Miami Beach landlord threatens to evict everyone in 102 unit for not maintaining it

A Miami Beach landlord has threatened to evict every tenant from a 102-unit building, claiming they haven’t maintained it — while begging for help and saying they have nowhere to go.

More than 140 residents of the three-story waterfront property were served with a lawsuit ordering them to respond within five days or potentially face eviction from their homes.

The landlord, a company controlled by Millennium Management, which is headed by health magnate Abraham Shaulson, claimed they had not properly maintained and insured the 69-year-old building, the agency said. Miami announces.

It is due for re-certification next year and reportedly needs at least $2 million worth of repairs.

Responding to the threat, some residents begged for mercy from a 92-year-old widow, who has lived there for more than three decades, pleading, “Who will help me if I move to a strange place?”

One way to avoid the evictions could be for residents to pay higher property taxes, but many residents probably won’t be able to afford an increase in costs.

The building was a motel called the Garden of Allah until 1984. It is located between the newly refurbished Brittany Bay Park and the Shane Watersports Center and is on the same road as luxury apartments.

The land is owned by a company, who lease it to the Gardens on the Bay Owners Association and their long-term lease expires in 2056.

Unit owners have a share in the lease, but in the lawsuit, the landlord argued that they are “tenants” under the agreement.

The deal stated that the residents are responsible for making sure the building is maintained and that they should all be evicted for breaching the lease.

But the homeowners’ association, which is represented by law firm Becker & Poliakoff, disagrees, claiming to receive maintenance fees from unit owners and pay the landlord $65,000 a year.

The associate insisted that it is the tenant under the lease and not the occupants.

In the lawsuit filed in February in Miami-Dade Circuit Court after Shaulson’s company sent an initial “cancellation notice” to the owners of the units, the owners’ association said, “Based on this incomprehensible position, the owner has now threatened with eviction proceedings against the owners of the units. within the Association.’

Some Gardens on the Bay apartment owners, seniors on limited incomes, said they were “depressed” after the eviction notices.

Pedro Vilorio, 78, a resident since 1997, told the Miami Herald, “It’s like they’re bullying us. We can’t go anywhere.’

Margarita Babilonia, 66, and her fiancé Brian Colonna paid $130,000 for an apartment last year and moved out of New York after they both retired.

“We’re so depressed,” she said. “We thought we were buying a place where we were safe.”

The homeowners association is represented by attorneys, including former Miami Beach city commissioner Michael Gongora, who is currently running for mayor.

But association president Irene Lopez said lawyers told them they probably can’t represent every individual unit owner named in the lawsuit because of potential conflicts of interest.

Now residents are forced to get legal representation as the threat of eviction looms. The residents were told by an attorney that they needed $3,500 as an advance from each of the 102 owners.

Lopez said, “We need that money for the building.”

The owners’ association filed a motion to intervene in the eviction procedure and this week asked for the procedure to be suspended.

The move was granted by Miami-Dade District Court Judge Stephanie Silver until a hearing scheduled for June 27.

In 2018, the building passed the City of Miami Beach’s 60th anniversary recertification.

There was only one overt violation, which was for the unauthorized conversion of a unit.

However, an engineering report, commissioned by Shaulson’s company last summer, found cracks in the concrete and other issues that will reportedly cost at least $2 million to repair.

The landlord claimed the building was not adequately insured and said he had raised the issue in a series of letters to the owners’ association sent over several years.

A property insurance company for the building said it would not renew its policy due to the age and condition of the roof.

“The failure of the tenants and the association has left the landlord with no choice but to initiate an eviction action,” J. Joseph Givner, the landlord’s attorney, said in a letter to the association Friday.

It proposed a ‘compromise’, with 10 days to respond.

The agreement requires the landlord to reinstate the lease if the owners agree to a list of conditions, including obtaining required insurance by June 26 and repairing “all physical issues” of the building within three months.

But Lopez said it would be incredibly difficult to make repairs in that time frame due to the financial situation of the units’ owners and the actual length of the process.

She said Shaulson’s approach has been hostile since the company bought the property from Barry University in 2019 for $3.2 million.

“Now he attacks every owner,” she claimed. “I won’t let anyone steal our property.”

Gretchen Merkle, who has owned a unit in the building for more than 35 years, agreed that the building needs work.

But she regards the eviction as a ‘land grab’ with the aim of tearing down the building and redeveloping it.

This claim was rejected by the landlord and a spokesperson said, “The landlord has no history of developing properties and has never informed tenants or anyone else that he intends to tear down and redevelop the building.”