CLEVELAND — Shaker Square tenants like Ronald James, living at the Residences at Shaker Square, say they're fed up having to live with what they call intermittent heating issues, water service interruptions and more.
James and other tenants living in three buildings owned by Shaker Heights Apartments Owner LLC told News 5 they've contacted Friedman Communities building management about multiple issues since January but are still dealing with multiple issues including chronic elevator problems, water leaks and alleged mold problems.
“So everybody is really cold in this building and really angry," James said. “They keep raising the rent, they keep making cosmetic changes. But all the improvements in this building have gone into empty suites so they can get more income, but the people living in these apartments aren’t getting any improvements. When we ask management about the issues they always say they’re trying as hard as they can, but they don’t do anything.”
Saretha Douglas, who is also a tenant at the complex, is hoping the City of Cleveland will take further action to get building owners to make more permanent heating and plumbing repairs.
“There's ceiling damage all throughout my apartment," Douglas said. “So walking out of one room and going to another is like walking outside. It’s completely cold, it’s terrible. They’re putting band-aids on everything instead of fixing it. How would you like it if your family had to stay in this cold, how would like it for your family could not flush the toilet?”
Some tenants, like Regina Burton, who lives at 12500 Shaker Boulevard, have taken their cases to Cleveland Housing Court and are exploring the legal ways they can withhold rent payments until repairs are made.
“We’re going to do escrow because there is no use sending anything to them," Burton said. "The only way they’re going to pay attention is if they don’t get that money each month.”
News 5 Contacted Cleveland Housing Court about this case, and it said Shaker Heights Apartments Owner LLC failed to show up for its Oct. 18 court date, so now the court is imposing fines.
Cleveland Housing Court issued the following statement:
There was an arraignment hearing set for 10/18/2022, where the defendant failed to appear. Their failure to appear, resulted in Shaker Heights Apartments Owner, LLC being placed on the Corporate Docket, where they will incur sanctions of $1000.00 per diem (per day) until they appear in person before the court. The next court date is set for 12/5/22 @ 1pm where they will appear on the corporate docket in room 13B of the Justice Center.
Any and all active eviction cases under this LLC, will be paused per the Courts Clean Hands Doctrine
News 5 also contacted Cleveland Building and Housing Director Sally Martin O'Toole about this case. She confirmed building inspectors were at the complex on Oct. 25, and that building management started repairs, restoring heat to the affected apartment units. Martin said she's now waiting to see what building violations are found by inspectors.
News 5 has made multiple attempts to reach out to building ownership through its Friedman Communities management team since Oct. 21, but we're still waiting for a response.
Meanwhile, Jay Westbrook with the Shaker Square Alliance, told News 5 there has been an increase in repair issues at apartment buildings in the Shaker Square neighborhood, in part due to a growing number of out-of-town investors buying up properties.
They’re bleeding the people for rent and not putting the money back into the building and pocketing it back to New York City,” Westbrook said. “Just in a two block radius of Shaker Square, there are 77 premium apartment buildings, classic apartment buildings in the day, that have been bled. These owners are from Boca Raton, from France, from Manhattan, from Utah, they come in to bleed the people."
There will be a meeting on Friday, Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. where concerned tenants will be able to meet with legal aid and tenant association leaders at 11811 Shaker Blvd. to discuss their issues.
Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin said that the city will take further action to help distressed tenants.
"I am beyond angry, I am beyond frustrated right now that we have seniors in the City of Cleveland, in this day and time, in this civilized country, that we have a landlord and we have an owner who has the audacity to make people live in this kind of circumstance," Griffin said. “This property has continued to raise prices on the rent here, and these are people who have made Cleveland their home, and I am going to talk to every attorney that I can to see if we can sue this group, that we can sue them.”
However, concerned tenants like Tony Dial are wondering how difficult it will be to legally track down the apartment building owners.
“You have out-of-town investors who have come here. What was their purpose in buying these three buildings, certainly not the purpose of bringing it up to code, because they have not done anything," Dial said.
“My question to the politicians is why is it that real estate gets a pass? If you check the LLCs that own these properties, there are four of them, well who’s the actual owner? So if you try to go after them, who do you go after?"
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