Secrets of the City

Maybe I’m part of a lucky minority, but my building management is extra nice. And whenever something breaks it’s usually fixed within a day, although the water heater took two (which is understandable, and at least it wasn’t in the winter that it broke).

I honestly have zero complaints about the management.

of course, there was the slum in dinkytown I once subletted a room in …

Ditto the orginal post. Renters: know your rights and options. It’s not so much that landlords are out to screw everybody, but just knowing what’s out there for you gives you all kinds of leverage and power. Especially if you live in Uptown. A lot of buildings there are very old.

AND GET RENTER’S INSURANCE.

My landlord didn’t raise rent the entire 2+ years I was in my apartment. Of course, we’ve had a break in, a fire, and a near flood a few weeks ago and still I’ve never actually met the guy. The apartment is 3 bedrooms, 1275 square feet and available Aug. 1 if anyone’s looking. Betwixt 26 and 27 along Hennepin.

I echo the renters insurance comment. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve covered a story where people in an apartment building lost everything– and didn’t drop the $100/year it costs for renter’s insurance. It’s so cheap.

Great resources there, 5 o’clock bot. Glad you’re in a better apartment now.

Renters do need to know their rights because, first of all, they have a lot of them, and, secondly, your landlord probably doesn’t.

I’ve had a run-in with a management company BEFORE I even moved into a place.

Basically, they lied through their teeth to us about a bunch of stuff about the complex, stating there weren’t any police calls (when, in fact, there were a whole ton on record), that it was quiet, etc etc etc…

We never signed a lease, but signed one of those “intent” forms that you do when you put in a deposit. We asked for our deposit back due to the lies… They refused.

Alas, as soon as we got a lawyer involved, the check was in the mail. I had them by the balls on two factors: the misrepresentation, and the fact that the intent form did not contain all of the elements required by law, and therefore in effect was illegal and therefore void.

Seriously, if you have anything starting to resemble a problem with a landlord, get legal advice.

It’s true…sometimes landlords are deliberately shady, and sometimes they just don’t know about the rights they need to afford to tenants.

In my case, Irving Properties began a condo conversion while residents were still living in the frickin building…there are rules about giving tenants a proper Notice of Condo Conversion, not starting construction until everyone has a chance to leave, etc. Had they followed the rules, my last few months in the apartment would have gone a lot smoother for both them and me.

The biggest complaint I hear from fellow renters is regarding management entering the apartment to show the place, do repairs, etc. without giving written 24-hour notice. The City of Minneapolis awards a flat $100 credit to tenants for each violation of that privacy rule…most tenants don’t know this.

I had an issue with an old landlord and I don’t remember the written 24-hour notice thing. According to the MN statutes, “a landlord may enter the premises rented by a residential tenant only for a reasonable business purpose and after making a good faith effort to give the residential tenant reasonable notice under the circumstances of the intent to enter”. Does the city of Minneapolis offer greater protection?

what do you mean The City of Minneapolis awards a flat $100 credit to tenants for each violation of that privacy rule…most tenants don’t know this. ?

what do you mean The City of Minneapolis awards a flat $100 credit to tenants for each violation of that privacy rule…most tenants don’t know this. ?
»» Submitted by ? at 12:40 PM on June 29

Sorry…that was a mistake on my part. The info I referred to above wasn’t from the City of Minneapolis but from the statutes of the State of Minnesota. The link to the relevant statute is here. It’s Minn. Stat. § 504B.211, subd. 6 (2003):

Subd. 6. Penalty. If a landlord substantially
violates subdivision 2, the residential tenant is entitled to a
penalty which may include a rent reduction up to full rescission
of the lease, recovery of any damage deposit less any amount
retained under section 504B.178, and up to a $100 civil penalty
for each violation. If a landlord violates subdivision 5, the
residential tenant is entitled to up to a $100 civil penalty for
each violation. A residential tenant shall follow the
procedures in sections 504B.381, 504B.385, and 504B.395 to
504B.471 to enforce the provisions of this section.

I have had friends who have taken landlords to court for violating their right to privacy by entering the property without proper notice. Generally speaking ‘proper notice’ is a written notice twenty-four hours in advance.

Oh, I just remembered, the laurel village management is notoriously bad, rude and meanspirited towards their tenants. I had a slight run-in during a very short sublet while I was between places and I can safely say I’ll never rent an apartment there. It’s almost no wonder they can’t seem to keep any retail tenants in the street level of their buildings.

fiveoclock, I see you’ve already posted your story to http://www.trembicky.com/ but I wanted to share the link here as a source of amusing stories. I know I still imagine bumping into my former slumlord (who lived at 1023 summit ave and (barely) manages a lot of properties near the U) at a social event and calling him out as the parasite he is.

