Residential Rentals Christchurch

Residential Rentals is a Christchurch based property rental company that specialize in character apartments, flats, flatettes and bedsits in Central Christchurch.

Landlord also a saviour for many - Article from The Press, Christchurch by Mike Crean.

Bulgarian refugee Jim Ruscoe arrived in Christchurch with nothing and made it his home. By unremittingly hard work, he bought residential properties and provided homes for hundreds of others.

The landlord of central Christchurch bedsits and boarding houses sheltered many of the city's unfortunates. The huge man with the strong accent became known in rental circles as the Mayor of Hereford Street. Ruscoe died last week. He was 81.

Tenants Protection Association manager Helen Gatonyi says Ruscoe was a colourful and unforgettable character with a heart of gold. But he was no softy. He could be hard if anyone tried to cheat him.

Police and social agencies referred homeless people to him. Some tenants raved about him, other complained about him, but they always did it with a smile, Gatonyi says.

"As he put himself, "The sad, the mad and the drunks always find a home with Jim Ruscoe'."

Gatonyi says Ruscoe's unofficial social work saved Christchurch social agencies thousands of dollars.

Born Dimitar Shaghoff, in a poor Bulgarian village, he joined the army about the end of World War 2. Conditions were harsh, and Ruscoe said the army's horses were fed better than the men. When he was caught throwing some oats over a fence for the men, he fled, rather than face a court-martial.

He reached Greece, where he was quartered in a displaced persons camp. From there he sailed to New Zealand in 1951.

His first experience of New Zealand was at the Pahiatua camp for refugees, where he began to learn English. From there he got a job in a Petone factory. A friend then helped him get to Christchurch and he found work in a biscuit factory. Soon afterwards, he began a 45-year career as a pelter on a chain at a Belfast freezing works.

He married English immigrant Hilary Ruscoe, whom he met at a dance in Wellington and whose surname he took. They had three children. They later separated but remained good friends.

Ruscoe's family say he was "extremely hardworking". His catch cry was "Raboti, raboti, raboti" ("work, work, work"). He worked days at Belfast and nights in a Christchurch fish factory. He invested his earnings in the property market and started a residential accommodation business.

Daughter Sue says he was a kind and generous man but work was very important to him.

He did not celebrate Christmas because he wanted to work.

Son Michael says Hilary bought a bach at Waikuku Beach and the family went there most weekends for nearly 30 years. However, his father preferred to work. He stayed at the bach overnight only once, when he and some Maori friends from the freezing works went eeling in the Ashley River.

He often visited the bach on a Sunday afternoon, bringing a side of lamb, flagons of beer and a carload of tenants who had no-one to care for them. When the family decided to knock the old bach down and build a new one, Ruscoe worked on the project every weekend.

Michael says his father could not go back to Bulgaria for 20 years because he was regarded as a criminal there. He sent money home for his impoverished father and family. Ruscoe later revisited his old home. He helped many immigrants settle into Christchurch and sponsored families to join them.

Michael says his father was "a private man with no great aspirations and not materialistic".

The residential rentals business grew rapidly with, owning, at its peak, 40 properties in central Christchurch. Sue, Michael and Michaels wife, Flavia, joined the business and then took it over.

Gatonyi says Ruscoe had a good business head and insisted on tenants paying their rent on time. The rents were not high and, in some needy cases, he waived them. He would give anyone one chance but, after that, he would "lay down the law".

Once, while driving his car on Victoria Street, he spotted a tenant who was behind in his rent. He stopped the car, forced the man to turn out his pockets, took the money, handed back the change and drove away.

Another time, he let a long-time tenant, who had become ill, shift in with him downstairs. He cleared the next room for the man's carer - all because "he's been living here for years. This is his home".

Many tenants stayed for years. Although, in Gatonyi's words, "some of his places were not the most salubrious", his many acts of kindness made tenants loyal to him. "He gave them something more than shelter. He treated them with dignity," Gatonyi says.