Who Has Roommates Without Knowing Who They Are? John Hoff, That's Who

Copy - cover page of sworn statement of John Hoff - April 30, 2014 (click to view larger)

This Blog has reported and contended for years that John Hoff's house located at 2226 Bryant Ave. N, has been used as a non-licensed rental property in the City of Minneapolis versus being Hoff's Homestead and housing "Roommates."

On April 30, 2014, John Hoff was asked to appear in Oklahoma City to submit a sworn statement (Deposition) to the attorney representing the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners. Hoff submitted an application in August, 2013 to take the Bar Examination for the purpose of becoming a licensed attorney in the State of Oklahoma. Information that questioned Hoff's ethics and character fitness was submitted to the board by several people, including the author of this Blog, Jim Watkins.

The Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners sent that information to their attorney who reviewed the documents and Hoff's application was investigated. The deposition consists of 225 pages of sworn testimony from John Hoff. The information contained in this post is found on pages 103-106 and the testimony specific to Hoff's tenant-roommate situation was copied and included in this post.
For reference... The numbers below represent the line number for dialogue on every page of the statement. The "Q:" is dialogue for the attorney presenting the questions and the "A:" represents Hoff's answers.

Click to read the rest of the story...



Note lines 23-24 immediately below where Hoff names one of his roommates as "Jon" but, admits he "doesn't even know his last name."

 14 Q. You are telling me that you have got15 roommates up there?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And who are they?
18 A. One of them is named Mike McDonald. He has
19 been there for a few years.
20 Q. And how much does he pay you a month?
21 A. Roughly he pays what he can. There is no
22 set figure. The way it works, I have another
23 roommate whose name is Jon, and I'm sorry I don't
24 even know his last name off the top of my head. I
25 could get it quite easily.
Page 1041 Q. Okay. Put that down on your list.
2 A. Yeah, I'm going to get that.
3 Q. Jon roommate.
4 A. I think it's with no H. And then there is
5 Mike. So Jon pays $400 a month. Mike manages the
6 money and the house as well as he can, and he -- if
7 Jon's money doesn't cover utilities, I tell Mike,
8 Mike, you better come up with something. You live
9 there. And Mike does the best he can. And he always
10 makes sure the internet is paid because he needs it.
11 And so it's an informal roommate situation and Mike
12 is more than a -- you know, he is more than a renter.
13 He is kind of like -- he is like a friend. He is a
14 roommate. The other guy is there, and his money
15 helps to cover the utilities.
16 Q. How long has Jon been your roommate? That
17 is your word.
18 A. I think about -- about a year.
19 Q. How come you don't call him a tenant?
20 A. Because in Minneapolis if you have roommates
21 in your homestead, they are roommates. And I don't
22 consider my property a rental, and I have had to
23 fight off people trying to say it's an unlicensed
24 rental. It is my home. It is my home of record.
25 And I can have up to two unrelated roommates, and
1 it's perfectly legal for them to make payments. I've
2 checked into this. I've had to check into this. So
3 I maintain two roommates. I could have another -- I
4 could have more roommates if they were related to me,
5 but I can have two unrelated roommates.
6 Q. Don't you agree with me that Mike McDonald
7 and Jon whose name you don't remember are tenants?
8 A. They are like tenants, but I think that
9 legally they are not tenants. They are house mates.
10 Q. Put down on your list to show me, send me a
11 statute or city code or something that supports your
12 contention that these guys are not tenants.
13 A. Well, I already have. I have already put
14 forward the administrative thing where I had an
15 inspection, and they tried to say that my place was
16 an unlicensed rental on the basis of an anonymous
17 complaint. And we went through an entire inspection
18 and they determined it was not an unlicensed rental.
19 Q. Anything else that you have that supports
20 your proposition that these are not roommates -- or
21 tenants -- excuse me. That are roommates, send me.
22 A. Okay. I can send it. And I agree with the
23 pointedness of your question. I mean if people are
24 there and they are paying rent, they look like
25 tenants. But I really consider them roommates and
Page 1061 house mates. And it has been determined my house is
2 not an unlicensed rental. It is my home. And it is
3 my homestead.

 A copy of this portion of the deposition was sent to the City of Minneapolis inspections department by the boards attorney. To my knowledge, the inspections department did not act on the information and opted to not investigate nor issue any citations against Hoff.

I am wanting to know why the City of Minneapolis ignored actual evidence in the form of a sworn statement by Hoff and allow him to operate the property without a rental license?
How is it possible for ANYONE to have a roommate and NOT know who they are and still claim they are not "tenants?"
Apparently, only John Hoff can do it.