Doesn't surprise me. I used to deliver pizza in this area, and went to this building many many many times. Always in disrepair, elevator was broken for a year or two straight, buzzers wouldn't work, was a bit on the dingy side. Got new owners about 6-7 years ago, they slapped on some paint and carpet but even then it was obvious they weren't addressing any real issues. The building is kind of an odd triangular tiered layout, seems like it would be expensive to fix if the damage is really this serious. Might get torn down as the land is very valuable and could easily fit a bigger building. Lots of couples and some families, I could see the total displacement being 400+ people.
Common cycle: Slack on maintenance, building fails, tear it down, build bigger on the same lot, nobody who used to live there can afford the new apartments, they move to even crappier building.
My heart goes out to those renters. What a crappy time to have this happen. Even worse if you have mobility issues, no local friends & family, pets, etc.
Simular thing happened to me, except I was in Texas so weather wasn't an issue. A resident got fed up and contacted the media. Suddenly management paid attention to the complants of mold. City suddenly decided the apartment building wasn't safe after testing the air. We all got help moving. I didn't have to pay any moving expenses.
You're lucky. A friend is living in an apartment complex that was probably built in the 1960s. Granted, the owners did make some upgrades and then raised her rent 60%. Unfortunately, this is the cheapest place she could find to live as rents in NE TN have skyrocketed as many out-of-state owners jack up the prices. Also, there's a housing boom in "luxury" apartment complexes which rent for anywhere from $1200 up. Many families have to have extra people move in just to pay the rent, especially since wages are barely above minimum of $7.50/hour. Section 8 housing has over a 5-year waiting list. My understanding is that this is due partially to zoning restrictions and out-of-state people renting out their houses as AirBNBs. There's also the greed factor as well, and probably the increase in property taxes.
@@kalinystazvoruna8702 This happened to me over 15 years ago, before housing prices exploided. But anyway, complex didn't have a choice, they had to move us to another apartment.
This happened recently in Harvey Illinois,the tenants were notified to move out and some did not.A company came along and boarded up the doors and windows and some people were still in there.
Which constitutes kidnapping in Illinois. From a google search... "According to 720 ILCS 5/10-1, kidnapping occurs when a person knowingly and secretly confines another person against his/her will by using force, threat of force, deceit, enticement."
What a nightmare. All those people are reentering a rental market that's highly inflated. Renters insurance should help, but not always, for those who have it. Class action all the way.
My ex-inlaws lived in a pretty decent and well-kept senior citizens' mobile home park in the midwest. One time when I was visiting them, they were reading the management's cheerful little monthly newsletter. When it came to one perky little item, we all had a combined WTF plus ROFL moment. Tenants were advised that if ever a natural disaster forced evacuation, they needed to make sure envelopes and stamps were included in their emergency supplies. Why? So they could continue to send in their space rental checks for as long as the emergency lasted! Now, this park happened to be in tornado country, and we've all seen pictures of what a tornado can do to a mobile home park. So this begs the question... if your mobile home is reduced to toothpicks and said toothpicks are occupying the space you're renting, would this not qualify as inhabitability? I mean, if your space is covered in wreckage, it'd be pretty hard to inhabit it, right? Except it's not the landlord's fault that your home, which was standing on a piece of ground you're renting, has been turned into toothpicks, so would that mean you still owe them rent? Inquiring minds need to know!
Oh wow. Those poor people. Residents at a mobile home park in Ft. Lauderdale, FL have been forced out. They've given them until April 2024 to leave, but are giving thousands to residents choosing to move out now.
This exact same thing is happening in Cedar Rapids Iowa right now. Tenants were told they had 15 days to vacate. They were told on the 4th of January, 3 days after they all paid rent.
@@janeysiegrist5061 I'm from Davenport and my dad still lives there. People at work were asking me about it before I knew what happened. The apartment building was across from the library.
In a very small village in Sweden ther was an apartment house where people moved out (and a pizzeria closed) because of a leak in one apartment that went on for a couple years because the landlord "hadn't gotten the keys back from the previous tennants". Like, break in or call a locksmith, can't just leave it?!
I'm assuming that the apartment was unoccupied. For two years? Why would he leave an apartment empty when he could've been renting it? The leak couldn't have cost that much to fix unless there was something else wrong such as structural problems (you see this with hoarders who leave garbage and other filth to accumulate and then seep into the floors and walls). In any case, it sounds lame.
_Previous_ tenant means no active lease. No occupation, no notice Plus it went in for _years_ That is easily 2 orders of magnitude more time than 24 hours. @@davidconner-shover51
A sign of getting older; time inconsistencies! While telling someone about a storm that hit here a few years ago, another younger neighbor, reminded me it was almost 30 years ago!
Renters insurance is worth it. In the December tornado in Clarksville Tennessee I had a cousin lose literally everything he owned after the roof was ripped off his apartment building
I don't have to imagine this scenario. I've experienced it first hand at the now demolished (2012) Glenwood Trace Apartments (near Main St and East Columbia Ave) in Battle Creek, Michigan. Black mold covered everything, floor to ceiling. Burst pipes in the winter, sewer back ups, you name it. 8/18/2010 was the day the complex was evacuated.
We have 8 units that just spent the entire MLK weekend with no heat in southern WI. Had to wait until Tuesday evening for help to arrive. Sympathies and prayers to the folks in Troy.
We have had that happen here in Jacksonville, FL several times over the last couple of years. Most recently the Fire Department had to station a fire engine on the property 24/7 due to the conditions.
Wow! I live in Atlanta but I've been working in that area, and stay at a hotel just down the road! It's been freezing and snowing there this past week. What a terrible time to be displaced.
In my area, similar things have been happening in mobile home trailer parks. Landlord lets things deteriorate until people leave on their own (abandoning their trailers), or the city takes action, forcing evictions, and then they sell out to developers, who build new, high-end apartments and condos and multi-plex buildings in their place. Meanwhile, people are putting up with clogged sewage systems and other issues for months, because they cannot afford to move their trailers.
In some areas the land lord would be responsible for housing the tenants until they could find a new place to live. The tenate would continue to pay rent to the land lord who would then pay for a motel stay untill they could find a new location OR until their home was deemed livable again. in this case however the landlord may just declare bankrupsy and fortit the property.
That's happened a couple of times in Lansing over the last few years. Lansing Code Compliance has come in and tagged entire apartment complexes for similar issues.
@@abdulkhalifa9679 The people liable in this situation would be the building owners. As Steve pointed out in the video, the owners here are already failing to pay up on their taxes, so it's likely they don't have much money. Court orders for financial compensation to the renters can't make money appear out of thin air if the person owing has none. Building owners look like a classic case of what's called a "slumlord". Just some cheapskates trying to make a quick buck out of something unethical to try to make a buck out of at all.
There was a similar situation here in Fresno, California a few years back. As memory serves me, the city took control of the property from the slumlord and got it fixed up without the residents being displaced. Thank goodness we don't have Michigan-type winters here.
It's a different ball of wax when the tenants are also unit owners. In the USA, this would either be a condominium, or a Co-op. In both cases, the unit owners pay a monthly fee to the association who is then responsible for using those funds both for every day occurrences, such as lawn care, snow removal, trash collection, etc., as well as long term repairs to the project building. The unit owners are responsible for maintaining their units "from the wall paint in", and the association is responsible for the rest. When the monthly fees aren't high enough, and serious issues go unchecked by the association, the building could become uninhabitable, or even worse, fail catastrophically, such as what happened at Surfside Condo in Florida in the summer of 2021.
