Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union

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Will Sherard is the owner of Morocco Investments LLC (and other LLCs) and one of Milwaukee’s most notorious slumlords and accounted for about 10% of all evictions filed during the COVID 19 pandemic and economic crisis. Sherard is not only well known for owning over 50 North Side properties, but for his companies’ lack of upkeep and maintenance at these properties. As of 2018, Sherard owed almost $70,000 in building code fines, accumulated over the years for leasing out homes and units that were later determined to be unfit for human habitation. Even after being prosecuted for failure to pay these fines and being ordered by a state judge to cough up the money, Sherard appealed all the way up to the State Supreme Court. 

All the while, Sherard continued to be a regular at the Milwaukee County sheriff’s sales where foreclosed properties are auctioned off to lenders, landlords, and slumlords, spending twice the amount he had been ordered to pay on new properties, while still refusing to pay what he owed. With his properties valued at over $1.5 million and his personal wealth a subject of speculation, it is clear that Sherard is only interested in accumulating profit at the least expense possible to him and will fight and claw relentlessly against having to pay fines or allowing people to live in his properties, even temporarily, without paying due to the ongoing crisis.

Investigative reporting by the Journal Sentinel has alleged that various Sherard properties have had electrical wiring problems.  In October 2019, only days after moving in, two tenants were killed by a fire in a property owned by Sherard. Records show that the property had a history of electrical code violations. Not charges or arrests were issued for Sherard, who denied culpability.

Sherard’s headquarters are at  2233 W Capitol Dr, Milwaukee, WI 53206 and its phone number is 414- 444-5858

Sam Stair, owner of S2 Properties, is one of the worst offenders in terms of evictions during the COVID 19 pandemic, filing for a total of 232 evictions against mostly low-income tenants since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. Since 2016, Stair has filed 670 evictions against the tenants living in the 100+ properties he owns. 

Stair gives no leeway to his tenants and has filed evictions against MATU represented tenants for being only one month behind on rent or non-payment of late fees. This lack of leniency, his unwillingness to work with tenants, along with high late payment fees, makes S2 a mass evictor.In the winter of 2020-2021, while the pandemic was still raging and a massive snow storm hit Milwaukee, Sam Stair filed dozens of evictions before hopping on a plane to the Caribbean. 

Stair also had the audacity to appear on Fox 6 News in September of 2020 and complain about the CDC Eviction Moratorium, making the hyperbolic claim that “Basically, it’s just taking our properties away,” and pretending that the moratorium was a political ploy rather than an action by the federal government that was designed to keep people housed during the pandemic stating, “The scariest thing is it’s starting to become a go-to thing for the politicians.” 

MATU has been to every property owned by S2 and the vast majority are dilapidated, with multiple code violations apparent in the common areas, as well as in the individual units we were invited into. Sam Stair is a profit hungry slum lord that does not care about the provision of quality housing and is only concerned with stuffing his pockets with the hard earned wages of working class people that do not own their own homes.

Zolper Property Management owns and manages around 300 properties on Milwaukee’s East Side, Riverwest, and Wauwatosa. The owners are the brothers Nick, Shane, and Henry Zolper, are the operators of Zolper Property Management, and each owns several of the dozens of LLCs that are connected to Zolper Property Management and used to file evictions. Zolper has filed 58 evictions since 2016. Many tenants have come to MATU expressing grave maintenance concerns about the properties they are living in and the lack of responsiveness from Zolper about making necessary repairs. 

New tenants complained to MATU that the unit they were moving into was not cleaned properly and that appliances were not left in working order. Broken stoves, refrigerators, laundry machines and even the lights in entire apartments were not in working order at move-in. Water damage, leaking pipes, and the endemic growth of black mold seem to be routine in Zolper owned/managed properties. Maintenance, rather than evictions, are the primary problem with Zolper, causing tenants to move out or become embroiled in conflict with Nick Zolper himself. Check out the Google reviews or Yelp reviews and you will see several complaints about Nick Zolper being confrontational or aggressive toward tenants. He doubles down on that by responding personally to bad reviews, even going as far as to threaten former tenants with defamation lawsuits.

