Tag: exploitation

Review Robert Powell of by Astrluk

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"Robert Powell is scum and an exploitative landlord/lawyer who preys on tenants. When I moved in the previous tenants were still moving out despite being told to be out by a certain time, this meant that Robert did not do a walkthrough between tenants, despite there being extensive damage to carpets and walls which would later be blamed on me. The main issues were that we went without heat between November and January…yes, we literally did not have heat and Robert stalled on trying to get us a replacement heater for months without offering to reduce rent or provide any recourse. Then, on top of that, in the summer our AC went out and Robert spent a week trying to weasel his way out of fixing it when the median average temperature was above 95 degrees. The final point is that he took our entire deposit for bullshit reasons including taking out money for completing maintenance on the house. He then proceeded to take our deposit money and spruce up the house for the next tenants. 0/10 wouldn’t recommend, stay away from this exploitative cockroach."

Review of David Olster by NoMoreCops

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"This man, my former landlord, current UK History professor, should be held accountable for his actions of being an extremely exploitative, money-hungry, racist, and sexist landlord. Please avoid 428 E Maxwell Street and any of his properties. His lease may be tempting. He does not require a co-signer, previous rental or landlord references, employment info, and does not do credit/background checks. Allows pets. This was good for me as a student moving into their first housing, however, in hindsight, I should have seen these as red flags. Before delving into house issues, let me speak on the character of this wretched man. He is explicitly racist in saying when we first met that women from my (Muslim, Middle Eastern) country are oppressed by the tradition of wearing headscarves. He talked at me for hours, a Middle Eastern woman, lecturing me on what was good in the history of my country and people of my gender. Previous female tenants have also complained about him coming into their units without warning or notice, and one has even complained of personal items (intimate personal items…) being moved around and misplaced. He also treats his female tenants differently, and female of color tenants differently, often very dismissive and treating us like we do not know anything and are dumb. We are not, I was not, taken seriously about anything. Now, the house. I lived on 428 E Maxwell Street. It is the decrepit red house across from Michlers nursery and Kentucky Native Cafe. Upon moving in, I was confronted with a disgusting apartment that smelled so intensely of animals (and their shit) due to the previous tenants who owned 10+ pets including many cats and many dogs. It is honestly too traumatic to go into details of having to figure out what to do. The place was inhospitable. Shortly after, I discovered there were squirrels living in the walls. This was a months+ ordeal to get rid of them. During this process, the animal control person discovered there was more shit literally inside the walls. I also could smell dog shit in other parts of the unit (likely lodged in between another set of walls). The house has been on the brink of condemnation before, and has been called on MANY code violations in its years. Fake AC vents are screwed into the walls. I'm sure the fire alarm does not work. There was a problem of rats. Why does animal control recognize this house? I suffered from mysterious spider bites. Undoubtedly there was mold growing, and likely a host of other toxins leeching. The windows had no screens. Many windows would not open or close properly. The door is on its last legs of life. The house door has been kicked in many times. Burglaries have occurred many times in this house, once during my living there but in a different unit. When the summer began I discovered that the AC did not work. That never got fixed despite my desperate pleas to have my basic human right of livable temperatures be met. I lived in the attic. We are talking 85-90 degrees inside with a broken AC shooing in hot air. There were only 2 tiny vents for 1000+ sqft. He made me go and buy a fan. That was the solution. There were many holes in the floorboards. Big enough for a child to fall through. Holes in the walls revealing the outdoors. The walls had many holes in them, likely from former domestic violence incidents. The floors paint were half scratched off. The bathroom sink was missing a leg and the sink never drained. The bathroom ceiling could not fit a tall person in it. The shower was also on its last legs of life. The entire house is on its last legs of life. I wish nothing but for the house to burn down and for this man to lose every cent of wealth he's extracted from tenants. David Olster is a filthy scumbag. It is a shame he is employed by the University of Kentucky. I am likely forgetting many things. Oh, when I moved out, he threw my deposit check at me. A deposit check I had to beg for and threaten lawyers on my side in order to get it back. Once he realized it would be more expensive to take me to court than to just give me my deposit back, he gave it back. He has no moral compass. His desire to exploit and flip a profit, even if it is $10, is greater than his understanding of human beings' human rights, basic needs, and survival. He told me on many occasions that it would be better if I moved out of the unit far before my lease was set to be over. He has made me cry and get angry with anxiety on multiple occasions due to his dismissal of my requests for ^ these things to be changed and fixed. This housing and his behavior dramatically worsened my mental health. He has also expressed to me that he is very wealthy. Last thoughts: when I moved in, the oven did not work and the knobs were broken. The sink faucet was completely detached from the sink plumbing. The refrigerator had broken shelving. A move-in cleaning company had to be hired to clean out the place and after I moved in, I spent hours and $$$ cleaning the place myself to make it livable. The moving company was disgusted and could hardly breathe when they came in. I just wanted it to be livable. Just livable. We are talking a very meager and simple "livable" standard here. He never did a walk-in when we moved in despite for one when I asked. I don't think he's spent any time in the unit. When I got my deposit back at the end, however, we did do a walk-through, and he seemed disgusted by the state it was in, despite me adding property value to it by re-painting the walls, thoroughly cleaning as much as I could humanly stand when I moved in, and leaving lights and a fan for the next tenant. This was nothing short of a slum house. I do not forgive myself for moving here. I would rather be in debt than to degrade myself to such dehumanizing living conditions and dehumanizing power exploitative controlling landlord again. AVOID!"

