![]() ![]() In many cases, low-income renters won’t alert property management to needed fixes, since causing headaches for the landlord could mean rent increases or a non-renewal of the lease. Typically, people in these positions aren’t financially equipped to take on a landlord in court. “We look for people who are very, very close to being able to get a mortgage,” Ma told Curbed. ![]() They tend to cater to people who typically wouldn’t be approved for mortgages because of poor credit scores or an inability to make down payments. One of Divvy’s Troutman Sanders attorneys, William Droze, was not immediately available to comment for this story.Ĭardinale said that Divvy’s-and other rent-to-own companies’-business model thrives off of the low-income residents that seek out its services. “ advised to secure a large retainer from Divvy Homes because the further communications are expected to be voluminous.” Sean Keenan, Curbed Atlantaĭivvy retained the Troutman Sanders law firm to help it tackle the case against Cardinale, who, incidentally, seems willing and able to take the group to task.Ĭardinale, in so many words, told Troutman Sanders he’s ready for war. Not so, said Cardinale: “I want to live here for 10 years or more.” Cardinale sweeps a puddle of standing water in his shower down the drain. It later dropped that claim, but still believes his housing advocacy was a testament to supposed ulterior motives. “Cardinale appears to have entered into the lease for purposes of his own agenda as a housing advocate and not in a good faith effort to pursue homeownership under the Divvy Homes program,” according to legal documents provided by Divvy.Īt first, Divvy even said he had no intention of buying the property, according to Cardinale. ![]() One of the company’s claims suggested his tenure as a housing advocate meant he’d entered into the deal unfaithfully, per court documents. On April 6, Divvy sued Cardinale, aiming to cut its losses and duck out of the lease agreement. ![]() Newly installed pipes have remedied Cardinale’s upstairs water problem. When Cardinale moved in, water wasn’t running upstairs, a broken sewage line leaked beneath the property, and some of his windows wouldn’t close, among many other problems in violation of housing codes, he said. APN’s Editor negotiated the lease to state, instead, that Divvy would be responsible for all structural repairs. “Neither of us knew what it needed,” Ma said.Ĭardinale’s landlord made some $12,000 worth of fixes as he moved into the place in February, but that stopped short of helping him with further requests to bring the property up to the city’s housing code, according to APN:ĭivvy Homes’s standard lease provides that the tenant shall be responsible for all repairs. Nor did it understand-even after its initial inspection of the house-how much renovation the place would require. “I thought this was finally a way to start building some wealth with homeownership,” he said.ĭivvy, however, might not have known how hot that real estate was and will become. He felt confident the Beltline’s nearby Westside Trail would help boost property values in the area, making the roughly $146,000 price tag Divvy guaranteed-after he’d been renting for years-seem like a wise investment, said Cardinale. Boone Boulevard and Mozley Park to the south. 1, under the impression he’d slowly work his way to homeownership.Ĭardinale found a spot in Atlanta’s Hunter Hills neighborhood, positioned west of downtown between Joseph E. Matthew Cardinale, a locally known advocate for housing equality and the head editor of Atlanta Progressive News, entered into a lease agreement with Divvy Homes on Feb. “We’ll buy a home for you, and you buy it back from us in three years,” Divvy CEO Brian Ma told Curbed Atlanta of the company’s strategy. Rent-to-own programs allow city dwellers who wouldn’t otherwise be able to purchase a home to rent one while slowly earning equity.ĭivvy Homes, a young tech startup just breaking into Atlanta, allows people in the market to pick the houses they want and work toward buying them. A San Francisco-based rent-to-own company is headed to court with one of its Atlanta tenants, aiming to void a lease and remove him from his new Westside home.Īs Atlanta’s affordable housing crunch becomes more severe, it’s a situation that could prove to be a cautionary tale. ![]()
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