There is also a widespread perception that Zolper takes advantage of young, first-time renters at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Many 18 and 19 year olds are not aware of their rights and are not experienced enough as renters to know what to look for during an apartment walk-through or while signing a lease agreement. Renting to college students is a lucrative business and Zolper is the king of college rentals around the campus of UWM. The number of properties owned and managed by Zolper has grown significantly over the past few years and we can’t imagine that an increased number of properties has lead to better maintenance practices all around.

Patrick Roney and Evan Knupp are Milwaukee attorneys who aid various landlords around the city in evicting their tenants during a global pandemic. Rather than do the moral thing and refuse to offer services to landlords looking to mass-evict, they chose to enrich themselves by taking on as many eviction cases as possible. During this unprecedented eviction crisis, Attorneys Roney and Knupp chose to be a part of the problem for personal gain.

George Sessler is an individual landlord in Milwaukee who has been accused of being a slumlord by his tenants. Sessler operates almost exclusively on Milwuakee’s predominantly Black Northside, preying on low-income tenants according housing advocates. Sessler charges high late fees and has been accused by tenants of inflating amounts owed to him. To collect, he uses the courts as his debt collector.

From 2010-2013, Sessler’s properties racked up 569 violations, ranging from bedbugs; missing fire extinguishers and  alarms; missing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms; faulty electrical wiring; bad sewage connections; leaky walls; missing window screens; garbage pile up and lack of general maintenance.

He operates as a landlord behind his 5 LLCs: Sessler Properties; DLS Investment Properties LLC; GNT LLC; GEO Investments LLC, GLS LLC, and KNT Properties LLC. Sessler is tax delinquent on all but one of these LLCs according to the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. Sessler has filed 797 evictions since 2016 and 225 evictions since the beginning of the pandemic. Sessler is a serial evictor as these nearly 800 evictions are only spread among 18 properties, making Sessler one of the highest evictors per-unit in the City of Milwaukee.

Nicholas & Emma Rezny own PayMyRent5 LLC, Skyforger LLC, MCRD Group LLC, American Community ReDevelopment Group LLC, RG CHARYO LLC, NTJ LLC, AE PROP LLC and dozens of other LLCs for property ownership all over the city. Most have been administratively dissolved or are tax delinquent according to the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. Some of the more bizarre LLCs that Rezny has set up to front his business are I LOVE POPTARTS LLC, Shrek LLC, Why So Serious LLC, Opposite of Success LLC, AFART LLC, and of course Start With Gluten Free LLC. Their business office is located at 4812 W. Lloyd St. and their phone numbers include 608-213-6757, 414-544-3517, 414-937-0280, and 414-808-5389. Rezny has filed 302 evictions since 2016.

 In 2017, Rezny said he managed or owned around 225 rental units in Milwaukee. Rezny cut his teeth in real estate working for Russell Freeman, who is currently serving 17 years for securities fraud, and co-owned the real-estate firm Genesis Fulfillment Management LLC with him as well, eventually taking over all the properties owned under this LLC after Freeman went back to prison. In 2019 Rezny was held in contempt of court in a securities fraud suit in which he was being sued by his uncle, Greg Dahlman, to whom Rezny owed $329,333. Dahlman invested $260,000 with Rezny but was not repaid, which nearly landed Rezny in jail for contempt. Rezny has also been forced to repay other investors whom he has ripped off. The City Attorney’s Office has suggested that Rezny is running a Ponzi scheme stating, “It appears that Mr. Rezny purchases properties in the name of one LLC, takes out a mortgage from a private individual or IRA then sells that property to a different Rezny LLC for a profit to pay off the mortgage. The nature of these transactions seem to be akin to a mortgage ‘Ponzi scheme.’ ” While Rezny denies this, it is clear there is something amiss as Rezny has been the subject of at least 9 lawsuits since 2013, has been investigated by the FBI, and has been widely derided by former investors as a scam artist.