Oh, Laurel Village has problems that run way deeper than being rude to tenants. Too bad, too, I always thought it would be cool to live there.

the apartments are nice enough inside, but I couldn’t possibly recommend living there to anyone I didn’t hate. What other problems are you talking about, Kevin?

I owned some rental properties once. I was a responsible landlord. My tenants even sent me “Thank You” notes when I sold the building.

I’d never consider doing it again.

I think I’m done telling the stories of my experience with Clark Gassen as a scammer and slumlord. He’s sure the pipes will just stop filling the basement all by themselves.

Has anyone rented from Phillip Bamford, Confer LLC? I bought one of his condo conversions and it’s a peice of shit. He owns 400 rental units in Mpls and decided to make this building a condo because he was sick of hearing tenant complants. Now he just gets complaints from us, the people that unfortunately purchased units in his shitty, neglected apartment building. I made a huge mistake!

A shameless plug for the nonprofit I work for, HOME Line. I generally just lurk here for the newest, juiciest bits of gossip, but since this is in my field…

HOME Line is a nonprofit tenant advocacy organization that provides free legal advice to renters. There are several full-time attorneys on staff, who specialize in Minnesota tenant/landlord law. We also do a considerable amount of affordable housing policy advocacy and organizing on a grassroots level with low-income renters in Minnesota.

Our free hotline number is 612-728-5767.

Also, a heads up for Minneapolis renters. There is another organization that fields all calls from Minneapolis tenants: Minneapolis Housing Services, 612-673-3003

If you have been condo-ed out of an apartment or had a bad experience buying a new condo, give us a call–there is a coalition of local organizations actively pursuing stricter regulations for conversions in Minneapolis.

Sorry again for the plug…or should I say public service announcement?

Okay, can I get a plug too? I have two furnished apartments available for rent! I build raised bed gardens for my tenants, watch their kitties when they’re, and ocassionally bake cookies too…

Oh, and I always bring them ouzo back from Greece when I go!

My landlord used to hit on me and make advances. He had a wife and grown children…His kids were my age. It was just plain wrong!

just wanted to note that after reading through this yesterday, i got home to the second power outtage in the past week. i was told to go to the store pick up the fuses myself, oh and could i pick up some extras? he’ll take it off my rent. 4 stores and 1.5 hours later (after figuring out that each unit accepts different fuses in my building) the ones I got didn’t work. He was so irritated when I called him back to tell him so. I’m giving my notice this weekend and taking $50 off my rent for my time and aggravation. Does that seem fair?

I have rented 5 different places in the last 3 years and had my share of bad landlords and roommates, but the worst is when you mix landlord and roommate issues. I just moved out of my last rental a week ago and it will be to soon if I ever see the landlord or my old roommate again. Unfortunately in my case my roommate’s parents owned the home we rented.. never mix business and friendship. We ended up having a falling out and then my roommate decided she was going to screw me over in every way she could. One day I came home to her family’s dog living there harrassing my cat which then ended up living in my closet for the last 3 month because she couldn’t leave my room without the dog attacking her. Then my roommate’s brother moved in and had partys and people drinking and smoking all over the house every night. Then her dog started pissing all over my stuff effectively ruining a papasan cushion, purse, jeans, rug and more. This was just the beginning. So, take it from me, never rent from friends.. very bad idea.

I agree with the guy up top. I have rental property. I am thinking about selling it all. Its a constant headache, and I actually stay on top of the maintenance.

I sometimes wonder if I would be better off just ignoring the calls and becoming the slum lord. If SOME tenants actually took a little effort into respect of their homes (apartments), life would be better.

You might live in a 20 unit building, and the perfect person, but understand there are 19 others that might be making the owners life hell, which, sadly, effects you too.

Also everyone thinks owners are rich. Most are not. Especially in the smaller buildings. We have just leveraged everything we have to make the investment, and in 30 years have a sizable (hopefully, banking on many things) property paid for. Through those 30 years there is little, to none, profit, hard cash for our time. YES we do get some tax advantages, but that dont pay the bills either.

Ask yourself this. Do you pay your rent on the 1st every month? Have you EVER in your life done something destructive to a building, etc. I guess I know my answers, AND I know I fucked with someones life by those seemingly minor havics.

I live in NC and I am thinking about starting a blog on bad landlords. I recently rented a house in Asheville, NC and when the furnace broke in December I promptly wrote a letter to the landlord and submitted it with my rental payment. This continued until May – when I just outright refused to pay rent because the problem still had not been rectified. There were times when the inside of the house was 45 degrees and it was 55 degrees outside. When I refused to pay rent until it was resolved my landlord came to me and stated “I did not need heat now, so what’s the problem and you can get out if you aren’t going to pay me”. I filed a complaint against him with the City of Asheville and instead of making the necessary repairs, he evicted me so he could just put someone else right back in the house. I think everyone should have a place where they can look up an address or a landlord and see the rental history – whether positive or negative so look for my website in the near future!