@@JasonWardStudios Thanks for the info. Where in the USA you refer to them as "a condominium, or a Co-op." in some parts of the world they are referred to as "body corporates" and/or Stratas. I believe the problem is that the tenants (owners) rely far too much on the advice of the managing companies and some of the smaller problems are forgotten.
I’ve been watching your videos for some time. I enjoy and learn from them. All the while thinking to myself that this guy looks familiar. Anyway, I used to live up by 17 and Coolidge. The subdivision was called GreenTrees II on Wentworth. Graduated in 1984 at Troy High. Had all the same bumper stickers you have. Anyway, just wanted to say you put together good work, and I enjoy watching it. Thanks.
I know what they have to go through this time of year and feel sorry for them. As a side note Steve mentioned Prince Rupert. Very interesting thing he did with glass.
I have been to that complex years ago to do some roof repairs. These people were shady. They wanted to have it done as quickly and cheaply as possible. We melted down some rolls of torchdown material that was meant for flat roofs. My boss was equally as shady
I feel bad for anyone dealing with this but especially the elderly and disabled. I have a disability and moving this time of year would be beyond terrible
Tenants in these types of buildings are generally vulnerable, low income residents. They are often living in these conditions because they can't afford to move, other landlords will not rent to them, or they cannot afford market rents. Sadly people often end up homeless when this happens. Finding 100+ units, sometimes for individuals who are difficult to house, when there is a nationwide housing shortage especially for low income units is going to be a problem. Wait lists can be years, as there may only be a handful of vacant units at a time in these peoples budget. Even if there is some legal recourse these folks are going to be reliant on pro bono legal help. The resources for that are often stretched thin and can rarely go to court.
Seems like this happens often. I knew someone who bought a condo and within a few years, structural issues were found and most or all of the roofs had to be fixed or replaced. Many units were red tagged. Many of the renters (probably paying rent to owners) moved out but all the owners were stuck with the huge repair bills because they were considered common structures. It was a ghost town after that. Another reason why I don't like HOAs or COAs; how did they neglect the structure and roof that badly?
Doesn't sound like this was a case of HOAs or COAs but yeah they do fail at maintenance more than they should, too. It's like how anyone else that owns a house lets it deteriorate around them does, though: by not having enough money, spending what money they do have very unwisely, and/or just having no care for a well maintained dwelling. Only worse because of scale. COAs usually have way more legal obligations to exercise sound financial judgement and maintain common elements in good repair, and way more to keep track of repairing, than a solitary house owner usually does. One problem is that most regular reasonable people don't want to deal with the crap the problem people in a community will put them through if they're on those boards. Another is that owners are usually non experts when it comes to multifamily property management. So a lot of times you just end up with the people who want to be on the board for their own self-interest ... which doesn't actually include the community interest ... and/or you end up with a board run by people who just don't know what they're doing because if they understood all the problems they were actually dealing with they'd be better off getting paid to do it by finding themselves a real property management job and not putting in hours at a volunteer position. I'm on a COA board for former apartments (built in the 60s) that's just spent the last 7 years getting its financial house back in the black. Only now are we getting the money to do things that cost 250k-1000k a pop to do for all 19 buildings... Like roof replacement. Sidewalk replacement. (Both done in the last few years) Full entryway replacement. Landscape replacement. (Both pending.) But we have hired an actual property management company to handle things like financial statements/investments, vendor contracting, project planning, office staffing, and emergency maintenance responses. I can't imagine us doing even half as well getting things done if it we were leaving those things to any one of our 5 unpaid volunteer board members to pursue.
This is why ***GOOD*** renters insurance is crucial. We had coverage for at least 90 days in a hotel and I added extra for electronics. Another policy for the wifes jewelry and we were safe from idiot neighbors burning down the building
I thought it was pretty cool in law school to study the same cases and opinions as did Jefferson, Hamilton and Lincoln, among others. Remember the Carbolic Smoke Ball case that established the principle of an advertisement constituting a unilateral contract? That one stuck in my head for some reason.
About a year and a half ago, my son and his partner moved into his first apartment in the city of Ypsilanti. About a month after moving in, they heard a large crash, opened the door to the hall, and the floor of the empty apartment across the hall had just collapsed into the basement! The building was a total loss. A water leak was going on for years, and the floor was just rotted out.
My town was hit by a large Hurricane. We were evicted from apartment complex due to structural damage and lack of running water, electricity, and sewer throughout the apartment complex. It wasn't property owners fault, and many apartment complexes were damaged. We tried to get our last months rent refunded but they didnt give us back. The landlord said the bank didnt forgive their monthly mortgage payment on the property, so tenants didnt get a refund either. They did give us sufficient time to move goods out of unit, they even had a trash pile on site so we didnt have to pay for disposal of damaged goods. household goods. I feel bad for anyone who has experienced being evicted from an unsafe building.
That is a fairly high rent area. It is definitely not a slum. Troy is a very affluent community. I imagine the rent is quite steep right there. I don't think I know anyone personally who lives there but I have been by those apartments many times. I hope those people find a warm safe place to stay.
This is really tough, those folks could end up being homeless not due to no fault of their own. This is a situation where the safety net should come into play. Some or maybe many may have trouble renting a new place because their security deposits will probably be tied up. ON top of that they paid rent for at least the current month that they will not get back from the landlord. I remember there were times in my life that this would have put me in a great hardship. I hope the city can step up and help these folks
waukesha wi. had a 49 unit condo that was built in 1966 that they condemned in dec. 2021 for rusting main supports and other reasons i don't remember. they had to leave immediately. take what you could within 15 minutes or whatever time frame they gave them. Being condos they had more invested than just a renter. last i knew they were still fighting with the insurance company who is responsible to tear it down. insurance company claims it isn't their fault the residences didn't do no maintenance over the years and left it get that bad. anyways i think it finally was torn down just a few months ago, almost what 2 years later. i remember being in that building in the mid 70's, my dad had an uncle and aunt that lived there back then.
Years ago, we were renting a house on a rent to own contract and the owner of the house ended up in foreclosure and we would have to vacate as the bank would be taking possession. We only found out due to his bank sent the notice to our address. We consulted our lawyer and he basically recommended that we just walk away from the whole situation. His reasoning was that if we pursued legal action against the landlord we would be "throwing good money after bad." Obviously, the landlord would have little to give us in compensation if he couldn't afford to make his bank payments (which each month was less than half of what we were paying him).
We we're in a similar situation a couple of years ago ourselves when the landlord stopped paying the taxes and eventually all of the homes were sold to a realtor in a another county but we had to move out of a home I was raised in for 20+ years and as sad as that was, I have made peace with it. I doubt a lawyer would've done anything for us so we decided to leave and take what we could and what couldn't go was either sold for cheap or discarded. The home we're in is nowhere near as big as the one we left behind but moving has helped as my folks were getting older and didn't want to go upstairs as much anymore.
