Street and Sons Deceptive Practices, Slumlord Bartlett, Tennessee

WOW, thanks for the article. I had suspected as much that William Street had bribed them. 

I am totally devastated because I had to give up my beloved animals because of this guy. I am basically living at the hospital in my mother's room since being threatened and forced out on Friday. I boarded my dog at the vet's office and basically had to just walk away from him because I have no real place to live anymore. I am shattered because of this because I loved my dog!!! This decision I was forced to make was extremely difficult but I had to do what was best for my dog since my mother was rushed to the hospital. I really do wish my outcome had been different and I could have been able to keep my family together!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8kfV9kONw

http://www.10news.com/news/abc-news-i-team-examine-better-business-bureau-grading
error Group Gets 'A' Rating From Better Business Bureau?

(ABCNEWS.com)

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By JOSEPH RHEE and BRIAN ROSS (@brianross)
Nov. 12, 2010

The Better Business Bureau, one of the country's best known consumer watchdog groups, is being accused by business owners of running a "pay for play" scheme in which A plus ratings are awarded to those who pay membership fees, and F ratings used to punish those who don't.

To prove the point, a group of Los Angeles business owners paid $425 to the Better Business Bureau and were able to obtain an A minus grade for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle Eastern terror group.

"Right now, this rating system is really unworthy of consumer trust or confidence," said Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal in an interview to be broadcast as part of an ABC News investigation airing tonight on 20/20.

In an official demand letter sent to the national headquarters of the Better Business Bureau Thursday, Blumenthal called on the BBB to stop using its grading system, which he said was "potentially harmful and misleading" to consumers.

Click Here To Read Blumenthal's Letter

"The BBB accreditation and the BBB ratings systems is not about generating money," said BBB national president and CEO Steve Cox. He said the A minus grade for Hamas was given in error. "Plain and simple, we made a mistake," Cox told ABC News.

Does Better Business Bureau Sell Its Grades? Watch Video
Do BBB Members Get Better Ratings? Watch Video

Why Did Wolfgang Puck Get an F? Watch Video

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Errors seem to abound at the Better Business Bureau. As reported by an anonymous blogger the BBB also awarded an A minus rating to a non-existent sushi restaurant in Santa Ana, California and an A plus to a skinhead, neo-n**i web site called Stormfront.

Each listing cost $425.

"They ran the credit card and within 12 hours they were an approved, accredited member," said the anonymous blogger, who runs a site called bbbroundup.com.

"They're more interested in the money than their credibility," he said.

The BBB's Cox said the three listings were all mistakes made by sales people.

"That's an inaccurate statement that business people are able to buy A's," Cox said. "We have more than 500,000 non-accredited businesses who have A ratings," he added.

Better Business Bureau: Pay for Play?

Yet, as part of the ABC News investigation, an ABC News producer with a camera was present as two small business owners in Los Angeles were told by Better Business Bureau tele-marketers that their grades of C could be raised to A plus if they paid $395 membership fees.

Terri Hartman, the manager of a Los Angeles antique fixtures store, Liz's Antique Hardware, was told only a payment could change her grade, based on one old complaint that had already been resolved.

"So, if I don't pay, even though the complaint has been resolved, I still have a C rating?"

Hartman then read off her credit card number and the next business day the C grade was replaced with an A plus, and the one complaint was wiped off the record.

In a second case, Carmen Tellez, the owner of a company that provides clowns for parties was also told she had to pay to fix her C- grade, based on a two-year old complaint that she says had already been resolved.

The C minus became an A plus the very next day after she provided her credit card number for the $395 charge.

"If I'm paying for a grade, then how are the customers supposed to really trust the Better Business Bureau?" she asked.

My mother was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday and I had to move out on my own. I put everything into storage for right now, which took me two days. On Friday morning at 3:45, Mr Street came by the house and started shooting at my bedroom windows and then told the neighbour to tell me to get the f**k out of his house by Friday afternoon or he would call the sheriff. He had a lot of negative energy and it is rather a relief to be away from his influence.

We will be moving out on 3 April and leaving Memphis altogether. We came to an agreement with the lawyer that we owe William Street absolutely nothing. An added bonus was that William Street had to pay his own lawyer and court fees. 

I got a letter from the BBB which said they were closing their case. They sent me the lawyer's responses and it is amazing that they would believe the total fabrications that William Street and his lawyer came up with, but then again money talks and William Street paid the BBB to look favourably towards him and ignore us!!!  

On Friday we received several certified letters from William Street's lawyer, Gregory Krog. Here is my response to Greg Krog:

I just received several letters from you regarding William Street. You should be advised that it is HE who failed to keep his agreements, which resulted in personal injury to both myself and my mother. You really should be advised that I CAN and WILL contact your office by whatever means I see fit, even using fax or email, and it is not considered abusive since it is business correspondence, so please do not ever think that you can intimidate me by quoting laws at me because I am not impressed. William Street has come over to MY house in an obviously drunken state several times and attempted to intimidate and harass my elderly mother and myself. 

William Street is just angry because we took photos of HIS negligence and failure to repair the house, which, as previously stated, resulted in personal injury to both myself and my elderly mother. He is also still angry because we called both Code Enforcement and the Better Business Bureau because HE refused to come over and fix 1. the heater plug and 2. the toilet which was backing up into the bathtub. He also LIED about not hearing from me about this. The nurses and social workers from the hospital have done safety checks on the house and found several glaring issues that he consistently failed to address (examples being the shape of the floors which cause splinters, the threshold between the kitchen and dining room which have nails sticking up and causing injury to my elderly mother and the outer back door which cannot be opened and has no doorknob -- they said this one was a fire hazard) and advised us to with-hold the rent so that we could pay for the repairs to be done. In the last fax I sent him, I informed him that we would be deducting rent since it was obvious that we would have to pay for the repairs ourselves, therefore he forfeited all rent, past and present, until the repairs were completed. I also sent him photos.

