Review: Louisville Land Co Inc Rl Est

[Eleanor Kennedy]

These people are problematic. I have no heat, my sink doesn't work, and the attic is full of squirrels because the window to get in is hanging on by a thread. They refuse to fix anything and when you offer to do it yourself they won't 'authorize' it. They don't pick up their certified mail, ever. My front door is caved in by the previous tenents dog and I had no screens for the whole summer so when we aired out the stench from the dead rats and bugs new bugs flew in every time. I finally replaced the nonworking stove (when I asked about fixing it the guy at the store thought I was joking. He said: it's 14 years old, the parts are obsolete, and we need ALL the parts, which they don't even make anymore.) I got a new stove and sent my receipts in certified. When I tried asserting my rights, the owner of the company said he didn't "appreciate my threats" (which was that I was going to call a plumber to fix the bathroom sink that finally broke so we just empty the bucket under the sink every time we brush our teeth or wash our hands.) Our hot water heater is shot and we cant get the gas turned on til we pass inspection but even if the unit is OK rats ate so many holes into the vents the entire system needs replacing, according to LLC crew and Reliable Heating and Air. When we said we wanted to use the fireplace J.W. told us it was coal. This was all discussed in the lease but Joe Williams of Louisville Land doesn't seem to think he is included in people who have to follow the law. I have requested meetings with him and sent letters. I pay my rent on time every time. I am not big on litigation though I have spoken to lawyers and they all say I'm right and I will win if I sue. I just want to live here in peace and for him to do what he is supposed to do. In fairness, the staff tries, but they are prone to extremely high turnover (the longest a staff member stayed was four or five months, if my information is correct). My roomates both left, one before even moving in and the other this month. This company is unreasonable and unconsionable in their behavior towards tenants.

[MaMBassa]

YOu had just better keep that rent paid and you might throw a little work into it too . How about painting the place and making some repairs so the next renter will have a nice place to lay up .

[eleanor]

who wrote the last comment? Joe V.? I am trying to warn people. I've just had the house tested. It's full of lead paint, the chips are everyplace. Thank goodness the yard was full of rusty nails and broken glass when we moved in or my daughter'd probably have lead poisoning from playing in it. The guy from Affinity environmental spotted friable asbestos and visible mold and suggests we get tests to confirm. The house is nice, now. By the time I had wrote in complaining it was all fixed and clean. I wouldn't live in that filth no matter who was responsible technically. We got heat december fifth and I bought a new oven in November to replace the one that didn't work. I deducted from the rent, as you are allowed to, so the landlord tried to give me one of his rubber checks to pay for the stove even though I already deducted it from the rent. We had no stove for 6 months. The office manager had ordered it right in front of me and my lease says we'd have it by June first. November? And I had to go get it? Meanwhile I told him I can't afford all this stuff he is responsible for and bought 3 spaceheaters as is my right when a landlord does not provide an essential service and heat is essential. Even so it's been cold and the temp never got over 62 in the rooms we used them in. I told JVW after we get the heat on I will return the heaters and he can have his money back so he slapped a possibly fake eviction notice on my door with stuff ommitted so the outcome is nonsense but I get the gist. So if you think you want to pay now probably a couple hundred extra for a house that still floods and swarms with four inch roaches be my guest. You want to expose your kids to asbestos, lead paint and whatever else, it's your funeral. my rent is paid and has never been late but if I knew I was living in Poisonville with Barnaby Potter as my landlord I wouldn'tve signed the lease, and I signed it after he called me a bunch of times between April and May promising to clean it up and work with me and all this phony stuff that even though I got it in writing he still makes it like pulling teeth with him taking twenty different bids and estimates for each job despite that he has a maintenance crew. It's all stalling. He hopes you'll leave before he fixes stuff then he can charge you for breaking the lease. He says he lost all his work orders, and no staff stays longer than a month so there's no records of much. The Louisville Land has a lot of property, and they have one half of Fort Hill Cemetary, too. I was there with a woman and she showed me her headstones had been condenced, like to make room, and when she called JVW he said it was vandalism (she said). What vandals neatly squash headstones closer together? One of the graves was relatively new so you could see where the stone was supposed to be. It was a foot off about. Anyway, I would beware of renting or buying from this company. It appears they are not only slumlords but literally robbing graves.

[MamBassa]

..Hey thats life you know a little lead paint here , a little rust there , a craked glass , a rotten board , oh well . You orta fix all them thangs yeself then ye wouldnt complain and make people ill with regrets and all .
Hey now get a life and a clue thats the way it is in Cleveland , pay for the play ,live for a day , hey , hey .