Same thing just happened at 8500 block of Waukegan Road, Morton Grove, IL. The notices were issued from the village on November 21, 2023 (thanksgiving week) and posted on each apartment's main window one week before the November 27 deadline all residents had to be out by. The landlord has put the residents of 48 apartments in hotels since November 26. It took 1 month for the village to issue permits. Foundation and reeling repairs are ongoing and the subfreezing temperatures have not made that work easy at all.
Steve: Its interesting you brought up this story, because last year, Adrian also had a similar situation with an apartment building. To give you some context, the building is, first, a multi-story apartment building. I believe it is something like 15 or 17 stories tall. In town, it's one of three buildings in town taller than 3 stories. This apartment building is located on land right near the River Raisin, as the river curves around the building as it goes underneath the College St. bridge, and the adjacent, perpendicular Church St. bridge. Anyways, this last year, all the residents were forced out, because of building structural integrity. The City of Adrian was forced with one of two choices: Tear the building down, or take the time and spend the money to subsidize the repair costs to the ownership. Last I heard, the repair costs were going to exceed something in the neighborhood of $5 million to complete. Given the river's location near the building, the city did not tear the building down, because it would have exceeded the repair costs, due to the risk of the building falling in the river and destroying a bowling alley across the river. Incidentally, a bike trail that used to be the old DT&I (Detroit, Toledo, & Ironton) railroad right-of-way is located between the apartment building and the river. Adrian, however, was able to essentially secure and repair an old hotel complex, which was used to house part of the 360 residents of the building. I'm unsure as to when residents will return, but the building as far as I can tell has been structurally repaired, and reinforced. And this all began because cracks in the 3rd story floor and walls began to appear, given the buildings age. Adrian has had a happy ending for our situation, but I can't imagine the residents in Troy having to move out in a very short amount of time -- during a Michigan winter.
My fiancé and I were gonna sign a lease at that location. My family owns a restaurant in the PNC tower next to it. Thank god. We were planning on signing Jan 5th.
As a tenant this is something I'm always afraid of happening to me. I don't think the residents should be forced to vacate, I think the owner should be forced to make repairs before it gets to this and if they can't afford it forced to sale to the city/county who makes the repairs and looks for a new buyer.
@@Alverant Won't be 'cheap', when I say that instead of the home going to the city/county, it gets Transfered for free to the Residents instead. Owner doesn't want to make the place habitable? They have thus Abandoned the Home, and the Tenets living there should be able to claim ownership of it instead and get the home AND it is on land for free. Won't be 'Cheap' anymore, when their 500k investment into the home/land is suddenly gone, and no longer getting rent from a place they no longer legally own. If it's yours, you take care of it, you check up on it, you repair and fix it. And if you do not, you must not own it anymore and must have abandoned it.
In this case it looks like management is looting the place, no repairs, no tax payments. Doubtful there would be any success forcing them to make repairs. And the taxpayers would yell bloody murder about your plan to have the city take over and make the repairs. Too bad the managers can't earn some jail time for doing this, but that's not the way the law works and would also place a burden on the taxpayers to give the managers room and board in the graybar hotel. Maybe some charity will step in and provide some assistance to the displaced. The owners should be forced to live there, but unfortunately you cant do that either.
@@Jirodyne Not a bad idea, and it would probably work well in a lot of cases for single family dwellings. But in buildings like this where you would have to set up some kind of 'condominium' deal, what does one owner do when they are suffering due to a water leak from the apartment upstairs and that owner doesn't fix the leak ? (For example)
They definitely should! Even if there were stains on the carpet, damaged fixtures, etc. Because if the place is going to be condemned. Then keeping the deposits (normally meant to fix those issues) would probably be illegal.
If the tenet has a contract, apartment management may liable to pay for alternative housing for a limited duration. One has to wonder the type of person that would neglect their property and their customers in this manner. The #1 rule of a slum lord: never put a dime into the property. One also has to wonder about local code enforcement priorities.
Good luck on getting them to pay if they are already behind on taxes. They are also behind on repairs. Yeah not going to get any money out of them, they will just vanish and leave everyone else holding the bag
A lot of probably had to do with the eviction moratorium during COVID putting the landlords in huge debt...This is something the government had no business doing.
@@grandinosour Then if that's true who would be held liable to house those that have paid rent but are being put out?! The slumlord needs to file suit on federal government then
@@grandinosour This started long before Covid hit. Someone else commented that they use to deliver pizza there and it was a disaster then. Plenty of other complex and landlords went through the same ordeal with Covid and paid the bills and still fixed things
While being during winter makes it tougher with the housing shortage especially 'affordable' housing potentially extra hard regardless of the time of year
If I were a tenant, I would look into putting a lien on the property because it sounds like the municipality will end up with the property and they cannot wipe away a lien likewise, if it goes back to the bank or some type of finance group/lender in order for it to go fully back to them lien has to be satisfied.
I thought Steve was from the Copper Country, not Troy. I just recently started watching this channel, but my brother has been listening for a long time and that's what he told me anyway.
I'm surprised you didn't see it on the news, Steve. They showed pictures and the place is a shambles with ceilings falling down and water in the halls.
This had happen to me in a four bedroom apartment. For a few months I have alerted the landlord that the concert floor in the living room appears to be sinking. We could see separation between the wall and floor growing over time. Eventually water started to come in when it rains, flooding the place. However, I warned them many times and the maintenance said it was fine and place settles naturally but needed some minor repairs. They said they would relocate us when another unit becomes available so they can make repairs. Eventually, I received a call from my wife, she said the floor fell in. I went home to see a huge hole in the floor, the concert broke off and fell into a sink hole. Apparently there was some sort of pipe failure that ate away under the apartment. I cant say who and where because I was young and dumb signed a NDA with stipulation that my rent for that month to be refunded. We couldn't even get our things out, because the city condemned it. So we broke in the dead of night and took what we could, left some things in that living room where we felt it was too risky. We had to get a hotel room until we found a place, costed us so much money and grief with four kids.
Same thing happened here in Colwater Michigan sum years back to a nice apartment complex. This complex is still vacant. You can actually see them from lnterstate 69 as you pass by the colwater exit.
It's so hard to be a renter and be at the mercy of a landlord! Renters insurance could help in cases like this in case their belongings are damaged or they need temporary housing. I try to keep my rentals in top shape, and in return, I can get decent tenants in my boarding house. It's very hard to be ready for things that break, but this owner sounds like he squandered the rents and did no maintenance and made no tax payments. Today states spell out landlord responsibilities, as do good rental contracts. It's bizarre to be liable for rents for an unusable property and a relic of feudalism!
And what REALLY sucks here, is even if the Tenants Sue the Building Owner and Property Management Company, they're likely not going to get more than a few pennies on the Dollar because if the Owner/Management Company Owes $300,000.00+ in Taxes, they likely won't have any money left after the IRS get done sucking them dry...
A friend of mine is possibly facing the same due to Radon. Round two of testing just wrapped up. Turns out this town is a sort of epicenter of radon in Ohio. Friend is panicking.
I am going thru this from '23 where a frozen pipe rained down on our complex on Christmas Eve!.. 🤨 The NEW management for the complex did a "patch work" on the pipes.. (I think!) AND told us to move OR let US do a clean up job for repairs! 🤫
Many of those people might not have money to hire movers and without their security deposit may be unable to rent another apartment. Tons of people live paycheck to paycheck. This is a very bad situation.
