Bucks County DA demands business records from alleged slumlords
In April, the property on the 100 block of South Main Street in Dublin Borough was condemned because of alleged life-threatening conditions.
After hearing more horror stories about a dilapidated rental property that was condemned in April, Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said this week that his office has filed an amended civil complaint against the landlords and is demanding their business and financial records dating back to 2013.
In April, the property on the 100 block of South Main Street in Dublin Borough was declared unsafe and six tenants were effectively evicted, though they received county assistance to secure replacement housing.
Since then, a total of 13 former tenants — including a mother and her 11-year-old child — have complained about the conditions they endured, including years of not having a functional heating system for the building, Khan said.
The 35-page amended complaint names Richard Goetter, Ronald Goetter, and their fictitious business entity, R & R Enterprises, as defendants.
Richard Goetter could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. A person answering a phone number listed for Ronald Goetter in Arizona said he had died recently and declined to comment further.
Richard Goetter, who was described in the amended complaint as going to the property every Friday to collect rent payments, “has made no effort to make these affected tenants whole” since the district attorney’s office filed its lawsuit in April, the complaint said.
Additional tenants have come forward, “each sharing the same or similar descriptions of the disrepair, dangerous conditions, and lack of heat” going back to at least 2020, the complaint said.
“Defendants demanded rent and tenants unfairly paid full rent for a property that did not meet the most basic standards of habitability week after week, month after month, year after year,” the complaint said.
Khan said his office filed the civil complaint in Common Pleas Court using the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law to hold the landlords accountable.
The former tenants included a 63-year-old with an amputated leg who lived on the second floor with a roommate and required daily assistance.
The tenant had to provide their own space heater, and paid $230 a week for rent to Richard Goetter when he showed up on Fridays, the complaint said.
“Defendants’ business model profits by forcing vulnerable, low-income tenants to make an impossible choice between staying in an unsafe and unsanitary building today or risking imminent eviction and homelessness tomorrow,” the complaint said.
The alleged violations at the property date back to at least 2013, when a building inspection report said the property had no building-wide heat, the complaint said.
In 2024, Richard Goetter pleaded guilty after the Bucks County Health Department allegedly documented a rodent problem at the property, the complaint said. In 2016 and 2018, the agency received reports about alleged problems about a mice infestation and a toilet.
The building allegedly had black mold in the community bathroom, a large piece of plywood covering a hole in the floor of one of the bathrooms, rodent and cockroach infestations, and the overwhelming odor of human waste.
Khan said on Monday that his office is now pursuing the business and financial records of the defendants dating back to 2013.
Prosecutors are demanding “ownership documents, tax returns, insurance policies, rent payment records, and evidence of any taxpayer-funded emergency rent relief or nonprofit aid the business received since 2013,” the district attorney’s office said.
Prosecutors also are demanding “all written messages between the business partners regarding broken equipment, needed repairs, tenant evictions, and local code violations,” the district attorney’s office said.
“In the more than five months since we filed our action in court, R & R Enterprises has done nothing to make these tenants whole,” Khan said in a statement Monday.
“It’s now time to open up this business’ financial records to show where the money is so that we can help these victims recover and move on with their lives,” Khan said.
