Judge blocks Real Token from collecting rent on blighted Detroit properties

A Wayne County Circuit Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order against real estate investment firm Real Token, blocking them from collecting rent on hundreds of Detroit homes until the properties meet city codes.

The order is tied to the city’s largest public nuisance lawsuit in history. Detroit filed the suit earlier this month, citing blight violations at more than 400 residential properties owned by Real Token.

Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett says tenants will soon be instructed to pay rent into an escrow account starting in August.

“We will be doing direct door-to-door outreach, and will have specific direction for the tenants as to where their rent money should go in the next seven days,” Mallett said.

Paying into the escrow, he says, will protect tenants from eviction due to nonpayment.

The restraining order also blocks Real Token from pursuing evictions at any property without a certificate of compliance. The company was ordered to secure 58 vacant blighted homes and correct all code violations within 90 days.

Company owners Remy and Jean-Marc Jacobson released a statement blaming property managers for the conditions of the homes. Mallett dismissed that claim.

“These properties are in such a degraded state that there is no way that interested owners, no matter whom they farmed out the responsibility to, would not know that their tenants are living in substandard housing.”

Since filing the suit, the city has identified an additional 130 Real Token properties that also lack certificates of compliance.