If you are not prepared to manage property, don't buy any

SIMPLE AS THAT

http://free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992912064227409&ShowArticle_ID=11012505101683172

Henry McMaster: Slumlord 
Millionaire?

McMaster’s Management of Rental Properties Questioned

BY COREY HUTCHINS




A landscaper works on a McMaster-owned house in the University Hill neighborhood. Photo by Sean Rayford.
After eight years of a quirky Republican governor who has been criticized for being irresponsible in both his private behavior and his management of state government, Henry McMaster says he is running to restore responsibility to the Palmetto State’s governor’s office.

But while many things are known about McMaster — he’s held some kind of office in the Republican galaxy here for decades — not much has been explored when it comes to his management of the dozen rental properties he’s been handling with his wife for several years in the leafy college neighborhood surrounding the University of South Carolina.

The current state attorney general and former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, McMaster will face off in the GOP primary elections June 8. He battles Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, Lexington state Rep. Nikki Haley and Upstate Congressman Gresham Barrett for the party’s nomination. In most early polling, McMaster enjoyed a consistent frontrunner position in the race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Mark Sanford. More recent polls show him trailing Haley.

For about 10 years, the McMasters have been snapping up low-rent, near-campus college housing in the University Hill neighborhood and renting out rooms to hordes of howling, booze-soaked, bong-ripping college kids. In that time, their management style has rubbed up against neighbors, tenants and city officials and has led to some pretty serious friction in the ‘hood. The city has issued numerous citations against properties owned by the McMasters, at least one of which is still working its way through the litigation process.

They have also had to pay several thousand dollars in tax penalties for late payment of property taxes over the years. Between 1997 and 2002, they paid about $16,000 in penalties.

Right now, they are “current on all their taxes and have been for years,” according to McMaster’s gubernatorial campaign spokesman Rob Godfrey. The Richland County assessor’s office backs up Godfrey’s statement.

All in all, the McMasters own 12 houses in Richland County, according to the county treasurer’s office. Henry McMaster’s wife Peggy owns most of the properties but Henry has acted as the de facto property manager, bill collector, maintenance man and all around Mr. Fix-it, even throughout his bid for the governorship, according to several current tenants.

Six of the houses are on Greene Street between USC and Five Points. They also own two houses on Senate Street; one on Marion Street; a historic residence on Gibbes Court across from Capstone Hall; a large brick house at the corner of Henderson and Blossom streets; and a house on Gregg Street. All of them are rental properties, except their family’s main residence, a stately mansion on Senate Street.

Most of the buildings they own are divided into several units, but because the McMasters often ignore the city’s occupancy laws, it is unclear how many tenants they currently have.

Rolling up in a blue, late-model Suburban or black sedan and asking renters to take liquor bottles out of window frames, dropping by to spruce up the landscaping or playing mediator between renters and his wife, Henry McMaster’s presence has been legendary among college-aged University Hill neighborhood residents for years.

For one of them, a 23-year-old recent USC sociology graduate named Anton Briton, who lives in the Charles Edward building on Gibbes Court, seeing a man running for governor working around his apartment with a tie on and sleeves rolled up has been pretty entertaining.

“He comes by most of the time,” Briton says one evening in May while on his porch overlooking Barnwell Street. “Does some manual stuff on the house or whatever.”
Briton’s relationship with his landlord is all good, he says. There have been some things that needed fixing that took a long time to take care of, but other than that he’s enjoyed a solid living situation. He’s certainly heard other tenants in the building complain, though.

“It’s hard to think about [McMaster] taking the governorship and leading people and then not being able to take care of his tenants,” Briton says. “We’ll see how that works.”

Briton might be in the minority when it comes to tenants of the McMasters who view their landlords in such positive light. Free Times spoke with nearly two dozen current and former tenants for this story. Many of them didn’t want their names to appear in print out of fear of retribution. In addition to being their landlord, McMaster is the state’s top cop, after all.

“He’s just too scary,” one tenant said.


Photo by Sean Rayford.

Slumlord Millionaire?

The word “slumlord” gets thrown around an awful lot when you talk to college kids who rent cheap apartments in neighborhoods where broken bottles, crushed beer cans and plastic cups litter the sidewalks throughout the semester. It only takes a few years of cycling through such an undisciplined roster of hard-partying young tenants before the properties start sporting the all-too-familiar signs of the undergrad Animal House: lumpy floors, broken windows, sagging ceilings and the permeating smell of stale keg beer and lingering marijuana smoke.