Aside from his questionable financial activities, Rezny also happens to be a terrible landlord and property manager according to some of his current and former tenants. Rezny has reportedly sped away in his truck when asked to conduct routine maintenance activities, like making sure tenants have running water. According to tenants, Rezny has also threatened his tenants via phone and text to evict them illegally using prohibited self-help and constructive eviction methods.

Pete Pacetti is the owner of Edgewater Real Estate LLC, which has buildings on Milwaukee’s North Side, East Side, Downtown Milwaukee, and Shorewood. Geanne Pacetti and Lore Hauck are listed as registered agents for some of these properties and are presumably related to Pete familially or via business. Michael Olson is a partial owner of two downtown properties. Their business office is located at 104 E Mason St #101 Milwaukee, WI 53202. Pacetti registers buildings and files evictions using a series of LLCs including LBH 1 LLC, TAH 14 LLC, JMH 38 LLC, CAC 60 LLC, JMP 4 LLC, and City Hall Square Properties LLC. Among all these properties, 12 evictions were filed during the pandemic and 41 since 2016.

Tenants have complained about the neglected state of their buildings and have pointed out some clear code and safety violations. In one building, both elevators are continually dysfunctional and a safety hazard to elderly and disabled tenants. “My concrete balcony is crumbling. There is a big crack right through it and you can see the rebar. I’m afraid to even go out there, and I fully expect that it will collapse before my lease is over,” stated one tenant. “Under the previous owners the building was kept in such nice shape,” one longtime tenant in an Edgewater owned building said, “but now it isn’t taken care of. There are structural issues and aesthetical issues and both need to be addressed.” “It took them three years to repair the roof,” another longtime tenant complained, “and during those three years a lot of water leaked in and did a lot of damage to the ceilings and cabinets in people’s apartments. Mold grew. It was disgusting.” Another tenant, who uses a mobility device stated, “One elevator doesn’t work at all and on the other, the doors open and close like the thing is possessed. Sometimes my cart will get stuck in the doors and I just have to wait until someone comes to help.”

Pete and Geanne Pacetti live in a mansion at 2325 Nagawicka Rd Hartland, WI 53029. They can be reached at 414-255-2277. Lore Hauck lives in a sizable home at 3175 Cherry Hill Dr. Brookfield, WI 53005, an extremely affluent area of the suburb.

Daniel Katz is the owner of Katz Properties Inc, which currently has properties, mostly apartment buildings, predominantly located in Murray Hill and the Lower East Side of Milwaukee. Amongst Katz Properties’ possessions in Milwaukee are the Lodgewood at North Waverly Place, Prairie Oaks, and 1321 North Franklin. The business office of Katz Properties is located at 614 W Brown Deer Rd #300, Bayside, WI 53217. Using dozens upon dozens of front LLCs, Katz has filed 441 evictions since 2016 and 140 evictions since the start of the pandemic.

Tenants complain frequently about the state of Katz-owned properties, about the timeliness of response to work orders, and about the professionalism of Katz staff. One tenant stated issues with “pests, collapsing ceilings, [and] extreme fire hazards.” Another tenant stated “[Katz] charged me a $600 “rental fee” after I had paid through my 60 day notice. Why would I have to pay a surprise fee for you to lease your own apartment?” Yet another tenant states “The female building manager would get drunk and break into various apartments wasted and jump in bed with the tenants. She jumped into my bed at 2am one morning and got mud all over my comforter from her shoes.” This tenant goes on to state “She was fired/quit a year later. We never got another building manager for ~2 years.”

Daniel Katz lives in a lakeside mansion located at 6006 Le Lac Road, Boca Raton, FL 33496.

Daniel Bruckner is the owner of Bruckner Real Estate LLC has filed 514 evictions since 2016 and 148 since the beginning of the pandemic. He owns at least 28 properties, all of which are in oppressed neighborhoods on the North Side of Milwaukee.  Bruckner is a lawyer who has been registered with the Wisconsin State Bar Association since 1972, when he graduated from Marquette University Law School, and is currently in good standing as an Active Emeritus attorney. He is the owner and operator of Daniel W Bruckner Law Office. 

