“Hateful woman & a liar. Seriously one of the rudest people I've ever met, ignoring maintenance requests, and price-gouging long-term tenants in good standing. Slumlord and only cares about money, and not the fact that she is responsible for housing people.”
“House has been barely maintained. Overgrown bushes. Had to ask for months of parking in mud by both me, my roommate, and upstairs neighbors (we share a duplex) to get the driveway re-graveled. He basically gaslights us when we bring up maintenance problems that were pre-existing before move-in that have only worsened in the past year. Examples: brown stained ceiling tiles in the bathroom. Gnats. Black mold in the basement he only addressed after my roommate tried to report him. Broken washer in the basement. Blaming us for some plumbing issues that are actually only due to the house being 100 years old and barely maintained. Outdated appliances including washer/dryer and a/c units. Cracked glass in windows that he won’t replace. Painted over shower; paint has no place on a shower lol and it peels (as of course it would) due to moisture. Poor air ventilation but most windows can’t be opened because they are covered in so many layers of paint - functional windows only open up a few inches. Most windows don’t have screens anyway. Locks have obviously never been replaced between tenants - until the kitchen door lock got irreparably jammed that he had to replace the lock in its entirety. It is rare that he acknowledges let alone follows through on maintenance requests. Water is very low pressure. Heating is an old furnace decades old that is irreplaceable- once it goes out the place will simply have no heat. No plans to fix that, only to sell. Puts huge (several feet across) political signs in the yard. Doesn’t use modern payment options, have to drop off a check. Also, his son is the constable; 3rd district. It feels like that should be illegal but I guess it’s not! Is certainly fishy though! The constable’s office is located at 224 E High Street. That building is also barely maintained. The driveway is itching to give its victims (tenants) flat tires. In fact, the constable doesn’t even park in the back lot attached to the driveway; he parks in the post office’s lot across the street. Clearly, he’s aware that it’s unacceptable!”
“There are so many things wrong with the house, to the point that the City of Lexington left a long list of required repairs. When I asked the building manager (Jey) about a repair schedule, he didn't seem to care about being cited by the city. Instead, he said something about "new windows". Meanwhile, my ceiling is caving and the hallways, porch, and yard are full of junk. I moved here because of the location, but soon found it wasn't worth it. 9 months into the lease Jey tried to add an additional $50 for parking that had always been free. I was told it was the "other management company that mishandled things'" and that I was still on the hook. Also, my upstairs neighbor has ordered large cases of prepped meals that have sat unopened in the hallways until they rotted so badly that the other tenants were vomiting in their apartments. I've avoided making maintenance requests because Jey gives me the creeps, doesn't respect anyone else's time, and ignores COVID safety precautions. Another tenant had to help me move an air conditioner (that we found just sitting in the hallway) into my window so that my apartment would stay below 90 degrees last summer. This was after a service request with no response for days. I have a dog, and every day was dangerous for both of us. Since moving here in 2021, he has never worn a mask upon entering my apartment, nor cared when I was once quarantined and tried to enter with a random contractor. After knocking on my door continuously to wake me up, he then harassed me to be allowed entry (with no prior notice or emergency situation) in order to let the cable guy "look around". I then watched through the peephole as he knocked a few times and then entered my neighbor's apartment (a young woman living alone), assuming she wasn't home. She was home. She had been asleep and was awakened by 2 strange men walking into her apartment. It made my skin crawl worse than the rotten meat. If it had been me, I would have gone into self-defense mode, so I guess he lucked out on that one. The best (aka worst) part of renting with Urban Vigor/Jey Marks is that the building manager is also a "managing" partner", and all communications go directly to Jey. In fact, when I tried to complain about my neighbor's rights being stomped on, I was told by Jey's assistant how important Jey was in the company, and basically to get over it. In order to hold him accountable, the company doesn't even have a way to complain about the many ways I feel unsafe here. Since that is the case, my only course of action is to file a legal complaint and warn as many people as possible. DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!”
“Upon walkthrough, several notes of broken parts, stains, and other imperfections were noted. However, at the end of the lease, these very things were used to withhold the security deposit. Throughout my time renting there, I had mice and that problem was never fixed. The appliances were in horrible condition and the backyard was overgrown with poison ivy and the entire place looked as if no one had lived there in several years. Getting ahold of the property manager was nearly impossible, especially once he recognized your number as someone who would bring up problems. This company and its staff only care about the money, and will say anything to bring it in and do whatever to prevent you from keeping any of it.”
“Multiple units in the house, maintenance work that impacts everyone are not communicated spanning from noise disturbances from hammering on the exterior to entering my unit and cutting holes in the ceiling. In my time here I've had leaking pipes drench my belongs, bats enter my bedroom through unrepaired holes in the ceiling at night, removed gas leak advisories tags placed on our stove by Columbia Gas to delay repairing it, unflushable toilet for a couple weeks, and zero parking within a block of the residence due to construction (not fault of the landlord but no solutions offered). Old home hasn't been updated in years and the owner is resistant to spending funds for big repairs for quality of life.”
