Greg Libertini, Robert White as Rte 5 Communications, LLC    |    Glen Rock    ,    New Jersey 07452    Landlord Complaint 23-1594

I have been a tenant at this address for five years and one month. On January 23, 2013, there was a fire in my oven. This came as a result of not having heat for the second time in a month. It was extremely cold in the apartment and an effort to generate more heat, I turned on the oven, but did not realize there was something in it. The smoke detectors did not work that night although I had changed their batteries when the utility company was here the last time. The reason I had done that was the man advised me that gas was coming into the house and tripping the switch to turn off the furnace. I did advise the landlords of that when the utility person was here, however I did not receive a reply. On the night of the 23rd, when I did realize something was burning, I immediately went to get the fire extinguisher. There was nothing in the extinguisher, and the last time it had been inspected was December 25, 1972. I immediately contacted 911 who came out and were unable to extinguish the fire with only a fire extinguisher as it was much hotter by the time they got here. The had to bring in hoses. As a result, it took my landlords two weeks to put another stove in,, they have not done a fire restoration and and it still smells, and they have increased my rent to $1750 from $1600 in retaliation, I assume for the fire, my not paying for the stove (I was advised by the tow this would be put through their homeowner's insurance but later found out they never filed a claim). They currently have contractors working on the outside of the house because we had a tree fall during hurricane Sandy at the end of October. Those contractors are utilizing my power for their power tools, the landlords have entered my apartment to reset the breaker after they tripped it, and have left my doors unlocked and once even wide open and it was like that for at least two days, and the lights were also left on. It should also be noted, they were quick to point out in their letter increasing the rent that there had been no rent increases in five years. To me, that is indicative that it was done in retaliation for the accidental fire. They also asked me to leave as of March 1. They did not want to get involved in the eviction process nor a legal battle over this. I have hired an attorney, however, he appears to be too busy to adequately deal with these issues. I did pay my rent, however, I advise them that I would not be leaving on March 1 as they had not followed legal procedures.