If only those walls could talk.

McMaster’s gubernatorial spokesman sums it up pretty well in defending his boss from the charges of his tenants.

“When you’re renting to college students, it always seems to be the landlord’s fault,” he says.

True enough.

Regardless, fairly or unfairly, several current and former tenants say they consider McMaster a slumlord. And the complaints go beyond standard gripes about waiting too long to have an AC unit or refrigerator fixed.

In discussing their living situations, tenants complain of bad plumbing; broken windows; awkward confrontations with Henry; windows painted shut; bats, insects; mice; no central heating; non-working appliances; poor insulation; potentially dangerous gas leaks; rude text messages from Peggy; unjustified rent hikes; water pouring from light fixtures; being forced out of apartments; holes in ceilings, doors and floors; mistreatment of employees; discrimination; severe water damage; mold; breach of contract and the withholding of security deposits.

Even when trying to defend them on a personality basis, one tenant who Free Times recently spoke with in the living room of a McMaster-owned property couldn’t resist taking a jab at how they run their ship.

“They’re horrible landlords, but nice people,” she said.

City officials have been careful about how they address the relationship between the McMasters and the city.

On one balmy spring morning in late May, a three-person city code-enforcement team was checking up on one McMaster-owned Greene Street apartment building because a tenant had complained of the living conditions there. No violations were issued. Apparently, the McMasters had been tipped off the day before and sent someone to come in and fix the place up. They nailed a board across the bottom of a door and painted it, among other things, said a tenant.

According to Marc Mylott, the city’s director of zoning and planning, that particular house is in Henry’s name, not his wife’s. Mylott says it is standard procedure to alert a property owner or manager whenever the city plans to inspect the interior of one of their houses if a tenant complains.

A sophomore USC student named Emrys McMahon is one of eight students living in that house. He and his roommates say the McMasters promised them a washer and dryer and to re-do the floors before they moved in. The work was never done, McMahon says. During the coldest part of January, the unit’s central heating broke down and the tenants were given two space heaters, one of which didn’t turn on. McMahon slept at his girlfriend’s house. He sums up his feelings about the man who owns the house he rents bluntly.

“He’s a slumlord,” McMahon says. “He has a bunch of sh#!ty places that he doesn’t care about. He’s a slumlord.”

In a way though, McMahon and his roommates also feel a little bad for Henry. Three of them were there with Henry and his wife when it was time to take care of the lease. It was truly an awkward situation, they say.

“Peggy just, like, bosses Henry around,” McMahon says. “She’s just like a b#!ch to him all the time. She just yells at him.”

McMahon says that dynamic between Henry and his wife is “the scariest part,” more so even than what he sees as broken promises over upgrades and repairs.

Gesturing with his foot at a rotting, crumbling baseboard in his apartment, McMahon says he doesn’t have any political axe to grind against Henry. He’s merely disappointed in the way a man he knows is running for governor has treated him and his roommates as tenants.

To the McMasters, “we’re just college kids,” McMahon says. His roommates all look up from their video games and nod in agreement. They’re all moving out next month.

How Can He Fix the Budget If He Can’t Fix My Heat?

It’s a common theme Free Times heard among tenants: If McMaster treats the state the way he treats his properties and tenants, he would, in college-kid Greek speak, “f#!k it up.”
In conversations with current and past tenants who rented from the McMasters, the most widely observed complaint has been a general lack of attention to the properties or to the tenants. Almost every tenant Free Times spoke with complained of a major problem when it came to trying to get their landlords to fix something.

Many tenants also felt the McMasters treated their longtime maintenance man, known to tenants as Jay, or Mr. Jay, badly. Several current and former tenants believe Jay works long hours for no pay, only food and housing.

McMaster spokesman Godfrey didn’t respond to questions about Jay’s employment and Jay ignored an attempt by Free Times to speak with him.

He can often be seen humping it up and down the steep hills of Barnwell or Henderson streets, heading from one property to another. He used to walk the McMasters’ famed bulldog dog in the mornings when it was still alive.

“We got the idea that Jay was completely mistreated,” says a former tenant who lived in a McMaster-owned property on Greene Street in 2006.

In 2004, Peggy told a tenant that Jay had fallen from a ladder and hurt his leg. “He’s no use to me now,” the tenant recalls her saying.

