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I am absolutley fed up with renting this house that I am in. We rented this house in March of this year (2009). Nice big 3 br, 2 ba, house with partial basement and bonus room. 750/mo. rent. Granted, it is a really old house so some problems are to be expected. When we viewed the house before renting, the repair men were still working on the house and we were told that painting, cleaning, and other repairs still needed to be done and would be done prior to our moving in. We signed the lease, moved in, and began noticing that nothing had been done from the time we viewed it other than some junk in the basement had been removed. No painting had been done and previously mentioned repairs had not been done either. All downstairs windows are painted shut and do not open. Two large windows upstairs have big gaps that do not seal the weather out. Only one window in this whole house has a screen on it, and it is painted shut as well.

We decided to not make a big deal out of any of it at first. Then we noticed a sump pump in the basement was pumping raw sewage into the front yard. Landlord took two months to fix this and told us that raw sewage in the yard was not a health hazard as long as we made our kids stay away from it (??? seriously???). Later, we find animal feces in almost every corner of a dirt shelf that runs around the entire basement. Landlord never has done anything about that, but we have removed as much of the feces as we can get to. There is still some feces in a couple of the far corners that we cannot reach to get it out.

When we moved in, landlord told us that he would repair the roof when the weather got warmer. Now that it is August, and the ceiling upstairs is about to fall in from retaining water, the landlord finally has someone working on the roof, but we think the ceiling upstairs that now needs to be replaced will be another fight.

The fireplace in the living room leaks and has a somewhat heavy board that is “supposed” to seal it off covering the fireplace. The board can easily be pulled down by my two year old, and has a tendency to fall down when it is storming with high winds outside. We recently found birds living in the fireplace the last time the board fell. Landlord has done nothing to fix the unsealed board or remove the birds.

To top everything off, I have severe allergies that I can normally control with meds but have now been really bothering me nonstop after about a month after moving in this house. It is getting to the point that my allergy meds are no longer working. I don’t know if it is the feces in the basement, the possible mold in the basement or in the ever sagging upstairs ceiling, or what is making me so sick in this house, but the landlord seems to think that he doesn’t have to do anything. Even told us once that he rented this house to us “as is”. I didn’t know that rental housing could be rented out “as is”.

We have no idea what to do. Everyone we try to call and get advice from says that our area (Putnam County) is not subject to the landlord tenant act. We’ve basically been told that a landlord in our county can rent a leaky cardboard box to a family and there is no laws against it. I even contacted the health department that transferred me to some environmental department and they told me that I basically have no rights and cannot get anything done unless I hire a lawyer and even then I would be wasting my money because of the lack of laws that protect renters. Is this true? Are there really no laws in some areas that protect renters from these kinds of living conditions? Are there really no housing codes that landlords have to maintain?

Any advice… please… Thanks in advance.

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It’s a long story.

Winter of 2007 a “friend” of my boyfriend needed a place to stay while she looked for a new apartment.  We cleared this with our landlord who said “hey man, the more people the easier to pay your bills” however we didn’t get it in writing because we were naive.  When our new roommate showed up she came with CATS! Something she hadn’t told us and so therefore we hadn’t told our landlord.  She swore she would find a home for them within a few days. We made her keep them in the bedroom she was using and they weren’t allowed into the rest of the house for any reason.  After a few weeks went by and she still had the cats we did inform our landlord about it.  He just told us to make sure they had a good litterbox so it wouldn’t soak into the carpet and then “if you don’t want them there I’ll tell her that since she isn’t on the lease agreement she has to get rid of them or leave.”  We said we would appreciate it very much- but then he never confronted her at all.  It actually took us a whole year (and two litters of kittens) to remove her from the apartment and the landlord refused to step in at all.  All the while saying “just give me the word and I’ll have her out for you.”

Anyways after she was finally gone, we stepped into what had been her bedroom and gagged.  It smelled unbelievably bad.  We shampooed and powdered and repeated so many times.  We used every online remedy we could find, but nothing would get the smell out of the carpet.  We asked our landlord how much it would cost to replace the carpet and he just said “I don’t know man, carpet is expensive and I put the best stuff on the market in your place.”  He then tried to say it would cost almost $1000 just for carpet in the one bedroom (9ftx11ft). Not counting installation.  This was in December.  We asked him again in January and he just told us again that we should try to clean it more, because carpet was too expensive.  At the end of January we found out I was pregnant. We NEEDED that second bedroom. We asked him again- assured him we would pay for it.  I even kept $800 out of my tax returns as an initial deposit.  He continued to shine us on.  We brought it up again in March and once again he just reminded us that it would be “VERY EXPENSIVE” but made no move to discuss when or if he was going to install new carpet.  In April we went to a business that said we could pick the carpet and install it for about $500.  We asked our landlord AGAIN about installing the carpet and he once again repeated himself.

