Berry Lane and Mohawk Trail Apartments, Mohawk Milford LLC/Grasscreek LLC, Owner: Ross Gottula Review

I have lived at Berry Lane Apartments for a couple of years now. I'm also familiar with one of their two other properties: on Mohawk Trail. This is because I was the apartment manager from Dec. '19 to Feb. '20 when I quit to go to work for the USPS, and also because of the owner.
Update: 3/23/22

I have updated this report in order to correct statements that could be viewed as defamation, as well as to update it. I am complying with Ross's request to remove statements he feels are defamatory. If you, Ross Gottula, still feel that this is defamatory, please let me know specifically what you object to and I will revise it.

If you raise my rent, I will take you to court for unlawful retaliation, especially in light of repeated refusals to fix things unless I agree to take a rent increase.

This is a factual report with the intent of advising potential customers of these apartments. This is not a slum tenement and the apartments are reasonably comfortable and spacious although, for the price, lack of additional amenities beyond parking, storage (not all apartments get this) and laundry, and a general unwillingness to do repairs, it is much too high. I understand that the loan to buy the properties must be paid but, when investing in real estate, a buyer must always consider whether or not the increase in rent (which amounted to approximately $200-400 for tenants who stayed) can be reasonably justified and is in line with similar properties. There are other properties in this community that offer similar apartments with substantially more amenities (e.g. swimming pool, fitness room, conference room, tennis court, basketball court, etc.) for about $100 more. Also, the owner has refused (at least when I was manager) to renew contracts for most tenants, causing them to lapse into a month-to-month contract, myself included. Honestly, this is advantageous for both parties, because it makes it easier for an owner to raise rent, and easier for tenants to leave quickly without being saddled with rent that might exceed their means. It also provides an owner with a way to force tenants out as long as the "reasonable increase" clause is not exceeded; this is hard to do since Ohio law does NOT specify what's reasonable.

In regards to this, one particular tenant when I was manager had the rent increased 3 months in a row. I presented the tenant's complaint to Ross, but he didn't care.

Berry Lane, at 947 Business 28 (which is often listed erroneously by utilities as Ohio 28, State Route 28, St. Rt. 28, SR28, or Old State Route 28), Milford, OH, is composed of 3 brick buildings (A [facing], B & C). Buildings A and B have 12 apartments, while C has 6. Each building has a small laundry room in the basement with a slop sink, and is composed of 3 floors; the first floor is basically the basement. The landings of the 2nd and 3rd floors in B, and the 3rd floor in C, have storage spaces. The stairways are carpeted but no effort is made to keep the carpeting clean aside from vacuuming; as a result, the carpets are stained with dirt and have smelled bad for years. Before renting an apartment out, the carpet will be cleaned and the apartment repainted, and the apartment will be at least partially cleaned (depending on who they have to do it). There are two closets in the master BR and one closet in the 2nd bedroom, as well as a long hallway closet and a coat closet. Most apartments here have balconies. The entryways, kitchen, dining area and bathrooms of vacated apartments only are being switched from carpeting and linoleum to fake wood flooring. Vacated apartments also get their old aluminum-frame windows replaced with plastic-frame windows. I asked but can't get anything replaced. Each apartment has a fridge/freezer, range and dishwasher, as well as the water heater and HVAC. The bathrooms are Jack & Jill-style (i.e. a half bathroom, a bathtub/shower room, and then another half-bath) with access via the hallway and master BR, and this configuration is better for families. The family area is a comfortable size but the dining area is a bit small.
Google Maps Images:
947 Business 28, Milford, OH

Building A

Buildings B (right) and C (left) share a wall

Mohawk Trail Apartments, at 892, 894, 896, 900 and 904 Mohawk Trail, Milford, OH, has 5 brick buildings in a row, and each has about 12 units, which are not as large as Berry Lane's. The stairwells were redone in 2020. Most apartments are carpeted although some ground-floor ones have tile due to repeated flooding issues. Most are two bedroom units and it's fairly universal that they have a tiny kitchen, a somewhat dining and family area, and a hallway leading to the bathroom and the two bedrooms and closets are after the bathroom. The bedrooms are probably about the same size as the family room. Each bedroom has long closets, and there are a couple of closets in the hallway. Many apartments here have balconies. The family area is a bit smaller than at Berry Lane, as is the dining area.
Images from Google Maps:
892 Mohawk Trail, Milford, OH

