Rental Realty

Avoid at all costs. In November 2014, I rented a small home on University in the Heights. I moved here from Southern California for work, and I was pleasantly surprised that during negotiations, Jordan Haas, the owner, offered me a 3 business day right of rescission on the lease. This should have been a huge red flag.
When I signed the lease, his assistant, Chad had it back dated to November 1 (this was the 7^th). I was asked to pay rent for the entire month — the rent was not pro-​rated. I was exhausted from driving from San Diego, so I went to the house to unpack.
The house was absolutely filthy. There is no other way to put this. There was black mold and what appeared to be pancake syrup crusted and caked throughout the refrigerator. The entire house was disgusting — there were rodent droppings and roaches throughout the house. I had to go to Target and spend upwards of $ 300 on cleaning supplies, roach motels and rodent traps my first day. The dishwasher didn’t work. The previous tenants left broken glass in the fridge, and I cut my hand on it. The toilets were clogged. There was hair and filth in the tub. Many of the fixtures were without bulbs — when I move into a unit, it is an expectation that it will be clean and «move in ready.» The back yard had several broken and discarded liquor bottles that I assume were from the previous tenant. There were holes in the walls, a ceiling fan hung so poorly that it hit a door if the door was open, and a gap between the wall and a storage room that allowed me to see to the outside. The cabinets in the kitchen were missing their glass fronts.
The house had an upstairs unit attached by way of outside stairs. When I went up to investigate it, the door half fell off — the wood was rotten. Upstairs was disgusting as well. It had obviously never been cleaned (or even cleaned out) since the last tenants left. Among the things I found up there was a jar of cherry moonshine and bags of trash and refuse.
The first night there, I heard the scratching — I hoped it was just exhaustion and stress, but the dog and cat heard it, too. The next evening, a Saturday, I saw the culprit — a mouse. I had hoped against hope that the rodent droppings I had cleaned up were from a rat or mouse infestation in the past.. .nope.
Needless to say, I exercised my 3 day right of rescission. The agreement had been that if I were to exercise this right, I would waive my security deposit. Jordan instead held my entire month’s rent, my pet deposit (separate from the security deposit) and a move in fee. I actually left the unit cleaner than it was when I moved in.. .not that this was hard. Anything was an improvement over black mold.
After several unsuccessful attempts to reach out to Jordan and give him the chance to do the right (and legal) thing, I filed suit in Pulaski County District Court. I won a judgment against Jordan and Rental Realty in the amount of $ 1,698.00 on December 4, 2015. I have yet to hear from Jordan, so as of tomorrow, I am giving him and Rental Realty a 30 day courtesy window before I explore any and all legal remedies to collect this judgment (and of course, they will be responsible for these costs).
I’ve taken the liberty of including several photos of the house, as well as the default judgment.