Tenants Face Eviction From Detroit Apartment After Withholding Rent Over Housing Conditions

The tenants will still face evictions after a court ruling sided with the landlords.

Aggrieved tenants at a Detroit apartment complex are facing eviction following a court ruling.

Residents at the City Club Apartments and a local housing advocate believe that the judge failed to implement housing codes that protect tenants from losing their residence. Detroit Metro Times reports they now want city officials to prevent nearly 20 renters from being kicked out of the high-rise building.

The tenants held their rent in escrow after their landlord failed to fix severe maintenance issues, which included water damage and plumbing concern. The persistent problems led the renters to withhold rent. Instead of resolving the matter, the complex’s management company, Friedman Management, reportedly filed eviction notices.

However, the 750 Chene Tenants Association and Detroit Tenants Association believe the renters were legally within their rights not to pay up. The building lacks a certificate of compliance, which, under Detroit city codes, should prohibit landlords from collecting rent or filing evictions for nonpayments.

Despite this, the filing would jeopardize the renter’s screening reports, potentially causing issues if they chose to move elsewhere.

“It’s a really messy situation,” expressed Steven Rimmer, an organizer. “The building hasn’t been compliant for a long time. Some of these people escrowed their rent, and they can’t afford these eviction cases. The city law clearly says if an apartment is not compliant, they can’t collect rent or evict residents.”

Tenants’ experiences include constant car break-ins due to a broken security gate and a dead possum that remained in the pool for days. City officials have taken some steps, such as issuing an inspection that led to $1,000 in ticket violations for compliance issues.

The tenants, emphasized that they were not trying to take advantage of the complex. They refuse to live in shabby conditions while paying high-rise prices.

“I’m not trying to get out of rent,” explained resident Cyle Anderson. “They don’t recognize our right to withhold rent as tenants.”

However, judges have yet to uphold tenants’ legal rights due to an underlying issue in the Detroit eviction system. According to Rimmer, the judges “feel the city of Detroit doesn’t have adequate staff to do adequate inspections, so they aren’t going to fault the landlords for not being in compliance.”

Furthermore, there remains a lack of clarity on who currently owns the building. Friedman management has said the property was placed into receivership by its original owner, Jonathan Holtzman. The previous owner has also missed payments on loans totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.