You need to do a follow up in 6 months. The building owners will likely require the tenants to continue making their rent payments because the lease/rental agreement does not contain a provision to stop paying rent just because the building is inhabitable. They also likely won't return the security deposits because the tenants broke their lease/rental agreements.
Minor note having nothing to do with your story. I used to routinely go to meetings at 800 Tower Drive in Troy. Late '80's through the mid-90's. Thanks, Steve, always interesting.
It's not easy to just pack up and move. There are costs involved in doing just that. The need to rent a moving truck, a place rented to move into deposits that need paid. Utilities turned off and then turned on. etc.
I grew up near there and it seems terrible that the city kicked out the residents. It’s better to have a crappy apartment than live in your car or on the street.
Remarkably there is one state in the US that is so renter hostile that it still doesn't recognize an implied warranty of habitability on top of other fun things like non-payment of rent is a _criminal_ offense and to lodge any formal complaint with your landlord your lease must be fully paid up.
In addition to other things that could happen to tenants, I can imagine CPS (or whatever a given state calls that agency) declaring someone unfit to foster/adopt if they live in one of these units. (By way of analogy, if the parents of a special-needs child enroll him in a school that cannot meet those needs, they're guilty of neglect.)
The city/county/state doesn't screw around when they declare a building uninhabitable. If there's any risk of collapse or destruction, they will not let you back in for any reason. Remember the Surfside condominium collapse in Miami? The residents who got out alive weren't allowed back in, even to recover still-alive pets. The building was demolished with the pets still inside. If it happens to you, unless there's a fire or the building is in the process of collapsing, evacuate with your pets and anything irreplaceable.
I rented from fake landlords once. It turned out that the apartments were in foreclosure and these people just cut off the bank locks and took down the for sale sign. My first clues were the repossession of the dumpster and the realtor putting the sign back up. We didn't have anywhere to throw away our trash. The fake landlord backed his truck up and had us put the garbage in the back of the truck. He came around ever so often to collect the trash from us. Things went downhill from there.
In that old English law case, the attorney for Jane should have argued that the landlord was the one who didnt uphold the contract by making the home available to the tennant during those 3 years. Landlords do not just own the land. They were responsible to defend the land. So they failed in that regard too. Jane should never have been judged against and that seems to be a bad example to use for strict contract law for law school. Unless they are using to show example of a bad ruling....
Geez. This sounds like the place we lived for about 10 years. Leaks in the roof, bad "plumbing" and "electrical" work (done personally by the unlicensed Slum Lord - our name for him), and a hole in the floor under the kitchen sink that opened into the downstairs apartment's living room, where the Slum Lord lived. Among other issues. To my certain knowledge, the place had no Certificate of Occupancy after the Slum Lord burned down the house next door, which was when he moved into the apartment downstairs from us, due to some fire damage to the roof that continued to leak. Oh yeah. The front porch still, after 7 years of living elsewhere, holds a lonely - but lovely - toilet. Don't ask.
This happens more frequently than we think. Just in Alberta, I can think of at least three or four apartment and condominium complexes having to be condemned because of structural issues. Whether that be a foundation giving way, invalid stud spacing, or what have you. It happens. Now the story here is about neglect and that is another issue.
I think the owner of the building, the one that has taken their money, should pay or be locked up. The state or town should take the building, call in the few contractors and fix before emptying the building. I remember about 50+ years ago. Upstate NY, there was 92 units the were shut down due to no heat in the winter months so pipe were freezing and popping. The town took over and called heat and plumbing contractors to move in and if everything. My dad was called in to help. 4 contractors was running 24/7 shifs and it took them 17 days and everybody stayed. They fixed a third of the appartments in a week, that third let the remaining to share and stay with them for the remaining 12 days and as they fixed them, the shared moved into them. I was young and not paying any attention but heard dad telling mom about it. Things were different back then, people helped one another, and worker worked hard and fast. Now days right. a joke
This almost happened to the Meadowbrook condo complex in Fremont, CA. An embezzler on the Board of the HOA had depleted their maintenance account so drastically that so much ongoing building upkeep was left undone for so long that residents complained and the City Building Inspectors came out and started RED TAGGING parts of the 40+ building complex. The embezzler was never caught and his criminal acts did not see the light of day until the buildings were literally falling apart due to embarrassment on the part of the HOA Board. Of all things, the INSURANCE COMPANY for the condo complex was the HERO of this story who required that the entire Board be replaced and there is now a background check process in place for new Board members. Repairs to the complex have taken MORE THAN 4 years, but at least there are no more red tags which included, for over a year, the entire 600sq ft patio of the condo that my wife and I own and rent out.
Imagine the bump in rental costs when you have a sudden increase in demand of 147 tenants. Every other landlord in the area is drooling now. There was a condo in nearby Waukesha Wisconsin that got condemned for a structural issue just before Christmas and their insurance refused to pay for the cost of razing it as required by the municipality. A real mess. I've always said that a condo is just an apartment that you're stuck with. At least these people could take their stuff with them.
Exactly. They treat their "investment" properties like people treat beaters (old cars that they just drive until they stop working.) They put tenant after tenant in there until the building is practically falling apart, and then just let it go for pennies on the dollar to some flipper or new company that is willing to make the repairs or tear it down and build a new structure. It's frustrating, and a huge problem plaguing the housing market these days.
Doesn't surprise me. I used to deliver pizza in this area, and went to this building many many many times. Always in disrepair, elevator was broken for a year or two straight, buzzers wouldn't work, was a bit on the dingy side. Got new owners about 6-7 years ago, they slapped on some paint and carpet but even then it was obvious they weren't addressing any real issues. The building is kind of an odd triangular tiered layout, seems like it would be expensive to fix if the damage is really this serious. Might get torn down as the land is very valuable and could easily fit a bigger building. Lots of couples and some families, I could see the total displacement being 400+ people.
Common cycle: Slack on maintenance, building fails, tear it down, build bigger on the same lot, nobody who used to live there can afford the new apartments, they move to even crappier building.
My heart goes out to those renters. What a crappy time to have this happen. Even worse if you have mobility issues, no local friends & family, pets, etc.
Simular thing happened to me, except I was in Texas so weather wasn't an issue. A resident got fed up and contacted the media. Suddenly management paid attention to the complants of mold. City suddenly decided the apartment building wasn't safe after testing the air. We all got help moving. I didn't have to pay any moving expenses.
You're lucky. A friend is living in an apartment complex that was probably built in the 1960s. Granted, the owners did make some upgrades and then raised her rent 60%. Unfortunately, this is the cheapest place she could find to live as rents in NE TN have skyrocketed as many out-of-state owners jack up the prices. Also, there's a housing boom in "luxury" apartment complexes which rent for anywhere from $1200 up. Many families have to have extra people move in just to pay the rent, especially since wages are barely above minimum of $7.50/hour. Section 8 housing has over a 5-year waiting list.
My understanding is that this is due partially to zoning restrictions and out-of-state people renting out their houses as AirBNBs. There's also the greed factor as well, and probably the increase in property taxes.
@@kalinystazvoruna8702 This happened to me over 15 years ago, before housing prices exploided. But anyway, complex didn't have a choice, they had to move us to another apartment.