So in May we paid an outside business to replace the carpet. Cost about $600 total and we purchased the best padding we could and tried to match the carpet up as close as possible.

Mid July our landlord FINALLY knocked on our door and had carpet samples.  We informed him that we had already had the carpet replaced, because he was taking so long, but that it was okay because we didn’t expect him to help us with the cost at all- since it was our fault it had gotten so bad.  He was very angry and said we had no right to make changes to the apartment without informing him.  Told us if we were anyone else he would have us evicted immediately.

Did I really make that big of a mistake?  It was obvious to me at the time that he was not motivated to help us at all and I was worried that he would continue to shine us on until after the baby was born (September) and my Dr had already told me that the room was not safe for an infant.  Since I was paying for the carpet regardless I don’t understand why he would be so angry? Especially since he wanted nearly 8 months before doing ANYTHING about it.

Anyhow since this we have obviously fallen in his favor- he badmouths us to his other tenants and has confronted me AT MY WORK about the carpet issue.  Also he has started inspecting our house more and he removed our bathroom window claiming it was causing mold, came over and sprayed poison around our yard without informing us.  The neighbor is the one who told us to keep my boyfriend’s 4 year old daughter in the house because the landlord had sprayed roundup while we were at work. When our plumbing backed up he had it routed and is trying to charge us the $60 even though it was all flushable materials. Then when our cooler stopped working the other day he YELLED at us that it was HIS DAY OFF and that maybe we really needed to take a look at our lease agreement. So we searched around for it and couldn’t find it.  My boyfriend called his ex wife (since the lease was signed under his name, but while they lived together), she found it and what do you know- the lease expired in 2006.

This has me worried because I don’t know what it means.  Obviously we need a new lease drawn up, but we’ve already been living in the apartment for 3 years without a lease… no protection whatsoever.

I’m scared. This is the first apartment I’ve ever lived in- until now I’ve always just paid my parents to stay in a studio they owned.  What rights do I have, if any?

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I am about 3 months into a 2 year lease and found bed bugs about a month and a half ago at the condo I’m renting. The owner claims that the bed bugs were not there before we came, but we did not have bed bugs before we moved in so I think its difficult if not impossible to prove if:a) We brought the bugs there b) The bugs were there alreadyc) The bugs arrived after we got thereSince I have a friend in the pest control industry I decided not to bother the land lord right away and just try to deal with the problem myself. Here is what we have personally done over the past month to get rid of the bed bugs:1) Sprayed the entire house 3 separate times. The cost of the chemicals at wholesale price was $70. Besides the cost spraying for bed bugs is time consuming and my wife developed an allergic reaction to the spray for which she needed to go to the doctor.2) Threw away our two year old mattress. It will probably cost $700-$900 to replace and we’ve been sleeping on an air mattress for the past month. We will continue to sleep on an uncomfortable air mattress until our lives are bed bug free.3) Laundered all our clothing and bedding twice. I estimate that this has cost us about $70.4) Sprayed bed bug foggers from Home Depot twice. Cost for foggers: $60.In summary we’ve spent a substantial amount of time and about $200 + the cost of a new mattress to deal with these pests on our own and they are still around. My two questions are:1) What legal rights do I have to request that my Landlord take care of the problem? Is it his responsibility or mine? I don’t plan on trying to charge him for the work/money I have already spent but it is obvious to me that this is a problem that needs the help of a professional pest control agent that specializes in bed bugs. 2) If my landlord does not or cannot rectify the bed bug problem am I entitled to break the lease without penalty?Thanks for any advice you might have. Paul

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We will have lived in our apartment just under two years come move out date. Our property management is charging us $60-$90 to paint the walls, $85+ to clean the carpets, and $14.50/hr for cleaning which they say takes 6-8hrs. I was under the impression that if you had resided in a propery for a certain time period things such as carpet and painting weren’t the tenants responsibility. Does anyone know of any legalities pertaing to this issue or have any advice on how to better research this.

Thanks so much!!

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i would like to know, if there was never a lease signed, can the landlords come back to us 6 weeks after we’ve moved out with bills for “damages” that they had to fix after we left?  we had 2 walk-throughs with the landlords 29yr old dtr, and both times we were told that things were fine, and they were.

do they have a legal right with no written lease or agreement of any kind?

