Mark Jones rented me the apartment at 125 E 17th St in May of 2006. In December of 2007 I took a job in Connecticut. I contacted Mr. Jones to see what we could do. I only had 5 monts remaining on the lease. He stated I could pay three months to get out of the lease, and he would try to re-lease the apartment. I decided that I should just keep the apartment for the remainder of the lease, because it wasn't saving me much money otherwise. In May of 2008, I vacated the apartment. I cleaned before I left, moving the trash to the back of the building where there were trash receptacles. A few of the light bulbs had blown, and one of the mini blinds had a broken slat - but I did not see this as anything I should worry about. I left the keys in the drop box and contacted Mr. Jones to let him know that they were there and I was finished moving out. A few months later I received an invoice from William Suess, Mr. Jones attorney. The invoice listed Mini Blinds, 5 at $75 each, trash removal $800, carpet replacement $1400, 10 light bulbs at $25 each, and a few other various items. I responded in writting, to Mr. Suess, requesting receipts and photographic proof of these damages. Mr. Suess did not respond. Fast forward to August of 2009, Mr. Jones files an eviction claim against me. I have not lived in the mentioned apartment for over a year at this point. He claimed the damages to be a total of $3800 to the apartment. I did not receive a summons to appear, to my recollection, so I did not appear at court. A default judgment was awarded.
I have heard from a few people, after the fact, who have had the same experiences of being charged exorbitant amounts for repairs, most of which were to the condition of the property as it already was prior to the person moving in. I have also researched the Center Township Small Claims Court case list, and found that Mr. Jones had been doing this same thing to quite a lot of people. One judge dismissed most cases as "Dismissed without prejudice", whereas another judge usually found in favor of Mr. Jones.
I would highly advise against leasing an apartment from Copasetic Investments or Midwest Property Management (Midwest PMI), to anyone who asked. If you do rent, make sure that you document every square inch of the apartment, down to the $7 Wal-Mart mini blinds.