With the Bad Credit Market becoming more and more competitive with each passing day, the potential customer should have little problem finding very competitive rates and fees. Its just a matter or knowing your credit score and shopping around.

Ryan

From a landlord perspective: I read some of these posts about landlords and it makes me angry. It’s a bad reflection on good landlords. Tenant warning: if it seems like a deal that’s too good, IT PROBABLY IS ! Tenants need to be informed and realistic, you need to do your home work and be responsible (for your actions and getting the help that you need). No one should have to put up with this kind of crap from a landlord. Also, communicate well (verbally and in writting): you need to document issues so you can prove to the judge the what, why, where and how. If something’s wrong (whether it violates a state statute or not) you need to make your landlord aware of it, and once you do also be specific about what you want done about the problem. I’ve had my share of good renters and bad renters. I just had renters move out of one of my units and they completely destroyed 4 storm windows, left the place a filthy mess (stove, fridge, sink, cabinets, garage, bathroom) and left garbage in the closets, basement and garage. THey are upset because I deducted the cost to clean it up and repair it (I hire it done, I’m NOT your mother) from the damage deposit (which is lawfully allowed). What part of “Return the unit in the same condition that you found it” dont they understand? I have lived in my house for 8 years and I have the same storms and they arent broken, how did they manage to destroy 4 of them in 1 year? So they have threatened to take me to court. I document well against tenants (pictures, leases, documents, code of conduct, how to get the deposit back, etc..) they will waste their time and I will win and they will owe me for the time (remember all leases say you will pay for any court cost and related costs). Then there’s the nice tenants who scooped my walk one time when I was really sick with the flu. Anyway, Be assertive with your landlord but dont be a cad. THEN take them to court with all your documentation so you can win. And NEVER, EVER, be late with your rent. It tells the judge and everyone in the court room that you are irresponsible. You want the judge to see you for the good tenants that you are. Good luck to all!

What’s wrong with our Judicial system?

I intend to contact the local newspapers and TV stations about this case. And I guarantee it will get some exposure.

What I want to do is get the Landlord Tenant Statutes changed, and I need your help.

In May of 2005 my wife and I rented an Apple Valley townhouse from Mr. Floyd Unruh (who lives in Inver Grove Heights). After a few days in the house we began to notice several problems: the tile on the kitchen floor was peeling back, creating a safety hazard; the counter top in the kitchen was not secured to the cabinet, when my wife leaned on it the counter top flew up creating another safety hazard; the vent hood over the stove was only secured by two screws and hung down, creating another safety hazard and a fire hazard; the television cable for the neighboring unit ran across the sidewalk of our front door, creating another safety hazard.

A couple of weeks after moving in our daughter got locked in her room, because the door handle was broken; I had to remove the molding from the doorjamb in order to take the door of and let her out. Then, about two weeks later, while she was siting in the living room, she began to feel sick. Upon looking underneath the living room carpet I discovered that the concrete floor was wet and moldy, because there were no gutters on the house and the concrete floor was set at same grade as the yard. When we asked the landlord to fix these problems, he failed to respond – other than drop off a new door handle and tell me to install it myself.

Because our daughter has chronic asthma, and the mold was triggering her asthma, I contacted both the Apple Valley Building Inspector and the Dakota County Health Department Nurse. They both documented the problems, but informed us that because Apple Valley has no statutes regarding family rental property they could do nothing to help us to get the landlord to fix the problems. The nurse did send a copy of her report to the landlord, but he refused to reply. She also told us that we could take the case to court, and withhold rent – as long as we deposited the rent with the court.

Realizing that the landlord was not going to address any of the problems, and that we could not stay in the house because of the mold, and realizing that we could not pay rent on the property, or deposit it with the court, and pay for someplace else to stay, we decided we had to break the rental agreement, by not paying rent. We informed the landlord that we would not be paying rent until the problems were fixed. The landlord failed to fix any of the problems and eventually filed an unlawful detainer action, and we were evicted, giving us a 24-hour notice to vacate the property. Because it took us three days to move in, we knew we could not move everything out, so we each packed a suitcase, with intentions of coming back to move out later, as MN State Statutes allow.

However, Mr. Unruh had other ideas. Having been in the house, both when we were there and when we were not there (without our permission), the landlord knew that I ran an Internet mail order business from home, and also did desktop publishing. We not only had our personal possessions in the house, we had over $30,000 worth of wholesale product stored in the garage, plus five computers and printers, two scanners, and a book binding machine; not to mention all of our furniture, clothing, electronic entertainment equipment, china, silverware, my wife’s wedding dress, our children’s handmade Christmas ornaments, family photo albums, tax returns and documents etc.

