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We support tenant protection for residential tenants, as we know many people who are struggling with slum lords not fixing things or charging outrageous prices to fix things and then not providing receipts for the work and materials or getting prior approval to fix things at those costs. We know folks whose homes are entered without a 24 hour notice. We know folks who have been told, after the property they live in changes owners, that they need to pay double the rent or move out. Most folks are forced to move out. Property owners have been charging application fees, which is a barrier for a lot of people and now we're hearing about monthly pet fees, like $40 a month per animal; this is becoming a barrier for folks as well.

We are a Commercial tenant in a mixed use building, 3 nonprofits and 50 apartments. Commercial tenants have no rights. It would be great if we had similar rights as residential tenants. As a commercial tenant, renting from Sherman Associates, Inc. they include rent increases each year in the lease, which is difficult for nonprofits. They also don't paint or clean up a space before they rent it to you or fix things. They rented us a Suite that someone moved out of and it had broken window, missing tiles, clogged sink, broken electrical, and when asked to have the items fixed, they said it was on us. We said that we expected the space to have everything in working order and they said, nope, we rent as is. I said you rent dilapidated spaces as is, and they said, yep, we do it all the time. When we do ask for stuff to be fixed that's their responsibility, they just don't reply to requests. We share a common commercial kitchen with other tenants and the commercial dishwasher has been broken for over a year. The cooler broke during COVID, they bought a small fridge in the meantime and said they'd fix the cooler, it's 3 years later, they never did it. The oven is so old, it takes 3 times as long as it should to cook anything. We didn't have access to our garbage and recycle bins all winter long because they didn't clear the sidewalks-snow removal is their responsibility in our lease, they just didn't do it. They didn't remove ice or salt it and we had an elder fall. They don't pick up the garbage around the building and they let the resident's dogs poop and pee on the playground, where children play. We've been asking them since March to handle the problem, they have not. They didn't put any thermostats in our Suites so we have no control over the heat and they keep the spaces at 80, sometimes 90 degrees in the winter, it's unbearable, and they've done nothing to fix it in the 9+ years that we've rented from them. They put AC in the apartments, but refuse to install units for commercial tenants, unless we're renewing our lease, then they will do it, that's how we got 1 unit installed. They don't clean the common spaces like they're supposed to, they're supposed to do it weekly and it gets done about once a month a so. The residents who live in the building have similar issues, but also separate issues. There are 50 apartments in the building and they have 1 set of washer/dryer that works, that 1 set has been servicing the entire building since 2020. Even though the tenants are paying for that amenity, most of them are forced to go to the laundry mat because 1 set of washer/dryer is not enough for 50 apartments. They also pay for amenities like a community room, exercise room, and computer room, but the building manager keeps them locked up and the residents haven't had access to them in over 3 years, yet Sherman Associates advertises these amenities and the residents are paying for them in their rent. Sherman also has a huge smokestack that is falling apart on one side of the building and huge pieces of plaster fall off of it, they put particle board around it and called it a day. We filed a complaint with the City over a year ago because it's super dangerous and Sherman still hasn't fixed it. They said they were this summer, but it hasn't happened yet. The hallway along one of our Suites has water stains on the carpet and smells moldy/musty because water is getting in somewhere. We've been renting that Suite from Sherman since 2020 and they haven't cleaned it 2 time, it's so dusty and gross, it stinks, and when we ask them about it, no response. Sherman Associates, Inc is the King of No Response. They totally ignore all requests to fix things or delay, delay. They don't hold up their end of lease, like keeping the grounds cared for, but they expect us to hold up our end of the contract. They are the worst of the worst slum lords in Duluth, MN. They are not transparent about who their staff are so when we get a dead end with 1 staff, we have no idea who else to contact. When we do get new contacts at Sherman, we share our issues and they act sympatric and say they'll fix stuff, then the next day, they are cold, say it's on us, and join the ignore, ignore, ignore gang. It's so exhausting, dealing with them is the worst part of our jobs. We're actually looking into buying our own building to get out from under them. They are horrible to rent from, we get nothing from them and we pay $36,000 in rent a year and they can't even keep the residents from using the playground as a litter box or shovel/salt the sidewalks in the winter, it's a terrible situation, renting from them as a commercial tenant. I can't imagine being a resident living in the building, they pay rent and same thing, they get nothing, all the community spaces are locked up and they have no access, but if someone's late on rent, they get charged fees and threatened with eviction.