My Rental Experience With Hollister Enterprises of Richmond, Virginia

"You can move out this weekend!" and "If you and your neighbors don't like it here you can just move!" exclamations heard on the Boulevard by my landlord on the afternoon of September 24, 2008. What could possibly compel a landlord that receives rent on time every month from a good tenant to lose his temper and seemingly order the tenant out of his building? Well on this day the property owner found out about the community blog 10SBoulevard.com that I and neighbors operated for more than a year.

Our blog, originally an informal communications venue for our tenant association, had at that point grown into more than just a site for people within one building to share important community and public safety information. The site's fresh writing style and constant stream of content unexpectedly created a vehicle for a new form of hyper local journalism that readers throughout the Fan and Museum District find compelling.

What's The Problem?

"Your site is taking money out of my wallet!" shouted the landlord from the street on this September day. When I asked what he meant by that he explained that our coverage of area crimes, hit and runs, and termite swarms were hurting his business. I explained that the availability of this information to his tenants and area residents was helping people act proactively to avoid becoming victims of crime, but he would not budge. He insisted he was right, I was wrong and my lease was invalid effective immediately. (See our blog coverage of this confrontation at 10SBoulevard.com)

Unlawful Lease Termination

Several days after this confrontation I received a certified letter stating I was in violation of my lease and had until the end of October to find a new place to live. The landlord cited political campaign posters affixed to my office desk, our blog webcam on the porch, and a tiki torch located on my front porch. None of these supposed "violations" are actually in my rental agreement and none are supported by the Virginia Landlord Tenant Act that governs residential leases. All of these manufactured justifications were but red herrings to distract from the fact that my landlord A) Does not like the idea of people knowing about public safety issues near their home and B) Definitely does not like the idea of tenants organizing to promote a better experience within his properties. No, my lease termination was in fact retaliatory action prohibited under the law.

My Lease Renewal

One of my landlord's favorite gotcha tactics for earning extra cash from tenants is the "3 month notice" clause in rental agreements. Under this clause tenants must notify the property owners 90 days before their lease ends of their intent to terminate otherwise the lease automatically renews. Failure to terminate by their rules means they keep the tenant's security deposit and sometimes bill for additional rent.

Just two weeks prior to the landlord's outburst and demands for my departure I received a letter informing me that my rent would be increased and that they very much enjoy having me as a tenant and would like me to renew. I received the letter 91 days prior to the end of my lease giving me just 24 hours to decide whether or not to spend an extra $660 on rent per annum. At this point I had chosen to renew as I am rather fond of the Boulevard neighborhood and the amenities offered by my prime living location.

So lets recap: September 24 my landlord says I am a bad tenant, a troublemaker and I need to get out immediately, while on August 29 I am the best tenant ever and my lease is renewed. All of the reasons for my lease termination cited in the September 24 notice existed when my landlord praised my residency on August 29, in fact these conditions existed for 12 months or more without complaint.

I'm Staying

With the law, my lease and my neighbors on my side I opted to stay. My lease was valid and I informed my landlord I would be residing here for 15 more months until my lease expires December 1, 2009.

For the next three months I continued to receive certified letters every few weeks with ill tempered outbursts demanding I move out immediately and included all new manufactured justifications for terminating my lease. The reasons ranged from visible political signs in my apartment (yes, I work in politics so you will probably see signs in my apartment supporting X candidate) to demands I remove my barbeque grill that sat on my porch for 15 months without complaint. In the interests of mitigating conflict I removed the grill and the decorative tikis that were among the causes for "termination."

Retaliation!

Shortly after all this shenanigans hit the fan my apartment's condition slipped from bad to worse. My landlord is famous for his jerrybuilt property: a door knob made out of a bent nail, plywood kitchen counters, a fire escape made of scrap wood, and unfortunately in my case a 385 pound cast iron bathtub supported by a small block of wood. That's right, rather than use a cast iron leg that is designed to support this tub, mine rests upon a jenga tower teetering on collapse at any moment.