On the day we were evicted we asked the Dakota County Sheriff’s deputy to ask the landlord when we could come back to remove our property from the house. The landlord told us that if we came back with $7,000 in “cash” and a moving van he would give us 24 hours to move everything out. The deputy informed the landlord he could not charge us to remove our property, and told him that if our belongings were removed from the property he would have to inform us where they were being stored. The landlord told us to call him and set up a time to remove our belongings; which we did – several times over the next few months. Either the landlord was not there on the scheduled date, or he told us we would have to bring $11,000 in “cash, no check or money order” or we could not have our belongings back.

In mid -August the landlord took out an advertisement in a local newspaper stating “numerous computers, business equipment and hunting products for sale”. Upon learning of this sale I left a message on the landlord’s answering machine telling him that he was in violation of State Statutes if he tried to sell our belongings, and informed him I would be there on the day of the sale to take pictures of products and license plates, and I would inform everyone that what they were buying was not his to sell.

On the day of the proposed sale I went to the Apple Valley Police Department and informed them what the landlord was planning, and what I intended to do. When I drove to the house I noticed a sign stating that the sale had been postponed for one week. I stayed at the house for an hour, and then left. My wife drove by the house later that day and found an Apple Valley Police officer and the Dakota County Sheriff deputy parked outside. They informed my wife they were “checking out garage sales”.

In order to find out if the landlord still had our belongings, and where they were, we had a friend call the landlord and tell him he was trying to get back some of the wholesale product stored in the garage, which was his. The landlord informed him that one of the neighbors had seen someone with a beard, wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots (which would have described me) near the house, and the next day everything was gone; he no longer had any of our belongings. Upon hearing this I immediately called the Apple Valley Police Department, and told them of this possible “theft”. They informed me they could not do anything because it was a civil matter. I also asked them if the landlord had ever field a report of theft – they said he had not. However, both my wife and an Apple Valley Police officer saw several of our belongings in the garage of the house several months later.

Legal Aid said they would not help us get an order to retrieve our belongings. I have contacted over 30 private and corporate attorneys to help us, including referrals to William Mitchell School of Law, the State Bar Association and their Volunteer Lawyers referral, plus several pro bono lawyers off the Internet.
I now know how the people of New Orleans feel; we have lost everything (I estimate it will cost $110,000 to replace everything). The only difference is that our loss was not due to an “act of God” but to the greed of a slum landlord who stated that because he is “the landlord” he can “do whatever he wants”.

I have been told by several lawyers that MN State Statutes expressly prohibit a landlord from holding our property for back rent or charging us to get our belongings back, and that if he was going to move or sell our property he had to give a 7-10 day notice – he did neither. These same lawyers tell me they can win this case, but not without a $2500-$5000 retainer and $150-$190 per hour; and they estimate it could cost up to $80,000 to try the case. Since the landlord had or has all of my business equipment he has put me out of business; and we cannot afford to pay these fees.
We tried to file a motion to recover our possessions, and an injunction to keep the landlord from selling our possessions, but were told that we had to file a Statement of Claim to get our possessions back, which we could file in Conciliation Court – provided the estimated value of everything we had in the house was under $7,500; otherwise we had to hire an attorney and sue the landlord in District Court. Since we had over $100,000 worth of clothing, furniture, computers/business equipment, and electronic entertainment equipment in the house, we would have to hire a lawyer to fight the action of the landlord, which he was able to file in conciliation court without a lawyer. (I suspect that most people could easily have over $7,500 worth of belongings in their rental apartments, townhouses and houses.)

Which leads me to my question. How is it that those people who cannot afford an attorney, including criminals, can get free legal aid in a criminal case, but those of us who have to fight rich landlords and/or business corporations, who do not have enough money to pay for an attorney (in a case that appears to be open and shut) cannot get free legal services? How is it that the same Court that allows landlords to evict families also allows the landlords to keep the possessions of those families who they (even though it is in violation of MN Statutes), without any legal remedy in that Court – and that Court goes so far as to refuse to hear a motion to make the landlord return the belongings of the tenant in that same Court?

How is it that most cities have statutes and regulations that govern business property for rent, but not private residences (owned by corporations or business landlords) for rent?

After looking for an attorney for over a year, the firm of Dorsey – Whitney took our case and represented us in court against Mr. Unruh. Unfortunately, according to them, the Landlord Tenant Statutes seem to imply that, even when the landlord is in the wrong, all we can ask for our property is what they termed an “at arm’s length sale”, basically meaning the worth of our property reduced by 90%. As a result of this we ended up suing for $33,000 for the wholesale hunting product we had; and for our personal property, which I estimate will cost us approximately $70,000 to replace, we sued for $7,000. This property included all of our family photo albums, my wife’s wedding dress, the silverware given to her by her grandmother, the American flag presented to me by the VFW color guard at my father’s memorial, all of my business equipment (estimated at $10,000), and everything else we owned.

Because my business equipment was taken, I was also put out of business.

