Posted on 01/12/2017 8:18:23 AM PST by Olog-hai
A US property firm linked to Irish TV celebrity and political activist Eddie Hobbs has been accused of leaving poor African American tenants in its West Detroit properties with no heat in the freezing Midwestern winter. Thirty-five percent of Detroit residents live in poverty while 57 percent of the city’s children do, among the highest rates in the country.
The company, Artesian Equities, is a subsidiary of Brendan Investment Pan European Property (BIPAP) of which Hobbs was a co-founder and served as a non-executive director before resigning in 2015 to co-found the right-of-center political Renua Party. He retained a 4.5% share in the company.
The person named by city authorities as in charge of the Detroit property for Artesian is Hugh O’Neill, an accountant from County Cork who is a long-time player in the property business. …
(Excerpt) Read more at irishcentral.com ...
Houses that sell for a dollar made becoming an offshore slumlord a viable business option.
What is the property Manager doing with the rent these people are paying? Rent can pay for building upkeep.
This reports only the tenants side of the story. If the tenants aren’t paying their rent, then they can’t complain about the heat. If they are paying their rents in a timely fashion, then the company is at fault. We need more details to judge the tenants’ plight.
Maybe Obummer can make a farewell speech in Detroit, where 110% of the voters vote Democrat. He blew enough hot air in Chicago to heat the hood for the rest of the winter.
i am thinking they are paying... they still have electricity... but what do i know... i have never been a renter...
I used to own rental property and it seemed that the electric company was a little more tolerant on late payments, since they never knew if there was some critical medical equipment being used. The gas company, however, was less forgiving.
Did the landlord disconnect the gas service? Or is it just that these deadbeats didn’t pay their bill?
Probably figured they would just burn peat to keep warm like in the old country!
Peat for heat usually comes in two forms: big dried-out sods and compressed “briquettes”. The BTU value is about half that of coal.
I decided to break with all standing FR tradition and read the article.
It says that this guy (a company he’s a partner in actually) owns 113 properties in Detroit. And that they are trying to sell all 113.
So it sounds like a house-flipping adventure to me. Buy it for a buck, and if you can eventually unload it for five grand you’re making incredible fistfuls of money.
It also says that he is some sort of consumer TV reporter in Ireland who gives out advice on how to deal with landlord problems....DOH!
And it sounds like the problems are physical/mechanical problems with furnaces that only work part of the time.
It also says authorities in Detroit have sanctioned other landlords for this, but can never do anything to this guy because he lives in Ireland.
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