In 2005, in Top of the Hill, the Kansan chose Serina Hearn as best landlord. I own over 25 fabulous houses and have never had a situation arise as presented in last weeks’ University Daily Kansan 19th July, 2006, in which two tenants of mine Joan Pinnell and Kelly Cook essentialy distorted a kernel of fact into accusations that they were living in a “shithole” and had a terrible landlord.

I have had tenants tell me that they have never had a problem with Rainbow Works and apologize for problems people may have caused.

The facts are these: Pinnel and Cooks’ lease began August 3rd, after 12:00 pm, as stated on their lease agreement. I have no idea why they say they turned up at 8:00 am but Cook did have a set of keys to the house and the house was open to them that day. My carpenter will testify to that as he was working on the front handrail at the house.

Cook did not sign a sublease contract with us. In fact, she never filled out an application form as was requested of her for her August 05/06 lease, and we did not know she was living there over the summer. While living there, she never called to complain to us about any problems with the house , though she might have complained to her workmates, and neither did the legetimate tenants.

She called for an inspection by the City on 27th July, three days before the legal tenants were to move out. The City did the inspection and gave 21 days to repair the problems that had not been called in to us. Brian Hermanez, Neighborhood Resources of the City of Lawrence, pointed out to Jack Weinstein, the University Daily Kansan reporter, that Serina Hearn had ALL problems corrected by the 1st of August, less than four days after inspection. He tried to explain that this was a very quick and professional response to an inspection especially as the City gives 21 days to correct problems. The truth is that we had already begun the process before Cook called the City. When Cook, Pinnel and the other roomates moved in on August third Rainbow Works had corrected ALL problems.

Another untruth that the University Daily Kansan reported was that ”she had to replace the front porch” at the city’s request, when all that was needed was that Rainbow Works strengthen a handrail and part of the NW corner of the porch.

What Pinnel and Cook never explained to the University Daily Kansan was that the legal tenants had turned off the heating in the winter of 05 which caused the water pipes to freeze and burst in 12 places, on three floors, and cost thousands to repair. Because of the severity of the water damage to ceilings we at Rainbow Works waited until the end of July 05 to go in and replace three plaster ceilings with sheet rock, completely repaint the downstairs in order to recitfy the cosmetic damage to the house.

New sheetrock ceilings involve a lot of plaster dust and we were waiting for the house to be empty so as not to inconvienence anyone living there. Serina Hearn gave the 04/05 tenants thousands of dollars off their liability for damages caused to the house.

There is a signed contract in which the 04/05 tenants come to this agreement. Hearn loses close to $2,000 and they lose their security deposit to cover the plumbing costs and some of the damage repair. Maybe this sounds too good to be true that a landlord can be kind but these are the facts. I have all the bills and documents to back this up. I never threatened Kelly Cook as she claims. I also would like to invite anyone interested to have a look at the house which Cook claims to be a ”shit hole”. Words fail to express my dismay at these slanderous statements made by Pinnel and Cook.

Regarding the electricity complaints: The 04/05 tenants never complained about getting slight shocks from the 3rd floor bathroom, and neither did Kelly Cook who was living there without my knowledge (I personally don’t do the accounting in my office and we frequently have checks sent in by family memebers with different names to cover tenants’ rent especially in the summer months). However once the problem was made known to us by the City we hired Quality Electric, a very reputable company in town who do all our electrical work, to come and solve the problem. This was done BEFORE Cook and Pinnell moved in and the City found everything satisfactory.

A different electrical problem occured after Pinnell and Cook moved in. My office (where there is a full time manager) was informed and we immediately sent out Quality Electric to solve the mysetery. It turned out that because of the water damage from 04/05 and having to dig through many walls to find the burst pipes something was causeing an unpredictable short.

The problem was solved within days. They had called in on Friday and by Monday the electricians were there. We have receipts of this to prove our promptness in this matter.

I also gave the University Daily Kansan reporter many phone numbers of current tenants to call and ask them what they think of me as a landlord but he never called. I was never told when he talked to me what Pinnel and Cook had said about me and my practices and therfore I did not have a chance to prove my side with documents before the article was published.

I will leave you with a comment I received from one of my tenants who is leaving in a few days.

”In case I don’t see you before I move to Chicago, it has been great being your tenant. Thank you for all the help and promptness in solving problems. Best wishes!”

Serena Hearn

Rainbow Works, LLC