DETROIT (WXYZ) — The City of Detroit is once again sounding the alarm involving roughly 400 properties, saying many of them have unsafe conditions for tenants.
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As a proud Detroiter who owns rental properties, Cheryl Cureton says she’s excited about homes being renovated across the city, and yet troubled to see others neglected.
“I’ve been here all my life. I’d like to see the city come together. Have better rental properties," said Cureton.
At a press conference today, Conrad Mallett with the Detroit Law Department responded to a Wayne County Circuit Court judge issuing a temporary restraining order barring the company Real Token LLC & affiliated companies from collecting rent until their properties are improved and issued a certificate of compliance.
Related Video: Detroit Corporate Counsel Conrad Mallett explains tenant protections
"Houses that really can’t be lived in, we are moving the people out," said Mallett.
The city says as many as 1,600 tenants could be impacted, and they’ll be notified within seven days.
Mallett says escrow accounts will be set up to hold rent deposits accessible to the landlord only to make repairs.
The city’s housing relocation services can also provide help.
“These properties are in such a degraded state, no way interested owners would not know their tenants are living in substandard housing," said Mallett.
Mallett adds some homes have no heat, running water or have partially collapsed rooms— all part of persistent health and safety violations.
According to the city, Real Token LLC, a blockchain-based property investment company, is also prohibited from pursuing eviction against some tenants living in distressed rentals.
The company has previously said unscrupulous property management firms have victimized them. They released the following updated statement:
"My client has been committed to providing safe, quality and affordable housing in Detroit. What the city is attempting to accomplish through the courts is to prevent my client from performing what they agree are critical renovations. By effectively halting the revenue used to fund those renovations, and preventing my client from removing squatters who have no rights to occupy the properties, there are no renovations that can be performed. With respect to the courts, we believe that it acted prematurely to grant the TRO. In fact, we can show that more than $220k of those infractions have nothing to do with safety whatsoever, with some administrative issues that were written as far back as 2005, 15 years prior to my client ever purchasing the property. The question for the city should be how did the city’s few inspectors conduct enough inspections to amass $600k in infractions on one property owner in a city where blight is a citywide challenge?"
The head of the law department says he’s also reaching out to the Michigan Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney's Office to review possible criminal violations.