Maybe the McMasters are just overworked. Henry, who keeps a full-time job as the state attorney general, could often be seen in the middle of the day in a shirt and tie hammering away at pieces of wood or hauling paints cans around the open garage they use as a hub for their properties at the corner of Greene and Henderson streets.

It’s a small operation — Peggy, Henry, their son Henry Jr. who recently graduated from USC, Mr. Jay and a handful of landscaping contractors — not a big management company.

“I think they just bit off more than they could chew,” one current tenant says.

The Constitutional Landlord

The problems between the McMasters and their tenants aren’t the only troubles they’ve
had in the neighborhood. As landlords, they’ve found themselves in disputes with the city over a number of violations that range from over-occupancy to citations for tenants not bringing in roll carts on time. While many of those confrontations have quietly swirled in the bureaucratic backwaters of City Hall, a current zoning violation has remained in limbo in front of a circuit court judge since 2007 that paints a telling, detailed portrait of the McMaster-as-landlord narrative.

As it turns out, when the attorney general of South Carolina isn’t challenging the constitutionality of national health care reform on the TV talk shows, he’s down at the local zoning board defending his wife’s rental properties on the same grounds.

Acting as his wife’s agent and counsel when she caught a citation in a house they own, McMaster testified in front of the board on her behalf on Sept. 25, 2007.

Free Times first reported on the case on May 5 in the story, “McMaster Blasts Local Zoning Ordinance as Unconstitutional.”

At issue is whether the McMasters are illegally housing too many occupants in a four-bedroom home adjacent to campus.

In his testimony in front of the city zoning board, McMaster evoked the U.S. constitution at least 15 times in response to the city’s complaint. The board upheld the zoning administrator’s decision.

The McMasters are appealing the case. A separate attorney is now handling it.

Inside the court papers of the pending litigation, a rich, literary narrative details how some University Hill residents and city officials have perceived the McMasters as local landlords over the years.

In 2003, a neighbor sent a letter to the city and to the McMasters that outlined his concerns about their management of the property in question and oversight of their tenants.

“Two totally neglected dogs ran free, soiling the neighbor’s yards, or were tied for hours without proper attention,” the neighbor wrote. “Worse still, during their many parties, the humans also routinely used the space between our brick wall and your house as a urinal, and sometimes even as a commode.”

One tenant, the neighbor wrote, pitched a cigarette butt over a brick wall that burned through the top of his convertible.

“We will not tolerate the kind of disrespectful behavior that was demonstrated by your last tenants, and … we will hold you personally responsible for any such conduct,” he wrote.

The neighbor, a local doctor who has since moved out of state, ended the letter by saying he’d sent copies to “many other neighbors who have suffered silently … this long year.”

Only three unrelated people are allowed to live together in the house in question, according to city zoning officials.

According to a memo by attorneys for the city, the McMasters question the constitutionality of certain provisions of the city ordinance. Specifically, the lawyers wrote, the McMasters challenge the definition of the word “family.” They argue that limiting the number of people living in a dwelling not related by blood or marriage “works unconstitutional harm on property owners and tenants.”

“In college towns,” the lawyers wrote in defense of the city, “it is not unusual to find friction between property owners, like McMaster, who wish to maximize their rental incomes by packing housing with flocks of students” and other property owners.

However, the lawyers continue, “The public’s interest in protecting the sanctity and peace of single-family areas plainly overrides the self-interest of landlords or property owners attempting to run mini-dorms.”

McMaster considers the case a “fundamental property rights issue,” says his spokesman Godfrey.

“If four female college students next door are a threat to property values,” his spokesman continues, “then the whole university-area real estate market is doomed for eternity.”

Hypocrisy in the ‘Hood

The whole spectacle regarding the McMasters and their lawsuit makes University Hill resident Kathryn Fenner bristle. She’s the vice president of the University Hill Neighborhood Association and serves on the city’s code-enforcement task force, a blue-ribbon committee that was set up to make recommendations on city ordinances.

Fenner has observed Peggy McMaster for years — Peggy sits on the board of the neighborhood association — and Fenner’s house is surrounded by five properties the McMasters own.

Sitting in her modern, brightly colored, sun-lit living room with two large dogs playing around her, Fenner launches into an all-out assault on the way Henry and Peggy McMaster have handled their role as local landlords in the neighborhood. To her, their actions have been offensive.

