Beauty and Bargains, a hybrid salon and convenience store, has been located in a small storefront near the intersection of West Greenfield Avenue and South Layton Boulevard for five years, according to store owner Danyell Austin.
Austin, who rents the storefront from S2 Real Estate Group, said she has invested thousands of dollars into renovations for the space, including new flooring, a bathroom sink and painting.
Since renting the space, she’s experienced serious maintenance issues, including rat infestations and a roof that’s caved in multiple times due to leaks, which destroyed salon equipment.
Each time she filed maintenance requests to the property managers, the repairs were minimal, like adding buckets in the drop-down ceiling to catch the water from the leaks, Austin said.
Her landlord, Sam Stair, owner of S2 Real Estate Group, was arrested in April in a sprawling federal drug case. Stair has since hired the Waukesha-based company Smart Asset Management to manage his company’s properties, including Austin’s store.
Amid Stair’s legal troubles, Austin is left to deal with unsafe conditions and limited support as a commercial tenant, weighing whether to stay in the building where she has served the community for years or walk away.
“It’s getting to the point where it’s too much,” Austin said.
Salon owner questions new management company
Austin said she doubted that the new management company would be an improvement over S2 Real Estate Group.
She hit her breaking point, she said, when her roof caved in again on May 5, and she received no help from Smart Asset Management.
“These new people taking over don’t know what’s going on in the building, what we’ve been going through, what’s at stake for all of us,” Austin said.
Austin said she is considering leaving the building and moving her business to a different storefront, but she’s hesitant because she’s unsure of whether she can get her security deposit back from the new management company.
She’s also spent years cultivating relationships with her clientele on the south side.
Adam McCarthy, owner of Smart Asset Management, said that since taking over management of S2 Real Estate Group’s properties, the company has received around 300 maintenance requests from tenants.
McCarthy said the company has no record of a maintenance request from Austin for her broken ceiling.
In the two weeks since Smart Asset Management began managing S2 Real Estate Group Properties, the company has only been able to address 100 of the most urgent maintenance requests.
McCarthy said the company is prioritizing urgent issues, such as broken heaters and other problems that can lead to building code violations.
What support is available for commercial tenants?
When maintenance concerns went unresolved by S2 Real Estate Group in the past, Austin said she turned to District 8 Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa for help, but found there were few support options available for tenants of commercial properties.
Commercial lease agreements typically shift maintenance responsibility to the tenant, making it difficult for renters to leverage their lease to get the landlord to make repairs. But in cases where the maintenance costs don’t fall on the tenant, options are still limited, Zamarripa said, in an email.
If the issues rise to the level where there are building code violations, tenants of commercial spaces can file a complaint through Milwaukee’s Department of Neighborhood Services, Zamarripa said.
If the maintenance issues continue to go unresolved by the landlord, commercial tenants are also eligible to apply for rent withholding, where rent is paid to Neighborhood Services and is placed in an escrow account until the landlord makes the repairs. If the repairs are not made by a given timeline, the city uses that money to hire a contractor, Zamarripa said.
However, to qualify for rent withholding, the building code violations must be a serious defect that affects the safety or habitability of the space, not minor maintenance concerns, Zamarripa said.
In some cases, if a commercial tenant believes that their leased property is not being properly maintained by their landlord, then seeking legal representation to enforce their lease could be a possible option, Zamarripa said.
Jill M. Kastner, supervising attorney at Legal Action Wisconsin, said that tenants with complaints of health or safety issues in commercial properties should contact Neighborhood Services first.
In Austin’s case, “a leaking or collapsing ceiling is definitely a health and safety issue,” Kastner said.
If the tenant does not file for rent withholding, both residential and commercial tenants can abate their rent until repairs are made.
For example, if the tenant’s ceiling is leaking and their drywall or plaster is falling down, they can reduce their rent by 10% to 25% each month until repairs are made, Kastner said.
“The important thing for tenants to remember is that no matter how bad the conditions are, unless they leave and turn over the keys, they have to pay at least something every month,” Kastner said. “A tenant cannot stop paying rent unless they move out.”
Tenants of commercial storefronts who are facing serious maintenance issues and need legal representation may call Legal Action for support.
Many commercial tenants may have income above the threshold required to qualify for its services, but they are still encouraged to call 855-947-2529 to inquire.
The Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic also provides support for low-income tenants, Kastner said.
Alyssa Salcedo covers Silver City, Layton Park and Burnham Park for the Journal Sentinel’s Neighborhood Dispatch. Contact her at asalcedo@usatodayco.com.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Commercial S2 tenant faces repeated ceiling collapses and limited support as a renter
Reporting by Alyssa N. Salcedo, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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