“Unfortunately, I have had issues with the property company since the beginning of my renting process. Disclaimer, I didn't have many options in my price range and had to move on short notice, which is why I was stuck with them. Additionally, they only offer 12-month leases for most of their properties. They didn't let me tour before signing the lease, citing Covid restrictions but wouldn't let me see it even in a socially distanced setting, only after I had paid the deposit and signed the lease. The lease was also an issue at first. I have a doctor-certified emotional support animal that I let them know about at the very beginning. It took about three different drafts of the lease before they correctly added the information for my animal and removed the pet deposit requirement, as per the law. I moved in and the floor was crooked, the windows were not sealed or treated, with wind coming in through the cracks. The doors were also crooked with gaps at the bottom that let air in. I paid 9/12 months rent upfront but was still charged late fees on the first of every month for four months and I had to call each time to get them removed. I suspected an animal was living in my attic, so I put in a maintenance request and was told someone would come check but never heard back. My electric bill 3x the average in the area every single month, even though I used the bare minimum heating and cooling because the windows and doors were incorrectly sealed. During one winter month, my electric bill was over $300 and I still had to put blankets in my windows to keep the wind out. Two weeks before the end of my lease, a plumbing issue revealed itself that should have been caught by the inspection before I moved in, as the plumber told me the entire shower piping was done incorrectly. They took a full week and three different plumbers to fix my shower, and it was still done wrong and took another week to get completely fixed. I was without a shower in my one-bathroom apartment for the entire last two weeks of my lease, with no effort to compensate me for my trouble or provide any alternatives while the issue was being fixed. I deep cleaned the apartment and left it spotless at the end of the lease, but was still charged $150 dollars from my security deposit for "cleaning counters and floors" according to the management office. According to Kentucky state law, refusing to provide a tenant with safe and inhabitable housing is grounds for a lawsuit, but unfortunately, many people in my position do not have the time or resources required to go after such powerful companies. This company does not care about renters, they are only trying to make a quick buck from vulnerable college students."
“They gaslight you when you ask to fix anything. They didn’t give me a sticker to park in our parking lot and someone hit my car. They then asked for OUR wi-fi password to set up the security cameras. We have BLACK MOLD and people are getting purposely evicted so they don’t have to stay here. There are holes and dents, and terrible carpet throughout the townhome and we already know they’re going to take our whole deposit when we move next week (we ended our lease early).”
“David is the owner of Jones Management Group and is standoffish, rude, and refuses to communicate via phone. When I moved into the house I was renting, it was dirty and had a few minor defects. When I moved out after 3 years of paying rent on time and in full (throughout the pandemic, mind you), I had the house professionally cleaned. It was in immaculate condition, much better than when I originally moved in. However, he STILL kept over 90% of my deposit for such nitpicky details. He also charged for items I replaced throughout the house on my own dime, charged us for maintenance requests we submitted, and charged for garage door openers we weren't even provided with upon move-in 3 years ago. TLDR; Old landlord is a coward and I am venting my frustrations here instead of going through the trouble of trying to fight this loser in small claims court. David is the definition of landlord scum - selfish and greedy.”
“We moved into this ”house” on October 1, 2021. The place was absolutely filthy, we had to scrub the floors, walls, and baseboards before moving our things into the house. Immediately, we had issues with the furnace. Lexington Code Enforcement states that a property owner must maintain a 65° temperature in EACH living space, from October 1-May 15. Many times we woke up and the house was below 60°. Recently, (last week of January 2022) we woke up to the thermostat reading 46°. There was an impending ice storm on the way. We put in 10+ maintenance requests to PERMANENTLY fix the issue. We texted, emailed, and even sent multiple letters in the mail to our landlord, to no avail. She ignored us. She left our group chat THREE times. She was combative and apathetic and has clearly gotten away with this. Lexington Code Enforcement gave them 5 days (until February 5) to fix the issue. They disobeyed this order and we were within our legal rights to move out. We were interviewed by LEX18 for this. We have ample proof and the furnace issue is not even the only thing. We were illegally charged $100 a day for a security system we had permission to install. The lease states, “The tenant may have a security system and pay a one-time $75 fee and give the landlord access to the code.” We offered this to our landlord and maintenance multiple times and we were rejected. We obtained a lawyer who guided us through this process so as to not break any laws, otherwise, we would be lost and FREEZING inside of that trash dump on Park Avenue with the YELLOW DOOR. I do have pictures but no links to them. They’re saved onto my phone.”
“Horrible. Smooth talker, car salesman type. Liar and does not care about the state of the conditions that tenants live in. Bellefontaine is filled with bugs, drugs, and poor maintenance. Please DO NOT RENT FROM THESE SLUM LORDS.”
The Lexington Tenant Review 