The McMasters, she says, have a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy with their tenants regarding the city’s over-occupancy laws. As an attorney, she finds it laughable that Henry is appealing a zoning ordinance because she thinks he’s clearly ignoring precedent of the law.

But that’s the thing with the McMasters, Fenner says: They have a sense of entitlement that allows them to act like complete hypocrites, apparently without even realizing they’re doing it.

“I think that if you are supposed to be the chief law enforcement officer in the state, you probably shouldn’t be nodding and winking at lawbreaking,” she says.

She’s speaking specifically about occupancy laws, which several tenants admitted to Free
Times they were breaking but said they had a wink-and-nod agreement with their landlords about doing.

Henry has fought hard against the city to keep on doing what he’s doing and several tenants are happy their landlords are going to bat for them — with good reason. The McMasters enjoy more rent money coming in and renters end up paying less individually.
But it’s the way Henry has been doing it that bothers Fenner so much.

In testimony he gave on his wife’s behalf to the zoning board in 2007, McMaster said, “The constitution says if you’re a single housekeeping unit you may not be the traditional family, but you’re a family just the same and you’re not hurting anything any more than a traditional family.”

That really bothers Fenner, a self-described Democrat, who took umbrage to McMaster’s staunch, headline-grabbing opposition to same-sex unions when a constitutional amendment to ban state recognition of them was put on the ballot in 2006.

“What offends me chiefly is the hypocrisy,” Fenner says. “The hypocrisy that we’re going to protect non-traditional families when we can make a buck out of it and we’re going to pillory non-traditional families when we can make political bucks out of it.”

One of the jobs the city’s code-enforcement team was tasked with was developing a proposal to help crack down on absentee landlords, in part by making them apply for a city business license. Fenner says Henry McMaster fought hard to keep it from happening and the proposal never came to fruition.

McMaster said he believed the proposed ordinance would be intrusive.

The city has since come up with a watered-down code enforcement effort.

Fenner says the hypocrisy she’s seen from the McMasters in their capacity as landlords in her neighborhood reminds her of someone else.

“It’s like Mark Sanford in the front of the plane and his employee in the back of the plane going to Argentina,” she says. “It’s like Mark Sanford staying in luxury hotels while he makes his underlings double up. It’s that same kind of hypocrisy that really bothers me …
He’s wrapping himself in the flag, in his family and the Bible. It’s just not real.”

Free Times emailed and called other current and past higher-ups in the neighborhood association, but didn’t hear back.

Fenner says she isn’t surprised. It goes with the Southern culture of speaking ill about your neighbors behind the white fences and wisteria but not out in public. That, of course, would be ugly.

Even powerful Democratic attorneys, she says, can be what she calls “weenies” when it comes to speaking out about the man who might be governor.

“But,” she says, “that’s ‘ole Henry for you.”



Comments
My parents lived in the USC neighborhood when the McMasters lived in a house on the corner of Barnwell & Greene Streets. I never had any rental experience with them, but in 2 dog-related events I had while walking down the street, both were rude to the point of me wanting to kick them where it counts. Nasty people. And VERY homophobic.
BillieMay 26th, 2010 11:38am
If he is supposed to be working for the State and he s fixing up his rental properties, isn't that theft of State property and deception?
joeMay 26th, 2010 09:35am
If the "black sedan" is a black Crown Victoria (with normal tags...AGs car always has reg tags rather than state govt tags for security purposes), that is his state car...I mean its the taxpayers car.
ThelmaMay 26th, 2010 03:07pm
Multiple sources, lots of phone calls and checking the records. This is real journalism. One doesn't see a lot of that any longer. I remember some of those houses well from my own days at USC. I don't think McMaster owned them at the time. I'm astonished they haven't collapsed from the years of abuse.
William HamiltonMay 26th, 2010 04:55pm
"but because the McMasters often ignore the city’s occupancy laws, it is unclear how many tenants they currently have" How do you know they're ignoring occupancy laws if you don't know how many tenants they have?!
KmcAMay 26th, 2010 05:40pm
Yeah, we do have some Slum Landowners. And they know how to make things seems better than they are. Like, I had a landowner that painted the inside of a sink. Just to get through an inspection (I suppose), so that the place would pass the inspection. Well, a few months, showed the result (It started peeling off). By then, it was hard to get him to repair the sink/or replace it. And we know these "Slum Owners" JUST DO NOT CARE! So, if it takes reporting them for who they are for every repair, THEN DO IT! I realized where I needed to apply the heat. They will also hire some inexperienced person (sometimes, they don't speak English) that only has DUCT TAPE and GLUE in their toolbox. And expect that the two products will fix everything. Patch here and there!! Until neXt time.... Please stay away from those kinds of Land owners... THEY ARE NOTHING BE LEECHES!! Will suck all of your money... Check this out! I never met my land owner. my townhouse was managed through another agency. Probably they were somewhere out of the country, sipping on an exotic drink or just "living it up" buying boats and hosting parties (with the money we give them). They should be investing the profits back into their properties!!!! JUST SLUM! NASTY! A DON'T CARE ATTITUDE". LOOK FOR APARTMENTS/HOUSES THAT HAVE MANAGEMENT ON THE PREMISES! THE BEST! SAY AWAY FROM PRIVATE OWNERS!!!! A FRIEND OF MINE HAS A LAW SUITE FOR HIS LAND OWNER. THEY HAVE NOT RETURNED HER SEC. DEPOSIT YET. AND IT HAS BEEN ABOUT 4 MONTHS SINCE SHE REQUESTED IT. BY LAW, IF A LAND OWNER HAS NO REASON NOT RETURNING YOUR DEPOSIT AND HAS CLEARED YOU OF OWING HIM/HER, THEN YOU CAN ASK FOR THREE (3) TIMES AS MUCH IN MAGISTRATE COURT. HE SAID, JUST BE CAREFUL OF WHO YOU SAY OWES YOU. ASK THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HELP WITH THE PROPER NAME & COUNTY OF BUSINESS OF THE DEFENDANT. We need to let others know of what we go through with these unprofessional SLUMS.
A lady that knows...May 26th, 2010 07:42pm
If McMaster is a 'slumlord', why do these morons continue to rent from him/his wife? Even reading the story, its pretty obvious that IF the properties are damaged, its the renters that damage(d) them. Thats like the dumbasses out in LA burning businesses during the riots and then complaining because there were no grocery stores in their neighborhoods. If you dont want to live in a 'slum', dont tear the houses up... If you aren't happy with where you live, then MOVE. Sounds like a bunch of winey ass liberals giving interviews to a whiney ass liberal piece of sh*t newspaper.
MeMay 27th, 2010 12:23am
why don't you say what you mean? You Republican!6nsx
ChanceMay 27th, 2010 01:50am
A few years ago Henry wouldn't vote for and in fact was a huge opponent of the Domestic Violence Bill that was running through the Capital. This story explains a lot to me then because Henry seems to be a victim too. He is a person bullied in his relationship with his wife and doesn't know how to stand up for himself. No wonder he thinks we don't need protections in place for people who are victims of domestic violence, he lives the life of someone caught in the cycle. Someone needs to do an intervention before he is elected Governor!
ColaChickenMay 27th, 2010 07:41am
After enduring the torture for what seemed like ages, my roommates and I finally broke free of the McMaster BS. Winters of no heat except for a hole in the floor from the heater downstairs (SCEG spoke out about how ridiculous this was), roof leaks, delay in move-in, gas leaks, sketchy maintenance men staring at our nice things and being woken up by pest control banging on our bedroom doors, sounds like paradise right? Poor Jay was our only saving grace. The over-worked service man (mind you the only service man for ALL of the McMaster properties) always had a smile on his face. We quickly found that if we wanted anything fixed, we should call him directly because Peggy herself would not help. All together they are just a group of b.s.'ers. Smile and nod until you truly need it. Mr. McMaster's title was damage control for wrongdoings of 'Miss Peggy' on many occasions. One of the sketchy aforementioned maintenance men said it best when they stated, "I can't do much until Miss Peggy gives me the orders and that won't happen until she's done soaking in the tub." Overall, I'd say the main family member that makes my blood boil is just the Queen Bee herself... although I still wouldn't trust the politics of this family to be carried into office.
tortured4toolongMay 27th, 2010 09:10am
I can scarcely believe I am in any way defending Henry McMaster, but since I married someone who owns and rents a few properties I have had my eyes opened to what a huge problem property management can be. I cannot even begin to tell you how disgusting it can be to clean up the filth people leave behind when they vacate a property, the damage that "upstanding" people will do to a property that they do not own. We gave up renting to college students - even graduate students - after too many problems. So now we have a new tenant, a single parent with two teenage kids, and are getting complaints from the neighbors about the kids' & their friends' behavior! This, however, is not basis enough to evict someone. The law sides with the tenant, NOT the landlord! And as to the tax issues, many people do not realize that non-owner occupied properties are taxed at a rate almost TRIPLE that of homeowners in Richland county. Between mortgages, property maintenance & repair, and taxes one is lucky if they are able to break even. The worst part of it for me, however, has been my loss of faith in the goodness of human character. Renters - you reap what you sow.
lavenderblueMay 27th, 2010 11:12am
It is easy to merely refer to unhappy tenants as "just college students." It is also easy to try to deflect complaints by characterizing students as "booze-soaked, bong-ripping college kids." These college students (or in many cases their parents) pay rent & deserve the respect of their landlord AND not all students are drunk, drug users. Renters do have rights. The issue is not that there are problems with properties this old. The renters have a choice in whether they live there and can expect more problems; BUT the McMasters still have responsibility to safely maintain their properties - regardelss of their age. Old properties mean more repairs. All property owners recognize that. We provide shelters to the homeless when it is down to 32 degrees, so is it too much to expect the heat to be turned on when an apartment is that cold? Gas leaks are potentially DEADLY, so should a tentant be rebuked by their landlord for calling the gas company when they encounter a life threatening situation? Should a tenant in a downstairs apartment expect to be handed a bucket to catch the water coming through the ceiling from a bathroom above as a long term fix? Should the recommended solution to a rat problem be to leave the hole in the floor open to encourage the rodents to enter with hopes of catching them BEFORE they destroy the tenants' property. I am confident how a jury would react to these if a health and safety risk such as these had resulted in an incident. It is amazing how our attorney general of our state has responded with solutions such as these for years. And now he wants to be governor? Now, that is amazing.
A Concerned ParentMay 27th, 2010 01:38pm
I rented a great apartment near the USC campus from landlords who kept the place up beautifully. My neighbors in the building were nice & no problems unless they stemmed from neighboring apartment buildings that were just plain gross. Everything was great until the building was sold to a company who jacked the rent way up & did next to no maintenance. Now, that once lovely refuge on campus is a rat hole just like most of the other places. I once asked my landlord how they were able to rent to great people for years. The answer was "credit check"! I had friends in the neighborhood who were constantly ragging about their landlord & guess who it was! Go look at some of the McMaster properties & see if you want to live in them. I know of one really great building they bought -- not on Greene Street -- that's now a hellhole.
Ex-area resident May 27th, 2010 02:25pm
After reading this article and the comments that followed, it is refreshing to know that I was not alone in my disputes with the McMasters. Upon showing me my apartment, Mrs. McMaster promised me that a washer and dryer was going to be installed before I moved in. Trusting her and her husband was a mistake. Not only was there not a washer and dryer installed when I moved in, it wasn't even installed when i finished the lease 12 months later. Just one small example of how sometimes even the "honorable" members of Columbia will sacrifice honesty to make that extra dollar.
usc4lifeMay 27th, 2010 08:21pm
Good to see a well researched and balanced landlord/tenant story for once. You get the feeling that McMasters is trying, but just not keeping up. Let's hope he doesn't run his office, and the next, on such a short shoestring that it continually comes untied. South Carolina can't afford any more scandals!
FormerLandlordMay 28th, 2010 11:24am
I rented in the Gibbes Court property owned my the McMasters in 2000-2001. It was the same back then as it is now: they are most definitely slum lords. They are both very rude and all they care about is the money they can earn off of unsuspecting college students. And why do people keep renting from him? Because no one knew at the time that they were such filthy people. When me and my other 3 roommates moved out, we cleaned the place top to bottom, only to be charged exorbitant fees for cleanup they say we never did. I was there and worked my butt off to make sure we got our deposit back, only to end up OWING MONEY AFTER THEY TOOK THE ENTIRE DEPOSIT. We met with him and he went over the fees....it was ridiculous, BUT he was able to do it because of his shady lease agreement. Read the fine print, folks...
RyMoMay 28th, 2010 02:18pm
If you don't live in Cola and want to rent a place close to campus, you'd have no idea what to expect if these people become your landlords. Only if local gov't steps in and makes them bring these places up to code will anything be accomplished. They are tight fisted and could care less about anyone else's living conditions.
maggy MayMay 30th, 2010 07:53pm
The McMasters know they can rent their properties because they are close to campus. Renting to college students does have its downfalls; late night music, cheap keg parties, and a few more cars parked in the road/driveway. Nothing out of the ordinary for a neighborhood within a block radius of a major University campus. However this is something they have been doing for years, and have continued to uphold their reputation of not fixing small or very serious housing/health/fire problems in their homes. The McMasters would not be able to rent OR sell ANY of their properties to tenets that were NOT college students. Their properties are only becoming more rundown. How can a landlord expect their tenant to respect and upkeep the house they are living in if the McMasters can not even install a bedroom door, fix an air-conditioning that has been broken for a year, check the smoke alarms, or update the fire extinguisher tags... I could go on all day. If a landlord refuses to address a tenets' concerns, whether it be a safety hazard, rodent problem, or common maintenance, how can that landlord expect to be respected. The McMasters blatantly take advantage of college students' lower standard of living. I would think that since these stories have been appearing in the media the McMasters would attempt to improve their response to their tenets. However, typical of most South Carolina politicians, they just make an excuse instead of actually trying to make an active effort improve/mend their reputation. (great display of character) It is a joke to think that someone who is incapable of keeping a handful of tenets even minimally satisfied, could be responsible for the wellbeing and best interest of an entire state. HAHA it is an absolute JOKE
VictimMay 31st, 2010 12:08am
As a former tenant of the McMaster's at a house on Greene St. I can honestly say that South Carolina is in serious trouble if he treats its residents anything like he does his renters. I rented from them my first year living in SC (d unaware of their reputations as landlords). They refused to fix a broken street level window that I was particularly worried about after having strangers knocking on my door at 2:00am Henry told me "darlin you're in the big city now you have to get used to that" despite the fact that I was a 24 year old grad student. The apartment had no heat to speak of except a vent at the ceiling that provided nothing, they referred to in the lease this as"older heating units". Once Peggy locked a cat that wasn't mine in my apartment for two days while I was out of town because she just "assumed" it was mine. No pest control was practiced on their property, I had to pay for Orkin myself because it was a basement apartment and baby roaches started coming out of the shower, among other things. Water would pour down the wall in the main living area during heavy storms. During a conversation with Henry once he said "Say that again sugar" because he liked my accent. I never really felt that I could do much about any of this since he was the attorney general. Now I wish that I had tried. Needless to say I have no respect for these people.
Former TenantMay 31st, 2010 11:51am
I cannot wait for Peggy Mcmasters to be running our state government. As if things weren't going to s*** already.
NikMay 31st, 2010 03:51pm
I am a parent of a student that rented from the McMasters. The rent was $1600/month for a 3 bedroom apartment that housed 5 males. I resent how the college students have been portrayed. Our family spent 1 1/2 days cleaning the apartment before my son moved in...and then I stayed awake several nights fearing for his life because of the condition of the apartment. Most of what I have read is what we also experienced. Students that lived there excelled in their studies. McMaster's responsibility is to uphold the laws that other landlords have to uphold. I would never vote for him again...yes I am ashamed to say that I voted for him. But never again.
MaryJune 1st, 2010 01:30pm
wow, and their campaign seems to have plenty of money... SC will elect the white good-ol-boy with the cash again and again.
T H June 3rd, 2010 01:42pm
I'm soooo glad McMaster will NOT be the Govenor! Woohoo!
LalJune 9th, 2010 02:39pm
I currently live in one of their builds because it is convenient for me. Otherwise I would never have lived here. And don't worry I'm moving out. They are HORRIBLE about taking care of their property. And I live in one of the better ones. NONE of the damages are caused by us, the tenants, they are all from the buildings age and neglect. They fix things the cheapest was possible and only when they have to. They even found it necessary to ask for a second deposit this year even though they already have my first one and the apartment is BETTER than it was when i arrived. MY guess is they spent it on campaign money. I've repaired more than they have in this place. For what I pay for this place it should not be damaged like this! If you need proof I'm not some crazy party student I make straight A's and I don't drink. They take advantage of poor college students who have to have housing close to campus. Its a choice, be ripped off by the university for small housing or get ripped off by McMaster for slummy housing. All I can say is I BETTER get my deposit back.
TenantJune 11th, 2010 12:31pm
I live in a McMaster property and the zoning officers came to my apt yesterday, there are 4 girls in a 3 bedroom apt...that's against the zoning rules and the girls above me is 5 girls under one roof-that too is against any zoning/occupancy laws.
woodardbJune 30th, 2010 09:30am
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