Is anyone familiar with that phrase? Apparently it's happening with my apartment building and the new management.

I live in the lower Northeast, in a neighborhood not too far from Oxford Circle. Doing a quick search of this site's forum shows many threads explaining how bad the Oxford Circle section has gotten recently and all the new shootings/crime. Last year, my boyfriend and I got a 1-bedroom apartment and because we were on a limited budget, got one from a privately-owned 3-story apartment building(this is NOT a complex/community, or anything even listed on apartmentratings.com). It was run by a management company that also runs several other similar apartment buildings throughout the city. The landlord was cool as $hit, reminded me of Puck from MTV's The Real World, but expressed frustration with many of the "deadbeat" tenants who weren't paying their rent. Over half a year later, my individual building only, gets sold to a different management company. From what I've experienced, this new company hasn't done very much.

The new manager is never in his office, which is simply a small rental office in one of the several other apartment buildings he runs, thus making the office phone number(posted on the sign for the building) useless. He has us send our rent payments all the way to a mere PO Box in Brick, NJ and his cell number is a 732 area code(also NJ). It is hard to get in touch with the manager, even for things that would benefit him, like finding out the address for me to send my rent money to, or notifying him of my move-out date so he can advertise the apartment ahead of time. Maintenance problems is a different story! I haven't noticed many new tenants moving in lately.

I asked my friends about this, even wrote about it on several other Internet forums, and the term mentioned was "slumlording," i.e. new management is holding onto this building as a way to make easy money from rent without doing much to improve/maintain it. Does this happen a lot in Philly? It seems more plausible for apartments in poor neighborhoods. Another suggestion was that the new management has alterior motives, such as to convert the building to offices/condominiums/something else, and are simply waiting for the tenants to gradually move out at the end of the lease. I read somewhere that a landlord has to vacate the building completely before being able to carry out extensive renovation work. What do you guys think is up with the apartment building? Is this whole "M.I.A. landlord" thing typical, or does it seem kinda weird?

You're going to have people reply Speed that yes this happens and is getting even more common, BUT all is not lost. How can that be? They'll tell you to file complaints, and blabadee, blah, and make a difference, and the absentee landlord will be fined, and la-dee-dah.

There's a duples a few blocks from me, and then one catacorner to it. The Chinese man lived there with his family in the one. Very nice people. Well, when the owner died across the street this Chinese man purchased that too.

Guess what? The entire lot of them are now missing in action. Can't be found. What's that mean? Go out, and shovel your snow, and then walk to the store, and traipse over entire pavements front and side which weren't shoveled. I can't wait until summer. That'll be great when the lawn grows as tall as corn husks. Of course we can get CLIP to give him a notice or warning, but they'll have to go up to New York to find him.

It's all too common, and at this rate most of all our corner properties have all just been purchased by people who live in NYC. Nice huh? Don't speak a lick of English, but you've purchased up all these properties, and are now renting them all out or Section 8ing them.

[quote=speedbuggin]
I live in the lower Northeast, in a neighborhood not too far from Oxford Circle. Doing a quick search of this site's forum shows many threads explaining how bad the Oxford Circle section has gotten recently and all the new shootings/crime. Last year, my boyfriend and I got a 1-bedroom apartment and because we were on a limited budget, got one from a privately-owned 3-story apartment building(this is NOT a complex/community, or anything even listed on apartmentratings.com). It was run by a management company that also runs several other similar apartment buildings throughout the city. The landlord was cool as $hit, reminded me of Puck from MTV's The Real World, but expressed frustration with many of the "deadbeat" tenants who weren't paying their rent. Over half a year later, my individual building only, gets sold to a different management company. From what I've experienced, this new company hasn't done very much.

The new manager is never in his office, which is simply a small rental office in one of the several other apartment buildings he runs, thus making the office phone number(posted on the sign for the building) useless. He has us send our rent payments all the way to a mere PO Box in Brick, NJ and his cell number is a 732 area code(also NJ). It is hard to get in touch with the manager, even for things that would benefit him, like finding out the address for me to send my rent money to, or notifying him of my move-out date so he can advertise the apartment ahead of time. Maintenance problems is a different story! I haven't noticed many new tenants moving in lately. [quote=speedbuggin]

Speedbuggin - It is unfortunate, but it is a reality. Most of Oxford Circle, Mayfair and slowly creeping up throughout the Northeast is now becoming high rental area with property owners being from other States.
This has happened for many reasons. Mostly a domino effect, but many people from Philadelphia and surrounding areas just don't want to buy in these areas and buyers from New York and such don't find the real estate prices a burden compared to what they are accustomed to in New York, so it's a low risk investment for out of towners and Philly folk just don't want the headache of being landlords for the most part because of many of the tenants that cause so much damage to property and other headaches.
Unfortunately, there are tenants like you that get "stuck" in these no win situations.
You can do a few things:
1. Although it is an expense, it would be less aggravating for you to find another place to live. The cost involved is obviously the downpayments, security, moving expenses, etc. I assume you have a security deposit to be refunded to you, which you will probably by the sounds of it have some trouble recovering.
2. You can stay and just put up with it until there is a better time for you to relocate
3. You can begin action by taking this new owner to landlord/tenant court, but it will be a long drawn out issue and in the end you will probably end up moving anyway.
I'm sorry that you have found yourself in this position. It happens all to often.
I don't know anything about your finances, age, job, if you have children, etc or what you are looking for in the way of the area you live in. Parking, safety, transportation, shopping, culture, restaurants, schools, whatever...but, you can find out a lot about different areas in and around Philadelphia by watching this blog and going into the threads from other neighborhoods.
If it's possible for you to save for a downpayment, the real estate market is leveling off a bit and prices are starting to stabalize. You might be able to buy a house and not have to depend on the landlord for repairs or other issues.
Keep in mind with owning that you will have repairs, maintainence, taxes, insurance, utilities, and all that go with owning.
If you rather rent, maybe look into something somewhere that is in a better area. If you can afford it. The rents will be higher, but sometimes you can be surprised.
Good luck to you.

