Hello to all that read this - My husband and I along with our children moved into the Good News Church Townhomes last year. These were advertised as 3 bedrooms with a full finished basement. The rent seemed reasonable and the landlord - AKA Gordon Shipley, slumlord, was nice and appeared to be a decent person.
Not long after we moved in, we began having mulitple maintenance issues. We addressed these issues to Mr. Shipley numerous times by phone, email and in person. The biggest issue we had was our "finished basement" flooding every time it rained a little. To make things worse - Mr. Shipley was not willing to fix the issue. This happened to us 8 times in 8 months. It also happened to our neighbor next door. A single mother trying to raise 2 children on her own.
Mr. Shipley was however nice enogh to bring over a shop vac on his day off and let us spend days on our hands and knees cleaning what never should have been out problem to begin with. Mr. Shipley was and still is a horrible landlord.
During our horrible 8 months at Good News Church Townhomes, we experienced the following:
Never was given a stove or refrigerator that worked - we ended up having to use our own stove, (which Mr. Shipley accused me of stealing upon move out, saying it was his) and our 2nd fridge (1st one did not work at all) leaked water all over the inside and the floor.
Our bathroom had a mold infestation, and the walls were crumbling apart.
We had rodents living int he walls, and could hear them crawling around in the ceiling above us at night.
The basement flooded 8 times - 2 of those was with raw sewage, which actually came from the other units and backed up into our basement - we were left to clean that on our own - talk about sanitary. And if the basement flooded on a Friday - his day off - we had to wait until the next day to even get his lazy ass to bring us a shop vac so that we could do his job and pay him rent.
Mr. Shipley was too cheap to have more than 1 dumpster or have it emptied more than once a week - and after only a few days - it would be so full that there would be trash over flowing every where - attracting rodents and animals from the nearby fields and the wooded areas.
The roof was never put on the correct way - our celing leaked in mulitple places, was also never fixed. Several other units had their ceilings fall in on them - took Mr. Shipley a couple of months to correct that.
We had called code compliance several times along with other tenants - they said that they have been dealing with Mr Shipley for a long time and sugested that we just move out.
Our light in our kithched had an issue - was reported - never fixed - finally started on fire one day.
We were electrocuted by another light about the stove on the hood. Code compliance did make him fix that.
We had an infestation of flying ants that was never addressed -I am sure the new tenants are enjoying them as much as we did - wait til your baby eats one of them off the floor - yum!
Window don't lock - doors in units have no locks - only a bar to keep people out while you are home.
Burglary was an issue as well - and after all the reports, complaints and code compliance visits, Mr. Shipley chooses to collect rent and ignore all issues no matter how valid. I understand he even had the balls to raise the rent and tell new tenants that the issue of flooding has been resolved.
Apparently the flooding is still an issue. The new tenants of our unit were nice enough to renovate the basement with their own time and money only to have it flood AGAIN. The mold while we were there was making my husband and daughter sick, and it is also affecting the new tenants daughter's health as she has athsma - and he will not let them out of their lease. The husband is being deployed soon, and only the mother will be there to care for their child, and have to deal with the slumlord.
After 8 months we were released from our lease.
Mr Shipley even said - and we have emails to prove it - that we did not have to pay any rent until the matter of the flooded, molded basement was resolved. It was not, so we moved. We received back only half of our deposit. Mr. Shipley deceided that not only is he a preacher, but also God and judge, and that it was not right that we were able to live there for part of a month without paying rent - and so we should have to pay something - he decided that $200 was suffecient - and withheld it.
He also kept an additional amount for new blinds - which he has yet to replace - new tenants did not get new blinds - as well as closet doors that he himself removed and made us pay for. We are ibnt eh process of suing him in small claims to recoup our money as well as the max allowed by law. He should have been the ones paying us to live there - and apologizing for everything we had to endure, This place needs to be shut down and bulldozed.
So to all of you who are looking to move - BEWARE of GORDON SHIPLEY of GOOD NEWS CHURCH TOPEKA KANSAS. He loves to rent to folks with good jobs and families (especially single mothers with children) that he knows cannot afford to just get up and move. He tries to be intimidating to women. This is a church that should be shamed and emabrrassed. Allowing someone like Gordon Shipley to handle their affairs is an insult. This mas lies cheats and steals.
Pastors and preachers are supposed to be goodhearted people that work for the lord and look out for the common man - Gordon Shipley is the devil in disguise - blaming tenants for maintenance issues and stealing their money. He cares about no one but himself - and he too will have to answer to the lord someday - and be help accountable - until then - we will leave it up to a judge to do that job.
I would love the opportunity to tell everyone at this church all about their preacher - perhaps I will schedule it soon!
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