Author: RTDC

Tenants continue to expose the rise of dangerous maintenance issues during one of the most historic heatwaves. As problems from mold to lack of central air conditioning arise, the Chamberlayne Tenants Council says: Enough!

Statement from Members of the Chamberlayne Tenants Council:

Richmond, VA–Amid record-breaking heat, tenants are left in sweltering conditions alongside the egregious acts of negligence by Red Oak and Ginter Park LLC. These issues have only grown more acute as the temperature rises. With obscenely high water bills, poorly ventilated units, and black mold, tenants at Red Oak are now also facing the harsh reality that Ginter Park LLC refuses to fix their central A/C units, often providing no more than leaky, derelict window units that make the proper cooling of homes impossible. 

Months after city inspectors visited Red Oak buildings and weeks after management addressed code violations to comply with the city of Richmond, issues from mold to lack of proper central air have only become exacerbated in one of the hottest months in recent history. While deemed “safe” by the city’s standards, dozens of buildings owned by Ginter Park LLC continue to face neglect, and tenants remain unclear on the repairs that Management addressed. 

The Chamberlayne Tenants Council organized a fan distribution to directly respond to the hazardous temperatures tenants are made to live in. Nearly 50 fans have been given through this tenant-led initiative to alleviate what tenants have been experiencing in their homes. However, other issues concerning mold, electrical problems, and spikes in water bills require tenants to keep the collective pressure on Red Oak management to provide professional maintenance. 

While some Red Oak tenants have seen city inspectors frequent the property more and have seen increased activity around maintenance, these surface-level repairs and small gains have been primarily due to the collective power and pressure from tenants, the community, and the media. Until living conditions improve, tenants continue building power to protect one another from absentee landlords taking their money every month. CTC will hold a rally on Labor Day, demanding Ginter Park LLC do what tenants pay them to do: provide safe and adequate living conditions. Red Oak tenants call for community support to keep tenant conditions in the spotlight and the pressure strong until their demands are met. CTC calls for fellow workers and community members to show their support at the rally on September 4th. The outcome of this rally can set a precedent for tenant rights, combating unsafe living conditions, and the rising cost of in Richmond. Anyone who believes in the people’s right to live with dignity is encouraged to come and show their support. 

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The Chamberlayne Tenants Council, an affiliate of Richmond Tenants Union, is an autonomous tenant council made of tenants and neighbors in the Chamberlayne Avenue area. They work with a network of tenant councils to form the backbone of a broad front to fight for housing justice in the face of crises of debt, low wages, and high rent.

The Richmond Tenants’ Defense Council (RTDC) is an independent alliance of tenants and community partners who are building power to fight for the interests of working-class renters in our city. We are organizing all over the city to defend ourselves from the unfair business practices and appalling conditions that private property management companies and landlords expect us to simply accept. We believe that the more tenants get organized across the city and support each other, the more we can defend ourselves.

Tenants Call for Response to Increasing Negligence from Red Oak

Tenant council members have yet to see the Red Oak rental office and Ginter Park LLC take concerns seriously, as tenants continue to expose dangerous maintenance issues as a result of neglect from Management. 

Statement from Members of the Chamberlayne Tenants Council:  

Richmond, VA– After years of meeting with tenants and reaching out to Red Oak Management on the growing amount of unaddressed maintenance issues, Ginter Park LLC have yet to respond or take action on the tenants’ concerns and the conditions they are being made to live in. 

“We have heard and seen dozens of horror stories of the unlivable conditions they are being made to live in, from black mold to security and structural issues. They are absolutely very quick to act when it comes to collecting unpaid rent, towing tenant’s cars, and raising rent and water usage costs. Within days tenants can expect to receive an envelope on their doors for all their neighbors to see. This only makes it clear they do not prioritize tenant concerns unless it involves collecting a check.”

A letter co-written by tenants was sent last December to Ginter Park LLC, the company that owns the dozens of apartment buildings along Chamberlayne Avenue. The letter   identified several specific issues that were asked to be rectified immediately from pest control to issuing parking passes. Since January and even before, several attempts by Chamberlayne Tenants Council, Richmond Tenants Defense Council, Richmond Tenants Union, tenants, and local news outlets have been made to reach anyone on the phone or by letter with Red Oak/Ginter Park.

“The Red Oak leasing office continues to be difficult to contact and slow to act and the issues tenants are being forced to live in are only growing more dangerous. The lack of professionalism and outright disrespect for hardworking people only proves that Red Oak/Ginter Park management is not taking these problems seriously.” 

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On January 13th, Red Oak tenants up and down Chamberlayne participated in a call-in day to make sure their demands were being heard at the Red Oak rental office. A source revealed that Elliot Bialostozy, owner of Ginter Park LLC and Red Oak Apartments, was aware of the phone zap and purposely took leasing office workers out for lunch to ensure that no one would be available to respond to maintenance requests. After the organized phone zap, tenants were encouraged to share their experience living at Red Oak by leaving a review on their website. Tenants have been working to get in contact with Red Oak management and ownership since before the pandemic. Scathing reviews can be found from over two years ago that still echo what tenants are dealing with today. 