Have you ever heard the expression about keeping one's own hands clean before going after someone else??? Are you aware of William Street's tax situation with his properties? He owes Shelby County at least $21,848.21 in taxes, which includes $322.91 in interest and penalties. He also owes the city of Memphis at least $2789.38 in taxes as well, an example of this being his property at 3507 Kruger, which he has not paid city taxes for several years and owes $1303.66.

Does he think himself above the law? He has told me before that he listened to no one. Are you also aware that one of his employees came into my house and stole some of my property? 

Kelli S. George
Janice L. Hastings


This morning (Tuesday, 5 March 2013) around 6:30 a process server came by to drop off papers from this lawyer giving us our court date. This is deliberate since William Street knows that my mother just got out of the hospital and is in very frail health. William Street has also been constantly driving by the house for no good reason and being excessively friendly with his tenants who live across the street from us.

24 February 2013

Attention William Street,

Due to my mother's illness, we have been having visits from home health and hospital nurses, physical therapists and social workers who have inspected the house and found safety issues which you have already been made aware of on numerous occasions yet have failed to address. The two most severe of the safety hazards are the threshold in the kitchen/dining room area, which has already caused an injury to the great toe on my mother's right foot, and the condition of the wood floors, from which I am constantly getting splinters in my feet. Since my mother is a diabetic, her toe injury has ulcerated into a condition which the nurses have referred to as "tunnelling" , which means thanks to your negligence in promptly addressing this repair issue, that my mother has a very high risk of losing part of, if not all of, her foot since she is unable to feel her feet due to neuropathy.

We have been advised to inform you that, since it has become obvious that we will be forced to engage an outside contractor to repair the aforementioned repair issues, that you have forfeited any rent, either past due or current, until such time as the repairs are addressed and completed.

There is also the matter of you arbitrarily altering our verbal agreement from not paying rent until the repairs are completed into not paying a deposit, which speaks volumes about your character and ethics regarding business agreements. It also speaks volumes about your honesty that you, and your employees, will promise to make necessary repairs and then fail to follow through with said repairs as if you believe that the tenants are not paying customers in the sense that those who patronise your contracting firm are. 

I have taken photos of the threshold as well as my mother's injury and will be quite happy to post them on Facebook and other websites.

Kelli S George

The BBB refuses to do much more than send him letters which he ignores. They have also restored his A+ rating because they believe the LIES he tells them. He also claims that the utilities were in his name for a couple of months and is demanding we pay him, along with the rent he claims we owe him, although he has failed to provide any REAL proof of this. He still refuses to do any repairs on the house yet he demands full rent. 

Today Steve Street brought by a paper which claimed that we owed $770 in "back rent" and stating that we have three days to move if we do not pay, which can be classed as "Retaliatory Eviction". The truth is that he accepted $300 in rent for January (stating we were square) and never collected December's rent at all. He continually refuses to honour the agreement to deduct the rent and is using intimidation and threats against us while demanding the full rent of $525 while failing to complete the repairs to the house, of which we gave him a full list of things needing to be done. One of the repairs which Mr Street has failed to complete is placing a strip along the border between the kitchen and dining room, which has a nail sticking up and has already caused injury. We also are unable to enjoy our backyard since he placed a door up there which is unable to be opened.

Here is the letter we have written to him in response to his notice:

28 January 2013

To the Attention of William Street,
Today your son brought a paper by the house which states that you claim the I owe $770.00. Be advised that you accepted a payment of $300 for January and said that we were squared for January. And you never came at all in December to get the rent for December 2012. 

It is rather petty and small of you to make an agreement and then not honour it, meaning the agreement between you and Kelli S. George which states that you would deduct the rent until you completed repairs on 2619 Oxford Ave. These repairs are still not completed almost three months later. 

It is also rather interesting that you come up with this notice, which you had Steve deliver, after your accreditation has been suspended by the Better Business Bureau of Memphis. If this is an "eviction notice", then this is a case of Retaliatory Eviction, which is against the law in Tennessee. 

You have been over here several times attempting to intimidate  us because we reported you to both Code Enforcement and the Better Business Bureau. This is only the latest in these attempts and a copy of this letter will be forwarded to the Better Business Bureau, which has already made several attempts to contact you as per the letter received 23 January 2013. 

Maybe you have forgotten the agreements which you made? This is why I am sending you this letter instead of calling you. You have failed to do the repairs as stated on the list which you have in your posession. One of the repairs which you have failed to complete is placing a strip along the border between the kitchen and dining room, which has a nail sticking up and has already caused injury. We also are unable to enjoy our backyard since you placed a door up there which is unable to be opened.

Today we got a letter from the BBB which was interesting. It seems as if Mr Street failed to respond to their letter concerning our complaint. They have recommended to the local BBB president that the company's accreditation be suspended and reviewed. I looked them up on the local BBB website and their company is listed as under review and has no grade, when previously it had a A+ rating. 

Mr Street has also come to the house several times and tried to intimidate us since we filed the report. He has also continued to fail to do the major repairs which were on the list we gave him. However, he did repair the toilet problem, which was a health hazard, after we filed the report but we still had to live in wretched conditions with our toilet backing up into our tub for over two weeks.