John Newlove Rental Company in Bowling Green announced the closure of their business on Friday, Sept. 15. through an announcement on their website.
Mecca Management will be taking over a “handful” of their properties, and the other properties will be dispersed among other local management companies, according to Mecca Management owner Steve Green.
Green said Mecca will be honoring all leases of prior John Newlove renters. The only changes for current renters will be how they pay for rent and file maintenance requests, which will now be done through Mecca’s renter’s portal.
Ashley Mason, a sophomore at BGSU who rented through John Newlove, was first notified of the closure when she received a notice on her door on Sept. 15.
Mason said she was confused about the notice and did not understand if John Newlove was completely closing or just moving buildings. She also said the envelope taped to her door included rental applications, which confused her because her one-bedroom utility does not allow for roommates.
Mason visited Mecca’s office following the notice and was able to get her questions answered.
“It was confusing at first, but once I called and went into Mecca, everything was a lot clearer, and they were really helpful,” Mason said.
Mason also said the resident portal is very easy to use through the app on her phone.
Green said these shifts in properties are “very common” among management companies and he and his team have gone through this process before.
“We have our systems in place here and we try to do it the same way every time and make it as smooth as possible for the residents,” Green said.
Green, who founded Mecca in 1991 and has owned the business since, said he wants renters to feel comfortable approaching him and his team with questions about the situation.
“I feel like it wasn’t long ago that I was a student [at BGSU] myself, so I always look at everything from the perspective of a student because that’s how I started,” Green said.
For more information, call Mecca Management at 419-353-5800.
Mark Ponicki • Oct 14, 2024 at 1:20 am
Mecca lied. The first thing they did when I renewed my lease thru them was add a $7 a month trash fee that’s being upped to $8 a month if I renew with them again for 2025-2026 along with a $21 a month rent hike and ALL the utilities for the property being billed to me each month with Mecca telling me they aren’t sure how much those bills would be for me despite them covering them this past year while they’ve owned the property. The whole thing seems pretty shady and I can’t even get their website to load this weekend to put in maintenance requests cause my apartment doesn’t even have central air like they claim it does and wanna charge me for. I mean, I don’t even have a thermostat in my place and no means to control the heat or central ac I supposedly get by living here. I don’t like any of it. I was worried when Mecca took over that they would immediately begin adding extra fees and bills on top of hiking rents and it looks like they’re doing exactly that.