RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio — An apartment in Richmond Heights is under fire for failing to keep tenants safe at their residences.
This comes after the city conducted a site survey at this apartment complex and found multiple citations for serious fire code violations in three apartment buildings.
Now, city leaders said they want those responsible to be held accountable.
“Everyone who lives in Loganberry Ridge is at great parole,” Mike Cicero said.
An excess of more than 1600 criminal counts is being filed against Loganberry Ridge Apartments in Richmond Heights due to negligence in three apartment buildings.
“I looked at the violations, which are all fire code violations that were served upon both property management company as well as the owner in March of this year,” Cicero said.
Three months later, Richmond Heights Cicero said the apartment complex still has yet to do anything to fix basic fire safety codes like having fire extinguishers, fire doors, exit signs and fire suppression systems.
Cicero says this puts people like Michelle Clark in great danger.
“Y’all want your rent, but you don’t fix anything,” said a Loganberry Ridge tenant.
Clark says she has tried reaching out to the property management group for help, but she says no one answers the phone and the office is closed when she visits.
“I really don’t want to be here. Like I said, this is a horrible place to live,” Clark said.
News 5 tried to talk to the management here at Loganberry Ridge Apartments about the fire code citations the city has now served against them.
But when we arrived just before 2:30 Thursday afternoon, the door was locked, so we called this number to see if they would answer.
They didn’t answer, so News 5’s Remi Murrey left a voicemail.
As we wait to hear back, Richmond Heights has moved forward with issuing citations for the five most serious violations that exist in each of the three buildings.
Cicero said this totals 15 separate criminal citations, carrying a maximum of $5,000 per count, or more than $8 million.
“And I would hope that they would have 8.3 million reasons that they would need to fix all of these violations and fix them with great rapidity and great attention to detail,” Cicero said.
Cicero said what makes this situation at Loganberry Ridge Apartments even more ironic is its relation to this Cleveland-area residence, which News 5 has heard tenants complaining about for months.
“This apartment complex is owned by Joseph and Meyer Chetrit, who are part of the Chetrit family. They’re real estate moguls in New York City that also own the apartment complex at Shaker Square,” Cicero said.
On top of that, Fire Chief Marc Neumann says two serious fires happened at Loganberry Ridge Apartments nearly five years ago.
The most recent one left six people injured and one person dead after someone intentionally set an elevator car on fire.
In spite of this, Neumann said Loganberry Ridge faces these current fire code violations.
“It should be a fair expectation that their home is their safe place, and right now, I can’t say that it is,” Neumann said.
In a statement, Mayor Kim Thomas says the following:
Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in his or her own dwelling. The health, safety, and welfare of residents is of paramount importance. Tenants are no exception. With the filing of these criminal charges, this landlord and property management company are on notice that substandard living conditions, which do not meet the minimum legal standards established under either the City or State law, will not be tolerated. As the Mayor, I will remain vigilant and ensure that landlords who break the law are brought to justice.
The next steps are for the companies to appear in court for normal criminal processes to begin.
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