As a landlord, Bruckner is well known for failing to maintain his properties and for a multitude of safety violations. In 2014, a porch at one of Bruckner’s properties collapsed while a person was standing on it, resulting in serious injury. In 2011, Bruckner was contracted by Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin to take in refugees from Myanmar, but because of a failure to conduct a background check, these refugees found themselves living in apartments infested with roaches and bed bugs, gas leaks, raw sewage leaking into the basement, and major electrical hazards. One Burmese tenant was hospitalized due to carbon monoxide poisoning. “State and city records reviewed by the Journal Sentinel show Bruckner faces hundreds of city building code violations and four city lawsuits, owes nearly a half-million dollars in delinquent property taxes and has seven felony convictions.” While this story was being investigated, Bruckner made a series of comments to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which are despicably racist, referring to the refugees as “very primitive people. When they come here, a lot of them don’t even know how to flush a toilet. One of the first things they do is they go in the Dumpster and eat, OK? That’s the type of people you have there.” However, tenants living in Bruckner’s buildings prior to the arrival of any refugees, reported the same problems of pest infestations, poor building maintenance, and issues with sanitation in and around the buildings.

Bruckner isn’t much of a business man either, as he is tax delinquent on several of his properties and LLCs and had to file for Chapter 11 reorganization and sell several of his buildings to pay outstanding debts in 2012, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal. In a 2020 interview with the Washington Post, Bruckner demonstrated that he is more interested in contemptuous behavior toward poor, working class people that were struggling during the pandemic, than he is in being entrepreneurial. “Bruckner said he considers himself more lenient than other landlords but says it isn’t out of generosity. ‘I work with tenants probably more so than most because I don’t want to re-rent the apartments. So if I can keep a tenant, I do,’ he said. Bruckner supports additional emergency aid but said the moratorium needed to go. ‘Right now if [tenants] don’t pay they can squat, and the government will back them up,’ he said. Bruckner is now doing what for him is usually unthinkable: keeping available units empty for fear the new tenants will not pay and he will have no recourse. Seven of his 88 units at the complex were recently available. ‘If they open up the courts, I will be more generous. I will start taking chances on people again.’”

Bruckner is also a convicted pedophile who was caught importing child pornography from Denmark in 1985. According to a 2011 story published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Customs officials in New York seized 23 pornographic magazines addressed to Bruckner’s Milwaukee post office box. Later, special agents executed a search warrant at Bruckner’s house, seizing 146 sexually explicit magazines, 978 photos and 1,784 photographic negatives, primarily of nude males and children, according to the criminal complaint.” It appears that Bruckner avoided any jail time, despite being found guilty at a bench trial and havd appeals of this conviction upheld all the way up to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Bruckner was also able to avoid landing on the sex offenders registry and only ended up paying a $35,000 fine, which former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Ceci called a “slap on the wrist”. His license to practice law was suspended for only 5 months. Bruckner’s lawyer argued at sentencing that Bruckner was not trying to sell the material but was keeping it in his “private fantasy closet.”
He resides in a mansion at 6530 N Lake Dr. Fox Point, WI 53217 and can be reached at 414-305-5800, 414-351-5113, and tncprop@gmail.com.

Collin Kappl is the owner of K2 LLC, K21 LLC, Titan Realty Group LLC, Aberdeen Court LLC, and K1 LLC. Christopher Kappl is the owner of Coachlight Real Estate Holdings LLC and 30 other LLCs which are primarily used to file evictions, potentially to keep evictions off the name of Coachlight Communities, which acts as the public facing front for their real-estate holdings. According to former tenants, the Kappl’s mostly rent on a month to month basis and hand out 60 day notices like candy to tenants who they don’t like or who complain too much. This potentially has the effect of allowing them to dispose of tenants without having to go through the courts as would be requisite with the use of 5 day notices.

The Kappls filed 14 evictions in Milwaukee during the pandemic, but own significant amounts of real-estate outside of Milwaukee in Greenfield, Green Bay, Manitowoc, Mayville, Mount Pleasant, Oak Creek, Neenah, Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, and West Allis, for which MATU is currently searching for eviction data. They also refused to work with his renters, ignored maintenance requests, issued countless 5-day notices, increased rent, and even pursued evictions throughout COVID and during winter, specifically targeting known tenant members of MATU.