Review of Phil Henry Sadlo / PVH Real Estate by CM

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"I lived in the attic apartment at 411 East Maxwell from August 2015 to July 2016 while I finished up my last year of grad school at UK. It was disgusting when I moved in. I had to do a ton of cleaning because the landlord leaves it up to the previous tenant to clean. I heard squirrels constantly running around in the walls and under the floor. The heat never worked, instead of an actual heating system there was an insert- but it wasn’t inserted in the wall, it just sat out. Anyway it didn’t work so they brought me a space heater. The apartment was pretty large for a one bedroom so that one space heater was not enough, I had to buy a couple more and hope that I didn’t short out the electricity all winter long. At the time I was living there, Phil used a property manager (Tamara, I think? Can’t remember her name). She was a nice person but all the maintenance stuff was so sloppy. At one point my living room window broke, due to the ancient wood framing around it. I had to live with a piece of cardboard in the window for a couple weeks while she figured it out. There were 2 particularly awful incidents while I lived there that make this place the official worst place I have ever lived (and this is from someone who has moved around a lot and been renting for 20 years). The first was the bathroom plumbing. The neighbor downstairs kept calling her to say that they had water leaking from their ceiling (so below my apartment). But I was really careful not to get water on the floor. They kept accusing me of splashing water out of the tub when taking a bath- but it was OBVIOUSLY something with the pipes inside the building- I would surround the tub with towels and be super careful- but then they would still text me to say the neighbors had water coming in. It got worse the longer I lived there. I stopped taking baths because that seemed to be when the issues happened- but then by the last couple months I was there it was happening even when I took very quick showers. At one point the manager came with a plumber- he was messing with the toilet and didn’t see anything. They kept accusing me of just being messy when I definitely was not. I felt really bad for my downstairs neighbors but I had to be able to shower. The bathroom floor was super spongy and discolored from previous water damage. Near the end of the time I lived there the people in the first floor apartment had some major water leaking in (from my place or the 2nd floor- I don’t know) and it ruined a bunch of their stuff. The second awful thing was when I was moving out. I was moving out of state so had arranged with the manager to do my walk through the day before I would be leaving since I would head out at like 6:00 am the next day. All my stuff had been shipped out already, I was just living in the bedroom on an air mattress with my cats for the last couple days. She showed up for the final walk through and I said something about how the stuff in the bedroom would be gone when I left in the morning. She said, “well the new tenants are on their way over, they’ll be here in 15 minutes”. I was SO PISSED. I had specifically set it up with her (via text, I still had the texts on my phone and showed her) so that we’d do the walk through the afternoon before I had to leave town. But then there was nothing I could do about it. The new tenant showed up with her truck and a bunch of people to help her move in. I just stayed in the bedroom and waited for them to finish, then I spent a strange night surrounded by this other person’s stuff. Also- I never received any pro rated rent or anything for that, even though I was leaving the day before my lease was up so the apartment was still legally mine. Do not rent from PVH Real Estate. It was a year of things being a total shit show and I could not wait to get out of there."

