BEDFORD – Jeff Jones, the owner of Pendragon Properties, is now at the center of a legal battle with Bedford officials over the deplorable conditions of his rental properties.
The City of Bedford filed a lawsuit in Lawrence Circuit Court in September 2024, alleging that Jones has allowed units at his Southview Terrace complex, located on Ted Jones Drive, to deteriorate to such a severe extent that they are unfit for human habitation. The Southview Terrace complex, recently assessed at $4 million, comprises multiple buildings located on Ted Jones Drive.
In court documents, the city describes units as “teeming with mold, rank with rot, and riddled with roaches.” The City of Bedford alleged that some of the 11 two-story buildings have suffered such extensive damage from water, termites, and other pests that officials were forced to condemn several units “until completely remodeled”.
The allegations paint a grim picture of the living conditions:
- Buildings were described as “structurally unsafe”.
- Units were deemed “completely uninhabitable and (having) wild animals living in them”.
- Specific transgressions listed include rotted floor joists, broken water lines, collapsed ceilings, broken furnaces, and missing or broken smoke detectors.
- One unit featured a dangerous makeshift repair, as the lawsuit stated that “exposed wires on the water heater (need) a solid cover and not aluminum foil.”
The city initiated legal action after Jones allegedly failed to correct a list of problems identified by a city worker during an earlier inspection.
The lawsuit follows Jones’s recent settlement with the City of Bloomington in July 2025. In that agreement, to avoid accumulating fines and pending legal cases that could have totaled upwards of $1 million, Jones agreed to sell all his Bloomington properties within three years and is prohibited from operating any other rentals in the city for the next 20 years. Bloomington had cited Jones and Pendragon Properties for years of “egregious” and consistent code violations.
Regarding the Bedford case, a trial originally scheduled for October 2026 was canceled after Jones repeatedly requested delays.
According to a mediator’s report filed last month, Jones and the City of Bedford have reached an agreement. However, the contents of this settlement have not been made public and have not yet been filed with the court. Mediator William Beggs wrote that “the terms of the agreement are such that this case should remain pending”.
The only remaining action on the court docket is a status conference set for 9 a.m. on March 30, 2026. Neither City Attorney Greg Pittman nor Jones’s attorney, Eric Koch, will comment on pending litigation.