894 Mohawk Trail, Milford, OH

896 Mohawk Trail, Milford, OH

900 Mohawk Trail, Milford, OH

904 Mohawk Trail, Milford, OH

The apartment manager's office is located at Berry Lane but, because there are 3 properties to manage, one which is kind of far away, he's not always there. It is always best to arrange an appointment, especially if you don't live here. The new apartment manager was previously the maintenance man. In the last 3 years, most of my requests for maintenance have either been ignored, not completed, I had to do them (I got parts from the manager), or they said that if they did them they'd increase my rent, which is ridiculous.

The owner is known for being soft-spoken and polite as long as you're nice, but frugal and sometimes is accused of being a slum lord (their words, not mine). When I heard this, I told Ross and he said he didn't care. He sometimes pretends to be an employee so that, and I'm paraphrasing him, "people don't realize I'm the owner and don't bother me". He will talk like a PR person to get you to want to live here, which is pretty much standard across all industries these days. He has opened a number of businesses, including Mohawk Milford LLC and Grasscreek LLC, for whatever reason, and he told me that he set up some of them with himself as an employee (as well as the owner?) so that he could legitimately claim he's a manager in the company. He has some sense of ethics but he seems to be more interested in money, which is to be expected since he invests in property to increase his wealth. I found several instances in which he was in arrears on his bills to contractors (a Rumpke manager I talked to when their bills were in arrears attested to the fact that the bills had been sent and Ross had not paid them, despite telling me that he had) and stores. He said he was going to have my windows replaced in late 2020 but nothing has ever come of that, even though I've asked, and my neighbors who moved in since all got new windows. My kitchen countertop's sink seal has worn away and when I asked management to repair it, they said they don't want to because they're going to replace the whole counter when I move out. The fact is that Ross doesn't like to make major repairs when a tenant still lives in the apartment because of the inconvenience (presumably to the tenant?). To his credit, he did get rid of a lot of the criminals and druggies here. According to a long-term neighbor, it was very unsafe under the old owner, who supposedly would accept just about anyone, but I have never felt unsafe here except for 3 occasions: the boyfriend of an ex-employee called and threatened me with bodily harm because she had not been paid on the schedule she demanded, rather than the schedule that Ross defined for all of us (bi-weekly); an ex-con was accepted as a tenant because Ross and I wanted to help him after getting out of prison, but then he later threatened me after I complied with his demands for a different refrigerator (twice) because the maintenance person and I did it when only his wife and baby were home (his work hours and mine didn't coincide) in 2020; and, in 2022, a neighbor of mine with serious mental health issues ended up buying a gun and deliberately getting herself killed by the police (literally, I mean she wanted to die because of the voices in her head).

Facilities:
As I said, there's off-street parking. You are expected to keep your car(s) looking good and you're not supposed to work on your car on site. Both properties have laundry rooms, and some units are given small storage spaces, while many others do not get any.

Berry Lane has front and rear parking lots, with one spot being assigned to each apartment, plus several unassigned in the back, and two in the front. There is no on-street parking at all. There is a picnic tree under the tree in the parking lot. There used to be a park grill mounted there but some jerk tenant unmounted it and put it near their apartment, so the lazy management decided to get rid of it entirely. Aside from laundry, parking and the picnic table, there are no facilities. There used to be a trail behind the building into the woods and down to the creek, but the owner blocked it off with debris, cut-down trees and shrubs. His reason: fear of someone going back there, hurting themselves and then suing him. Oh, there's lots of lawn, and it's set back from the road, giving it a somewhat picturesque appearance. Berry Lane is backed by woods and a creek, and there's a thin line of trees between it and the church next door, which gives a nice green screen for people on that side. Business 28 is largely commercial, so you are within walking distance of many types of businesses that serve end users, including car and motorcycle sales and repair, restaurants (mostly trash fast food), grocery stores, convenience stores and gas stations, martial arts schools, paint stores, churches, a pre-primary and a lot of other stuff. There is no public transportation within walking distance, but you're very close to I-275. Since you're off the OH 28 business spur, it's a bit noisy but most of the time I don't notice the traffic noise, except when fire trucks leave the firehouse down the street.