Review of Micah Poston / David Burton / Burton Properties by thxalot

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"Micah frequently sent maintenance out without responding to my texts. I would think I was being ignored, only to be woken up by the maintenance guy. A little heads up would have gone a long way. On one occasion, maintenance entered while I wasn't home and I had not been told they were coming that day. I left the apartment in better shape than I got it in, but I was not given any of my deposit back. Micah stopped responding to me. I never got an itemized explanation nor any kind of explanation. Thanks for preying on poor students!"

Review of Melvin Cosby by Luckyduck

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"Please, for the love of all things good, DO NOT rent from Melvin Cosby on park avenue. One month in and he was coming by my work daily, checking in on me every evening in the creepiest fashion, and verbally harassed me. The harassment continued until I broke the lease 3 months in after the police advised me to (I have two police reports saying the landlord was mentally unstable at the time of the response). He talked terribly about past tenants and I should have known he was the problem! I originally paid him $900 for rent and deposit, which he would use the deposit for our gas bill. Something I suggested because he made many remarks about how he was broke and was unsure how we would have heat in the winter, if the bill wasn't paid when I moved in. He had acquired a bit of debt on that bill. He constantly held over my head was how he paid the utilities. I paid $500 for rent, but gave him at least $100 extra every month because he made me feel so responsible for his unemployment and financial status after I couldn't get him a job at my work. Very thankful my hiring manager got a weird vibe from him or he would have been around me basically all the time. I had to get away from this person after I set up cameras and caught him going into my unit while I was at work to make sure I turned my AC, heat, lights, faucets?(I know, he was insane!) and unplugged stuff on numerous occasions. Never got a 24 or even 1 hour notice on when he was coming in. Had to have a friend move in the last week, so he couldn't come inside while I was gone. With that being said, if he doesn't get you with the constant trying to get more money out of you for electric and how it is your fault, the constant thought of him being in your home will."

Review of Kaufmann Properties by Jan Sucks

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"I’m writing this from the experience of 2 friends. Jan is the manager at Kauffman properties. She is a stone cold hateful woman who says she won’t lease to boys. She won’t let you store anything in the basement. She drives by or has other people drive by to check on what you’re doing and its creepy. She also has to have monthly check ins on your apartment. She will tell you she’s coming in a day or so but when she gets there she barges right in without knocking. She used her own key. Obviously she’s not allowed to open anything but it’s still annoying that she has to do monthly check ins on 22 year olds. If you’re worried about your tenants then don’t rent to college kids.. ya know. She will also get pissed if the tiniest bit of your wheel is off the gravel and in the grass. Other people have told me that when their friend stopped out front with a dog that she thought the tenants had snuck a dog on the property. So she tried to fine them. When my friends mother tried to contact her about specifics Jan told her she can only speak to the tenant... which doesn’t make sense since her mom pays the bills and was asking simple questions. She also said she would fine you $25 for every unnecessary email she received and take it from your deposit. She’s a roach and I have told every single one of my friends to literally rent from ANYBODY else. She has those yellow signs mostly in the campus areas of University, State Street, Elizabeth and some on Fontaine. Avoid the Kauffman’s."

Review of Bob Hodskins by nothanks

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"So incredibly rude, condescending, and presumptuous. He enjoys taking advantage of college students, women in particular, and strong arming them into uncomfortable and often illegal situations. His property manager let himself in unannounced over winter break to show my home to potential new renters with no warning and had the audacity to be angry when I told him to leave."

