amend the article just let us know in the comments! Learn More.
Do you think your landlord belongs on our list? Let us know in the comments! No matter which of the December holidays you celebrate, we hope you have an excellent weekend and we will see you next Friday!
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