Code violations follow Arkansas landlord; records reveal history of shoddy properties, quick evictions

Theodore Thompson sits Friday in the empty North Little Rock apartment he moved into recently. Thompson is caught in a series of legal and emotional battles with his former landlord, Imran Bohra, who Thompson says seized his belongings in an eviction dispute. “It’s hard for me to understand how I’m not the first, and if he’s not stopped, I definitely won’t be the last,” Thompson said. [Photo: Thomas Metthe]

Theodore Thompson’s personal belongings are gone. His dogs, taken. His sense of security, wavering.

The trouble started when Thompson, 53, moved into a home on Parker Street in North Little Rock at the end of July. The four-bedroom, 1,527-square-foot house had a backyard, where his two dogs, Roscoe and Zeus, could run.

Before he moved in, Thompson looked through the house quickly and alone while his future landlord, Imran Bohra, waited with the car running.

Over the next several weeks, Thompson started noticing the problems with the house — the stove caught fire the first time he used it, there was a hole under the kitchen sink where a possum had taken residence, and the bathtub wasn’t properly sealed.

A large Arkansas property owner regularly skirts building codes and has evicted dozens of tenants who have complained about poor conditions in their homes, Ginny Monk has uncovered for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.