Judge grants notorious landlord more time to sell
The city’s yearlong bid to force notorious central city landlord Elijah Mohammad Rashaed out of the rental business in Milwaukee hit another delay Monday after his lawyer persuaded a judge to give Rashaed a chance to show he is trying to sell his holdings.
The latest delay came after the city attorney’s office rejected Rashaed’s 11thhour bid to sell the bulk of his properties to a mystery buyer who had just created a Delaware-based limited liability company. Rashaed hopes to sell the properties as an alternative to the court seizing control of his real estate.
“There is an unacceptable risk in approving a buyer that is a week-old LLC from Delaware,” Kail Decker, an assistant city attorney, wrote in a motion filed Monday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Decker wrote that the LLC was “formed by a Kentucky resident with a history of concealing his name and address, possible bankruptcy abuse and property abandonment who has very little verifiable experience owning or managing properties.”
David Halbrooks, Rashaed’s lawyer, provided virtually no information about the buyer to the city, the court or the media.
The company, Invest in Milwaukee LLC, surfaced Feb. 22 just hours before Judge Glenn Yamahiro was expected to act on the city’s request to appoint a property manager to act as a virtual receiver over the approximately 160 properties owned or linked to Rashaed.
Halbrooks merely provided an offer to purchase 123 Rashaed properties that was signed by a John Harrison, who was listed as an owner of the newly formed Invest in Milwaukee LLC. Halbrooks also provided the city with the web address for Harrison’s real estate business.
A quick city review of Harrison’s operations, however, found enough issues for the city attorney’s office to question Harrison’s financial and managerial wherewithal and reject him as a potential buyer.
Harrison has twice filed for bankruptcy. The first filing in 2010 was dismissed when the U.S. Trustee discovered he had failed to disclose that his business was grossing $4,300 a month, Decker wrote in a motion filed Monday.
In addition, Decker noted that contact information used by Harrison leads to UPS stores in Cincinnati and Kentucky.
“The city could not locate any physical office locations for Mr. Harrison in any public documents,” Decker wrote.
The city is asking the court to name a property manager who would control properties owned by Rashaed and LLCs owned or linked to him. The manager would collect rents and use the funds to maintain the properties and bring them up to code.
The city last year started the process aimed at putting Rashaed out of the landlord business when it charged in a court filing that his operation exploits poverty-stricken and desperate tenants.
Halbrooks argued in a brief hearing Monday that city officials have been unreasonable in preventing Rashaed from selling the properties. He said his client has been making a good faith effort to sell his holdings.
Yamahiro set a hearing for March 26 to decide the matter.