Mohawk Trail is residential, there is limited off- and on-street parking due to the large number of apartment buildings on this street, a Cincinnati X bus runs along it, and you can walk to strip malls that include a grocery store, restaurants, gas stations and more. Walk farther and you're in historic, overpriced old Milford. The communities near Mohawk Trail have some very old, beautiful neighborhoods and buildings. It's a fairly quiet street. Some apartments have a storage space.

Heat, AC & Hot Water:
In Berry Lane, most units have old HVACs from when it was built, although certain apartments use baseboard heaters and, I guess, ACs. Heating in the winter, unless you keep the temperature low, can cost you hundreds of dollars because there is not much insulation, and the windows leak a lot of heat - even the new ones, which are lower-priced windows. Apartments here also have individual water heaters. You pay for electricity, which includes the heating and hot water. I don't use AC in the summer, so my bills for heat, electricity and hot water are usually around $55 in the summer and, despite the fact that I keep my thermostat at 60 in the winter, $150 because of the poorly insulated walls and cheap windows. I can only shudder at the thought of how much I'd have to pay in the winter if I had my thermostat up around 68-70!

In Mohawk Trail, all buildings have basement water boilers that feed heat through baseboard heaters, and hot water is provided separately by a large basement water heater (i.e. hot water will run out when many are using it at the same time). Heat can be spotty when air gets into the lines. Heat and hot water are included in rent. The temperature is centrally controlled by management, and some apartments seem to have more challenges than others with keeping warm enough to suit their tenants, while other tenants have to open their windows to cool off. Small window ACs are provided but they are not strong enough to keep the entire apartment cool. They sometimes have problems with squirrels getting into the attic and even an apartment or two.

Price: Since the new owner took over in 2019 after paying out millions for these two properties, he has jacked up the prices hundreds of dollars despite the fact that, aside from parking and laundry rooms, there are no facilities, and ground-floor apartments have problems with leakage and flooding, as well as easily clogged toilet waste pipes, in all 8 buildings (Berry Lane and Mohawk Trail). The price at Berry Lane for 2 bedrooms is somewhere at or above $1,000 for about 1,200 sq. ft, I am not aware of current pricing at Mohawk, but it was trending towards $800 for 2 bedrooms.

Maintenance: When I first moved in, both of my toilets became clogged. I reported this but no effort was made to unclog them for 3 days. I finally managed to get ONE unclogged and, eventually, a few days later, the other as the "stool" had softened enough. I have heard from many tenants that they have waited months or even years to have maintenance issues addressed, and some take it upon themselves to perform these repairs on their own rather than wait any longer. Almost none of my reported maintenance issues have been addressed and, of those that have, I have had to do some of them myself so that they got done. The maintenance man, who is the brother of the previous apartment manager (who now handles a different property for Ross, but still helps with these), started before her in March 2020 and was the only maintenance person they employed and is now the manager here. For carpeting, painting, windows and remodeling, they generally call in contractors. When the pandemic initially hit, they stopped doing anything other than emergency maintenance, and they just went back to that emergency mode in January 2022.

Quietness and Neatness: Although most tenants tend to be relatively quiet, some tenants are not. The new tenant below me seems to have no awareness of being quiet after 10 PM, and there's another tenant in the building that acts the same way. Usually, if a tenant complains about the noise, management addresses it, to their credit. There are some tenants in each of the 8 buildings who are either slobs or noisy...or both. Often, my building's common area smells bad, and the carpeting never gets cleaned. Requests for it to be cleaned are responded to by placing air fresheners.

