Complaint Review: Merry Riemer

Just picture a real estate business struggling to survive after being hit by a newspaper/television broadcast libel of property manager, then by a 3rd-party real estate management company Equity Management of Wisconsin. The latter neglected our commercial properties by not renewing leases with current tenants. For residentials, hey populated nicely done apartments with such students who nobody else wanted. They came with dogs cats etc. Equity told tenants it is ok to have pets while leases said NO PETS. Now we are getting apartments back destroyed, requiring down time, remodeling, city of Milwaukee coming after us as Slum Landlords. They market themselves as PROFESSIONAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY.

In November 2007 we received projected budget report for 2008. The numbers were shocking, with no warning. There is not going to be debt coverage in 2008. We had to do something drastic, what we had dreaded for years, doing our own property management of both commercial and residential. Equity was the fourth management company we contracted with in 18 years. They committed a fraud. Tenants were trying to find us. Our phone number was kept secret. Tenants were fleeing. We were told that Equity wanted to sabotage the properties in order to pick them up at lower prices later. The properties they owned were in bad parts of town consuming their management time and leaving no time for our properties while we were the ones paying their salaries and commissions.

How we met Merry? For the first time? The VP of Equity mentioned he has a "gal" who can rent ANYTHING. Merry is about 60-years old. She called us November 2008. She got the number from a friend we introduced to Equity and who was by now doing interior design for them. I often vented to that friend about our miserable situation.

Anyway, Merry called and said we should meet. Who was Merry? A friend did not say anything to us about Merry till later, when it was too late. The fact that friend's name was mentioned by Merry was enough for us to trust the referral. We met at Starbucks. While crying and saying she will probably lose her job if somebody were to find out about this meeting, she said we were being defrauded by Equity. She said she leased all our properties implying we need her as part of our new team. She confided that Equity partners directed her not to renew or sign leases.

P.S. It was a lie, she did not enter into any leases for us, NOT ONE, as we learned later.

Knowing how critical a good leasing manager is to the success of the business and us were desperate, she was dictating the terms. Then she said we should also take from Equity a lease administrator since she does not like to do paperwork. We introduced Merry to our office-manager-to-be Linda Rios. In the next few days, Merry called us a few times.

The attorneys finally served termination notices to Equity, removing them from premises as onsite management company. We are talking about a 9-story office building in downtown Milwaukee. Merry told us she had given her termination notice. She gave us a copy of a nice referral letter from Equity!

We ran into one of the partners of Equity, Don Meister. He said he had to let go of Merry Reimer a while back. What do you mean "let go"? Didn't she resign on her own? Asked why they gave her such a nice referral letter, he said "What else could I do [to get rid of her]????"

In the referral letter her last name was spelled as Reimer. I looked on the Wisconsin court website.

Case Number Filing Date County Name Case Status Name Date of Birth Caption

1992SC000814 04-14-1992 Fond du Lac Closed Reimer, Merry - Fond Du Lac Holiday Inn vs Merry Reimer
1995CV005211 05-22-1995 Milwaukee Closed Reimer, Merry - Pilgrim Village Associates LP vs Merry Reimer
1995TJ000690 12-04-1995 Waukesha Filed Only Reimer, Merry - Pilgrim Village Associates LP vs Merry Reimer
1995TJ007377 12-06-1995 Washington Filed Only Reimer, Merry - Pilgrim Village Associates LP vs. Merry Reimer
1997TJ000078 01-30-1997 Waukesha Filed Only Reimer, Merry - Pilgrim Village Associates LP vs Merry Reimer