Review of Phil Henry Sadlo by Nicolette_Lim

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"Here are some of the transgressions: 1. He took about 10 months to replace our broken stove, leaving us with half of it working. He only replaced it when it was time to show the apartment. 2. We have reason to believe he came in unannounced because he did take away the stove coils, yet a month later they mysteriously reappeared in the drawer, unfixed. 3. When we moved in, the parking lot had a sign that says “security cameras in operation”. That is a lie, there were no cameras at the time. My car has been broken into twice, my roommates bike has been stolen twice. Our neighbor’s car window was even smashed in. Instead of being empathetic, or even helpful, the building manager berated us like we were children. My roommate also tried contacting the landlord many many times and he will refuse to respond. Finally, when it was closer to our moving out, maybe 11 months into our lease, they installed cameras. That was when my roommate’s second bike was stolen. We asked to have the security footage reviewed but they gave us a lame excuse saying they do not have time to look over footage for a bike. My roommate again called him and left messages. No response. 4. No sense of ethics or basic tenant safety; It was the during the time when everything was shut down, mid-May (our lease was up in August). Henry insisted on conducting apartment tours during a global pandemic. We begged him to please let us make a video or do some kind of virtual tour. We even made a video to his specifications in hopes that he would forgo physical apartment tours. He absolutely refused stating that “there was nothing he could do”. I told him this was extremely unethical and that he had all the power. He was offended that I called him unethical. He then sent out a mass text to the residents stating apartment tours were mandatory, but that they will take “precautions” such as wiping down surfaces. He scheduled us for 1 apartment tour and we begged again for him to not do this to us during the height of the pandemic. He refused. The day of, he actually brought several groups of people to come through, we definitely did not know about that, and all we could do is stand back and watch in horror. 5. Our apartment was dirty and in disrepair when we moved in. I even emphasized to the building manager that the apartment should be cleaned when we got there. There was hairs and pee flecks in the bathroom, the tub was disgusting and moldy, the kitchen still had food stains in the microwave and fridge, the floors were dirty. The window sills were full of dead flies and webs. What was worse is that now that the furniture was moved out of the way, we could see that the tile was broken and would often cut into our feet. We had to lay awkward pieces of rug to protect our feet. When we asked about why the apartment was so dirty, the building manager blamed the previous tenant for not cleaning well enough. I’m sorry but aren’t y’all responsible? She then gave us $40 to buy cleaning supplies. I also inquired about the walls being scuffed, yellowed, full of exposed plaster. She gave us two buckets of paint and said that if we painted our unit she would give us $100. No joke. 6. The mail was impossible; there are no signs to indicate to external carriers, or even USPS that the mail room was out back and required a key. There were a couple weeks when I stopped receiving my mail. My apartment is on the ground floor and several times the postman will open my BROKEN door thinking it was the mail room. Yes, I was topless once when that happened and it was embarrassing and scary. 7. The door is broken; anyone that wiggles it hard enough can get in. Mailman as example. I was again, blamed for the broken door. This time it was because “no one uses that door, you just have to lock it”. I told her it would not lock. She came by and held the door closed from the outside and told me to lock it. I couldn’t. She said “ok so it’s fixed!” I said no. She Walked Away. I bought a latch from the hardware store and installed it myself. I started to put a bag of gravel in front of it to stop it from swinging open during strong winds. The most frustrating parts was not being able to get responses from the landlord, like during our break-ins. We could only talk to them, only when it suited him (regarding the walkthroughs). Our safety and well being meant nothing to them. They would do as little as they can. Exploitative and unreasonable people."

Review of Newtown Crossing Apartments by NewReviewer

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"Terrible experience living in these apartments. The only good part about them is that they are close to the UK campus. Maintenance and other office staff would enter our apartment whenever they wanted without a 24 hour notice. It made me feel very uncomfortable and unsafe. There were constantly ants everywhere even with no food or anything lying around. The managers are so disrespectful and rude. They do not care about your wellbeing. They just care about sucking money from you. They were also doing work on the roof for two weeks straight before finals week and it was extremely loud. There was constant stomping and music playing during this time. I also filed a complaint about our neighbors because they constantly had parties and were loud 24/7. NOTHING was done. Do NOT live here."

Review of Anderson Communities by frisco175175

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"Anderson Communities is the shithole of the city. Squirrel infestation in the building was dealt with after 3 months of being kept up all night and literal holes being made in my ceiling. Took them 3 months to call in a real animal control company. First unit they moved me into had urine-soaked carpets so they conveniently moved me to a more expensive unit with no discount from my previous agreed upon unit and rent. The campus office is rude as hell and doesn't even pretend to care about renters. They towed my car after not giving me a parking pass, and it took numerous phone calls to even get reimbursed for that. I was told numerous times that issues with the apartment "weren't their problem" and hung up on. Stay away at all costs, there's not too many brain cells over there."