Mistreatment by MTH Management

Frequent Management Handover Leads to Poor Outcomes for Residents

Due to the housing shortage in Washtenaw County, many residents – including myself – settle for deplorable living conditions. I have made 108 Washtenaw in Ypsilanti my home for over four years, during which property management has changed hands three times. With each subsequent manager, the expectations of the residents of 108 have been forcibly lowered. When I moved in–Fall 2020–the building was managed by Beal Properties (and owned by someone else) until 11/1/22. During the summer of 2022, the building was sold to Ian Greenlee, who then took over management in November 2022 with his property management company called Red Shield Rentals. On 3/20/23 we were notified that Red Shield would no longer serve as management, and effective immediately Beal Properties became our property management once again, until 11/17/23 when MTH Management took over. They are our current property manager.

The last fourteen months have been nothing less than reprehensible under the management style of new business MTH Property Management, based out of Lansing. The owner has refused to directly communicate with me on a myriad of severe issues in the building. MTH has consistently chosen expansion and rent extraction over experience, competence, and basic business structures such as standard operating procedures, communication, and safety measures.

Unsafe Living Conditions Due to Incompetent Management

The horrors begin with a new lock added to the outside vestibule of our building in Fall 2023. For years, we have had men break into our building, pass out in the vestibule, under the stairs, and in the laundry room. Somehow I became the neighbor of choice to be asked, “Rachael, would you mind looking to see if the man under the stairs is dead or alive? I am too scared.” Having witnessed men shooting up and dropping needles, I asked management (Beal Properties, at the time) if they would please put on a new lock. Stewart Beal responded with an excuse that he had to go through the Ypsilanti Historical Society to get approval first, so the tenants of 108 waited a total of three years to get a lock. Unfortunately, the lock was installed incorrectly in September of 2023 and the means of protection were not remedied until early November 2023.

Stewart Beal’s team also made it so the tenants of 108 did not receive mail for four months upon switching management. They were responsible for notifying and supplying keys to USPS and others. Thus between December 2023 and March 2024 the tenants of 108 regularly were not receiving mail! For example, my tax forms were sent back to my employer, who asked for me to come over and pick them up in person. This mail delivery was First Class, which means it must go into the mailbox or back to the sender. My neighbor, who got his insulin medication stolen because delivery could not enter the building, resorted to waiting for hours each day on his feet just to be able to pick up his medication. MTH property never responded to our complaints, and the mail only started coming regularly again because my neighbor printed keys and supplied them to USPS directly.

Condemnable Circumstances

Our building has severe heating problems. From the end of February 2023 through early April I did not have consistent heat in my apartment. One large radiator was cold to the touch, and the other was barely warm. I put out multiple maintenance requests and was never met with a proactive answer, other than on three different occasions being told I would be delivered space heaters and they never showed up. This also affected the water temperatures in the bathroom.

I filed a complaint with Ypsilanti’s Housing Inspector about not having heat in 30–40 degree temperatures of late winter/early spring. They asked me if my neighbors and I had another place to live, because even if I alone was not getting heat, they would have to condemn the whole building. I did not want to displace my neighbors and MTH still has not acknowledged or tried to remedy the situation.

I asked for rent reimbursement for the months I did not have heat and have been stonewalled. I have not once received a call back from upper management. Our property managers have shown that they cannot solve the very problems that their job titles imply.

Our building is also infested with pharaoh ants and cockroaches, for which the building has never properly treated. I have at least 2 years of maintenance requests for pest control just over cockroaches, which worsens when one unit gets treated but the next-door neighbor does not. This sends the roaches to crawl through the walls and into other units. I have documented requests that moulding be added to the floor to prevent pests from entering and moving through the building, but to no avail. Our current pest control is outsourced to a company in Grand Ledge, and when my place was treated just last week, mine was the only apartment in the building that was going to receive this service

“Due to the housing shortage in Washtenaw County, many residents – including myself – settle for deplorable living conditions”

Building Residents Band Together

These events are examples of mistreatments that led to forming the 108 tenants union. We share a frustration that MTH has not been providing secure mail delivery, heated home, warm water, pest-free living concerns, and have been carelessly ignoring the safety concerns of trespassers in our building. I am at my wit’s end with how I must twist arms with MTH to be taken seriously. Due to my persistent escalation of concern and refusal to back down, I am being retaliated against. After airing complaints to an MTH employee over phone she questioned “Why would you want to live here if it is so bad?” to which I replied, “Because it is my HOME.” I deserve a safe, secure, healthy home, and so do my neighbors. As of 2/6/2025, I have been given a notice to vacate or face eviction

Call to Action

My hope is that MTH and Ian Greenlee receive this message loud and clear: Your business failings have a deeply harmful impact on the very thing you seek to profit from, and you should learn how to better serve your tenants – legally. If you simply communicated directly with my neighbors and me, hired professionals, and outsourced contractors to help when we immediately needed help, then I would not have had to be so vocal in standing up for myself and others. I deserve a safe space, and so does every person who is renting from Ian Greenlee and Stewart Beal. 

     If these landlords and property management companies cannot comply with the above provisions I’d like to see the city impose higher fines for those who refuse to take care of their buildings and their tenants. It seems that many would rather take a measly fine than actually fix a problem. Small fines allow them more time to disregard their work and continue to collect rent as revenue. I also hope to see a new property management come into town who abides in a high degree of morals, ethics, and values. It means nothing that these local businesses say they care, as they have time and again proved by their actions that they do not; they continue to get away with mismanagement and retaliate against those like me. This needs to stop.