This complaint is designed to be an ongoing "blog" of sorts. Several former tenants of George Asberry (and his partner, Vicki Hardin) have decided to get together and document our individual cases with this long running corrupt Jacksonville landlord. If you are considering renting a property from these individuals, you might want to look over this complaint very carefully. Among other things, this landlord has been well known for:
- Renting out properties with visible and/or hidden damage or severe problems.
- In almost any case we know, this landlord refuses to return security deposits. They will then re-rent their properties to other victims and manage to collect "double rent" for those months.
- George (and Vicki) have been to court with former tenants on NUMEROUS occasions. They will stoop to any level to rip off former tenants, including perjuring themselves in court. They will also bring in their cronies as surprise false witnesses to testify against any tenant's case.
- George (Vicki?) have been known to break in to tenants properties and violate their privacy. At this time, we don't know if they have actually stolen anything from said tenants properties... But they have been known to rifle through former tenants belongings, and even take pictures.
- George and Vicki have been known to harass current and former tenants. This has included harassing calls to the tenant's place of work, face to face harassment, following moving caravans, and other general mayhem.
Following is a recent case from a former tenant of George Asberry. There will be one to two immediate updates to this usacomplaints.com for current and past former tenants. As far as we can tell, this landlord has been ripping off tenants in Jacksonville for nearly a decade.
Xxxx
921 Talbot, Jacksonville FL 32205
On August 1st 2007 I rented an apartment from a Mr. George Asberry the apartment was on 921 Talbot avenue jax fl 32205. The apartment was equipped with two small window units to cool the entire 900 square foot apartment, as I had never had window units before I asked Mr. Asberry if the window units would adequately cool the place down, he assured me they would, and that he has never had any complaints from previous tenants. So I went ahead and paid a total of $1100.00 for first months rent and security deposit.
The first night I slept there which was august 1st I found it very difficult to sleep because of the intense heat, which the window units never did anything to alleviate. The next day I brought home a digital thermometer I purchased from home depot, I let the window units run from about 2pm in the afternoon until about 7pm and temperatures in the apartment still read in excess of 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
I contacted Mr. Asberry and he told me he would do nothing to solve the problem. At that point I purchased my own window units for 500 dollars at home depot and installed them myself, that very next day I received a warning letter stating that I had "violated the terms of my lease by altering the property without the owners consent". At which point I reinstalled the original window units, I then contacted Mr. Asberry again and told him I had to leave because I couldn't handle the heat, he then agreed to release me from my lease and refund my deposit and half of Augusts rent within a weeks time.
So on august 17th I vacated the apartment, under the impression that I would be receiving most of money back, so I was quite motivated to leave the place in the same condition I had moved into it. A week and a half later I received a letter from Mr. Asberry stating that I had broken my one year lease agreement, and that in the 2 weeks I was living there I had broken the heater scuffed the hardwood floors and left the place unclean and smelly, and I would not be receiving any of my deposit back.
If anything can be done, even if it's just to prevent this man from continuing to do this to people, I would certainly like to see it happen. Both window units in the apartment are potential fire and health hazards, although both units have covers on them to hide the extensive corrosion and rust that is on the coils, the coils are so corroded that they fall apart when touched, when the units are turned on pieces of the coils flake off and get blown into the apartment.
I was also to find out later that Mr. Asberry entered my apartment while I was not at home and took pictures, I guess in hopes of finding something to use against me in the future, at no point did he notify me that he would be entering the apartment and he had no good reason to. Something should be done about this man, I'm hoping that by posting this here, others who have been treated poorly by George will step forward.
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