Judge Pawlenty is supposed to rule on this case by the end of Jnauray , 2007, I do not know if we will win, because a case like this has never been presented in Minnesota before. But, no matter the outcome there is something seriously wrong with our Civil Justice System. The MN Statutes need to be changed so this does not happen to other people. If this had been a criminal matter, we could have gotten “replacement cost” for our property. But, since Mr. Unruh was our landlord, this is treated as “legalized theft”, and we may not get anything for our loss.

We are currently living in a motel in Burnsville – all three of us in one room. Prior to this I was a small business owner and a willing taxpayer – now I am neither.

Incidentally, Mr. Floyd Unruh lost his realtor’s license, because he attempted to sell a house that he stated he owned, but did not own. He also lost his agent’s license for a time. This is an unscrupulous, unethical slum landlord.

We need to chang Landlord Tenant Law in Minnesota.

T.R. Michels
TRMichels@yahoo.com

On our above mentioned case against Floyd Unruh, Judge Pawlenty, the Governor’s wife, awarded us about $5,000 of the $40,000 we were asking for. One of the reasons the judgement was so small was because there is no standard set for the “worth” of personal property seized by a landlord.

What occurred in this case was legalized theft, supported by the inadequate an poorly worded Landlord / Tenant Statutes of the State of Minnetosa.

We need to have these laws changed, so that this case does not set a poor precedence for other greedy landlords.

If you are interested in joinimg me in an attempt to change these statutes contact me at TRMichels@yahoo.com.

T.R. Michels

I had a real problem with my old ladlord. I lived in the apartment for 8mo. and the last 4 was so horrible. It started in Sept. when my apartment was broken into no force entry was shown. I come home early and the landlord son’s girlfriend was stand one the other side of my front door ( I never use the front always use the back her car was blocking the driveway so I can’t get in with blown the horn.) and my door the open I call the police, the son of the landlord want to fight me that night because I told the cops what I saw and everything when down hill from there. The next day when the detective came and question the two of them the and they became suspects, landlord stop take my rent started to cuss me out on went to house court to file for an eviction. I stated to write everything down and record her cuss and threating me. X-mas day her son tried to kick in my door. It was the worst exprience.

I, too, purchased a converted condo from Philip Bamford. My first clue should have been that it took over 3 months for my offer to be accepted. It was a relatively new project, and I was told that 5 units had been sold and there were others that were close to being sold. After closing, I found out that I was the first one to buy a unit, and no other offers had been made. I moved in almost a year ago, and it took over a month for another unit to sell. Since then, no units have sold, we have had endless issues with the building (most notably, plumbing issues and a gas leak due to bad workmanship on the part of a construction crew) and a very slow and sometimes rude association management company. Also, work on the conversion stopped last summer and never resumed. No additional units have been completed, and the common areas are either unfinished or look like a construction site. Luckily, the building was recently sold, so HOPEFULLY things will improve. Just a warning to condo buyers… ask LOTS of questions and get EVERYTHING in writing before closing. And if something doesn’t seem right, get REAL answers and solutions BEFORE closing.

I also had a awful experience purchasing one of Phillip Bamford’s condo conversions last May. My unit was unfinished when I closed and I obtained a signed document from Leann Bamford that the unit would be completed by a specified date, it was not completed until a full month afterwards and the building is still unfinished a year afterwards. When my unit was completed there were many things installed wrong. And the woman who runs the association is one of the most unpleasant people I’ve ever had to deal with. I asked the Bamfords to purchase the unit back since they broke the contract by not having it completed, they declined. I now come to find out a year later that they are selling the building to new developers, this infuriates me although I WILL be glad these shady characters will be out of my life.

The Bamfords purchased this building and when they lost the backing of financial freedom I suspect they did not have the money to complete the project. There should be responsibility of these conversion sellers to have a timeline of completion when they start marketing the units for sale. People like the Bamford’s are tarnishing the first time home ownership experience for people like me. If you are looking into purchasing a condo, do research and ask questions before investing in a conversion!

DON’T RENT FROM GLENN LEVINE. He owns some duplexes in NE Minneapolis. He’s a scam artist who will try and charge you for every single nail hole. He tried to get tons of money out of us and kept our security deposit and let his kids and wife enter our unit to use the bathroom while he did yard work and we were not home. He’s a low-life. RENTERS BEWARE.