[Eleanor]

are you serious? There's laws against what this guy is doing. He puts children in danger. And adults. It's Cleveland but it isn't 1912 or something. Just because he comes from some big money family does not mean he doesn't have to follow the laws of our state and our country. Landlords have responsibilities just as tenants do. Anyway, you obviously are some kinda nutcase. What are you even talking about, pay for the play? What play? I think you are him. They say he doesn't trust computers, so that would explain your verily Godawful punctuation. Anyway, this isnt my house and it isnt my responsibility to put money into it. Why anyone would stick up for this evildoer is beyond me. His own relatives have been known to take him to court. That should tell you something.

[CRA]

I live next door and Joe did the same thing to me. He told me right to my face that whatever needed fixing I could deduct off of the rent and all I had to do was save my receipts. I've had the big roaches, no heat, mold, you name it. my son has asthma. I told Joe that and he never mentioned anything about mold all over the basement. That'll aggravate a breathing problem. and it smells, too. We have a shed that is full of garbage they were supposed to clean up. I have been scrubbing these gross walls and floors for 3 months straight. He said he'd get rid of the wasps nests on the porch but he didn't. I had to pay for that, too, plus all the bug bombs et cetera. He was available to show me the place, and he got me through quick I'll tell you that. If I'd had a better chance to look I'd have noticed how much needed fixing. Only he said he'd pay if I did the work so I thought ok, we'll just take care of it and he'll give us our money back, and now I can never ever get in touch with him. I think he got me through so fast, too, because he was figured I'd see one of those big roaches. Plus we had no heating system AT ALL. Somebody told me a house shouldn't even be rented without one, or it ought to be condemned, or something. Now I hear all this stuff and I finally got out of the house and met my neighbor come to find out this guy is a habitual liar (According to everybody I talk to, not just her). Isn't this some kind of crime? Lying to sell something?

[Eleanor]

Joe V. Williams of Louisville Land violates every single one of the codes mandated by the city of Cleveland. He's been doing it for years and making the same excuses. If the people prosecuting would just get ahold of his old employees they could probably get someplace. He hires scapegoats and turns his people against each other but one thing everyone seems well aware of is that Mr. Williams is clearly in the wrong. What do you do when you want to keep your job, at least until you can get a better one? You do what you are told. The workers usually are under the impression a private bidder got sent to finish a job that they weren't. They were actually very surprised I hadn't got heat all winter. Joe blamed some guy who had been there for about a week, and was sent, by Joe, to do something else. Get his records, get testimony from the staff. I highly doubt anyone will perjure themselves for him. They'd be risking jail for a job that doesn't last anybody more than a month or two. Purjery can land you in jail. Besides, I think most of them would be happy to tell what they know, they just don't know who to tell it to.

[Eleanor]

I asked in another post whether anyone had EVER gotten a security deposit back from Louisville Land company, Joe V. Williams, III President. The post was flagged for review. I'd like to know what's inappropriate about that question.
My initial thought had been to start a tenants organization. I know Louisville has a lot of properties, and I know from the signs in front of the rentals which ones belong to Louisville Land because of the phone number. There's one for rent that had recently been condemned. They must have done the bare minimum in repairs because in the back pieces of the house are hanging off and some of the windows are boarded up. It's about a block past Arnold school and to the right.
If the new tenants are told that "It'll be in shape by the time you move in, like I was told about my rental" and in the end they have to spend a fortune just to be able to replace the window and all the other stuff which probably will go wrong, and then when they move out and get blamed for problems which were pre-existing, that would be unfair. According to certain staff who have quit rather than put up with unethical and unreasonable behavior, this is common at Louisville Land.

[Eleanor]

