Despite the broken doors and locks, the missing fire extinguishers, and the water damage that caused a ceiling to collapse, Dorrica James dutifully paid her rent at 5128 Sheriff Rd. NE.
The building was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2020 by an LLC whose beneficial owner is Mikhail Phillips. And by 2022, James filed an amended complaint in D.C. Superior Court alleging that Phillips and his property management company, Vision Property Management, failed to address the “continuous unsafe living conditions.”
James alleged that Phillips, 711 49th Street LLC, RLP Investment Group LLC, and Vision Property Management engaged in a “systematic manner that demonstrates a continuous pattern of neglect” and displayed “flagrant and utter disregard for D.C. law,” including D.C.’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
The failure to conduct repairs was by design, James alleged in her amended complaint, and violated the District’s Human Rights Act. The alleged scheme would enable Phillips and the other defendants to displace her, renovate the building, and jack up the rent for her unit (she was paying $960 per month), James claimed.
James’ lawsuit was settled in February 2023, but the issues, apparently, were not resolved.
This week, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a new 754-page lawsuit against Phillips and the same defendants—who collectively own or manage the 25 units at 5128 and 5134 Sheriff Rd. NE. The complaint accuses them of failing to maintain the properties in safe, habitable, and secure conditions and of violating the Consumer Protection Procedures Act, the Tenant Receivership Act, and the Drug-, Firearm-or Prostitution-Related Nuisance Abatement Act.
The AG accuses the defendants of “facilitating illegal gun and drug activity” in the unsecured properties, where seven people have been murdered or found dead. The properties have been the site of shootings, homicides, and significant drug and gun recoveries by the Metropolitan Police Department, according to the attorney general’s office.
Tenants have been subjected to “severe, dangerous housing code violations,” including serious mold contamination, rodent and bedbug infestations, and fire hazards, and they have been unable to operate appliances due to faulty electrical wiring, the AG claims.
The building’s basement has flooded repeatedly since 2023, according to the AG. In February, an OAG investigator found more than a foot of standing water and a “pungent sewage smell.”
When District officials sent a message about the flooded basement to Phillips’ known email address, they received a response saying, “This is not my problem. Stop contacting me.” About 15 minutes later, officials received a second response: “[A]ccording to DC comics Batman and Robin take care of Gotham city. Why don’t you call them and have them handle it.”
Tenants were forced to pool their money to pay for trash pickup after the buildings’ owner stopped paying for the service, according to the AG’s lawsuit. The situation has become so dire that mountains of trash were lining the property.
Despite citations for more than 100 housing code violations by the D.C. Department of Buildings since February 2021, the AG alleges that “the owner and property manager’s prolonged neglect has allowed persistent illegal drug and firearm activity in and around the property, putting the lives of Sheriff Road tenants and the surrounding community members at risk.”
Squatters have taken over empty units, and tenants report arriving home from trips only to find their locks changed and squatters living in their units, according to the attorney general’s lawsuit.
“The Attorney General is now trying to portray me as someone who wasn’t trying to fix items, but we were trying to do things promptly,” Phillips tells City Paper in a phone interview. Every time he fixed something, Phillips claims, the squatters would break it; someone even poured concrete down the drains, he says.
Phillips says he was caught in a catch-22. In order to evict squatters, he needed the proper licenses. But, he claims, squatters and the former owner kept breaking the locks to the building, which led to failed inspections and prevented him from obtaining the proper licenses. Phillips says he contacted MPD and the OAG for years asking for help removing the squatters, but only got the runaround.
He also denies any responsibility for the trash mountain and instead blames neighbors in nearby properties for dumping trash by his buildings. But he does acknowledge cutting off trash and management services a few years ago when he ran out of funds. “I haven’t collected any rent for four years. How can anyone pay anything for the buildings?” he says.
Mario Lloyd, owner of Vision Realty Management, tells City Paper that his company has not been involved with the Sheriff Road properties for several years. But he recalls Phillips being in regular contact with the authorities.
In 2020, potential investors were provided a window into Phillips’ plans for a 46-unit portfolio, including the Sheriff Road properties, according to exhibits included with James’ lawsuit.
The properties would have security systems and key fobs, Phillips told investors, according to a transcript of a recorded 2020 investor call. We “will be able to monitor it but we’re not gonna have any arm (sic) security or anything in the building; we don’t anticipate needing it,” Phillips said then.
Phillips now says the properties need 24-hour security, but at a cost of $50,000 a month, he can’t afford it.
Phillips’ company, RLP Development Group, projected a 321 percent return on investment, according to a 2020 investor presentation included as another exhibit in James’ lawsuit; and all 46 units would be renovated and rented to affordable housing tenants.
For those tenants “who are just looking to get out of the southeast area [and] the slumlords, we are going to basically create an environment where these people want to come home,” Phillips said, according to a transcript of the investor call.
Of the remaining Sheriff Road tenants, Phillips says “those that want to be bought out and leave or those who are not paying rent, we are going to basically vacate them.”
Phillips says he wants to work with the AG’s office to get the properties on track. At one of the buildings this week, contractors were working on the flooded basement again. People shuffled through the open door at 5128 Sheriff Rd. NE, telling City Paper that they’re not tenants. An onlooker watching the contractors work said: “I don’t live here but this place is a mess.”