Never rent or buy a home from Jennifer Thompson in or around Aitkin, MN. If for some reason you read this after you have, kiss your deposit and your rights goodbye. LESSONS LEARNED: Always take pictures before and after you move, make your landlord sign off on everything on the checklist, take the lease to an attorney to make sure it is legal (This is a big, big deal – since landlords, particularly this one is banking, and I mean banking, on the assumption that you have no clue about your rights). If there are ANY issues with the lease, walk away and find another place to live, it should be a BIG CLUE to what kind of person you would be renting from. Pay particular attention to yardwork, you have a right to be paid for doing it or have reduced rent, my advice is make them do it. Also, make sure that when they try and charge you for something, you get 3 quotes from them and verify that they actually had the work done. This landlord likes to charge you and then never have the work done. If your lease says “Penalty for late rent” IT IS ILLEGAL! They cannot charge you money as a penalty for late rent. They can only charge you if they incurred costs to their mortgage company. AND THEY HAVE TO PROVE IT! (unfortunately, hard times hit us and we were late about 5 times in 2.5 years, after I learned that they couldn’t charge us, they refused to give back our $25 penalty)

Remember that “wear & tear” is something different to each landlord (we were charged for touch up paint on tiny nail holes that we patched) I happen to know that a small can of paint, carpet shampooing in 3 tiny bedrooms and replacement of a screen that didn’t need to be replaced is not $500.00 and their idea of touch up paint, is repainting the entire house when there were no marks, holes, or dirt.

If renting a single family home, it is in your best interest to have an inspector come in and check for mold, and inspect the windows and doors. Make sure you get utility costs for the house. Since the construction of this home, which was new, was so bad, our utilities were over $300.00 a month, and the water bill for watering their yard, was astronomical! The mold was horrible and the landlords knew it, but only had someone come, scratch it off, and repaint. It came back.

If you have problems in the metro area with renter’s rights, you should think twice of moving to a little town. YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS unless your family name has been there for 100 years or you help a McDonald’s open up.

This was a very expensive lesson to learn. Thankfully, we now rent from people who are fair and have been landlords for quite awhile. Their other tenants have been here for 8 and 11 years, and have nothing but praise for the landlords. (Always ask current tenents about their experiences with the landlord, it is the best referral you could ever ask for) Although, there are wonderful landlords in this town who have ethics and integrity, Jennifer Thompson is not one of them. Maybe one day, justice will prevail, she’ll grow a conscience, and make retrobution to the tenants she screws over.

Hopefully, these comments will keep someone from making the same mistake we made. One more time, NEVER RENT OR BUY A HOME FROM JENNIFER THOMPSON IN AITKIN, MN. – You’ll regret it.

Pervy Landlord – IMportant for Female Renters!!!

My name is kittycraft and I have a story for you…. I am a single female renter who has rented in Minneapolis for years – well, recently I had something very disturbing happen to me and feel compelled to try and get the word out to other renters that what happen to me could easily happen to them.

Recently – I rented an apartment, actually it was a side by side duplex in which the owner/landlord lived in the adjacent apartment. After I moved in to my apartment, quite by accident, I found a listening device in my bedroom placed in my heating grate. The landlord/owner had been bugging/spying on me the entire time I lived there. I called the police and the landlord/owner admitted it was his. This is distrubing on so many levels….when you rent an apartment – the landlord always does a background check on you – but the prospective rentee never thinks to do a check on the prospective landlord. After this disturbing incident I feel I need to get the word out on the dangers a renter faces. Incidently – the landlord (his name is Terry Hanna, the rental property is located at 3225 43rd Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406) got 4 days in jail with an agreement that his record will be expunged after 1 year. So, lets say any industrious renters do decide to check this guy out – there is no record for them to find him. He continues to blissfully rent to new tenents who are absolutely unaware of his pervy behavior. I feel this is a very relevant story to all renters – particularly single female renters. – Please get the word out about this horrible landlord/owner!!!!

You can’t have your record expunged within a year, regardless of a plea deal.

And about half these people probably deserved what they got, either because they were stupid or they were at fault and we aren’t hearing the full story.

Here’s my dealio: I lived in a nice apt for a year and a half then I moved to CA. Never had any problem with the mgmt, in fact on my way out the manager told me I was an ideal tenant and could rent there again anytime.

Five minutes before that, I had a walk through with this same manager. Let me say my Mom and I scrubbed the place top to bottom! The manager was satisfied with the cleaning and said the only thing I’d be charged for would be if there were carpet spots that didn’t come out.

Yes, there were spots. No, I did not stain the carpet. The carpet wasn’t new when I moved in! The spots began appearing – I did nothing to cause them – with in a day or two of my move-in, which I notified the office of. But over the course of my tenancy, more and more spots became evident. I figured they’d be gone when the carpet got shampooed so I didn’t sweat it.

Today I got a nasty gram stating I’m being charged $850 for carpet replacement. Huh?!! What am I supposed to do? They’ve got me by the nads as I’m 2000 miles away. Help!!!

As a result of my post here, and having been contacted several times in the past two years, and again yesterday, about landlord problems, I’ve decided to add a few ideas.

Feel free to contact me if you need more help.
T.R. Michels
TRMichels@yahoo.com

As a result of my post here – and someone else having problesm with floy Unruh – I recieved these two e-mails in the last two days.

11/7/2008
Second e-mail recieved from this person.