“Ain’t nobody ever been in the office long enough for us to actually get to know them, to establish any type of relationship to respect. The way I feel about it is the people in that office don’t give a fuck about us. We are a paycheck to them and barely that because the majority of them avoid even dealing with us and still get paid. They don’t answer the phones, they don’t respond to emails, they don’t return calls. They don’t do anything. I’m trying to figure out how you operate as a business, not dealing with the individuals that are supposedly keeping you afloat?”

“This is the worst managed situation I have ever been a part of. I mean, you call, they don’t answer. You call again. They have an electronic system. They tell you a list of options. You leave a message, they don’t answer. I went to the office, filled out one of those request slips, and placed it in the box. No response.”

Stories like those of the tenants we have interviewed can be found up and down Chamberlayne. 

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The Chamberlayne Tenants Council, an affiliate of Richmond Tenants Union, is an autonomous tenant council made of tenants and neighbors in the Chamberlayne Avenue area. They work with a network of tenant councils to form the backbone of a broad front to fight for housing justice in the face of the crises of debt, low wages, and high rent.

Join RTDC Friday January 13th for our Red Oak Phone Zap. Call and leave a voicemail or send a text expressing your solidarity with Red Oak’s demands 9-11 AM or 230-430 PM. For voicemails please call 804-329-6249. Dial *67 before you enter the number to protect your anonymity. For those sending text messages the best number to text is 203-309-0754.

Whether texting or calling if you need help with what to say here is a script:

Hi, I’m calling in support of tenants at Red Oak Apartments. These tenants have demanded that you take action! The ridiculous water bills, being charged for nonexistent pest control, and lack of proper heating in many of the residences. These are reasonable demands. Red Oak has not responded in writing as og January 2nd, the dealine which tenants have set for you. Does Red Oak intent to fix these problems.

If you are a tenant at Red Oak you DO NOT have to say your name or unit number.

If you would like to read the letter sent to Ginter Park LLC on behalf of tenants visit this link here.

Dear Red Oak Apartments,

This letter is written by the Richmond Tenants’ Defense Council, on behalf of the tenants of Red Oak Apartments. Residents have identified a number of reasonable demands that can be quickly rectified by Red Oak.

The following concerns must be addressed immediately:

1. Water

Tenants have received water bills for absurd amounts of money– even hundreds of dollars– with no accurate information concerning how those bills were calculated. Tenants who request individual water meters must have them installed. Red Oak must provide tenants with detailed accounts of how their previous water bills were calculated, including copies of original bills from the City of Richmond. Tenants demand an end to service fees to third party companies like Conservice.

2. Pests

Tenants have been charged as much as one-hundred dollars for failing to move all of their appliances and furniture away from their walls in advance of visits by pest control. Red Oak must immediately cease to charge penalties for pest abatement issues. Tenants must be provided with electronic pest abatement devices free of cost.

3. Parking

Tenants at several buildings have identified that signs warning of towing are out of date and no longer reflect the towing policy in their leases. All signage regarding towing must be current, and all changes must be clearly communicated to tenants. Tenants must be provided with a parking pass and a guest pass.

4. Heat

Many tenants report that their heat is not functioning, and requests for maintenance are not being responded to in a

timely manner. Heating units must be fixed as soon as possible, and tenants must be provided with space heaters in good condition until repairs are complete.

We expect to receive a response from you detailing a timeline for addressing the concerns mentioned in this letter, in writing at the above PO Box, no later than January 2, 2023.

Sincerely,
Richmond Tenants’ Defense Council

“The Richmond Tenants Defense Council is an organization in the Richmond area which brings together working-class tenants and community members to build power.  The following interview is a conversation between two founding members of RTDC about the organization’s history and its future.  It was originally printed in the first issue of RTDC’s tenant newsletter.“

In January we did an interview with the Virginia Worker. For the full transcript visit:

Click here to read the transcript!

Welcome to the Richmond Tenants’ Defense Council news page! While we have been busy organizing for much of the past year, we are only now getting around to posting about some of our actions. Our goal for this page is to keep you informed about recent developments in our campaigns. We also plan to post news stories about issues affecting tenants here in Virginia and elsewhere across the US.

Here is some quick background on one of our campaigns.

On Friday, August 16, 2019, RTDC issued a certified mail letter to a local property management company with a well-documented history of serious maintenance issues and tenants rights violations. We received a response from the company that was postmarked on the final day of the deadline we set. In their response, the property management company effectively denied any knowledge or responsibility for the issues cited in our letter. However, they did send a maintenance person shortly afterwards to fix one of the problems we raised. After nearly six months and multiple complaints from individual tenants, the second floor of the apartment building has lights in its hallways again!

We are happy to claim this as a partial victory, but there are more serious complaints in our letter that still need to be addressed. After a series of conversations, we have decided to continue the campaign until the property manager and owner address their unreasonable and excessive towing policies.

There is no reason tenants should have to worry about whether their in-home health aides will be towed while they are providing necessary medical services. Moreover, it is completely unacceptable that tenants should feel anxious to invite their friends and family to visit for a few hours. These are working peoples’ homes!

Many apartments with dedicated parking areas in the city restrict towing to specific hours and issue at least one short-term guest parking hang tag to their tenants. This is an easy solution that could be cheaply implemented, so it’s even more shameful that we have to fight so hard for them. But here we are…

We will post more updates on this campaign as they happen. Stay tuned for more!