There is no reason why I shouldn't ask about security deposits. The former tenants at my rental did not get theirs back and they had to clean a lot prior to moving in. It's a cleaning deposit. The house is supposed to be cleaned prior to move in. You aren't supposed to give you're landlord a full months rent on the say-so that he will use the money to get the place clean for you, and then have him tell you in the end you are leaving it too dirty and keep your deposit when 1. you cleaned to move in, not the landlord, and 2. you cleaned prior to moving out. It is lying, cheating, and it's illegal if the LL doesn't supply you with a list of repairs that they had to make specifically because of you. Furthermore, the landlord being 'cash poor,' as mine supposedly was, according to Audrey Rodgers, the office manager last May 2008, who told to me in front of three witnesses and discussed again in front of the future office manager Hamilton Lanca, again with three additional witnesses, is no reason for the landlord to take a deposit from you and use it to clean the former tenants mess. That's what the prior tenants deposit was for. The former tenants never got their security back, nor did the ones prior to them, according to what Bonnie, the subsequent office manager after Hamilton Lanca, replied to Joe V.'s question of whether the tenants prior to me got their deposit back. She said "No" and this was in front of his entire staff at the time: Ronald Reynolds, his son Bubba, Bonnie, a couple of others and the three people who lived with me. The tenant prior to the ones before me told me she did not get her security deposit back. It is against federal law to keep security deposits with no basis in fact except greed. That is called "theft" in the real world and "profit" in the business world. Misrepresentation for monetary gain is called "fraud." At least muggers are honest; you know you're being robbed when somebody has a gun on you and says "gimmie your money" but apparently if somebody does it with a suit on and a pen in their hand it's simply protecting the bottom line? So, if I were robbed by some crackhead so he could score, I'd have a case, but being tricked out of money so that my landlord could have...more money? makes it admirable on his part? Is this how it works here in Cleveland? It's ok to lie, cheat and steal if you have money and when the person lied to complains the rich guy can say "I didn't know," "I forgot" or "It wasn't me" and everyone accepts it over and over? I don't let my seven year old get over with that garbage and we are putting up with it form a sixty something year old guy who has been using the same lame excuses for 20 years? If he can't handle his company, perhaps he shouldn't have one. If he can't tell the truth, maybe he should take an ethics class for realtors-they DO exist. Century 21 requires them. If he can't maintain his properties, perhaps he shouldn't keep buying new ones. Do we let our kids have new toys when they just destroy the old ones, or ignore them? Or do we try to teach them respect, responsibility, and how not to be wasteful? This man has demonstrated to me, my room-mates, and my daughter (who finds his habit of interrupting very rude) that he doesn't have the basic etiquitte of an eight year old, and he has the morals of a toddler.

[anna rexia]

Eleanor Kennedy wrote:

These people are problematic. I have no heat, my sink doesn't work, and the attic is full of squirrels because the window to get in is hanging on by a thread. They refuse to fix anything and when you offer to do it yourself they won't 'authorize' it. They don't pick up their certified mail, ever. My front door is caved in by the previous tenents dog and I had no screens for the whole summer so when we aired out the stench from the dead rats and bugs new bugs flew in every time. I finally replaced the nonworking stove (when I asked about fixing it the guy at the store thought I was joking. He said: it's 14 years old, the parts are obsolete, and we need ALL the parts, which they don't even make anymore.) I got a new stove and sent my receipts in certified. When I tried asserting my rights, the owner of the company said he didn't "appreciate my threats" (which was that I was going to call a plumber to fix the bathroom sink that finally broke so we just empty the bucket under the sink every time we brush our teeth or wash our hands.) Our hot water heater is shot and we cant get the gas turned on til we pass inspection but even if the unit is OK rats ate so many holes into the vents the entire system needs replacing, according to LLC crew and Reliable Heating and Air. When we said we wanted to use the fireplace J.W. told us it was coal. This was all discussed in the lease but Joe Williams of Louisville Land doesn't seem to think he is included in people who have to follow the law. I have requested meetings with him and sent letters. I pay my rent on time every time. I am not big on litigation though I have spoken to lawyers and they all say I'm right and I will win if I sue. I just want to live here in peace and for him to do what he is supposed to do. In fairness, the staff tries, but they are prone to extremely high turnover (the longest a staff member stayed was four or five months, if my information is correct). My roomates both left, one before even moving in and the other this month. This company is unreasonable and unconsionable in their behavior towards tenants.

I swear this sounds exactly like the house I use to live at near deer park. It was owned by them and it was in bad shape back then . I was only a teenager at the time.But the owner never did anything to improve it. We had heat only in one room and froze when you went out of it. The water froze in the toilet many times due to lack of heat.Wonder how JW would like to take a bath in house like that. I know I did every night.

[Eleanor]

You lived in this house? How long ago?
Did you or your parents get their security deposit back? Because "Slumlords" have been judged against and when it is found that the security deposit was kept unlawfully it generally is returned times three. That's just what most rulings are, I don't know if it's what they have to be.
A landowner is responsible to maintain a rental. The tax laws require it. A landlord isn't allowed to claim he is running a profitable business if he fails to do what is necessary to make it profitable. It's fraud.
How long did you stay?