Then looked under Last Name Riemer

Case Number Filing Date County Name Case Status Name Date of Birth Caption
2004SC004686 02-16-2004 Milwaukee Closed Riemer, Merry - Matex Inc vs. Merry Riemer
2000FA000203 02-10-2000 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K. 11-1948 Dareld Riemer vs Merry K. Riemer
1996SC000579 07-16-1996 Dodge Closed Riemer, Merry K. - Beth Romens vs Merry K. Riemer
1995UC000217 04-25-1995 Waukesha Filed Only RIEMER, MERRY K - Dept. of Workforce Development vs. MERRY K RIEMER
1995SC001442 03-28-1995 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K. - Menomonee Falls Village Of vs Merry K. Riemer
1994UC000493 10-20-1994 Waukesha Filed Only RIEMER, MERRY K - Dept. of Workforce Development vs. MERRY K RIEMER
1994UC000491 10-20-1994 Waukesha Filed Only RIEMER, MERRY K - Dept. of Workforce Development vs. MERRY K RIEMER
1994UC000490 10-20-1994 Waukesha Filed Only RIEMER, MERRY K - Dept. of Workforce Development vs. MERRY K RIEMER
1994SC003615 09-21-1994 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K. - Village of Menomonee Falls vs Merry K. Riemer
1994SC003370 09-02-1994 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K. - Krueger Wholesale Florist Inc. vs Merry K. Riemer
1994SC000347 03-17-1994 Washington Closed Riemer, Merry - Medicine Associates vs. Dareld Riemer et al
1994CV001193 06-10-1994 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K. - R-K Associates vs Merry K. Riemer et al
1993SC002980 06-11-1993 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K. - Rojahn & Malaney Company vs Merry K. Riemer
1993CV000150 01-21-1993 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K. - American Floral Services Inc. vs Merry K. Riemer
1993CM000949 06-25-1993 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K 11-27-1948 State Of Wisconsin vs Merry K Riemer
1991CM000324 03-14-1991 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K 11-27-1948 State Of Wisconsin vs Merry K Riemer
1990CM000320 03-07-1990 Waukesha Closed Riemer, Merry K - State Of Wisconsin vs Merry K Riemer
1989UC001708 09-25-1989 Dane Filed Only RIEMER, MERRY K - Dept. of Workforce Development vs. MERRY K RIEMER
1989UC000129 05-10-1989 Waukesha Filed Only RIEMER, MERRY K - Dept. of Workforce Development vs. MERRY K RIEMER

Some fraud and criminal stuff showed up.

She was going to be self-employed. But ... we don't work with subs with conviction record. Plus she lied about resignation. She was terminated. Reason ... unknown to me till today. She said she lived in Canada. I did not know how to check her criminal background in Canada.

We ended up parting ways with her as soon as we found out. But ... we gave her $400 check "just to tie over". He walked away with our new sidekick cel. phone. We ended up paying about $2000 in extra phone charges as she could not limit her air time to stay within the plan. Plus while telling us that she is leasing spaces for us for 3 months, she did no leasing since she ended up with no car. I guess we stopped at the right time before we rented or bought the car for her. Then we were still left to figure out what to do her lease administrator, Jim. Without anyone doing any leasing there was not much to do for Jim. Our office manager Linda was waiting for him to leave so she can collect rents and work full speed which she was doing from another building she worked at.

Jim was taking his real estate broker's course. We finally saw there was no money in the budget to pay anyone except for Linda. We no longer could pay Jim for occupying the office which had only one chair. He was supposed to be commissioned but ... to be commisssioned the person should be able to work independently. We saw we have nothing for Jim to do. One day we sat at this desk and saw ... 3 tenant checks spread in various desk drawers. The bank was closed. Why were checks not deposited. We summed up the amount ... about 3 weeks of his commission. Was he going to take tenant checks and draw cash behind our back? The accounts were frozen for withdrawals after Equity were terminated. He came from Equity. He was part of that fraud. He was unable to shift gears, felt sorry for those who neglected the business. Equity were trying to access our accounts. What he still helping them? Our insurance policy disappeared. Our tenant rent payment register disappeared. Keys disappeared.

We parted ways with Jim at the end of January. A few days later he filed an unpaid wage complaint pretending to have been an employee even though we paid commission for 1099 reporting, as contractors. I think he claimed 5 weeks of pay plus vacation + more.

The complaint was dismissed at a lower level. Jim appealed it higher and ... we got cut out of the appeal process! We were not even informed that an appeal had been filed. Nobody solicited us for the response to his appeal. It looks like somebody removed the file from the office during pendency of the appeal. Who would have taken the file? This resulted in judgement of $1500 of unpaid wages even though he was not an employee. The appeal was composed and orchestrated by Merry Riemer. Jim faxed it in from a liquor store. When asked where Merry can be physically found, the State said they were not interested in finding her or verifying the facts.

Anyway, so far this entire pleasure has cost us over $12,000. Merry and Jim knew the business was struggling... Did they jump ship to damage it more? Jim said "He thought Equity was going under". What about us? Our blood can be sucked till there was no more to take.

There is nothing to worry for Merry or Jim. It turned out that Merry started receiving unemployment before our meeting at Starbucks. Jim first denied that he was studying brokers course till Linda remembered the place he was enrolled at. The investigator called there and verified that he completed the course. His brokers' license is "parked" at Bielinski Homes Inc. It looks like he is also working at a liquor store from where he was sending his faxes for the unpaid WAGES complaint.

They damaged our relationships with tenants by being part of the new management team. It sent tenants looking for the exit. We have given quite a few tenants a month of free rent to renew the leases for another year.

Lydia
Glendale, Wisconsin
U.S.A.