I wouldn't call it "slumlording" so much as "mismanagement." There are a lot of amateurs out there who in over their heads financially and personally. I don't think the oversights are part of any big conspiracy to force the tenants out or rehab the building. If there are L & I violations, I suggest you call an inspector out. If the landlord attempts to evict anyone, he will have to certify to the Court that the building is violation-free.

When we lived in South Philly, there was this Cambodian dentist who was a slumlord. He bought up all the properties on 7th st and turned them into renters abodes.

After he died, we found out that the way he got properties as easily as he did, was he would threaten other Cambodians who were "right off the boat" so to speak....tell them if they didnt let HIM buy such and such properties, he'd use his "connections" and have them sent back to the Khmer Rouge (if you know anything of the history of Cambodia, you know why that terrified them.)

And after he died, his wife took over the job of slumlord. She tried to strongarm us into selling our hs to her for peanuts...I told her I'd rather let it rot than sell it to her smarmy azz. She even sent others around to inquire about buying it, but the trail always traced back to her.

To Dragonfly: Thank you for your response, and yes, I'm moving outta here as soon as my lease expires on April 1st. I already put down the initial deposit for an apartment in the lower Bucks suburbs, only minutes outside the city limits...this means that I can still easily access the same gym and shopping centers, and be close to the city, but without the burden of city wage taxes, sky-high car insurance, and lack of safety/security. My friends said the same thing to me, that I might have to pay higher rent in the suburbs, but it'd save me some money in other areas(taxes, insurance) and even if I did pay more money in the end, it'd be well-worth it because it'd be a nicer apartment. I wrote about it, and the havoc threats to my car in my current neighborhood, in the thread titled "I can't wait to move outta lower Northeast."

It's funny, my landlord wasn't too concerned with me moving. It said on the lease to give at least 30days written notice. So I called to ask them about where to send my notice, and his assistant said "you simply telling us counts as your notice." Even so, I wanted word from the landlord myself, and it took around 4 tries of calling, and nagging his assistants about wanting to talk to him, before I got called back by him. Yes he was nice about it, but point is I don't think he's that concerned with filling my apartment with new tenants.

if people would spend more money on their houseing than they do on their cars then the 'slum lords' might be able to afford to keep the place nice...but the income of the area doesn't allow them to charge more money and therefore it goes into decline. Bucks county's grass is not too much greener dollar for dollar good luck.

I don't mean to brag, but I make a decent income of $70K/yr so yeah I can afford a place nicer than Oxford Circle LOL. I didn't make as much money this time last year when I got the lease, yes, but my situation was a lot different. I was still in college at the time, paying for tuition amongst a lot of past debt. During this time that I was "poor," my "nice set o' wheels" consisted of the 1-bus and Market-Frankford line. Since last summer, I've obtained my college degree, paid off debt, and landed a nice job. The only reason I've held onto this apartment for as long as I did, was to complete the lease and establish good rental history.

Yeah tell me about it, Bucks County has some ghetto pockets too. I used to live in Fergusonville, a section of Bristol Township, years ago as a toddler and that area has done nothing but gotten trashier and the public schools worse(yes it's nearby the infamous Croydon!). Without specifying exactly where I'm moving, I chose a town that is nicer/quieter than Bristol/Croydon.

[QUOTE=speedbuggin]To Dragonfly: Thank you for your response, and yes, I'm moving outta here as soon as my lease expires on April 1st. I already put down the initial deposit for an apartment in the lower Bucks suburbs, only minutes outside the city limits...this means that I can still easily access the same gym and shopping centers, and be close to the city, but without the burden of city wage taxes, sky-high car insurance, and lack of safety/security. My friends said the same thing to me, that I might have to pay higher rent in the suburbs, but it'd save me some money in other areas(taxes, insurance) and even if I did pay more money in the end, it'd be well-worth it because it'd be a nicer apartment. .[/quote]

To speedbuggin: I wish you the best in your move. It is unfortunate that Philadelphia is losing so many, especially young people. But, I have to say that after years and years and years of the fight, I know that the happiness of your "Self" and/or your family comes first - you will see a MAJOR difference in your car insurance immediately as well as the other points that you made, so good luck to you in your new home and just chalk this one up to a learning experience. Enjoy your new life!

Thanks, Dragonfly! I don't entirely regret the time I've spent in Philly, I just think I chose a badly managed apartment and a bad part of the Northeast. I didn't know much about each section of the Northeast area prior to moving in. Overall though, the apartment served its purpose...the rent was cheap/affordable, location had 24-hr mass transit. However, now that I am moving closer towards my goals(purchasing and collecting cars, decent paying job, paying off debt), I am looking to keep progressing by moving to a better-managed apartment. I guess I'm moving out to a better neighborhood, in the same way as the minorities who try to better themselves by moving from the city to the mostly-white suburb towns...