WILMINGTON — Has Attorney General Kathy Jennings finally closed the books on Adolph Jay Pokorny, arguably one of the worst landlords the city has seen in the past 50 years?
Jennings secured a settlement on Tuesday from Pokorny to end his nearly 50-year tenure as what many lawmakers, renters, and others have described as a slumlord — and worse.
Jennings resolved a multi-year DOJ investigation into Pokorny’s ownership and management of his previously condemned North Adams Street apartments. The settlement includes monetary recoveries of $125,000 to former residents and Pokorny’s agreement to exit the apartment management business in Delaware.
DOJ Spokesman Mat Marshall says the settlement agreement has “very robust” safeguards, most significantly a $600,000 suspended judgment that triggers if Pokorny violates the agreement.
“Beyond that, Pokorny is required to provide access to the City (i.e. Licenses & Inspection) to inspect. If he doesn’t sell within one year, he is required to hire a management company and take himself out of the business,” Marshall told Town Square Delaware. “Thirty months is the deadline to fully divest and leave the business, but in the interim the judgment is designed to compel his compliance and to enable appropriate code enforcement by City authorities.”
You may remember Pokorny from June 2022 as the owner and landlord who, a month after the state launched an investigation into seven apartment buildings on North Adams Street that had been condemned with 372 code violations, started trying to rent the units.
One of those 27 units was listed for $950 per month after structural engineers condemned it after an exterior wall collapsed between two of his buildings.
Also known as AJ and Jay, Pokorny has a long history of failing to maintain his buildings, which were previously condemned by the city in 2006 for code violations ranging from broken smoke detectors, exposed wiring, and inadequate hallway lighting to problems with the fire escape and roof and rotting wood siding, according to a News Journal report in May 2022.
“Mr. Pokorny repeatedly, egregiously, and illegally endangered his tenants in the pursuit of profit,” Attorney General Jennings said in a release announcing the settlement. “His actions and their consequences are a tragic reminder of what’s at stake for residents of neglected properties and the legal and moral responsibilities that come with being a landlord. I’m grateful to our team and to the City of Wilmington for their work on this investigation and on securing compensation for Mr. Pokorny’s victims.”
Outgoing Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki got to check off one of his final To Do boxes with the settlement, saying, “The City of Wilmington is most grateful to the Attorney General and her staff for their thorough investigation of the business patterns and actions of a person who brought much misery to people who were entitled to a decent place to live. As explained in the complaint filed by the DOJ, Pokorny’s neglectful and negligent practices as a landlord over many years came to a head one day in May of 2022 when people living in 27 apartments spread across seven buildings on Adams Street lost their homes. It is only fitting that the person responsible for this tragedy should lose the ability to cause more heartbreak and despair. A special thank you to the City’s Licenses and Inspection and Land Use and Planning teams, who have invested years of time and effort to bring Pokorny into compliance with the law.”
The complaintand consent judgment filed Tuesday in the Court of Chancery were the result of an investigation spanning more than two years that included nearly four dozen interviews and months of deliberations with Pokorny. The DOJ said Pokorny’s repairs were superficial at best, designed to placate tenants without remedying the underlying problem. Similarly, when making modifications to the properties, Pokorny often did so with little regard for the consequences of those modifications, such as removing sections of load-bearing walls with no measures taken to address the rerouted load of the building.
Despite the state of these properties, Pokorny elected to rent them out as they were without considering the impact on his tenants. He did so by preying on those least likely to be able to hold him accountable, allowing him to skirt oversight and consequence. This continued a pattern and practice the Department of Justice originally investigated and sought to correct via court order in 2002, which addressed many of the same problems discovered during the present investigation.
Pokorny’s decisions at the North Adams Street properties violated that prior court order and the law. Pokorny likewise violated the law by deceptively marketing the units in these buildings without disclosing their decrepit state or that he failed to maintain or otherwise perform necessary repairs at the properties.
Under the consent judgment, Pokorny must:
Sell all of his Delaware rental properties.
Be prohibited from otherwise owning, controlling, or being affiliated with any residential rental properties in the State of Delaware, aside from any primary residence Pokorny may own in Delaware.
Allow the City of Wilmington to perform certain pre-rental inspections of any units Pokorny markets, to access any rental unit of any of his properties in the State of Delaware in specific circumstances, and to periodically access the basement and roofs of any of his properties in the State of Delaware.
Peter Osborne has more than 15 years of experience as an award-winning business reporter and editor, leading two papers (the Delaware Business Times and Dallas Business Journal) to recognition as the nation’s most improved business publications. Osborne also helped launch The News Journal’s now-defunct Business Monday section and worked in communications and business development for MBNA America and Bank of America.