Plumbing: Sometimes tree roots enter the drain pipes of the buildings (especially at Berry Lane), eventually leading to clogging and flooding of some basement apartments. Building C has an external sump pump to deal with sewage, which sometimes clogs up because stupid tenants put things down the toilet that shouldn't go there, like baby wipes. The drain pipes in all 8 of the buildings are too small, resulting in regular clogging of the toilets, as well as the laundry room floor experiencing some overflow even if only 1 of the 2 washing machines is used. Sadly, my daughter's toilet clogs almost every day, and mine clogs at least once a week.

Bottom floor apartments also tend to have problems with water leaking in through walls and floors due to cracks, heavy rain, and snow/ice melt. One of my neighbors on the basement floor had been having problems each year with flooding from his porch into his dining room, kitchen and living room. They finally had to have a sump pump well dug and a sump pump installed, but the poor guy had already waited for years for this to be done, which was also partially because of the previous owner and his maintenance persons. These are problems that require major repairs that the owner may possibly not be able to afford at this time.

Electrical: Electrical circuit breaker panels in many units haven't been updated since the buildings were put up, except for in apartments that have had electrical issues. The same is true of the HVACs in Berry Lane. I'm aware of one apartment where the mains coming into the panel were shorting out and damaging it. At least one other tenant had his HVAC blow in the middle of winter. These emergencies happened on the weekend and a contractor came to fix them 2-3 days later. The owner told me that he'd have mine replaced because it's one of the circuit breaker panels that has a bad reputation, but this was never done.

Tenants: When I moved in, I was told that a lot of tenants had been living in these buildings for many, many years. In truth, I found at least half of those I talked to (and I talked to all of them at both properties) were newer tenants. Since that time, even more of them have been forced to move out by the regular rent hikes. In Berry Lane, I think there are only about 10-12 apartments that have not been vacated while I've lived here, and some apartments have been vacated repeatedly for multiple reasons, including that the pandemic has ruined the lives of so many average Americans while the rich continue to live it large. I haven't visited Mohawk Trail for a long time, so I cannot comment on the tenants there, now, but there was high turnover there, too.

Handicapped: None of the buildings are handicapped-friendly. All have 7-step stairs between floors and landings, and none have lifts. AFAIK, Ohio law does not require that buildings be updated to accommodate the handicapped unless the person already lives there and needs said changes.

Schools: Milford's elementary schools range from ok to great. Boyd E. Smith Elementary is a 2019 blue-ribbon school and serves this area. The middle and high schools are both nearby, too, on Wolfpen-Pleasant Hill Rd., and there's a Milford pre-school down the road from here. Mulberry (the most mediocre grade school here) is 10 minutes away on Buckwheat Rd., and the famous Great Oaks - Live Oaks vocational school is on that road, too, on the other side of the school district's bus compound.

Parks, Libraries and Civic Centers: There are a few parks within 10-15 minutes of here, and camping grounds within 30 minutes. The Civic Center and recycling are literally about 3 minutes away on Meijer Rd. There is a library 10 minutes away on Buckwheat Rd, which is off Ohio 28. All in all, Milford is a good community to live in for civic-minded people, although I have found that many of them are very ornery and even nasty online.

Groceries, Restaurants, and more: One thing that both locations offer is easy access to grocery stores, restaurants galore (albeit mostly fast food crap), repair shops, gas stations and more. If you're a food snob, this is NOT the place to eat, despite some relatively expensive restaurants being here (like Tokugawa).

Conclusion
I've certainly lived in worse places than this. If you don't mind very slow response times to maintenance issues (some of my issues are over 1 year old), unwillingness to update just about anything while you live here, the lack of facilities and the high price for what little you get, and the close proximity to things, then you'll be happy here. However, if you want a lot more for a bit more, other places have amenities like a swimming pool, basketball and tennis courts, fitness room and community room, as well as off-street parking and laundry rooms for about $100 more. The apartments may be a bit smaller than Berry Lane's. You can certainly find cheaper apartments elsewhere, but apartment buildings in this area tend to be similar in price these days, even if they don't have special facilities.