The following is a true story (without malice) of my experiences dealing with Jay Flannagan (Jay Flanagan) and Alex Halasz, who own a building at 1529 1/2 South A in Elwood, Indiana.

Here are some pictures of the state of my apartment. After you look at them, you can see why I wanted to know why my rent (and my rent alone) was raised from $100/week to $150/week. The video following the pictures is of one of the building owners saying at this time I'm the only one who has had my rent raised and that he knows the condition of my apartment.

Both Jay Flannagan (Flanagan) and the building managers - Jay and Vicki Kelich - know of the damage in my apartment. (I went a few months with a leaky roof.) These pictures don't show how the radiators don't work in my apartment most of the time, but I did plug in a space heater (which almost shorted out the whole apartment - see photo above.)

Like I said, I'm not doing this with malice, but to let people know the state of my apartment and the treatment I'm receiving from the building owners and the building manager.

This is video of me asking one of the owners why I was the only one who had their rent raised and whether he knew the shape of my apartment.

This is video of me talking to the building managers at 1529 1/2 South A.

About a week after the last incident in the video above, Tom Doan, building commissioner for Elwood walked by the Elwood newsroom. The Computer Dude and I went out to talk with him. The building next door had called him because someone at 1529 1/2 South A threw a whole bunch of building materials from apartment #8 into the parking lot of an adjacent building - and let them sit there a week or so.

I told Mr. Doan that I'd walk around front with him, but that I was afraid if I was seen with him I would be retaliated against. He said it would be ok, and we walked around to the front of the building where Mr. Jay Kelich was sweeping the front sidewalk. I went inside back to my apartment.

A day or so later (about a week after being told I was one of the ones who was going to pay), I had a knock on my apartment door. Mr. Jay Kelich handed me a note (with a lot of it scribbled out) saying that due to property taxes and utilities, rent was being raised from $100/week to $150/week effective immediately.

I asked Mr. Jay Kelich whether I was the only one to have my rent raised and he said I wasn't, and that the tenant in number 7 might have to move out because she wouldn't be able to afford it either. We talked a little and I asked him to let the other tenants know I wanted to talk with them about the rent being raised when there is so much damage to the building from the roof the owners took their time fixing. (One of the roofing contractors told me the roof needed to be redone completely, but they only paid to have it 'patched up.'

Mr. Jay Kelich left the note with me (copy to be online later) and left. I started thinking about it and realized that I might be the only one who was having their rent raised. Then I remembered Jay Kelich saying I was going to pay. Was this connected? I didn't know.

The next day I made a few calls and found out I was the only one who had gotten the notice. What I didn't understand, and still don't, is that they've put new doors on one or two of the apartments (and started sanding down the building manager's apartment for hardwood floors), but my roof was still bare, metal still sticking out of my sockets, the walls still falling down, etc.

A day or so after receiving the notice, I happened on Jay Flannagan (Flanagan) in the hallway. Being an intrepid reporter, I grabbed my video camera and went out to ask him some questions. As you can see by the video above, his answer somewhat changes when he realizes he's being filmed.

Like I said, I'm not doing this out of malice, but to let the citizens of East Central Indiana know how this building is currently being run.

What would you do?

Technorati Tags: Alex Halasz Civic Journalism Elwood Elwood Indiana Jay Flanagan Jay Flannagan New Media Independent Online