@@kalinystazvoruna8702that's just capitalism at work. Did you know cuba now has a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate than US?
Ben is at LAW4NYC edge on, rt side
@herculesbrofister265 Then why do Cubans want to move here?
This happened recently in Harvey Illinois,the tenants were notified to move out and some did not.A company came along and boarded up the doors and windows and some people were still in there.
Which constitutes kidnapping in Illinois. From a google search... "According to 720 ILCS 5/10-1, kidnapping occurs when a person knowingly and secretly confines another person against his/her will by using force, threat of force, deceit, enticement."
What a nightmare. All those people are reentering a rental market that's highly inflated. Renters insurance should help, but not always, for those who have it.
Class action all the way.
My ex-inlaws lived in a pretty decent and well-kept senior citizens' mobile home park in the midwest. One time when I was visiting them, they were reading the management's cheerful little monthly newsletter. When it came to one perky little item, we all had a combined WTF plus ROFL moment.
Tenants were advised that if ever a natural disaster forced evacuation, they needed to make sure envelopes and stamps were included in their emergency supplies. Why? So they could continue to send in their space rental checks for as long as the emergency lasted! Now, this park happened to be in tornado country, and we've all seen pictures of what a tornado can do to a mobile home park. So this begs the question... if your mobile home is reduced to toothpicks and said toothpicks are occupying the space you're renting, would this not qualify as inhabitability? I mean, if your space is covered in wreckage, it'd be pretty hard to inhabit it, right? Except it's not the landlord's fault that your home, which was standing on a piece of ground you're renting, has been turned into toothpicks, so would that mean you still owe them rent? Inquiring minds need to know!
Big Beaver @ exit 69 is almost due east of the city of "Climax".😂😂😂
and 543.2 miles north west of Intercourse, PA
Oh wow. Those poor people. Residents at a mobile home park in Ft. Lauderdale, FL have been forced out. They've given them until April 2024 to leave, but are giving thousands to residents choosing to move out now.
This exact same thing is happening in Cedar Rapids Iowa right now. Tenants were told they had 15 days to vacate. They were told on the 4th of January, 3 days after they all paid rent.
Better than dying like in Davenport
@@janeysiegrist5061 I'm from Davenport and my dad still lives there. People at work were asking me about it before I knew what happened. The apartment building was across from the library.
They need to consult a lawyer.
In a very small village in Sweden ther was an apartment house where people moved out (and a pizzeria closed) because of a leak in one apartment that went on for a couple years because the landlord "hadn't gotten the keys back from the previous tennants". Like, break in or call a locksmith, can't just leave it?!
I'm assuming that the apartment was unoccupied. For two years? Why would he leave an apartment empty when he could've been renting it? The leak couldn't have cost that much to fix unless there was something else wrong such as structural problems (you see this with hoarders who leave garbage and other filth to accumulate and then seep into the floors and walls). In any case, it sounds lame.
Outside of emergencies, like a busted pipe or fire, the landlord must provide 24 hour notice of entry in the US.
The tenants must provide access
_Previous_ tenant means no active lease. No occupation, no notice
Plus it went in for _years_
That is easily 2 orders of magnitude more time than 24 hours.
@@davidconner-shover51
A sign of getting older; time inconsistencies! While telling someone about a storm that hit here a few years ago, another younger neighbor, reminded me it was almost 30 years ago!
Renters insurance is worth it. In the December tornado in Clarksville Tennessee I had a cousin lose literally everything he owned after the roof was ripped off his apartment building
I don't have to imagine this scenario. I've experienced it first hand at the now demolished (2012) Glenwood Trace Apartments (near Main St and East Columbia Ave) in Battle Creek, Michigan. Black mold covered everything, floor to ceiling. Burst pipes in the winter, sewer back ups, you name it. 8/18/2010 was the day the complex was evacuated.
I hope they have a place to go to.
We have 8 units that just spent the entire MLK weekend with no heat in southern WI. Had to wait until Tuesday evening for help to arrive. Sympathies and prayers to the folks in Troy.
We have had that happen here in Jacksonville, FL several times over the last couple of years. Most recently the Fire Department had to station a fire engine on the property 24/7 due to the conditions.
Wow! I live in Atlanta but I've been working in that area, and stay at a hotel just down the road! It's been freezing and snowing there this past week. What a terrible time to be displaced.
In my area, similar things have been happening in mobile home trailer parks. Landlord lets things deteriorate until people leave on their own (abandoning their trailers), or the city takes action, forcing evictions, and then they sell out to developers, who build new, high-end apartments and condos and multi-plex buildings in their place. Meanwhile, people are putting up with clogged sewage systems and other issues for months, because they cannot afford to move their trailers.
In some areas the land lord would be responsible for housing the tenants until they could find a new place to live. The tenate would continue to pay rent to the land lord who would then pay for a motel stay untill they could find a new location OR until their home was deemed livable again.
in this case however the landlord may just declare bankrupsy and fortit the property.
That's happened a couple of times in Lansing over the last few years. Lansing Code Compliance has come in and tagged entire apartment complexes for similar issues.
Why isn't there any financial consequences for this whenever it becomes hardship for the renter?!
@@abdulkhalifa9679 The people liable in this situation would be the building owners. As Steve pointed out in the video, the owners here are already failing to pay up on their taxes, so it's likely they don't have much money. Court orders for financial compensation to the renters can't make money appear out of thin air if the person owing has none.
Building owners look like a classic case of what's called a "slumlord". Just some cheapskates trying to make a quick buck out of something unethical to try to make a buck out of at all.
There was a similar situation here in Fresno, California a few years back. As memory serves me, the city took control of the property from the slumlord and got it fixed up without the residents being displaced. Thank goodness we don't have Michigan-type winters here.
Got same problems in Sydney, Australia but it appears to be structural problems! One should remember those residents who own their units!
It's a different ball of wax when the tenants are also unit owners. In the USA, this would either be a condominium, or a Co-op. In both cases, the unit owners pay a monthly fee to the association who is then responsible for using those funds both for every day occurrences, such as lawn care, snow removal, trash collection, etc., as well as long term repairs to the project building. The unit owners are responsible for maintaining their units "from the wall paint in", and the association is responsible for the rest. When the monthly fees aren't high enough, and serious issues go unchecked by the association, the building could become uninhabitable, or even worse, fail catastrophically, such as what happened at Surfside Condo in Florida in the summer of 2021.
@@JasonWardStudios Thanks for the info. Where in the USA you refer to them as "a condominium, or a Co-op." in some parts of the world they are referred to as "body corporates" and/or Stratas. I believe the problem is that the tenants (owners) rely far too much on the advice of the managing companies and some of the smaller problems are forgotten.
I’ve been watching your videos for some time. I enjoy and learn from them. All the while thinking to myself that this guy looks familiar. Anyway, I used to live up by 17 and Coolidge. The subdivision was called GreenTrees II on Wentworth. Graduated in 1984 at Troy High. Had all the same bumper stickers you have. Anyway, just wanted to say you put together good work, and I enjoy watching it. Thanks.
I know what they have to go through this time of year and feel sorry for them. As a side note Steve mentioned Prince Rupert. Very interesting thing he did with glass.
This situation happens in South Florida all the time. Safety first. You don't want your building to collapse.
