The recent news that Wisconsin Management Company won’t let the finance of Brittany Zimmerman out of his lease shines a light on what most consider a flaw in Wisconsin law and the probably not-so-surprising heartlessness of a particular management company. People keep asking me what can be done. Unfortunately, the Student Tenant Union suggestion of a rent strike to put pressure on the management company may be one way to get the company to do the right thing. It’s clear from the interactions Channel 27 and the Wisconsin State Journal have had with president of this company, Russ Endres, that he is not backing down.
At first I thought that maybe there was a small landlord who owned the property and they would be struggling if they lost a few months worth of rent. Then I found out that the owner of the property, Carl and Janet VanRooy are partners of Wisconsin Management Company and own and manage properties in Indianapolis, Kansas City, Michigan and Florida as well as own at least a dozen others in Madison.
I also thought maybe some staff person at the company was just following company policy and following the rules and not thinking outside the box. Apparently, that wasn’t the case either. Their first excuse was that they haven’t talked to Jordan and can’t talk to anyone else on his behalf. Seems ridiculous because the Dean of Student Office have tried to contact them several times on Jordan’s behalf who likely is not in any condition to be dealing with these things.
Their second excuse for not doing the right this is that they are using the old landlord stand-by of “we have to treat everyone the same”. Ummm . . . ok, so what would be wrong with every time someone gets murdered in your apartment, you let the roommates out of the lease? That would be treating everyone the same.
At the Tenant Resource Center, one of the worst jobs we have is telling family members of the deceased, typically an elderly person who died, that they are still responsible for paying the rent. Luckily, most landlords do the right thing and figure out how to work things out with the family and just charge them rent until the family gets the deceased’s property out of the apartment and then forgive the rest of the lease. Unfortunately, that means that Brittany Zimmerman/her family, who is jointly and severally liable, is also still responsible for her rent. For the last few sessions, someone at the capital has tried to change this law, but so far, no success.
At this point, the best advice Tenant Resource Center can give to Jordan is to write a letter to his landlord telling them when he will have his stuff out of the apartment. At that point, it becomes the landlords responsibility to “mitigate their damages”, meaning they have to try to re-rent the apartment with all of the typical advertising methods they typically use. Jordan then becomes responsible for those costs plus rent until a new renter is found or the lease expires. If he doesn’t pay, the landlord would have to take him to small claims court to get a judgment for the money. More information available here.
Meanwhile, I’m sure the tenants of Wisconsin Management Company are wondering what could happen to them if they participate in the rent strike. Very generally speaking, this is what could happen:
If the tenants have a year’s lease and they haven’t gotten a 5-day notice for non-payment of rent in the past year, the first thing that will happen is that they will get a 5-day notice to pay their rent. Then they will have to make a decision. Should they pay their rent within the 5 days, with no consequences, or stand behind Jordan (and Brittany) and not pay their rent. If they don’t pay their rent, Wisconsin Management Company will have to take them to court. At court, the tenants face another choice. If the write out a check on the spot, the court will likely stop the eviction action. The court may make them pay court costs and attorney fees. If the tenant chooses to get evicted, they could move out or they could make the sheriff serve them and Wisconsin Management Company would have to hire bonded movers or put up their own bond to move all the stuff of all the tenants who refuse to move. In order to get their things back they would need to pay the storage fees. Tenants who worked it out would risk getting a bad landlord reference for the one non-payment of rent and if they are late on their rent again in the next year, the landlord could give them a 14 day notice without a right to cure. If they went to court, they would have an “eviction on their record”, however, if they settle in court the case would be dismissed and technically they would not be evicted. More on the eviction process here.
It is important to know that there are retaliation laws in place to protect tenants. Simply joining a tenant union or enforcing your rights (calling the building inspector to get repairs done) means that a landlord cannot retaliate against you. More info on retaliation here.
Meanwhile, I hope some of the business organizations in town, of which Wisconsin Management Company is a member, such as the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Madison Inc. and the Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin will try to talk some sense into the Russ Endres, the President of this company.
Whatever happens, I hope Wisconsin Management Company moves quickly to get this resolved and does the right thing. Otherwise, they get the dubious honor of taking the Isthmus “Landlord from Hell” title from the now deceased Bill Kozak.
