JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – What if there was a way you could always reach your landlord if you needed to?
That could be the case in Jacksonville thanks to a renewed push by a councilman who wants more accountability for the city’s landlords.
A Jacksonville councilman is reintroducing a bill that would establish a rental registry with information on who owns a property, code violations against them, and more.
The residents at the Arbor Oaks apartments on the Westside had issues reaching their landlord when their water was off for days. Councilman Jimmy Peluso wants to change that.
Naportia Jones, a resident, said it’s been a growing issue to get in touch with management, especially when things needed fixing. She said she’s tried calling more than 20 times with no response.
“If I’m about to rent from somebody, I can look them up, make sure they’re a good landlord,” Peluso said.
He is trying to build a rental registry, where there would be information on who owns a property and any code violations they have against them, as well as someone physically in an office in downtown Jacksonville who could reach out to a property owner or management.
“The rental registry office, that staffer can also be kind of a conduit, an ombudsman, if you will, to make sure that they can help people get resources for rental assistance,” Peluso said.
News4JAX reached out to the listed owner according to property deeds for Arbor Oaks, which is Jacksonville Rental Properties LLC and the registered agent of that LLC, Andrew Sallee, though he said he doesn’t own it. He was asked again on Thursday for proof of sale of that property, but News4JAX hasn’t gotten anything back.
Every day for a week, News4JAX knocked on the Arbor Oaks door and the neighboring property, where some said they have paid rent. It took exactly seven days before we met people in the office, but they did not have answers.
Video shows at least one maintenance worker who said they worked for Peoples Choice LLC, a company linked to that neighboring property, but the people in the office didn’t give any answers and the people living at Arbor Oaks said some of the things they worked on aren’t totally fixed.
Someone living at the property next door, linked to Peoples Choice, Virginian Arms, showed his struggles of being in a wheelchair, paralyzed and only having a piece of plywood to help him get into his apartment.
These units fall in Councilwoman Tyrona Clark-Murray’s district. News4JAX reached out to a cell phone number on Sept. 4, believed to have belonged to her, and did not receive a response. We called and emailed her aides back on Sept. 9.
On Wednesday, we were told that they would get her the message and that she was busy, and that she has a daytime job, but we have been reaching out and have gotten no response from Clark-Murray.
We stopped by the city council and Clark-Murray was not in her office.
Earlier this week, Councilman Rahman Johnson spoke about the issues we aired in our coverage, though not all of the people in these complexes are in his district.
Peluso was the second councilman, though not from this district, to speak on the issues with the apartments and anything related to rents.
“I want to show as much positivity to good landlords as we’re going after some folks just sitting on bad properties and not doing their work,” Peluso said.
Peluso filed similar legislation in April, but it was withdrawn a month later to be reworked. He says the new bill is being drafted now and intends to hold meetings to discuss it in the coming months.