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I moved into my first apartment with my girlfriend a few months ago here in Dayton, Ohio. Since we’ve moved in, we have had nothing but problems. Our dishwasher did not work and we had to hand wash everything for nearly 3 months until they finally got us a new one. Mold has grown on our pantry walls and has been cleaned out twice now. It was bad enough the second time to cause the wood trim to pop off the walls. The people that live above us are loud all the time. Every footstep they take can be heard, they constantly stomp around all the time, extremely loud bangs are heard everyday, the little kid can be heard screaming, and the adults can even be heard talking. Within the last month, the hot water heater seems to be going out too. We have asked about just moving into a different apartment somewhere within the same community but were told that we could not do that. I have talked to the boss of my community manager on the phone. She claimed the mold problem had been fixed by maintenance, but I don’t see how it could have been since all he did was simply wipe it off. Drywall was never cut out. She told me the noise was "part of apartment living". Basically, she told me that she was not going to do anything for me. I went to the office today to find out the cost of breaking our lease and it was just over $6000. At this point, we both just want to get out of this apartment and I want to know where we should go from here. Do we have a right to break the lease and move out? Should I be looking into getting a lawyer?

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We are a newly married couple and have been renting a condo in Reston, VA. We signed a 6 month lease and things were going well for the first 3 months.

Recently, we went for a week long vacation and came back to find our car towed. We had to pay $435 to get the car back. We had not received any notification and so we immediately called the condo management. They informed us that we were not on their records since our landlord never registered us with them. The landlords are obliged, by rules of the condo community, to fax the lease and provide our contact information. The condo management had actually sent notices a month in advance. However, in absence of any information on us, they had sent all notifications to our landlady, who conveniently forgot/ignored to tell us anything. The condo management advised us to take this up with the landlady.

When we called her, she immediately refused to take any liability for the towing costs. She later asked us to talk to her friend, who is a real estate agent, and has refused to get involved since then. The agent has not made any significant progress in resolving the matter either.

Since our lease is running out soon, we were forced to withhold the $435 from our rent check so they resolve this issue. We sent the remainder of the rent promptly in time and dropped the agent an email explaining why. Since then, she has just been nasty and intimidating. She has maintained that the landlady is not responsible for where we choose to park our car and has ignored everything we have had to say.

The situation has been extremely stressful, and we continue to get rude emails. My problem at this point is that the last rent check is due next month. They already have a month’s rent as security deposit with them. If I pay my rent next month, I am 100% sure that I am not getting my deposit back in time. Also, I plan to leave the country after the lease runs out, so if they cause issues, I will not be around to fight it.

As much as I do not want to refuse to pay rent, (and am worried about eviction), I am not sure if I have options other than not paying rent next month. I do not know what rights do I have as a renter, and how much harm they can do as landlords. Can someone please help?

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Please don’t EVER rent to Yaron Cohen or Amit Rondel!!! They rented my house and had 2 bounced checks in the first three months, then they had another person move in without written concent, then they got a puppy that peed and pooped all over the floor, then they smoked in the house, all of which were highly not permitted!!!  I had 15 complaints form neighbors and the homeowners association from everything from noise to trash.  Theses are the tenants from hell!  I finally kicked them out and they asked that I use their security deposit for the last months rent and they would do all the cleaning and be out by the 15th.  The lies they tell just roll off of their tongue, they will look you straight in the face and lie to you.  They called on 8/13/09 to see if we could do the walk through at 10:00 am on the 14th to see if the place was sufficient for move-out.  They said the cleaners were coming at 7:00am on the 14th and it should be ready by 10:00am.  They called at 9:15 am and said it wasn’t done yet and to see if we could move it to 1:00 pm…we did, when we got to the house there was no one there, the doors were unlocked and the house was a complete PIG PEN!!!  I cannot believe that people even live like this, so much dirty stinky trash that I don’t think that in the 5 years we lived there we ever accumilated that much trash…cigarettes EVERYWHERE, food in the microwave and on the stove…etc.  AGAIN, DON’T EVER RENT TO THESE PEOPLE, AND ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE I’M 99% SURE THEY ARE IN THIS COUNTRY ILLEGIALLY WHICH I HAVE REPORTED TO THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES BECAUSE THEY SEEM TO HAVE FAKE SOCIAL SECURITY CARDS AND FAKE WORK VISA OF WHICH IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT YOU DON’T NEED BOTH IF YOU ARE HERE LEGALLY

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We have resolved this situation.  The landlord is taking responsibility for not informing us of his change of address.  We will not be charged a late fee for the payment not showing up at his new address on time.

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Our landlord moved and did not inform us.  We sent our rent payment on the 31st (due the 1st with a late charge on the 6th day), to the address we were provided with.  He has always received the rent within 2 days.  He normally doesn’t cash the checks until at least the 5th and we don’t see that it has been cashed until the 8th to the 10th. We received a notice on the 6th that our rent was late and that we now owed a $100 late fee according to our lease.  Is there some statute that protects us from paying this late fee due to him not informing us of the move and his change of address?

Thanks.

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