After hearing the parties’ testimony, the trial justice ruled in favor of defendant, finding that plaintiff had failed to meet his burden of proof with respect to his rights of possession and back rent. The court found that plaintiff provided no deed or record proving that the property was in *101his name. Further, except for a “self-serving” document that the trial justice found to be an attempt to backdate, plaintiff did not provide sufficient records or receipts of payments that had been made, or not made, by defendant. The trial justice found that defendant was a credible witness, but that the credibility of plaintiff was lacking. The trial justice accepted the testimony of defendant that she often paid the rent in cash to plaintiffs nephew, and therefore, based on an agency relationship between plaintiff and his nephew, defendant had met her obligation to pay her rent and was not in arrears for the months in question. The court then found that plaintiffs attempt to evict defendant was an illegal retaliatory eviction in response to defendant’s complaints to the Division of Code Enforcement and that remedying a code violation such as the pest infestation was plaintiffs responsibility, but a professional, not the plaintiff himself, should perform it.9 Based on these findings, the trial justice entered judgment, denying and dismissing plaintiffs complaint. The plaintiff filed a timely notice of appeal to this Court.