The reviews left on the Google entries for Coachlight Communities, where it went 11 for 11 on one star reviews. Former tenants complain of slow to non-existent response to maintenance requests, endemic mold problems, and failure to deal with pest problems. One former tenant was allegedly told that  “We don’t update or replace anything until tenants move out.” Another tenant allegedly complained about the toilet clogging and was “encouraged” to fix it themselves or otherwise they’d have to pay for a plumber to fix something which it is the legal responsibility of the landlord to repair. Another tenant stated that Coachlight was “the worst company I’ve ever rented from. Their incompetence and lack of management skills are obvious. They don’t fix anything, and there is simply no standard of care on any level.” The most egregious example of the Kappl’s disregard for the lives of their tenants was when they forced out a pair of siblings after their mother, who they lived with, passed away. According to the tenant, “Me and My brother got Promise [sic] from the Property Manager that we would be Able to stay at The Cecil Garden Apartments after My Mom Died and when we Filled Out the Application and then got Told the Next day we Have 60 days to Leave the Place we call home for 18 Years.”

Zena Rubenzer is an individual local slumlord who operates mostly on Milwaukee’s Eastside, preying on college student tenants. Zena is attached to multiple Limited Liability Companies such as Maple2 LLC, 2913 Farwell LLC, 2917Frederick LLC, and others. Zena has been sued multiple times according to court documents

Zena’s unethical and illegal practices against her tenants as gained her infamy among renters. She is alleged to have lied to renters, charge renters fabricated fees, enter units without a proper 12-hour notice (ATCP 134.09(2)(a)1.), and stealing a financial aid check out a tenant’s mailbox.  According to Wisconsin court documents (CCAP), Zena has been sued 6 times.
Some of the properties she rents out are:
3469-3471 N. Cramer Street; 2956-2958 N. Prospect Avenue; 2913-2915 N. Farwell Avenue and 3022-3024 N. Oakland Avenue.

Vinebrook Homes is a corporate, absentee landlord based out of Ohio that operates in Milwaukee. Through its LLCs VB One LLC and VB Two LLC, Vinebrook owns around 781 properties in Milwaukee with most of them being Single Family Residences (SFR). As of July 2022, Vinebrook has filed for 114 evictions (mke-evict.com). 

Like many “institutional investors” (connections to finance capital like Wall St.), Vinebrook buys up SFRs in markets with lower property values, looking to convert them into rentals and jack up rents to squeeze profits out of tenants. Common complaints against Vinebrook and corporate landlords like it are that tenants have a hard time contacting for maintenance and repairs and they have no local offices for tenants to go to solve issues. And this is if tenants even know that their building was sold to Vinebrook at all, as there are examples of tenants having evictions filed against them for non-payment of rent without them knowing that Vinebrook was their new landlord. 

When possible, Vinebrook looks to push tenants out of their homes so that can raise rents on new tenants. One of the favorite tools of corporate landlords like Vinebrook is frequent and automated eviction-filings, displacing tenants to increase profits.

Dr. Athlene Alexis is the owner of EKCJ LLC, PMA LLC, and SYRCLE PROPERTIES, LLC. Athlene is a medical doctor and anesthesiologist. Her office is located at 10200 W Innovation Dr Suite 700, Milwaukee, WI 53226. She owns at least 26 properties around the city of Milwaukee. She lives in a mansion at 1125 Ashbourne Ct. Brookfield, WI 53045 and can be reached at 262-993-2449. Athlene has filed 40 evictions since 2016 and has used eviction as a method of retaliation against MATU members who complained to the Department of Neighborhood Services about the condition of their homes.

