LOCAL

Attorney: Owners of Eaton Rapids apartments used 'predatory practices'

Rachel Greco
Lansing State Journal

EATON RAPIDS - Before Zac Williams moved out of Edgewater Apartments in April of 2019 maintenance issues were rarely addressed by management, he said. Forms with requests for repairs filled out by tenants sat in a pile on a counter in the complex's main office, Williams said.

While he lived there Williams said the complex's first-floor hallway flooded with water, tenants found what looked like black mold inside shared portions of the building and many went without hot water and heat for up to three weeks between the months of December and February 2018.

Williams left Edgewater Apartments in April of last year, breaking his lease six months before it expired.

He's among 25 current and former tenants of the 80-unit Eaton Rapids apartment complex seeking compensation for a host of maintenance issues from Harvest Properties, the Connecticut-based company that owns Edgewater Apartments.

A view of Edgewater Apartments on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, in Eaton Rapids.

William Amadeo and Matthew McManus, Ann Arbor attorneys representing them, said just under half of the people they represent still live at Edgewater Apartments.

The rest moved out due to "horrific conditions," Amadeo said.

They deserve compensation for paying rent to live there despite a host of ongoing problems, they said, but negotiation talks with the company are at a standstill.

Mark Paley, listed as a principal contact for Harvest Properties through the Better Business Bureau's website, didn't return a message from the State Journal last week.

"I just wish Edgewater would help these poor people," Amadeo said. "It's sad what they went through and we want to bring them some relief."

Maintenance issues 

Problems with inadequate heat and hot water at Edgewater Apartments go back to December of 2017, Eaton Rapids Mayor Paul Malewski said.

By mid-January tenants were still reporting heat and hot water issues, he said, and those issues extended into February of 2018. The city issued citations to the property owner, he said.

"It was hard for these people," Malewski said. "A lot of them had to be without heat or substantial heat for six weeks."

A view of Edgewater Apartments on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, in Eaton Rapids.

Former Edgewater resident Glenda Lyon said she struggled with heat and hot water issues before she left the complex in May of 2018.

"It would be fixed and then it would be cold again," she said. 

Lyon said when she lived there the complex's downstairs lobby flooded, the property's garage doors were broken and routine maintenance issues, including plowing of the snow on the property's sidewalks and in its parking lot, weren't addressed.

She left five months before her lease expired because the complex management didn't provide reasonable living conditions for tenants, Lyon said. Then Harvest Properties turned her over to collections for breaking her lease.

"I still haven't paid it," Lyon said.

Williams said when he first moved into Edgewater an onsite manager was usually available for tenants, but by 2018 Harvest Properties were "absentee landlords."

"A lot of the time the office was completely understaffed," he said.

Friday an employee who answered a call to Edgewater Apartment's phone number declined to give her name. The property's manager is only on site Mondays, she told the State Journal.

Former Edgewater Property Manager Milka Luna, who worked at the complex from 2014 to 2017, said boiler problems were an issue then, but an on-site maintenance staffer dealt with them when they arose.

"They would just say, 'Do what you can,'" Luna said, of the company's response when issues came up. "That was always the answer." 

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A view of Edgewater Apartments on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, in Eaton Rapids.

State complaints about Harvest Properties

McManus said after reviewing different leases from tenants at Edgewater Apartments he believes some of the language violates state law.

The complex engaged in "predatory practices," he said.

According to Harvest Properties website, the company owns property in nine states, including 12 apartment and townhouse complexes in Michigan.

Among them is Edgewater in Eaton Rapids, Devonshire on Canal in Lansing and Grand Oak Tree Village in Grand Ledge.

Between 2011 and 2017, the Michigan's Attorney General's office received 10 complaints against Harvest Properties, spokesperson Kelly Rossman-McKinney said, but none involved Edgewater Apartments.

All of those complaints, including two at Devonshire on Canal, were handled through mediation, Rossman-McKinney said.

The state's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs hasn't received any complaints regarding Edgewater Apartments or Harvest Properties, said spokesperson Matthew Erickson.

Malewski said a recently adopted rental inspection ordinance in Eaton Rapids will require regular inspections of rental properties throughout the city. Those should begin in April.

Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.