If you want to forward it (her e-mail to me) you sure can. The guy (Floyd Unruh) is a real jerk. I tried talking to him last night about this and he wouldn’t even discuss the issue. My other daughter (who doesn’t swear) called him a bad word when she got off the phone with him. He hangs up on them whenever they call. And when I went over there last night, he took off like a” bat out of Hell”. (this sounds familiar to us .T.R) He said that if my daughters had representation, then he should. I printed up what was written on the internet but, of course, I forgot it when I left work.

A little history:

My son-in-law was killed in a car crash a year ago October 30th. They had a 2 1/2 year old and she was 7 months pregnant with my other grandson. They “subleased” the apartment (from Floyd) from a friend of hers. They needed to find a place where utilities were included for a reasonable amount. They have to stay in IGH because my other daughter works at Wal-Mart in IGH and doesn’t drive. She needs someplace that she can walk to.

They signed a 6 month lease and now he’s saying that they didn’t (she has someone working with her on this). Now he’s done an “addendum”; it is now a month-to-month lease just to see how it goes – which is really a good thing – because as soon as I find her a different place, she can move without breaking the lease. She’s getting $935 a month SSI for both boys and my other daughter is living with her. Now the challenge is finding someplace that will take them. If you have any ideas, I am sure open to any.

Floyd found out that someone called the Housing Authority, Fire Department, HUD, Dakota County and a couple other agencies on him and he blamed me. Unfortunately, someone beat me to it, otherwise I would have.

He said that, “no one has anything bad to say about him” (I certainly do, and he knows it, T.R.) and that “all his tenants say he’s the nicest landlord they’ve ever had”. (I know several others who have a “less than favorable” opinion of Floyd)

This friend of my daughters trashed the place. I should send you some pictures of the building when I get them on CD tonight. It’s atrocious. I pointed some things out to Floyd and he said that. ” the building is nice”. If you’re in the neighborhood or even know where the place is, it’s up by the IGH Police Department on Barbara Avenue. Not too far from the college.

I’d love to get together with you if possible and maybe we can figure some way to get this guy out of the business. I live in SSP and can meet you anywhere. You can also contact me at the number below if you want to talk.

Once again, I’m REAL sorry about what happened to you. I sincerely hope you can get back to somewhat “normal” and this will just be a bad dream. Tell you what, when I win the lottery, you are more than welcome to share some with me. Something has to be done about him. He’s heartless. Anyone who would their own grandchildren live in that building has no heart or morals. I don’t think I’ve met anyone that I like less.

11/6/2008
First e-mail received from this person:

I am currently (well, actually 2 of my daughters) are having a problem with Floyd Unruh. They were supposed to move into an apartment of his in Inver Grove Heights the 1st of November. He told them that after the other tenant moved out on October 30th that he needed 2 days to get the apartment ready for them to move in. He still hasn’t done anything.

They are staying in the apartment because they have nowhere else to go. The carpets need to be replaced badly, there are screens missing, holes in the walls and doors. The front door had been kicked in at least once previously and never replaced. The light fixture in the “dining” room is being held up by purple zip ties. Two of the cupboards don’t close. There is a burn mark from an iron and cat urine in one of the bedrooms, the door to the vanity is off the hinges and the toilet is atrocious. The light in the kitchen obviously has had a fire and has not been replaced. There are spackle marks around the entire apartment. He refuses to paint and told my daughter that if she wanted it painted, she would have to do it herself.

He was paid the $900 damage deposit by me, with the understanding that he would get the rent once he had everything done and the girls could move in. He said that even if they didn’t move in on the 1st, they had to pay a full month’s rent. While I was helping my daughter move some things into the garage, he came over and had a fit that we were there. Later that evening, he told them that he wants them out.

He didn’t want us there while we cleaned (he obviously wasn’t going to) and told my daughter that SHE was responsible to clean the carpeting, and that he wasn’t going to replace it. My grandson can’t come out of his playpen and play on the floor because the carpeting is so bad.

I’ve taken over 100 pictures of what is wrong with her apartment and the building and the Tenant’s Union, Section 8, Fire Department and every other agency that I can think of are going over there. I am SO angry about this and I, too, want to get this guy out of the rental business. He even has 2 of his grandson’s living in that apartment building. What a grandpa he must be. I’d be ashamed to be related to him.

I agree that he is a VERY unscrupulous, unethical landlord, not to mention (pardon my French) a downright prick!!!! I feel very bad for you and your family and hope everything looks better for you soon. I would love to hear from you.

My daughter just got out of another house where the landlord (Stage One Properties in Maple Grove) wouldn’t fix anything either. My daughters ended up moving out because it got to be too much money. When they took 1 day to move out, the landlord’s wife came and put a “Free Items in House” sign out and people started taking things.

Yep – Floyd Unruh is a “peach of a guy”.

