"Constant changing of office personnel, upping rent without notice or adding charges out of no where. Apartment rules constantly changing, maintenance refuses to fix anything unless they can come when you aren't home (I am home constantly). During COVID, tons of threats and illegally evicting half of the apartment complex."
"Went up on rent yearly and extremely like $100 a pop after 7yrs without raise. Roaches came in the last 2yrs when another tenant vacated and remained in the entire building not just my unit. Management company was awful after all trade left. Didn't fix anything all plumbing was connected and when upstairs neighbor had a sink issue it closed mine as well and couldn't fix. Twice they cut off my electric even though it was included in lease. Was reimbursed once but the first time nothing at all. (Days each time) had 2 separate deposits there because of a previous apartment gas leak id moved and was told id have to wait 30 days between and when i finally moved still nothing for either unit. On the plus side now no roaches and no headache. Having bad management did me a favor."
"My landlord tried to make me move apartments and leave me homeless for 2 weeks even though it was not in the lease agreement. When people came in to fix issues with and clean the apartment - with no notice, mind you, they left my door open so anyone could come after the left, they left trash on my doorstep, and they left all of the lights on - I pay for electric. Every time I have tried to contact him, I get no answer and he never returns my calls or emails. The one time I was able to speak to him, he was very rude and would often cut me off when talking to him."
"Robert Powell never came to the house and barely communicated with the property manager. The most egregious problem though was a complete lack of a heater in the house, like there was no heat installed at all, just AC. In the depths of winter 2016, the property manager brought over one large heater. The property manager was a good guy who was trying his best to maintain over 30 properties if memory serves. Do not rent from Robert Powell."
"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."
"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!"
"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!"
"Well she rough to work with."
"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 she thought the tenants had snuck a dog on the property. So she tried to fine them. When my friend's 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."
"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."
The Lexington Tenant Review 