On October 1 that collapse happened with the bathtub falling over, crushing all the drain pipes underneath it and snapping the shower plumbing pipes in half. Eager to get rid of me and surely out for retaliation my landlord waited 11 days before bothering to repair the broken plumbing.

So for 11 days I was without a shower and had a bathtub that gushed water out upon the floor. For those two weeks I called, I wrote I even went so far as to hire a plumber of my own to fix the problem. Unfortunately for me, the plumber would not fix the damaged equipment without permission from the property owner, and naturally they would not grant this permission.

Much like other repairs around the building this one was left incomplete. For two months I sent certified letter after certified letter explaining my bathtub was leaking water onto the floor and I was fearful of structural damage from water soaked and rotting floorboards and the growth of toxic molds. Each of which was ignored and no meaningful repair action taken to solve the problem.

Calling The Cavalry

After all these attempts to compel repair of the structure failed I had no choice but to contact Richmond's Department of Code Enforcement with a list of dangerous conditions existing on the property. After taking pictures and documenting all these violations my report to Code Enforcement reached 13 pages in length.

Code Enforcement visited the property and discovered shocking and dangerous structural conditions that were neglected and allowed to grow out of control. The most serious danger discovered was a three story tall wooden fire escape whose support footings rotted many years ago only to be replaced with an automobile tire jack.

Code Enforcement ordered these structures repaired immediately to prevent a catastrophic incident in the event of a fire. The landlord commenced work disassembling the fire escapes immediately, but failed to secure a Building Permit necessary for the construction project. The failure to secure a permit forced construction to a halt leaving residents without any means of escaping in the event of a fire. The construction project on these decaying fire escapes began in October 2008 and remain incomplete in May of 2009.

After notifying Code Enforcement of these problems I received yet another letter from the property owner's demanding I leave and casually dismissed my concerns and complaints about safety problems in the building. The letter concluded with: "We find it amusing that you have found so many problems with the building, yet your still want to stay after we have released you from the lease."

Shocking words of amusement about safety and liability concerns that any responsible landlord would take seriously and remedy.

Continued Retaliation & Harrassment

One of the so called amenities of living in 10 S Boulevard is that heat is provided by the landlord and included in the lease. The apartment regulations in Richmond state that units must be 65 degrees in all habitable locations from October 15 to May 1. Our property owner keeps the heat on a timer thinking no one will notice there's no heat between 9 AM and 4 PM. This lack of heating and a thermostat set to 67 degrees in the basement of the 3 story structure frequently results in the temperature dropping to below 60 degrees in units on winter days.

As a result of documenting this rigged heating configuration and sending documentation to the Code Enforcement division the landlord changed the locks on the basement door, delivered keys to all the tenants but me, and stated that I was guilty of propping the door open and I was not to be given a key.

Conclusion

Unfortunately this story is surely not complete and I remain concerned for my safety and anyone that chooses to live in or near this structure. There are serious safety problems that remain uncorrected and the property owners remain unconcerned and unresponsive to requests for remedy. For example I have requested a burned out light bulb on a wobbly fire escape be replaced every month for the past 5 months to no avail. Surely a landlord will not break the bank with the purchase of a 79 cent replacement light bulb.

I want to live someplace that feels safe and I do not feel safe living in 10 South Boulevard. I pay my rent on time, every month and proactively work to make my community a better place to call home. My experience living in this poorly maintained property calls into question whether Richmond's Government is doing an adequate job ensuring properties meet a basic standard of safety. How many other buildings are in a state of decay as bad as this one or worse?

As for us at 10 S Boulevard: I am still here and we are continuing our mission at 10SBoulevard.com to make our neighborhood a better place to call home.

Please take a few moments to view the attached photos of problems I have documented around this building and the correspondence with my landlords.

Update

As a result of my blogging and candor about the problems at 10 S Boulevard I was kindly evicted by Hollister Enterprises. Here's what the local media has to say: