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The owner of the property labeled “Worst House in Madison” by the Student Tenant Union last week is demanding a formal apology from the campus group for what he says “defamed” his name.�
Patrick Corcoran, owner of Patrick Properties, said the competition held by the STU was poorly executed and the statements regarding the property made by the STU and tenant Karley Gifford were inaccurate.
The STU members that voted on the winner of the competition had 12 written entries they seriously considered, according to STU Chair Joseph Lindstrom. In addition, only one voting member inspected one property, Gifford’s unit, which is one of five in the building at 617 Mendota Court.
“I don’t think it was much of a contest, considering they looked at one place,” Corcoran said in a sit-down interview with The Badger Herald Thursday. “If you call somebody ‘the worst of’ something, you’d better go check.”
Lindstrom, who was the only STU member to inspect the property, said the competition was judged fairly and the winner was agreed upon by a majority of the group. He added all the voters thought the description in Gifford’s e-mail was the worst, and he went to the property to verify if the description matched reality.
“We feel very comfortable with the decision we’ve made,” Lindstrom said. “I wasn’t going to go to all of them if I didn’t have to. I told them (the voters) it matched what it said.”
Corcoran, however, said there were numerous discrepancies between the actual condition of the building and the claims made by Gifford. He said there were false claims made about the presence of mold, a mice infestation, bad drywall and his refusal to replace torn wallpaper.
According to Corcoran, there is no wallpaper or drywall in Gifford’s unit, and the walls are made of paneling. He also said building inspector Robert Ales never mentioned he had a problem with the walls to anybody.
The Badger Herald obtained a copy of the building inspection papers, which has no mention of problems with the walls except for a small area that needed to be repainted.
Lindstrom said while the inspector did not find any violation with the condition of the walls, he said he was comfortable saying “the walls in there are terrible.”
According to the inspection, there was also no mold found in the building. Instead, Corcoran has to replace ceiling tiles that have water stains before June 1, according to the inspection papers.
Corcoran said the inspector told him the most unsafe thing he found in the apartment was that the smoke detector was taken off the ceiling and the battery taken out, adding, “Who do you think did that?”
Lindstrom agreed all the violations found by the inspector were what are considered minor, but added “several minor violations can accumulate into an apartment that is difficult to live in and enjoy.”
Corcoran said STU acted unfairly toward him and ruined his name in the city.
“I think it was borderline malicious. … It was definitely malicious,” Corcoran said. “I am … insisting that I get a formal apology from Mr. Lindstrom for me and my family.”
He added he believes STU’s efforts are counterproductive to bettering relations between tenants and landlords.
Lindstrom said the main goal of STU right now is to inform students of their rights as renters, though they are working on finding ways to point out the efforts of “good” landlords. He added STU will likely not apologize to Corcoran.
“The way he’s responded has only made me more glad that we picked him,” Lindstrom said. “I think Patrick Properties will be mad at the Student Tenant Union for a long time.”
Ales, the inspector responsible for writing the report, did not respond to a phone call seeking comment Friday.
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�The way he�s responded has only made me more glad that we picked him,� Are you kidding? What did you expect him to do, let his name fester in this crap heap that he doesn’t belong in? He defended himself, and this article pretty much proves that the girl who won is incompetent if she can’t even tell paint from wallpaper.
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Patrick is correct, the statements about him were inaccurate. He’s not the worst landlord in Madison, he’s the worst landlord in the entire state of Wisconsin!
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Awesome! Great comeback about the smoke alarm!
These tenants lied about the condition of the property in the name of this “contest”. STU should be helping with legit issues instead of slandering landlords.
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owned
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While this unit does sound like it is in poor condition, this contest was completely ridiculous. How did it help inform the renter of her rights? and how did it help point out good landlords? oh yeah, it did neither. STU should focus on maybe contests like best places to live in Madison and rewarding landlords, or seeking out these poor units and advising students on what to do rather than ruining a business. The contest gives Patrick Properties a bad name and could cause them to lose business. I have lived in a Patrick Properties unit and can say that the unit was in quite good condition and all problems were addressed promptly once reported. So maybe this girl should have gotten out her phone and given him a call, or maybe she’s content living in mold with mice, which is no fault of Patrick Properties.
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Nice to see that this half-assed little stunt backfired. Creating an adversarial relationships with Madison landlords is not only counterproductive, it’s childish.
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If you’re looking for a good landlord visit: https://www.mcbridecompanies.com/ They are great!!!
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of course this landlord is goign to retort. but it’s not much of a retort calling up the BH for a good soundbite. landlords need to knwo there are consequences of effing with student renters. students are traditionally plowed over by property owners who know they’ll be outta there in a year.
STU should do some extensive research and run a boycott on the WORST landlords next spring when students are looking for housing.
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Steve Brown is the worst landlord in this city. Sometimes I feel like I am living in a slum.
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Imagine going to a restaurant and getting horribly ill from the restaurant. Is it slander to go around telling people about how you got sick? NO!
Slander, defamation, or libel all have one quality that must not be forgotten about. They must be FALSE accusations. There’s always going to be a “worst” apartment, so having a contest and then picking the worst of all the entries is clearly not slander.
This landlord got what he deserved! These landlords make boatloads of money off of the suffering of students. Simply pointing out bad landlords so that students are more informed is clearly not illegal or wrong at all.
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i lived in unit 5 last year, was terrrrrible. squirrels in the ceiling, etc. and after cleaning for hours to be sure everything was perfect, patrick charged me $100 for cleaning and $200 for “misc back rent” … and he won’t talk to me.
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Oh, don’t worry, Pat will have his revenge when he charges her for all the damage she’s done. It’s too bad she won’t get any money with this BH award, because she’s sure not getting any security deposit back.
Nice job, Joe. You’ve made your organization irrelevant and irresponsible. You may have done better by not doing anything at all.
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Actually, landlords aren’t allowed to charge for anything but significant damages. If he does, you can take him to small claims court and receive up to triple the amount he took from you and put it back in your pocket.
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The way Patrick Corcoran responded was absurd and shows what an awful person he is. I even heard that he called the writer of the original BH article the day it was written and chewed her out for an hour.
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Dear Anonymous’,
Regarding your comments:
2:16 pm - The BH offered the interview after it was discovered little, to no effort was made to contact me regarding the original article.
5:37 pm - I have documentation to show most of the accusations against me are false.
7:47 pm - I did speak with the writer of the original article. I did not “chew her out”. I did discuss with her the importance of checking her facts and getting both sides of the story before printing it. Especially, when it concerns the reputation of a person or business.
Furthermore, I have proof that Joseph Lindstom and the STU have put their agenda ahead of the safety and well being of this tenant.
I am just glad that most of your generation (and 99% of my tenants) are mature and rational people. As are many of the respondents to these articles.
I invite any of you to have a sit down, ‘grown up’ discussion regarding this issue or any tenant/landlord concerns. But please, don’t take potshots at me and hide behind the name ‘anonymous’. I would like to think that University of Wisconsin students are better than that.
Sincerly, Patrick J Corcoran Patrick Properties
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Hey Patrick! You suck!
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I’ve rented from Patrick and his parents and both of them were great landlords.
The property I rented was well maintained and cleaned, and Patrick was always responsive to issues.
He took a crap house on N Pinckney and renovated it into something spectacular.
It sounds like the Mendota Court property does need some repair. But if all these problems existed, why did no one use ANY of the existing tools in place to escalate the issues? Madison has really tight legal protections for tenants and landlords both.
The fact that people are tossing around vague, unsupported claims just makes me believe what I suspect - that the people complaining are being whiny, immature students whose idea of cleaning and maintaining a place they rent is to perhaps flush the toilet once a week.
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It is evidently clear from anyone with half a brain that Patrick was treated unfairly, and the STU’s action has done nothing to improve student housing in Madison. It’s interesting that those on this exchange that bash Patrick have cited absolutely no basis for their views (…”you suck”??? - give me a break). What a bunch of dweebs. Hang in there, Patrick, 99.9% of Madison is on your side.
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Why the BH allow people to post anonymous comments?
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“Furthermore, I have proof that Joseph Lindstom and the STU have put their agenda ahead of the safety and well being of this tenant.”
What exactly does that mean? I can’t imagine any situation in which that sounds good.
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Hi, I am the loving mother of Karley and while she is “Lucky” and does live in a very nice apartment now. Her apartment she lived at after 617 Mendota was much worse. The family/friends joked that we all needed to have our shots before entering…my point, these kids may not have the relative scale to judge when its there first apartment. Further, (off the scale to judge) Karley comes from a private 45k yr High School boarding school, in Newport, RI her expectations are vastly skewed. I believe BH took advantage of that and after conversation with Mr. Cocoran during this incident he is a decent person and landlord and in his defense is trying to keep up with everything. Personally, in college I would have been happy to live at 617 Mendota. The problem is as parents we try stupidly, to give our children better than we had. Regarding her last apt. she simply stated “ok I get it my last apartment was worse than 617 it was like being at YMCA camp for 6 months…” Clearly a different perspective and attitude, I can see her maturity and believe had she been approached (or seen this contest later) by BH she would have a different tune. It’s all relative….and she’s learning…
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How did anyone miss the Villa Maria at 615 Howard Place as the most disgusting apartment housing on campus? I had to remove a family member that has disabilities from there because of the WORST BED BUG INFESTATION that could be imagined! Mice, cockroaches, and drug dealing neighbors and a smell like you might find in a prison permeates the halls. I called public health it was so bad. You won’t be told of the bug issues if you ask about a rental there. That place should be condemned!