Rather than face upwards of $1 million in legal dealings with the city of Bloomington, landlord Jeff Jones has agreed to sell all his properties in the city within the next three years.
A spokesperson with the city told WFIU/WTIU earlier this year that Jones owns more than 30 properties in Bloomington.
The city informed Jones by letter in April that it would not renew rental permits for the properties he operates in Bloomington. The permits expire every three to five years. The city cited years of rental code violations with Jones and his company, Pendragon Properties.
The city and Jones settled in July. In return for Jones’s agreement to sell and to not operate any other rentals in Bloomington for the next 20 years, the city waived accumulating fines for rental code violations and all its pending legal cases against him.
During mediation, Jones threatened a federal lawsuit against the city for interfering with the landlord-tenant relationship, which the settlement requires him to drop.
According to the agreement, Jones must sell the homes and apartments to a “disinterested third party.”
And according to the agreement, Jones must sell the Shamrock Pointe Apartments and a property on Roll Avenue within a year. These had some of the most egregious and consistent code violations, according to the city. Eight other properties in the agreement must be sold within two years, because of current code violations.
The City of Bedford has pending litigation against Jones filed in 2024, asking him to repair rental properties it designated as “unfit dwellings.”
WFIU/WTIU News reached out to Jeff Jones for comment but did not hear back in time for this story's publication.
To reach the reporter for this story email: bentbout@iu.edu
