James Jennings is identified as a real estate educational instructor not a property manager- Under Ohio law he is not allowed to be engaging in Property Management services unless he is the owner of the property, or is a W2 employee of an entity that owns the real estate. These are the only two exemptions from licensure when it comes to property management.
Yet James Jennings and or his company, 4am Properties LLC (aka 4am Property Management) is engaging in property management for real estate neither he nor the company owns. In other words he is performing "property management services", illegally.
This alone is bad enough. However he has also performed his duties (which he is not legally allowed to be performing) badly and even criminally. Specifically, he is holding funds that belong to me in the approximate amount of $22,000 and refusing to turn them over to me. I have made demand directly from him, through counsel, and by e-mail, for the return of these funds. He has refused to turn them over.
I am asking the Division of Real Estate to immediately and fully investigate James Jennings, 4am Property Management, and 4am Properties LLC, Ohio Secretary of State Entity Number 4222797 immediately, to make them return my money, and to punish them according to law.
I was first made aware of a problem three or four weeks after the renovations of my property in Cleveland had already begun. The contractor, who we will call Tony, that 4 am Properties had hired to handle the renovations of my property called me to inform me that James Jennings the self-proclaimed owner of 4 am properties and my project/property manager was not giving them enough capital to buy materials and pay their workers, thus causing the project to be delayed.
I immediately emailed Mr. Jennings requesting a formal update on the project including an up-to-date accounting of what he had spent of the $30,650 I had sent him. James replied saying I would have the update within a few days. Unfortunately, I didn't receive the update until the following week and it only consisted of several pictures taken of the on-going work at my property. There was no accounting of money spent as I had requested and no written explanation as to what was going on with my project thus far.
Not only that, judging from the pictures James had sent me it was clear very little progress had occurred in the time that had passed. I emailed James again stating my concerns about the lack of progress on the project and asked that he arrange a conference call between the three parties involved, James Jennings, myself, and the contractor Tony. James obliged and the call took place the following week on Aug 23, 2022 at 2pm.
During the conference call I was introduced to another man named Frank who was Tony's business partner. I found this a bit strange because Tony had been my point of contact during the time this problem had arisen but now was not on the call I requested to get to the bottom of what was going on. Up until this point Frank and I had never met or spoken to each other because during my last trip to Cleveland to check on my project Frank's mother was in the hospital and would not be available until after I left Cleveland. Nonetheless, we proceeded with the conference call. Immediately James informs me that Frank had a death in his family and this is why the project had been delayed thus far.
Later on, that same day Tony called me to discuss what was said during the conference call. This is when I was informed that the person who I had been introduced to by James Jennings as Tony's business partner Frank was in fact an imposter posing as Frank.
The very next day Tony called me to let me know that James was attempting to replace them with another contractor without me knowing. This is when I took action by having the locks on my property changed so James was not able to gain access to my property any longer and I then contacted my lawyer to terminate the contract with 4 am properties and demand a refund of my money. read more
