I was living in an apartment, I guess it's southeast of Nashville, and things weren't terrible. Wasn't great but made it as best we could. Around the middle of March 2025 our living room window started leaking really bad. I tried for a month to get them to fix it and they would mark my requests as completed and not address it. My only option left after exhausting all others was to call Metro Codes. I was well aware at that point it could invite retaliatory behavior. Sure enough.

What followed was nine months of non-stop harassment and retaliation. A living nightmare.

They wouldn't address our maintenance and watched as our second bedroom deteriorated. No working clothes dryer for two months. Centipedes and other vermin falling through the vents. (There was a giant hole in our bedroom wall leading outside). They were cognizant of the decline and were content to let us live in dilapidated filth while their building and other tenants suffered. They abused the right of access to the point of a trespassing police report and therapy. Never once providing notice for entry.

They were content to let us live surrounded by toxic refuse spilling out in front of our windows, into the ground, a total disregard for the entire community just to make us suffer. Then while all that is going on, they sent a lease non-renewal with the additional restriction of not being able to go to the leasing office or contact them in any way for the duration of the lease.

We were demanded to address all communications to their lawyer for the remaining four months of the lease. Knowing that the lawyer never returns any communication, we were effectively silenced and used. They got their money from us and didn't do one thing in return.

I sued them. Not one lawyer or legal aid organization would help us. Either they represent the landlord, they won't take your case because the payoff won't match the required work or they need a thousand dollars just to schedule a consultation. I called every landlord/tenant firm here in Nashville (and beyond).

As a Pro Se Plaintiff in General Sessions Civil Court against a professionally represented (law practice in seven states) property management company (the largest in the US), I received a monetary judgement at trial. They didn't want to settle outside of Court, they wanted to inflict as much pain as possible and even tried stalling proceedings multiple times, well knowing I had no representation or Court experience.

TAP Tennessee was born right after that Court win.

The bottom line is that after going through everything, doing the research, fighting for the rights that tenants are supposed to have, I saw first hand how badly here in Nashville we are getting raked over. There is no system in place to help tenants when they need it. There might be, though I couldn't find one. The landlords and their lawyers know it and they exploit it. Procuring everything needed to represent yourself in Court is an undertaking just north of achievable. The success rate is abysmal in these situations.

My goal with all of this is to help someone who might be in the same kind of situation. I made it through the gauntlet and the time for tenant advocacy in Nashville is now. There is so much to do.

-Steve