I have been to that complex years ago to do some roof repairs. These people were shady. They wanted to have it done as quickly and cheaply as possible. We melted down some rolls of torchdown material that was meant for flat roofs. My boss was equally as shady
I feel bad for anyone dealing with this but especially the elderly and disabled. I have a disability and moving this time of year would be beyond terrible
Crazy thing, this same exact story just happened in Chicago, so I thought you were talking about the story from my city.
I just noticed you have the long version OED. I’m impressed.
Tenants in these types of buildings are generally vulnerable, low income residents. They are often living in these conditions because they can't afford to move, other landlords will not rent to them, or they cannot afford market rents. Sadly people often end up homeless when this happens. Finding 100+ units, sometimes for individuals who are difficult to house, when there is a nationwide housing shortage especially for low income units is going to be a problem. Wait lists can be years, as there may only be a handful of vacant units at a time in these peoples budget. Even if there is some legal recourse these folks are going to be reliant on pro bono legal help. The resources for that are often stretched thin and can rarely go to court.
Seems like this happens often. I knew someone who bought a condo and within a few years, structural issues were found and most or all of the roofs had to be fixed or replaced. Many units were red tagged. Many of the renters (probably paying rent to owners) moved out but all the owners were stuck with the huge repair bills because they were considered common structures. It was a ghost town after that.
Another reason why I don't like HOAs or COAs; how did they neglect the structure and roof that badly?
Doesn't sound like this was a case of HOAs or COAs but yeah they do fail at maintenance more than they should, too. It's like how anyone else that owns a house lets it deteriorate around them does, though: by not having enough money, spending what money they do have very unwisely, and/or just having no care for a well maintained dwelling. Only worse because of scale. COAs usually have way more legal obligations to exercise sound financial judgement and maintain common elements in good repair, and way more to keep track of repairing, than a solitary house owner usually does.
One problem is that most regular reasonable people don't want to deal with the crap the problem people in a community will put them through if they're on those boards. Another is that owners are usually non experts when it comes to multifamily property management. So a lot of times you just end up with the people who want to be on the board for their own self-interest ... which doesn't actually include the community interest ... and/or you end up with a board run by people who just don't know what they're doing because if they understood all the problems they were actually dealing with they'd be better off getting paid to do it by finding themselves a real property management job and not putting in hours at a volunteer position.
I'm on a COA board for former apartments (built in the 60s) that's just spent the last 7 years getting its financial house back in the black. Only now are we getting the money to do things that cost 250k-1000k a pop to do for all 19 buildings... Like roof replacement. Sidewalk replacement. (Both done in the last few years) Full entryway replacement. Landscape replacement. (Both pending.) But we have hired an actual property management company to handle things like financial statements/investments, vendor contracting, project planning, office staffing, and emergency maintenance responses. I can't imagine us doing even half as well getting things done if it we were leaving those things to any one of our 5 unpaid volunteer board members to pursue.
This is why ***GOOD*** renters insurance is crucial. We had coverage for at least 90 days in a hotel and I added extra for electronics. Another policy for the wifes jewelry and we were safe from idiot neighbors burning down the building
I'm not surprised. This place was going to pot 10 years ago. I can't even imagine what it's like there now!
I lived near Battle Creek around a year. Winter's up there are bad.
I thought it was pretty cool in law school to study the same cases and opinions as did Jefferson, Hamilton and Lincoln, among others.
Remember the Carbolic Smoke Ball case that established the principle of an advertisement constituting a unilateral contract? That one stuck in my head for some reason.
About a year and a half ago, my son and his partner moved into his first apartment in the city of Ypsilanti. About a month after moving in, they heard a large crash, opened the door to the hall, and the floor of the empty apartment across the hall had just collapsed into the basement! The building was a total loss. A water leak was going on for years, and the floor was just rotted out.
My town was hit by a large Hurricane. We were evicted from apartment complex due to structural damage and lack of running water, electricity, and sewer throughout the apartment complex. It wasn't property owners fault, and many apartment complexes were damaged. We tried to get our last months rent refunded but they didnt give us back. The landlord said the bank didnt forgive their monthly mortgage payment on the property, so tenants didnt get a refund either. They did give us sufficient time to move goods out of unit, they even had a trash pile on site so we didnt have to pay for disposal of damaged goods. household goods. I feel bad for anyone who has experienced being evicted from an unsafe building.
That is a fairly high rent area. It is definitely not a slum. Troy is a very affluent community. I imagine the rent is quite steep right there. I don't think I know anyone personally who lives there but I have been by those apartments many times.
I hope those people find a warm safe place to stay.
This is really tough, those folks could end up being homeless not due to no fault of their own. This is a situation where the safety net should come into play. Some or maybe many may have trouble renting a new place because their security deposits will probably be tied up. ON top of that they paid rent for at least the current month that they will not get back from the landlord. I remember there were times in my life that this would have put me in a great hardship. I hope the city can step up and help these folks
waukesha wi. had a 49 unit condo that was built in 1966 that they condemned in dec. 2021 for rusting main supports and other reasons i don't remember. they had to leave immediately. take what you could within 15 minutes or whatever time frame they gave them. Being condos they had more invested than just a renter. last i knew they were still fighting with the insurance company who is responsible to tear it down. insurance company claims it isn't their fault the residences didn't do no maintenance over the years and left it get that bad. anyways i think it finally was torn down just a few months ago, almost what 2 years later. i remember being in that building in the mid 70's, my dad had an uncle and aunt that lived there back then.
This video reminds me that something very similar happened at an apartment complex here in T-town several years ago.
Years ago, we were renting a house on a rent to own contract and the owner of the house ended up in foreclosure and we would have to vacate as the bank would be taking possession. We only found out due to his bank sent the notice to our address. We consulted our lawyer and he basically recommended that we just walk away from the whole situation. His reasoning was that if we pursued legal action against the landlord we would be "throwing good money after bad." Obviously, the landlord would have little to give us in compensation if he couldn't afford to make his bank payments (which each month was less than half of what we were paying him).
We we're in a similar situation a couple of years ago ourselves when the landlord stopped paying the taxes and eventually all of the homes were sold to a realtor in a another county but we had to move out of a home I was raised in for 20+ years and as sad as that was, I have made peace with it. I doubt a lawyer would've done anything for us so we decided to leave and take what we could and what couldn't go was either sold for cheap or discarded. The home we're in is nowhere near as big as the one we left behind but moving has helped as my folks were getting older and didn't want to go upstairs as much anymore.
Same thing just happened at 8500 block of Waukegan Road, Morton Grove, IL. The notices were issued from the village on November 21, 2023 (thanksgiving week) and posted on each apartment's main window one week before the November 27 deadline all residents had to be out by. The landlord has put the residents of 48 apartments in hotels since November 26. It took 1 month for the village to issue permits. Foundation and reeling repairs are ongoing and the subfreezing temperatures have not made that work easy at all.
This has happened a couple times in Cincinnati.
Ben sticking out second bookshelf end next to NY ‘LAW4NYC’ plate, screen right, Steve’s left.
Steve: Its interesting you brought up this story, because last year, Adrian also had a similar situation with an apartment building.
