Newman’s Own
This doesn’t happen every day: the city cracks down on a negligent landlord, this time for failing to provide gas and electricity.
Newman said many of the apartments are vacant this time of the year. Tenants are allowed to keep their belongings in the apartments, and can enter them, he said. But they cannot sleep in them, he said.
Are they still paying rent? Is this legal?
“Newman” would be longtime A2 landlord Dale Newman (in this case he was the property manager), who owned the “dilapidated”, burned down Michigan Inn, doesn’t want to test his properties for radon and doesn’t want to comment about a faucet spewing brown water in one of his properties.
They definitely don’t have to pay it, but they’re probably still paying if they’re the average 19 year old. The landlord doesn’t legally have to refuse the rent, if you know what I mean.
posted by Patrick on August 29th, 2007 at 8:53 amThis is another thing in Ann Arbor that’s bass-ackwards.
The Building Dept. and their inspectors are all over you leading up to you getting your occupancy permit…..then they do very little in the way of follow up. Some buildings, obviously, received their occupancy permits decades ago.
They are, like many Dept’s at the City, understaffed. Up the damn fees, and hire more inspectors, particularly for the inspection of residential units.
They are also too tough on people who try to follow the building code, and (as seen here) WAY too lenient on those who could care less about these codes. This is a disgrace. Fine the hell out of the guy.
posted by todd on August 29th, 2007 at 12:26 pmInspectors have to inspect rental properties every two years to make sure the buildings are up to code. If tenants don’t call in about disrepairs it can be quite difficult to keep houses up to code all the time. Also I thought that the gas and electricity were off due to an ownership change?
posted by Mary on August 29th, 2007 at 1:30 pm$680 a month? For a basement?
posted by js on August 29th, 2007 at 4:01 pmWe’re collecting a list of Dale’s exploits on ArborWiki: http://arborwiki.org/city/Dale_Newman_%28landlord%29
Feel free to add non-libelous, sourced information about other properties and landlords to the site.
posted by Matt Hampel on August 29th, 2007 at 5:13 pmI just rented to a tenant that was screwed over by this guy…she’s afraid to go back there and deal with it at all.
posted by (former) OFWinsurgent on August 30th, 2007 at 12:43 amI read about him in the Ann Arbor Observer yesterday. He seems like a really nice guy… letting that photographer set up a gallery rent free and all.
Maybe that evens things out?
posted by StarChild the Lurker on August 30th, 2007 at 11:01 amRental housing inspectors are not building inspectors.
The local rental housing code is very different from the state building code. The local rental housing code was written by an ad hoc committee of landlords, tenants and advocates about 30 years ago. It is rarely updated and was written by amateurs with little experience in writing codes .
Rental housing inspectors cannot legally enforce the state building code for rental housing in Ann Arbor. That must be done by a state certified building inspector. Local building inspectors are overloaded with enforcing the state building codes for new construction and remodeling to have much time to devote to rental housing issues that are under the rental code and legally inspected by housing inspectors.
New construction building inspectors are limited by state building code in their enforcement ability of existing buildings covered by the local rental housing code. The state existing building code does not cover rental housing code issues. State building and trade codes are updated every 3 years and only apply to new construction, remodeling and equipment replacement.
A certificate of occupancy for new construction is different than a rental c of o. According to state building code a certificate of occupancy is only required for a new building, a change of use or a moved building.
A c of o for rental property in Ann Arbor requires a new inspection every 2 years but it’s closer to 2 1/2 years due to backlog and lack of an adequate number of rental housing inspectors for 28,000 rental units. Rental housing inspectors are always working on the backlog in addition to doing new c of o inspections on the 2-2 1/2 year cycle. Back log occurs mainly because of landlords who drag their feet getting things done. Landlords do pay the city for additional inspections for failing to comply in a timely manner but these re-inspection fees are not court fines and are not part of the legal enforcement process for code violations.
The biggest reason for the lack of timely inspections and compliance issues are inspector staffing, lack of experienced support staff in city hall and the lack of interest by the city attorney’s office and the courts.
City attorneys are lacking in their pursuit of rental code compliance cases. It seems that they just want to move the cases and don’t seek sufficiently punitive fines. Judges who hear these cases usually assess the minimum fines, if any, and the landlords accept this as a cost of doing business.
It’s not for the lack of trying by rental housing inspectors to get landlords to comply with the rental housing code, but there are other parties who aren’t doing their jobs, like city attorneys, the courts and a city administration who listen to landlords more than renters.
posted by Annie Mouse on August 31st, 2007 at 1:46 pmDoesn’t this guy own the building where the Asian bakery is located off Liberty?? I knew someone who used to work there and he told me horror stories about that man and the way he would treat his tenants.
I would nominate Allan Segar is the worse landlord in Washtenaw county…I had to call the police on him one time.
posted by Landlords suck on August 31st, 2007 at 11:15 pmI don’t know, “Landlords suck”, I think there needs to be some sort of formal process for deciding who’s the worst landlord in Wash Cty. There are so many great candidates and they all make a great case for themselves.
posted by Nick on September 1st, 2007 at 2:44 amI would submit that the turnover history of the space he is letting the photographer have for free is another sign that the guy is incompetant. Better to be “nice” and have a gallery in there than to let it sit empty and drag down the other businesses paying you rent.
posted by Chris on September 3rd, 2007 at 9:45 pmLate to the party — I moved away and don’t check the site as much anymore.
I lived at a Dale Newman property in the fall of ‘06, and have been involved in the pain-in-the-ass process of reclaiming my security deposit from them at small claims court. While we didn’t have the life-threatening issues that Sarah Taylor and current tenants faced, they have been criminally negligent since we moved out. I got my money back last week, with no thanks to Dale and Christine.
My blog is already linked from the Dale Newman arborwiki page. I’d like to add to it the thrilling resolution to my story: http://spiralslide.blogspot.com/2007/08/sarah-taylor-made-my-day.html
Dale Newman and Christine Dong have a decade-old criminal racket established where they never, ever return security deposits. It’s actually a profitable venture, and now that I know what the tenants have to go through, it makes sense. After filing the affidavits, “serving” them with a summons, winning the judgment in court, we have to garnish the rent from the next tenant — essentially asking a complete stranger to fill out paperwork. The intended result is that this interrupts their cash flow as they write checks to me instead of Dale and Christine.
As long as 50% or less of their tenants successfully complete this process, Dale and Christine make money.
For the record:
posted by Jeremy Bronson on September 17th, 2007 at 11:14 amThe owner of the property, John Schwartz, has taken over management of the properties (I think this was described in the article). He agreed to refund my security deposit money out of his own pocket in an effort to resolve a small aspect of the mess he’s inadvertently entered. Mr. Schwartz certainly comes off as a competent and businessman who had no idea how bad this situation was and is earnestly trying his best to right the situation. There is hope for the future with these properties. Hopefully Dale and Christine will end up behind bars when all is said and done as well.
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2007/10/dte_sues_ann_arbor_landlord_ov.html
More bad news for Dale Newman!!! Detroit Edison is suing his ass! YAY!!!
posted by Yup, HE SUXS! on October 10th, 2007 at 4:57 pm