Five True Stories of the Most Heartless Landlords Imaginable

Landlords and tenants have pretty straightforward agreements. The tenant provides a living space and the tenant pays to rent it. Most of the time these transactions flow pretty smoothly, and disputes or problems are worked out in the court system if the two parties can’t come to an agreement. There are, however, instances where the landlords use intimidation, shady practices and even violence against those to whom they rent. Some of the particularly awful landlords deserve special mention, as they are outstandingly bad property leasers.  Here are five landlords who are so heartless it’s hard to believe they are even landlords in the first place.

Namesake

You really have to be a bad landlord to have your name be linked to abusing tenants. British Landlord Peter Rachman’s exploit of tenants coined the term,  Rachmanism, which defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is “The exploitation and intimidation of tenants by unscrupulous landlords.” Rachman went the extra mile to make his tenants miserable, driving out rent control tenants, particularly in the Notting Hill area of England. According to Nerkpole.com, Rachman was at first perceived as a good guy, as he offered accommodations to many immigrants from the West Indies, but then proceeded to charge sky high rents, as these new renters did not have the same protection as his previous tenants. It was only until after his death in 1962 that his most grievous acts came to light, such as employing henchman to get his way and intimidate those who lived in his properties.

Good Samaritan Caught In Rent Collection Crossfire

Trying to collect rent that has fallen into arrears can be difficult; however, one landlord in Brooklyn took out his frustration by fatally shooting a male tenant, and threatening to kill another resident of his building in front of her children. The Daily News reported that this dispute in March of 2013, was over a mere $100 of back owed rent. The female tenant and her children escaped as the her son jumped out a window and ran for help, while her daughter bashed the shooter, 63 year old landlord Philip Estevez, in the head with a block of wood. The shooting victim, Luis Martinez, 51, was not the tenant who owed the rent; however, when seeing the female renter who owed the money being accosted for the overdue cash, he stepped in to intervene and received a shotgun blast to the chest from the homicidal landlord.

Sex Trade

With no where to live and now way to pay, many tenants find themselves in desperate circumstances and are literally at the mercy of their landlord. A landlord does have the right to start eviction proceedings; however, a prominent Republican Legislator decided to take the rent arrears out in trade—sex trade. According to a 2015 story at RawStory.com, Vermont state senator Norman McAllister was charged with trading sex for rent forgiveness with two female tenants. What makes his actions so reprehensible is that he had a position of public trust and championed strict rules when it comes to his poverty stricken constituents receiving assistance, “We want to take care of our people, but we also don’t want to support a habit,” McAllister was quoted as part of his quest to enforce random drug testing of people receiving public assistance in Vermont. Apparently, Mr. McAllister’s definition of “taking care of our people,” includes preying on the poor to satisfy his sexual needs.

Snake in the Bronx

Jacob Selechnik, aka “Jake the Snake” was featured in a New York Times article from 2008, Flush in a Recession, a Bronx Landlord Is Ready to Shop. In 2008, Jake had a ghetto empire of over 7,000 apartments, and saw the recession as an opportunity to add to his half a billion dollar net worth. During his 50 years in the slumlord business he has earned his notorious reputation for mistreating his tenants by refusing to build handicapped accessible ramps, subjecting his tenants to junk pileups, toxic mold, and bedbugs. He defends himself by saying that his nickname came from jealous competitors; however, a 2006 article in The Village Voice, credited Selechnik with racking up 15,260 housing-code violations on 110 properties. Since his retirement, he has handed the slumlord baton to his daughter, although he is cagy about how many of his residential properties he has given his daughter to run. He classifies himself as retired but still owns a good portion of the Bronx’s rental properties.

Daddy’s Little Girl

Being a bad landlord may be an inherited trait. According to KultureKritic.com, Robin Shimoff, 49, daughter of “Jake the Snake” has the dubious honor of owning the worst building of the city in 2014 — an apartment complex at 940 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. With 660 violations on her properties left open since 1980, she had done her father proud by carrying on the family tradition of renter abuse. The building is called “rat central” from the people who live there, and residents talk about how they can hear them scurrying in the walls at night. Garbage pileups, illegal garbage rooms, and buckets to catch the unfixed leaks make this a particularly horrendous place to live.

Dishonorable Mentions

Quiet Please!

In an article on Apartment Therapy, entitled Run, Don’t Walk: Worst-Landlord-Ever Stories, a Los Angeles renter detailed how in 2004, when his building was taken over by a private owner, many appliance in the building began mysteriously breaking down. The biggest problem was the smoke alarm, that was wired to notify all tenants if there was fire danger in the building. It kept malfunctioning and the landlord’s solution was to simply rip the entire noisy smoke detector out of the wall, instead of simply removing the batteries and repairing the unit. This scary landlord did this crazy action in violation of California Safety Code and at the risk of his tenant’s safety. He refused to replace the unit. Apparently, he wouldn’t tolerate any noise in his building, even at the jeopardy of his client’s lives.

Toxic Texas Landlords

There’s no law saying that a landlord has to clean up after his or her tenant, even when the apartments were used as meth labs. Ignoring the toxic by products left behind by previous tenants. If a seller is transacting with a buyer, they must disclose if the place was used to cook up illegal product; however, the State of Texas, particularly Austin, has a number of properties that were formerly drug labs that are currently for rent to unsuspecting tenants, according to Texas Landlords Rent Out Dirty Meth Labs.