To give you some context, the building is, first, a multi-story apartment building. I believe it is something like 15 or 17 stories tall. In town, it's one of three buildings in town taller than 3 stories. This apartment building is located on land right near the River Raisin, as the river curves around the building as it goes underneath the College St. bridge, and the adjacent, perpendicular Church St. bridge.
Anyways, this last year, all the residents were forced out, because of building structural integrity. The City of Adrian was forced with one of two choices: Tear the building down, or take the time and spend the money to subsidize the repair costs to the ownership. Last I heard, the repair costs were going to exceed something in the neighborhood of $5 million to complete. Given the river's location near the building, the city did not tear the building down, because it would have exceeded the repair costs, due to the risk of the building falling in the river and destroying a bowling alley across the river. Incidentally, a bike trail that used to be the old DT&I (Detroit, Toledo, & Ironton) railroad right-of-way is located between the apartment building and the river.
Adrian, however, was able to essentially secure and repair an old hotel complex, which was used to house part of the 360 residents of the building. I'm unsure as to when residents will return, but the building as far as I can tell has been structurally repaired, and reinforced.
And this all began because cracks in the 3rd story floor and walls began to appear, given the buildings age. Adrian has had a happy ending for our situation, but I can't imagine the residents in Troy having to move out in a very short amount of time -- during a Michigan winter.
My fiancé and I were gonna sign a lease at that location. My family owns a restaurant in the PNC tower next to it. Thank god. We were planning on signing Jan 5th.
As a tenant this is something I'm always afraid of happening to me.
I don't think the residents should be forced to vacate, I think the owner should be forced to make repairs before it gets to this and if they can't afford it forced to sale to the city/county who makes the repairs and looks for a new buyer.
Try asking a greedy landlord to do the minimum when it's cheaper to "forget".
@@Alverant Won't be 'cheap', when I say that instead of the home going to the city/county, it gets Transfered for free to the Residents instead.
Owner doesn't want to make the place habitable? They have thus Abandoned the Home, and the Tenets living there should be able to claim ownership of it instead and get the home AND it is on land for free.
Won't be 'Cheap' anymore, when their 500k investment into the home/land is suddenly gone, and no longer getting rent from a place they no longer legally own.
If it's yours, you take care of it, you check up on it, you repair and fix it. And if you do not, you must not own it anymore and must have abandoned it.
@@Jirodyne *Tenants
In this case it looks like management is looting the place, no repairs, no tax payments. Doubtful there would be any success forcing them to make repairs. And the taxpayers would yell bloody murder about your plan to have the city take over and make the repairs. Too bad the managers can't earn some jail time for doing this, but that's not the way the law works and would also place a burden on the taxpayers to give the managers room and board in the graybar hotel. Maybe some charity will step in and provide some assistance to the displaced. The owners should be forced to live there, but unfortunately you cant do that either.
@@Jirodyne Not a bad idea, and it would probably work well in a lot of cases for single family dwellings. But in buildings like this where you would have to set up some kind of 'condominium' deal, what does one owner do when they are suffering due to a water leak from the apartment upstairs and that owner doesn't fix the leak ? (For example)
Great show!
Did everyone get their last month and security back?
They definitely should! Even if there were stains on the carpet, damaged fixtures, etc. Because if the place is going to be condemned. Then keeping the deposits (normally meant to fix those issues) would probably be illegal.
If the tenet has a contract,
apartment management may liable to pay for alternative housing for a limited duration.
One has to wonder the type of person that would neglect their property and their customers in this manner. The #1 rule of a slum lord: never put a dime into the property.
One also has to wonder about local code enforcement priorities.
the kind of person who is already behind on taxes
What kind of person? A landlord, obviously.
Good luck on getting them to pay if they are already behind on taxes. They are also behind on repairs. Yeah not going to get any money out of them, they will just vanish and leave everyone else holding the bag
Is that near French Lick Indiana down on Licking Hole Rd.
Guy I knew used to ship parts to a shop down there.
I saw video where they were closing people up in their apartments... Wood on windows n doors. 😮
How did this landlord get into so much tax debts?
This story is quite troubling.😮
Remember when they couldn't evict people because "lockdown" I wonder how many units were occupied not paying rent 2020-2021.
Because the cities and towns refuse to enforce code and to grant relief to renters
A lot of probably had to do with the eviction moratorium during COVID putting the landlords in huge debt...This is something the government had no business doing.
@@grandinosour Then if that's true who would be held liable to house those that have paid rent but are being put out?! The slumlord needs to file suit on federal government then
@@grandinosour This started long before Covid hit. Someone else commented that they use to deliver pizza there and it was a disaster then. Plenty of other complex and landlords went through the same ordeal with Covid and paid the bills and still fixed things
While being during winter makes it tougher with the housing shortage especially 'affordable' housing potentially extra hard regardless of the time of year
If I were a tenant, I would look into putting a lien on the property because it sounds like the municipality will end up with the property and they cannot wipe away a lien likewise, if it goes back to the bank or some type of finance group/lender in order for it to go fully back to them lien has to be satisfied.
I thought Steve was from the Copper Country, not Troy. I just recently started watching this channel, but my brother has been listening for a long time and that's what he told me anyway.
I'm surprised you didn't see it on the news, Steve. They showed pictures and the place is a shambles with ceilings falling down and water in the halls.
This had happen to me in a four bedroom apartment. For a few months I have alerted the landlord that the concert floor in the living room appears to be sinking. We could see separation between the wall and floor growing over time. Eventually water started to come in when it rains, flooding the place. However, I warned them many times and the maintenance said it was fine and place settles naturally but needed some minor repairs. They said they would relocate us when another unit becomes available so they can make repairs. Eventually, I received a call from my wife, she said the floor fell in. I went home to see a huge hole in the floor, the concert broke off and fell into a sink hole. Apparently there was some sort of pipe failure that ate away under the apartment. I cant say who and where because I was young and dumb signed a NDA with stipulation that my rent for that month to be refunded. We couldn't even get our things out, because the city condemned it. So we broke in the dead of night and took what we could, left some things in that living room where we felt it was too risky. We had to get a hotel room until we found a place, costed us so much money and grief with four kids.
Same thing happened here in Colwater Michigan sum years back to a nice apartment complex. This complex is still vacant. You can actually see them from lnterstate 69 as you pass by the colwater exit.
I completely agree
Love that exit laugh every.time I pass it.
It's so hard to be a renter and be at the mercy of a landlord! Renters insurance could help in cases like this in case their belongings are damaged or they need temporary housing. I try to keep my rentals in top shape, and in return, I can get decent tenants in my boarding house. It's very hard to be ready for things that break, but this owner sounds like he squandered the rents and did no maintenance and made no tax payments. Today states spell out landlord responsibilities, as do good rental contracts. It's bizarre to be liable for rents for an unusable property and a relic of feudalism!
And what REALLY sucks here, is even if the Tenants Sue the Building Owner and Property Management Company, they're likely not going to get more than a few pennies on the Dollar because if the Owner/Management Company Owes $300,000.00+ in Taxes, they likely won't have any money left after the IRS get done sucking them dry...
Wow! The quote from Canadian Robot Lady at the end sounds like it could be a Pink Floyd lyric!
A friend of mine is possibly facing the same due to Radon.
Round two of testing just wrapped up.
Turns out this town is a sort of epicenter of radon in Ohio.
Friend is panicking.
