- North Omaha couple says their rental home is plagued with problems.
- City inspectors found numerous violations, including electrical hazards and structural issues.
- The landlord says contractor is working on the property.
Exposed wiring, floors that are starting to cave in, and a detached porch... just a few things wrong with a rental home one couple says has become nearly unlivable.
"It's dangerous it's very dangerous," said Sarah Whits
Sarah White and her husband Douglas Blunt have lived in the property for 10 months, they say they've been experiencing issues since they moved in.
“This house probably should be torn down,” said Blunt.
They say after their landlord failed to fix the problems, they took the issues to the city, who sent out an inspector in September and found 15 violations including:
- No carbon monoxide alarms
- No smoke detectors
- The basement water heater was installed incorrectly and without a permit
- Electrical hazards
- Sinking sub floors in their living room
- Deteriorating structures
The initial notice stated the violations needed to be fixed by October 24.
“I feel like I'm being scammed and I'm essentially living in somebody's house that's not legally able to be rented,” said Blunt.
JKR LLC owns the home, which is owned by Jeffery Rothlisberger.
“We're addressing the violations. They're not that serious. The main thing was the, you know, the waterproofing and then of course we had to tear the porch off for that,” said Rothlisberger.
KMTV looked into Rothlisberger’s records and found in 2023, The Nebraska State Department of Banking and Finance served him a cease and desist for pitching reverse mortgages without a loan originators license.
Rothlisberger said he hired a contractor to work on the property. After looking over city documents KMTV found they didn't have the proper permits. White says the contractor left the yard and basement in disrepair.
“There's broken tools there’s broken glass,” said White
“Everybody that he's had come to this house has been making it worse than what it should be if you'd hire somebody right the first time,” said Blunt.
KMTV returned after the deadline to fix the issues had passed and found that exposed wiring, water damage and piles of debris containing rusted nails were still there. And there was no indication a smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector had been installed.
Rothlisberger said the city gave him another extension to fix the violations. However, KMTV is still waiting for the cities report from the inspection on October 24.
