A group of residents and their East Lansing landlord are locked in a dispute over the condition of their Grove Street house.

The five tenants, who moved into the house Aug. 1, claim the building is in shambles and fails many city codes. The landlord, however, says he has been cooperative with his tenants and the house, located in a historic district, only needs some external repairs.

The dispute has even caught the attention of the East Lansing City Council, which discussed the issue Tuesday night.

Councilmember Bev Baten, the liaison to the city’s historic district, said she personally inspected the house.

“There’s no current (rental) license on the house and there’s a lot of violations,” she said before the Tuesday meeting. “The city is on the students’ side.”

Baten said she has been notified of similar problems within the historic district as well.

“We’re looking at the housing quality in the historic district,” she said. “In my eyes, the house is not accorded to the housing code.”

Howard Asch, director of East Lansing Code Enforcement and Neighborhood Conservation, said his department conducted an inspection of the entire property after receiving a complaint.

“I decided to go and do a thorough investigation,” Asch said Tuesday afternoon. “It had poor maintenance and a lot of other things wrong.”

The inspection by city officials this week resulted in a “blanket” violation citation - a citation that indicates numerous problems but does not specifically cite each one.

Owner Sam Usman, however, maintains there are no major problems with the house. Usman also said he has a rental license.

“I am in compliance with no violations with the interior,” Usman said. “I just need to fix the exterior.”

Since the house is located in the city’s historic district, Usman must seek city approval for any exterior work. Usman said that could be taken care of in 30 to 45 days.

But when resident Mike Gallavin, 29, walked into the house for the first time, he said it was like walking into a death trap.

“The basement was piled with trash bags from previous tenants, the fire detectors were not working, we had no keys for the doors, and there were no light bulbs,” Gallavin said. “For $2,000 per month, the house was a trash hole. Cigarette butts were burned into the carpet and glass was everywhere.”

Gallavin said most of the trash was cleaned up after he complained to Usman.

A few weeks later, Gallavin’s roommate, English junior John Cassidy, noticed city violations being sent to the address for not having rails on the porch steps, no visible house numbers on the exterior and trash in the yard.

“(Gallavin) went to the city to look up previous violations for our house and was given a file the size of a phone book,” Cassidy said.

The residents have also consulted an attorney about the issue and have been putting their rent payments into an escrow account - an account controlled by a third party that will be turned over to Usman if certain conditions are met.

Usman, however, maintains the house was clean when the men moved in. He said the tenants signed a form to confirm the house was clean at that time.

“I have all the documentation, they hold the truth,” Usman said. “They are the ones that would trash the place.”

He also said he has tried to work with the tenants as much as possible. Usman said he didn’t charge the men the entire $3,000 security deposit, choosing to reduce that to $2,000.

He also said he waited three weeks to cash the check for the deposit, and when he did, it bounced.

“I could have taken the tenants to the county prosecutor, but I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to get along with them,” Usman said. “This is part of my income, I depend on that money.”

Amanda Clapp can be reached at clappama@msu.edu.