[By Deer Park]

There are two Louisville rentals, both in equally dilapidated shape.
If the statute of limitations isn't up, whoever paid the rent at the time you had no heat should be entitled to a reduction in rent for the amount of the property not usable. If you had eight rooms and could only use one of them the landlord is supposed to reimburse you for the percentage of un-occupiable housing.
I did every single thing possible to avoid court with Louisville Land and Mr. JV Williams. I put everything in writing from day one, was polite, never paid rent late, and offered to do everything myself in a thrifty manner if only I could be reimbursed for materials. Everything was ignored. Certified mail was insisted upon in the lease in order to have repairs made in a "reasonable time" but certified mail was not picked up until the 3rd delivery, if at all, and was verbally discouraged by Mr. JVW as he doesn't "have time to stand in line at the post office" (yet I have all the time in the world to scrape mold off the walls of six rooms with eight foot high ceilings and walls? okaaay. So very fair and reasonable.)
Mr. Williams appears to be under the impression that people are put on this Earth to serve his needs, and he has no responsibilities whatsoever beyond that of his own bank account. My seven year old says the V. is for Vampire, and he sucks the money out of you. She plays a game when we walk through town, "pick out our landlords houses" and a lot of the time, she's right.
A lease is a legal, valid contract. If somebody owns a property and rents it to you, and a lease is signed, agreements made, and money exchanged the rule and law is that not only the tenant but the landlord must honor the contract.
I don't understand why a court clerk and a legal aid receptionist implied otherwise. Both said TN is a "something" property state so landlords could do what they wanted. If that were the case, why have a lease? Only for the landlord? What are you paying rent for then? So he can steal from you and lie to you? As you retain the priviledge of paying for it, living in "slum-housing," he retains the right to kick you out if you exercise your LEGAL right of repair and deduct?(with appropriate notice to the landlord certain things are, without question, necessary and allowed to be deducted from rent if you have to pay for it yourself. Heat is one of those things-it's called an Essential Service. So, say, if rats ate your heat ducts and the landlord drags his butt on repairs by getting several bids and such, which he has no intention of considering, and you have to pay for new ductwork or find alternative heating sources,(or freeze) the LL should be responsible, according to the landlord-tenant codes. Even the little Legal Aid booklet concedess that fact.
Paying for services not rendered, usually one is entitled to a refund. Why would a tenant not be entitled to the same rights as any other consumer? Especially considering the large amount of money involved.
What is this law in TN, that gives everyone the impression Landlords are on par with the King of England circa 1750?
Do they also retain the rights of First Night?
What century is this, people?
You aren't even ALLOWED to give up your rights. It's even on the lease, which JVW knows is unlawful. It says: if portions of this lease are deemed unlawful, everything else on this lease remains in effect.
That in itself is ridiculous because JVW is a licensed broker for C21 (Williams and Williams) in Chattanooga and he knows well and good what is and isn't legally allowed on a lease. Therefore, he is outright and obviously cheating people who don't have money to fight back.(If you had the money to fight back you'd not be living in one of his houses in the first place.)

[Bradley Hostage]

Eleanor wrote:

I asked in another post whether anyone had EVER gotten a security deposit back from Louisville Land company, Joe V. Williams, III President. The post was flagged for review. I'd like to know what's inappropriate about that question.
My initial thought had been to start a tenants organization. I know Louisville has a lot of properties, and I know from the signs in front of the rentals which ones belong to Louisville Land because of the phone number. There's one for rent that had recently been condemned. They must have done the bare minimum in repairs because in the back pieces of the house are hanging off and some of the windows are boarded up. It's about a block past Arnold school and to the right.
If the new tenants are told that "It'll be in shape by the time you move in, like I was told about my rental" and in the end they have to spend a fortune just to be able to replace the window and all the other stuff which probably will go wrong, and then when they move out and get blamed for problems which were pre-existing, that would be unfair. According to certain staff who have quit rather than put up with unethical and unreasonable behavior, this is common at Louisville Land.

Contact your City Council member and ask them to bring it before the Cleveland City Council with Codes Enforcement present. You and other tenants could express your concerns. Ask the Council to request that Mr. Williams attend the meeting to hear the tenants who have questions and complaints and to answer questions from the Council. Ask the media to cover the story. There are state organizations that should be available to assist with landlords not properly maintaining living facilities for tenants, especially when one's health could be at risk. Contact the offices of Rep. Kevin Brooks, Congressman Zach Wamp and Senator Bob Corker to help you and others resolve the situation..

[Eleanor]

Wow, thank you , Bradley Hostage. Up til now I have mostly gotten discouraging replies from a person who thinks I should just shut up and blow another two thousand bucks to move, and someone who says it's all a corrupt system and I may as well pack it in (and pack) since "dirt poor white people" have no rights in Cleveland.
I had tried to let people know in another post- "tenants Rights"- that if they have landlord issues they DO have rights according to the codes and the federal laws. I thought that if I were turned away by the first places any reasonable people would go to for help, everyone else was, too. A less determined person would just give up and go, believing that they had no choice.
I'll give it a try.

