Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office is investigating Bloomington landlord Jeff Jones, the owner of Pendragon Properties who last year agreed to sell all of his Bloomington rental properties and leave the city’s rental market following allegations of widespread housing code violations.
Timothy Weber, assistant section chief of the Homeowners Protection Unit, which investigates housing-related consumer complaints, confirmed the existence of the investigation but said he could not provide more information, such as the nature of the probe. He referred other questions to the AG’s press office, which did not immediately reply to an emailed inquiry.
Jones last year reached an agreement with the administration of Mayor Kerry Thomson that required him to sell all of his Bloomington properties after city officials sued him and accused him of “egregious” violations of local health and safety laws.
The agreement also prohibited Jones, who operates primarily through Pendragon Properties, from operating or owning rental units in the city for 20 years. A city attorney said at the time that the agreement essentially ended Jones’ career as a landlord in Bloomington.
The agreement also required the local rental properties to come into compliance with local health and safety standards, at Jones’ expense.
Assistant City Attorney Taylor Brown said this week that two of Jones’ properties, the 54-unit Shamrock Pointe apartment complex on McCracken Way in northeast Bloomington and a residential-commercial complex at 3939 W. Roll Ave., are under contract. Brown said Jones’ attorneys told the city the sales are expected to close by the end of July.
According to an appraisal conducted for the city, the Shamrock Pointe property has an estimated market value of $4 million.
Brown said the city has paid for just over $12,000 in repairs, including deck, water and electrical work. He said the city has placed liens on the properties and expects to recover those costs when they are sold.
Commercial tenants at the Roll Avenue complex said very few residential tenants remain, and they said they’ve seen little work being done.
Randy Carmichael, who owns Carmichael Chiropractic, said he has owned the business for 22 years, and has experienced multiple problems since Jones took over about seven years ago. On Thursday afternoon, Carmichael was running a large fan, because the air conditioning in the office did not work. He said the office previously has sustained water damage from upstairs. About two years ago, water in the office rose roughly to the top of the baseboards.
Residential tenants in some of the homes and apartments previously told The Herald-Times they had long dealt with potential health and safety problems, including mold and collapsing floors, but the tenants also expressed worries about what would happen to them if the city’s actions — and the landlord’s failure to comply with the city’s demands — mean the homes can no longer be occupied.
Carmichael said he hopes to continue to operate the business.
Brown said he was told by a broker involved in the transaction that the prospective buyer intends to continue operating the units as rental housing.
The agreement between Jones and the city, which the parties signed last year, requires Jones to sell an additional eight properties in the second year and the remainder by the end of the third, Brown said.
Jones did not respond to requests for comment. The telephone number associated with Pendragon Properties has been disconnected, and a visit Thursday to the company’s Bloomington office on Roll Avenue found it locked and apparently unoccupied.
Jones also has faced legal action from authorities in Lawrence County.
In court documents, the city of Bedford wrote that some of the units at Southview Terrace, in southwest Bedford, had suffered such damage from water, termites and other pests that the city “condemned (them) for further use until completely remodeled.”
Documents described some of the 11 two-story buildings as “structurally unsafe” and one of the units as “completely uninhabitable and (having) wild animals living in them.”
The city filed the suit after Jones failed to fix problems a city worker identified in inspections, court documents show. The city alleged Jones has allowed the rental apartment buildings to fall into such disrepair that they are unfit for human habitation.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: After Bloomington crackdown, Jeff Jones faces AG probe
Reporting by Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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By Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