Athlene has racked up dozens of code violations and work orders from the City of Milwaukee, with many still outstanding. At her property on 3818 N. 21st St. there are outstanding work orders for “Water damage/mold in the basement under the kitchen and bathroom sink,” and “Interior of Building in Disrepair:Gas leaks, bathroom and kitchen sink rotted, gnats, basement leaks causing mold, mice” (Reference Record numbers ENF-2022-09614 and ENF-2021-16181). At her property on 3841 N. 21st St. there are outstanding work orders for, “Interior of Building in Disrepair Basement- mold sited along bottom of toilet & on walls above it on surrounding floor; since for over (2)months,” (Reference Record numbers ENF-2021-22910 and ORD-21-08535. At her property on 3864 N. 5th St. there are a violations for “    Exterior of Building in Disrepair. Hole in roof with squirrels nesting, holes in gutters, water pipe not connected for outside water”, “Interior of Building in Disrepair. Missing screens on back or front doors, dining room windows not fitted”, and a “Special Enforcement Case: Zoning Violation” (Reference Record numbers ENF-2022-21278, ORD-21-08907, and ORD-21-08915). At her property on 3146 N. Julia St. the garage and shed have collapsed in and orders for their removal have been issued (Reference Record numbers ENF-2021-36358 and ORD-21-13128). At her property on 2574 N 53rd St. an inspection found that the interior of the building was in disrepair (Reference Record numbers ORD-22-03883 and ENF-2022-10696). Athlene Alexis operates an illegal rooming house from her property at 2834 N. 37th St. and is being taken to court by the City of Milwaukee (Reference Record numbers ENF-2021-33093 and ORD-21-11235). At her property on 2841 N. 37th St. there are outstanding violations for “Roof leaking into pantry, kitchen and bathroom sinks leak, Mice and roaches, debris on porch” (Reference Record number ORD-22-08292). At her property on 2845 N. 37th St. Athlene Alexis is operating yet another illegal rooming house, for which she is being taken to court by the City of Milwaukee. There is also a violation for “Defective steps on front porch . Exterior of home is in disrepair,” (Reference Record numbers ENF-2021-33052, ORD-22-08494, ENF-2022-20538, ENF-2021-33052, and ORD-21-11038). At her property on 6124 N. 37th St. the DNS found that “Interior Of Building In Disrepair| Ms. Gibson reports that plumbing is inoperable, electricity is defective, rodent and bed bug infestation. Unit rented to two different people, so it is insecure. tenant has been threatened by landlord and other tenants. Landlord refuses to return rent and security deposit” demonstrating that Athlene Alexis has a history of threatening tenants and retaliating against them (Reference Record number ORD-19-12977).

Curtis Hoff is the owner of hundreds of properties on Milwaukee’s North Side and operates dozens of LLCs that all start with the letter ‘A’. Matt Bayer is the registered agent for Curtis Hoff, whose name appears in the records of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. The LLCs owned by Hoff and operated under Bayer’s name are Action Properties LLC, Abuncha Properties LLC, Atunna Properties LLC, Anumbera Properties LLC, Alotta Properties LLC, Acme Properties LLC, Active Properties LLC, Atlantis Properties LLC, Absolute Properties LLC, Awesome Properties LLC, Accurate Properties LLC, Aloha Properties LLC, Anchor Properties LLC, AFC Properties LLC, Affordable Properties LLC, Aardvark Properties LLC, and dozens more. The LLCs listed above are only those with more than 100 evictions filed since 2016. Among just the properties listed above, 3104 evictions have been filed since 2016, putting Hoff and Bayer alongside Berrada as one of Milwaukee’s top evicting landlords. Hoff and Bayer operate out of an office at 7120 W Good Hope Rd.
A 2021 investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Hoff collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money in the form of emergency rental assistance and affordable housing subsidies, while routinely failing to correct code violations which the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services had ordered to be fixed. Hoff owes over $200,000 to the city for unfixed electrical violations alone. Hoff charges inflated rents for rundown homes that are full of unfixed violations and serious electrical hazards. The Department of Neighborhood Services has issued hundreds of repair orders, code violations, and work orders for properties owned by Hoff and Bayer. Meanwhile, Hoff lives in a “nearly 5,000-square-foot mansion in Mequon that is assessed at $842,900” located at 3915 W Mariana Ct, Mequon, WI 53092. He can be reached at 414-763-9997.