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A "retail slumlord" is one who keeps a shopping mall in a bad shape and may not pay taxes until the government buys or confiscates it.
The origin of the term "slumlord" is unknown, but an early mention can be found in the 1927 journal article "Theories, Facts, and Figures" by William L. Hare in the academic journal Garden Cities & Town Planning: A Journal of Housing, Town Planning & Civic Improvement. Hare credits the 'polemical press' of the time for referring to landlords of areas referred to as as slumlords.
In contrast, slumlords usually do not contract with property management services, do very little or no maintenance on their property, sometimes just enough to meet minimum local requirements for habitability. In some circumstances, such as in Cleveland during the first years of the Great Migration, landlords increased rents for in order to exploit the difficulties they had getting accommodation. Subsequently, this caused the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce to conduct a survey which concluded that black tenants paid 65% more for equivalent housing than white tenants.
Also, slumlords are often willing to rent to less-desirable tenants that are not able to pass , such as persons on a sex offender registry. As such they typically do not enter into long-term lease agreements, doing only the minimum term required by law (e.g. month-to-month), and as such prosecute many . It is also frequent for the slumlord to receive rent in cash to avoid disclosing it for tax purposes. Thus, in the United States, slumlords would normally not participate in government-subsidized programs such as Section 8, due to the requirements both to report all income received and to keep properties well-maintained.
A slumlord may also hope that his property will eventually be purchased by a government for more money than it is worth as a part of urban renewal, or by investors as the neighborhood in which it is situated undergoes gentrification. In Johannesburg, regions suffering from urban decay frequently have landlords whom the government believes exploit their tenants, making them stay in buildings that fail to meet fire codes. In Britain, local councils deal with private landlords; without adequate scrutiny this can result in landlords being able to fill properties below rental code with subsidized tenants. Dispatches, "Landlords from Hell," Channel 4, 5 December 2011.
Some slumlords are more interested in profit they have acquired through property "flipping," a form of speculation, than they are in acquiring any profit through rental income. Slumlords with this "business model" may not maintain their properties at all or pay municipal and fines they tend to accrue in great quantities. Knowing it will take years for a municipality to condemn and seize, or possibly tear down, a property, the slumlord may count on selling it before this happens. Such slumlords may not even bother to keep up with their mortgage payments if they become equity-rich but cash-poor or if they feel that they can sell the property before it goes into foreclosure and is taken by their lender, typically a six- to eight-month process at the quickest.
One example of a slumlord is Peter Rachman, a landlord who operated in Notting Hill, London, in the 1950s and until his 1962 death. He became notorious for exploitation of his Leasehold estate, with the word " Rachmanism" entering the Oxford English Dictionary. His henchmen included Michael X (aka Michael X/Abdul Malik), who created a reputation as a black-power leader, and Johnny Edgecombe, who became a promoter of jazz and blues, which helped to keep him in the limelight.
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