[Bradley Hostage]

Never give up Eleanor. Someone will listen. Pray that the landlord will have a change of heart and mind, and that he will acknowledge his responsibilities to his tenants.

[Eleanor]

Not to be negative, after I have railed against negativity, but I think a change of heart requires that one has a heart in the first place. I've never met somebody so predatorily self-serving, or a person who lies so unapologetically. If he even considers his tenants as people who have to live in his rentals rather than simply "income" I'd be very surprised.
He is in his sixties or something, and seems to know what he does is wrong in the eyes of the law (because he always does what he absolutely has no choice but to do, if forced) but he doesn't seem to think of it in terms of lives he negatively effects. He matters, we don't.
He is astonishingly callous. It would be great if what he forces others to live like were forced on him. Like, "here's 20 bucks. Live on this for the rest of the month because you're broke from buying an oven after six months of waiting for one. Too bad you can't afford food to cook on it, now, Haha. Oh, well, can't have everything."
But I appreciate your encouragement, and have a hard time giving up even when I really want to, so thanks.

[Smart Landlady]

Up in the tenants rights post 'Landlady' has a wonderful solution inpost 22.
Rather than promoting mutual respect and co-operation, fairness and safety for all concerned (as is suggested by the Landlord-Tenant Act) SHE thinks the act should be rewritten in order to favor landlords more fully, no matter what the truth of the situation might be.
The basis of her opinion appears apropos of nothing and is supported by zero facts except her allegation, forcefully stated, that "RENTERS HAVE NO MORALS" and "back when the Act was wrote, people had morals." Her rewriting of the law should be a vast improvement over what is there currently. That's something I can't wait to see.

[Judgement Day]

RE:
D#C-71325 case against Joe V. Williams,III President of/and Louisville Land Company in Sessions Court, Judge Swafford presiding on March 25 at 11:00 am-
Mr. Williams was ordered to allow the Plaintiff to keep the money she had placed in escrow when she withheld rent in order to purchase space-heaters. Despite Mr. Williams theory that because "heat rises" the tenant should have been able to adaquately heat her rental via heat escaping the rat-eaten irreparable ductwork which Mr. Williams refused to acknowledge from June 2008 until the tenant was forced to file suite in December 2008 (7 months later) it was ruled that the tenant be awarded the equivelant of two months rent for the months of October and November that she and her seven year old daughter froze, shivered, slept in their coats and were additionally deprived of hot water during much of November, including on Thanksgiving day, which the tenant spent at home.

[witness protection]

In the courtroom on March 25, 2009 Mr. williams produced a paper stating that a certain amount of money not equal to the amount of the tenants security deposit was placed in a bank account on December 29, 2009. When questioned as to why the money was placed in an account after a suite was filed alleging "misappropriation of security deposits" Mr. Williams stated that the money was placed in the account in order to protect the tenant. Mr. williams appeared to be suffering from either Tourrettes or some other type of verbal tic because he said this several times, and the statement makes no sense whatsoever. How would placing money in an account EIGHT FULL MONTHS after the law requires it protect a tenant?
It's almost as ludicrous as being able to heat your home via the "heat rises" theory which, for those of you who missed it goes like this: If rats eat very very large holes out of your ductwork you should still be able to keep your house warm due to the fact that heat rises. Therefore heat would rise out of the holes, up to the ceiling of the basement, seep through the wooden floorboards, and provide a toasty environment for the wintertime. it almost seems silly to use heating ductwork at all, doesn't it? Oh, but there was an eensy flaw in this logic. The tenants the winter prior had never turned their heat on either, and there was no gas meter on the house.
Mr. Joe V. Williams, III of Louisville Land Property Management, Co, LLC is nothing if not thrifty-and environmentally conscious as well. Back in June he suggested the tenant allow spiders to capture her five varieties of roaches and misc. other vermin. "Just let them build webs," that's what he does, he said. Certain spider bites that an adult could handle would be fatal to a small child, and as green living as this tenant likes to be, there is a small child involved so using spiders as little mini exterminators isn't going to fly (Hahaha-get it?) as economically preferable as it might be.

[Jo Mama]

I see Joe V. is still up to his old tricks. I worked at his clothing store a handful of years back and could never get a paycheck that wouldn't bounce. His credit is so poor that he couldn't get any new tradelines with businesses, then blamed me for not growing his business. Some of his employees have had to go to the justice center to get a warrant taken out on him to force payment. He always seems to have money when he's close to going to jail. I did things the old fashioned way. I threatened to kick his ass in front of his mom. I'm not proud, but I got paid. I recommend his tenants document the problems (ideally on camera), then report him.