Shaker takes real estate company to court over ‘deplorable’ conditions at apartment

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — The city’s largest landlord faces prosecution over conditions at a twin apartment complex currently up for sale.

The three criminal complaints filed May 19 against Montlack Realty involve broken elevators for the five-story apartment buildings at 2515-2525 Kemper Road, although the city Building and Housing Department may have more cases coming.

At least one of the passenger elevators has been out of commission since 2020, longtime resident Patricia Carter told City Council Monday, saying that overuse of freight elevators has rendered disabled residents “apartment-bound.”

“I would like to make a comment about the deplorable conditions the residents — both adults and children — are living in,” Carter said. “The lawn is routinely cut but the inside of the building is in disrepair.”

Mayor David Weiss said that city officials are well aware of numerous issues they have been working on for months. And they will continue to pursue and follow up on addressing them, even as Montlack tries to sell the two buildings.

“We have had complaints that led to charges being filed.” Weiss told Carter. “And we are aware that the buildings are for sale. As a result (and at the request of the owner in early March) we did a point-of-sale inspection and there are a significant number of violations.”

In all, there were 743 interior and 13 exterior violations cited, with a compliance date set for June 15, City Law Director William Ondrey Gruber noted.

Separate from those, “we do have a number of other complaints that are likely to be brought to the law department for further action,” Gruber told Carter, adding that “the Building and Housing Department has issued complaint citations on a number of issues you’ve raised, very accurately listing a lot of problems we have found.”

Laundry list

Carter said she also provided a list of contested items she wanted Montlack to address when she placed her rent in an escrow account, including those issues she presented to council:

— The complex is not secured at both entrance doors, “so anyone can walk in off the street,” Carter said.

The city ordered a damaged door to a foyer to be repaired “but as of now (May 24) it is unresolved.” This was also cited on the point-of-sale inspection.

There was also a double-citing on a broken intercom buzzer system which also had yet to be corrected.

— “The building I reside in is rodent-infested from the basement laundry room and also within individual apartments on several floors,” Carter said.

Under the heading of “rodents infestation,” the city cited the owner and required this be corrected, Gruber said. A re-inspection in March found the problem remained, so a second notice was issued.

— “The trash Dumpster remains full, with trash beside it, on top of it, and on the ground for several weeks,” Carter said. “And it basically draws rodents and other pests within the neighborhood to that area.”

Gruber said after the city received complaints about loose trash, it ordered a cleanup and it was corrected by Feb. 10.

As for other pests, the city also cited Montlack for “cockroach infestation,” which had not been corrected, with a second notice issued in March.

“Re-inspections show there are still problems, so the Building and Housing Department will be discussing further legal action with the law department concerning the list of issues above,” Gruber added.

Meanwhile, the city has the criminal complaints in Shaker Heights Municipal Court pending against Montlack regarding the elevators at both buildings.

“There are three separate cases — one for each elevator cited,” Gruber said, with arraignment on all three set for June 21. “The fourth, a freight elevator, had its service restored.”

Carter also noted that interior routine maintenance has declined throughout the buildings on the hallways and stairwells in terms of cleaning and vacuuming, as well as proper lighting. She added that residents have also gone without heat during periods of fluctuating temperatures.

Throughout the winter and spring, Carter also took her concerns to the monthly meetings of the Shaker Square Alliance and the Morelands Group, who recommended she address City Council.

“I’m here speaking for a clean, safe and sanitary building,” Carter told council on May 23. “And I also wish that this would be considered an emergency, because we have schools that will be letting out in Shaker for the summer and children will be roaming the building and surrounding yard and we need for them to be safe.”

Contacted online and by phone, Montlack officials were unavailable for comment following the council meeting.

Council reaction

Council members Tres Roeder and Carmella Williams said they have heard from residents of other buildings around town with similar sorts of issues and would like to see a more proactive approach taken.

While work is being done on some of the violations, Roeder said “it would be nice to get ahead of this.”

Williams agreed, saying that in promoting safe conditions, the city should look at ways to “incentivize” building owners to move quickly on correcting violations.

Vice Mayor Sean Malone asked if Montlack was being represented by legal counsel in the pending cases.

“We have not had much contact with them and unfortunately, I can’t say we’ve had a great deal of cooperation from the owners,” Gruber said, adding that the potential sale of the property might be a good thing, with new ownership welcome.

As for the point-of-sale inspection and pending violations, Gruber explained that if the building transfers to a new owner, “either the violations have to have been corrected pre-transfer, or a point-of-sale escrow account has to be established with the city to cover 150 percent of the cost of correcting the violations.”

A new owner would then be given additional time to correct the violations.

“Whether it sells or not, we will continue to prosecute these matters fully,” Gruber added.

City Building and Housing Department Director Kyle Krewson said Montlack (through various legal entities) remains the largest rental property owner in the city — at least for now — in terms of the number of units.

“However, in November of last year, we received point-of-sale applications for 11 of his 16 buildings, Krewson said, adding that those 11 apartment buildings have about 450 units.

The two buildings currently facing prosecution have 95 units, with 89 percent occupancy as of mid-February.

“The elevators seem to go in and out of service on a regular basis, so I can’t say for certain which ones are operational at the moment,” Krewson added May 26. “But I will say that within the last several months, we do know that each building has been down to one or no elevators at times.”

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