evil landlord - DO NOT RENT
Pros
this apartment is beautiful, no doubt. we lived on the top floor of the building and loved the space and character of the building. the neighborhood is nice, always had lovely neighbors, and the stoop is a great place to gather.
Cons
many areas of this home were in states of complete disrepair. holes and cracks in the 120 year old building were filled with steel wool and spray foam. we had mice issues that the landlord didn’t address and were only resolved after getting a cat to deter mice. if an appliance broke, the likelihood of any speedy repair was very low - in fact, it was written into the lease that we had no right to expect repairs of appliances from the landlord. the “renovations” to the apartment (including dividing the apartment to make bedrooms) were done shoddily, with cheap materials, and mostly completed by the landlord who claimed to be a contractor but certainly did not do work up to code. the other reviews say it all. john hetherman preys mostly on young people, especially foreign students, who will be less likely to stand up for themselves and seek litigations for the many tenants laws he breaks. we were flawless tenants and i did many showings for him in other neighborhoods when necessary (which he only sometimes followed through on payment for). despite all this, he was uncommunicative at the end of our tenancy and we did not receive info about our security deposit until exactly 14 days after lease end (the legal limit for him to send back deposits). as we knew he did to many other tenants before us, he wrote a list of ridiculous things to charge us for and stole our entire security deposit. he even demanded another $1000 or so. he relies on tenants not seeing him through to small claims court, which usually means he wins because it’s impossible to get him for these things. i’ve truly never met a more evil person in the flesh, especially because he can be so charismatic when he wants to. i dream of a day when actual action can be taken against him (believe me, i’ve tried) but for now all i can do is add this review to the list and urge anyone renting from a John Hetherman to run and be prepared to seek litigation
Advice to the owners
do not buy anymore properties, since you can not be present to deal with them when you live in michigan and have no official super, just random tenants who get rent reductions to do you favors
landlord nightmare, AVOID
Pros
beautiful old building
Cons
landlord makes you do your own repairs, lies to tenants constantly, illegally changes rent prices, has consistently lied about damages upon move out
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/-73.971461,40.643369,14/640x640@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1Ijoib3BlbmlnbG9vIiwiYSI6ImNsYjNmMjVwdzBjeHgzd21wYmJmZDB0eGYifQ.XZvZCOh51yXuDBE-I3Bg0A)