I am going thru this from '23 where a frozen pipe rained down on our complex on Christmas Eve!.. 🤨
The NEW management for the complex did a "patch work" on the pipes.. (I think!)
AND told us to move OR let US do a clean up job for repairs! 🤫
My items was destroyed.. (MacBook, Clothes, & Food items from fridge!!) 😈
PLUS insurance (State Farm) did NOTHING!! 😵 Frfr!!
Many of those people might not have money to hire movers and without their security deposit may be unable to rent another apartment. Tons of people live paycheck to paycheck. This is a very bad situation.
SICK BUILDING SYNDROME
Are you telling me that this just happened? That there were no problems in that building until right now?
Amazing what is discovered when a polar vortex hits.
Maintenance was probably neglected. Sometimes pipes burst during really cold weather.
You need to do a follow up in 6 months. The building owners will likely require the tenants to continue making their rent payments because the lease/rental agreement does not contain a provision to stop paying rent just because the building is inhabitable. They also likely won't return the security deposits because the tenants broke their lease/rental agreements.
Wouldn't security deposits be held in escrow and untouchable for the back taxes?
Minor note having nothing to do with your story. I used to routinely go to meetings at 800 Tower Drive in Troy. Late '80's through the mid-90's. Thanks, Steve, always interesting.
Happened in Windsor too, 1616 ouellette.
It's not easy to just pack up and move. There are costs involved in doing just that. The need to rent a moving truck, a place rented to move into deposits that need paid. Utilities turned off and then turned on. etc.
I grew up near there and it seems terrible that the city kicked out the residents. It’s better to have a crappy apartment than live in your car or on the street.
Remarkably there is one state in the US that is so renter hostile that it still doesn't recognize an implied warranty of habitability on top of other fun things like non-payment of rent is a _criminal_ offense and to lodge any formal complaint with your landlord your lease must be fully paid up.
In addition to other things that could happen to tenants, I can imagine CPS (or whatever a given state calls that agency) declaring someone unfit to foster/adopt if they live in one of these units. (By way of analogy, if the parents of a special-needs child enroll him in a school that cannot meet those needs, they're guilty of neglect.)
The city/county/state doesn't screw around when they declare a building uninhabitable. If there's any risk of collapse or destruction, they will not let you back in for any reason. Remember the Surfside condominium collapse in Miami? The residents who got out alive weren't allowed back in, even to recover still-alive pets. The building was demolished with the pets still inside. If it happens to you, unless there's a fire or the building is in the process of collapsing, evacuate with your pets and anything irreplaceable.
This applies to Mortgage companies also
Did that in Florida, twice, with those condos that were unsafe.
I rented from fake landlords once. It turned out that the apartments were in foreclosure and these people just cut off the bank locks and took down the for sale sign. My first clues were the repossession of the dumpster and the realtor putting the sign back up. We didn't have anywhere to throw away our trash. The fake landlord backed his truck up and had us put the garbage in the back of the truck. He came around ever so often to collect the trash from us. Things went downhill from there.
This is when you rent a U-Haul and pay $20/day and live in it!
A couple pics on the internet show a completely flooded floor. Horrifying
There is no situation government can't make worse.
I'm from the gubment and I'm here to make things worse for you! 😁
In that old English law case, the attorney for Jane should have argued that the landlord was the one who didnt uphold the contract by making the home available to the tennant during those 3 years. Landlords do not just own the land. They were responsible to defend the land. So they failed in that regard too. Jane should never have been judged against and that seems to be a bad example to use for strict contract law for law school. Unless they are using to show example of a bad ruling....
Geez. This sounds like the place we lived for about 10 years. Leaks in the roof, bad "plumbing" and "electrical" work (done personally by the unlicensed Slum Lord - our name for him), and a hole in the floor under the kitchen sink that opened into the downstairs apartment's living room, where the Slum Lord lived. Among other issues. To my certain knowledge, the place had no Certificate of Occupancy after the Slum Lord burned down the house next door, which was when he moved into the apartment downstairs from us, due to some fire damage to the roof that continued to leak. Oh yeah. The front porch still, after 7 years of living elsewhere, holds a lonely - but lovely - toilet. Don't ask.
Wait…big beaver road at exit 69?
This happens more frequently than we think. Just in Alberta, I can think of at least three or four apartment and condominium complexes having to be condemned because of structural issues. Whether that be a foundation giving way, invalid stud spacing, or what have you. It happens. Now the story here is about neglect and that is another issue.
I think the owner of the building, the one that has taken their money, should pay or be locked up. The state or town should take the building, call in the few contractors and fix before emptying the building. I remember about 50+ years ago. Upstate NY, there was 92 units the were shut down due to no heat in the winter months so pipe were freezing and popping. The town took over and called heat and plumbing contractors to move in and if everything. My dad was called in to help. 4 contractors was running 24/7 shifs and it took them 17 days and everybody stayed. They fixed a third of the appartments in a week, that third let the remaining to share and stay with them for the remaining 12 days and as they fixed them, the shared moved into them. I was young and not paying any attention but heard dad telling mom about it. Things were different back then, people helped one another, and worker worked hard and fast. Now days right. a joke
Ben Hundo's on the 2nd shelf down, right side, to the right of the New York LAW4NYC license plate
It gets even worse you find out that no one knows who the owners are
Yup, exit 69 is Big Beaver Road. Also, Interstate 69, has a Climax exit.
What's that large gold coins sitting underneath Ben there is that a gold dollar or what?
This almost happened to the Meadowbrook condo complex in Fremont, CA. An embezzler on the Board of the HOA had depleted their maintenance account so drastically that so much ongoing building upkeep was left undone for so long that residents complained and the City Building Inspectors came out and started RED TAGGING parts of the 40+ building complex.
The embezzler was never caught and his criminal acts did not see the light of day until the buildings were literally falling apart due to embarrassment on the part of the HOA Board.
Of all things, the INSURANCE COMPANY for the condo complex was the HERO of this story who required that the entire Board be replaced and there is now a background check process in place for new Board members.
Repairs to the complex have taken MORE THAN 4 years, but at least there are no more red tags which included, for over a year, the entire 600sq ft patio of the condo that my wife and I own and rent out.
How do you get from Atlas to Troy, Mich?
Well this has been going on in Miami since 2020. Many Highrise's have failed their 40 year inspection, displacing thousands of people.
Imagine the bump in rental costs when you have a sudden increase in demand of 147 tenants. Every other landlord in the area is drooling now. There was a condo in nearby Waukesha Wisconsin that got condemned for a structural issue just before Christmas and their insurance refused to pay for the cost of razing it as required by the municipality. A real mess. I've always said that a condo is just an apartment that you're stuck with. At least these people could take their stuff with them.
This happened in Columbus, several times last year. These out-of-state slum lords don't want to fix anything.
Exactly. They treat their "investment" properties like people treat beaters (old cars that they just drive until they stop working.) They put tenant after tenant in there until the building is practically falling apart, and then just let it go for pennies on the dollar to some flipper or new company that is willing to make the repairs or tear it down and build a new structure. It's frustrating, and a huge problem plaguing the housing market these days.
@@JasonWardStudios Hey! My car is 21 years old and I keep it up as best as I can based on only SS income.
Robot Lady’s question is addressed in the book “The 5th Agreement”