T.R Michels
TRMichels@yahoo.com
http://www.TRMichels.com

Dear renters,   If you are looking for a new place steer clear of the name Bruce Waage, He is one of the worst land-lords I’ve came in contact with his staff is roud and he is to, I had a UD fild on me for a miss understanding I won my case but now have a ud on my record because once they file even if their wrong you still have to deal with it unless you get it expunged, And you have to pay for it your-self. My best advice for you stay away from the name Bruce Waage his places are over priced and under cared for.

TR Michels. Why would you knowingly stop paying rent and get yourself evicted when you have a family? Even if there were several things wrong with the house, did you not know that not paying results in eviction?

I just been in this apartment for only two months and already having problems. My landlord has his maintenance man living next to me. The landlord will not give a key to the front door, claim his maintenance man need it more than me. The maintance man also ran cable wire from his apartment to my basement cable line so when I trun on my cable he was getting free cable from me. The landlord also lie to section 8 claim I’m living in a house but it’s a apartment. My water has been turn off once since I been living here. When I first move in here he did not tell me that their was a animal deposit until l move in and he got the security deposit to move then he told me when he already new I had animals. I can not use the back yard or the garage. Come to find out the maintenance do not pay rent at all but does have 3 dogs and have full use of the garage and backyard. Before I moved in the landlord told me that i could use the garage and the backyard. Please do not rent from this man he will take advance of you trying to be nice to you be for you move in. His name is James Pavey also goes by Jim Pavey property manger and owner. But he claim he not the owner but he the one that sign all my paper work for section 8 and claim to be the owner but on his businesses card he claim to be the property manager MI-7 Properties,LLC. He is very rude and mean to his tenants

We had a Rental Property Management company that lured us in to a lease by stating that it was a lease to own property, knowing that my wife and I were only interested in such a property. We were told that as soon as we could put down 2.5% of the purchase price, they would draw up the agreement. Although we repeatedly asked about the purchase price, we only received “we will have to get that from the property owner and get back to you”. We went ahead with the lease, as our lease was up in our old place. About 4 days after moving in, we were told that the property owner changed her mind, and no longer wanted to sell. We contacted the property owner directly, and we were told that the house was in a trust for her children, and that she never told the Rental Property Management company that she had any interest in selling, in fact she told them just the opposite.

We filed complaints with both the Better Business Bureau about a few of our isssues as well as the Minnesota Attorney Generals office regarding their fraud.

We also had a fence that had fallen down 5 times in 3 months, and they refused to make adequate repairs. We placed our rent into escrow with the court due to the fence. We informed the Rental Property Manegement company about placing the rent in escrow. The president of the company told us directly (and in writing) that he would evict us for placing the rent in escrow (a blatant violation of MN law). The very day of the rent escrow hearing, the landlord filed an eviction, the stated reason was not mowing the lawn.

We had been discussing the lawn with the landlord, and we did not feel we were responsible for lawn mowing, especially as we were not provided any equipment for doing so. The lease stated that we were responsible for “Lawn maintenance including watering and fertilizing if needed, and snow removal from the premesis”. There was no mention of lawn mowing, and again, no equipment provided for doing so. As some may well know, in any contract a general term (like ‘lawn maintenance’) holds no control when followed up by specific terms (watering, fertilizing, and snow removal) on the same subject. Without specific mention, or proper compensation, we were not required by any means to mow the lawn. As for “adequate consideration”, they reduced the rent by $50 a month for exterior maintenance. For the watering, fertilizing, and shovelling we already would have to buy hoses, a sprinkler, a fertilizer spread caster, fertilizer, and shovels / salt / ice breaker. What was left after that would be the compensation for the actual work (about $30 a month, using our water to water the lawn, snow removal on demand, etc). If we had to also go and buy a lawn mower, weed trimmer, rakes, gasoline and gas can, we would have actually lost money just on equipment purchase measured against the reduction in rent. We were also assured by both HOMELINE as well as CMLS that we absolutely could not be evicted simply for not mowing the lawn.

The judge saw it differently. He said since there was mention of lawn maintenance that of course that meant mowing, and that we violated the lease. Even though the president of the company admitted on the stand threatening eviction for rent escrow, and never mentioning eviction for not mowing the lawn, the jusge found in his ruling that no mention was made of the rent escrow, and denied my defense of retaliatory eviction. We were evicted with 7 days notice to find a place and move. We had to pull the kids out of their school, move 15 miles away as it was the only place we could get on short notice, change our jobs to less paying ones closer to our home. It ruined our lives, without exaggeration.

We were defrauded by this company into signing a lease, had necessary repairs that were refused, and evicted in direct retaliation for invoking our legal rights under MN law! Anoka County court allowed it all to happen, and took a “shame on you” approach to us, when we were 100% in the right.

We are looking for an attorney that will help us with a fraud / misrepresentation / intentional infliction of emotional distress law suit. Bastards like these need to be stopped.