RPA Tenant Rights Blog » Rent Horror Stories

Can My Landlord Do This?

Tamara — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 23:18:51 +0000

So I rent from a landlady who has a 20+ yr old delinquent daughter. The landlady cannot (or does not) want to deal with her daughter’s problems so the landlady moved her daughter right next to me and my fiance in our complex. This daughter siphons electricity and cable from the other tenants and from the building itself; she smokes so much inside the apartment that the smell creeps into our apartment either through vents or through the attic and makes our entire apartment smell like an ashtray; she feeds, coddles and lets stray cats into her apartment but refuses to take any responsibility for them when they become troublesome; she is constantly spilling trash that is left out in her front hallway and due to the wind tunnel we have through our complex, the trash ends up in front of our door; she wakes us up at all hours of the night because she has drunken fights with the random men she brings home; and just this morning, my fiance and I were woken up by the sound of a dog barking and loud yelling, we go outside to see what was going on and there were cops swarming the complex and a K-9 unit forcefully removing one of the random guys she brought home! This was scary as he**! Our landlady knows that these things happen either because I tell her or they have happened before. So the landlady does nothing to improve the situation. She even bad mouths her daughter to the tenants, shaking her head and rolling her eyes at us because she’s heard it all before! Now my situation is even WORSE because the daughter cracked a vertibre because she was chasing 1 of the stray cats up on out roof. Well now that her back is hurt, our landlady has decided to become Mother of the Year and yelled at me for coming to her with a problem regarding her daughter! I don’t know what to do anymore and we can’t afford to move right now

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Renter

Tom — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 17:12:54 +0000

I am aware of the Philadelphia Lead Paint Regulation

[named Lead Disclosure and Certification act] states that a Landlord can NOT evict a tenant, if they are not in compliance with the regulation [IE Providing the Tenant with children 6 and under, with a "Lead Safe" or "Lead Free" certificate.

LANDLORD CAN NOT CHARGE RENT OR EVICT IF HE DID NOT FOLLOW THE LEAD PAINT REGULATION !!!

Fellow tenants, Wake Up. This is our chance at getting the safety rights for ourselves.

The cheap landlords who do follow and provide us with the official Lead Safe Certificate, certify the safety THEMSELVES !

How can we trust them to ensure Lead Paint Safety ?

can the Fox watch the henhouse ?

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Found 1 bed bug coming from hole in floor

anonymous — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 01:35:15 +0000

2 days ago I saw my cat playing with something on the living room floor by a whole next to the heater, I went over to look and it was a bed bug. I killed it and taped if to a paper, and documented the time and day and where it was found. I live in an apartment complex, and im 99% sure, it came from my neighbor below. I saw him buy a pick up truck full of used furniture. I also went in his apartment once and saw his nasty mattress on the floor. He plays loud music at 4am, chain smokes cigarettes and marajuana and the smell gets in my apartment. I have 2 toddlers and my husband gets up at 4am to go work hard to pay rent, while the uncaring man below lives for free. I have Never brought in used furniture or ever have guests over, im extremely clean, I literally vacuum 4 times a day. The rental company came over and inspected and said I have no signs of bed bugs, but they will spray anyways. Im so confused and scared rite now. Im desperate for advice, im an overly concerned mom who wants to protect my children. I haven’t been sleeping, because im constantly monitoring this apartment, im going crazy. I doesn’t make sense to treat my apartment, if their not coming from me!! They said they will check the mans apartment downstairs, but I haven’t seen them come yet. Should I hire my own exterminator to examine my apartment and document, im not the problem, because theirs no signs besides the one I found? (To cover my but) in case the landlord tries to blame it on me? Should I file a complaint? Should I get a lawyer and try to terminate my lease, so I can move(as long as were certain no more bugs got in here)? What should I do? The rental company exterminator is coming to spray my apartment Tuesday, which again(I think)he will just be wasting spray.

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Can my Landlord do this???

Frustrated in Kansas — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 07:24:27 +0000

My husband and I rented a room in an older couples home last October (2013). He was 67 and still working 30+ hours a week and she is 60 and hasn ‘t worked in several years do to health issues stemming from fybromyalgia and a few other things. Being a former nurse and fellow fibromyalgia sufferer, I thought it would be nice to live with someone who understood what I went through on a daily basis and it’s fufilling to me to help people who need encouragement. She had been basically bedridden for 2 years or more after a fall that broke a bone around her hip, but she did not need a hip replacement. The agreement was my hjusband or I would cook 4 nights a week (usually Monday – Thursday), split the grocery bill,pay 375.00 in rent, and I would do about an hours worth of housework (dust the livingroom, vacuum ect.) and we would all take a turn cleaning the bathroom. Unfortunately, that’s not how it worked out.

We met "P" when she came to pick us up for an evening over at their home. On the way back we stopped at the gas station to buy cigarettes and a soda. She had her hand out from the beginning asking us to buy both for her. My husband, being a nice guy, paid for her drink and Marlboro cigarettes. (Red flag #1) Pulling into her drive she felt "shaky" and asked me to help her get seated out on the back deck and please make her a peanut butter sandwich. I noticed as I searched through the unfamiliar kitchen, that they had very little food…peanut butter and bread was about all they had. (Red flag #2)

"P", her husband, soon came home from work and had little to add to the converstation. He’s a quite man. He’d have to be as she fills up the silence with questions that go past the normal boundries of decency. I remember being extremely hungry as I had not eaten all day and someone suggested ordering pizza,so that’s what we did, and you guessed it…we paid for that as well. (Red flag #3) After all the pizza was eaten I was definately ready to go home and go to bed for tomorrow was moving day, BUT she didn’t want us to leave. She asked us if we didn’t want to just spend the night. We declined and her husband drove us home.

As we were falling asleep, my husband said, "She is going to nickel and dime us to death." I wish I would have listened to my husband!

Next time: I take a trip down the stairs, backwards and I catch my landlady snooping through my pills while I’m taking a nap.

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Neighbors from Hell

DeWayne — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 20:32:41 +0000

I have neighbors that stay on top of me in my apartment comples and they fight, slam things on the floor, stomp continuously and have kids running through the apartment or it just might be them running. After the first time I complained it got worse and worse and finally after several complaints it quited down for 3 months only. Now the same thing is happening. It’s time for me to sign a new lease and I haven’t found another place and will be forced to sign another lease for another year. I’m going to talked to management one more time and if that dosen’t work, what can I do?

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Burden of proof? I demand NO CAUSE explanation

Knucklehead — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 06:32:46 +0000

Hello there,

Frustrated tenant here. I’m halfway through a 60-day No Cause termination of month-to-month agreement.

The case against me has been summarized as:

"Defacement of property" which was as simple as having painted a tasteful mural on the door to the unit. (This is at a housing community designated and advertised to attract "creatives" and "artists") A notice was issued threatening eviction unless the door were repainted white before deadline 12/25/13. The door was repainted in time.

So imagine my surprise when issued 60 day No Cause move out notice on January 2, 2014.

Property manager claims to have no control in this event, acting on directions of her superiors. She says the office has received a complaint by another tenant regarding my personality or behavior on a certain date and time, but claims she was told by her superiors that the details of involving that complaint are "NOT PERTINENT" to her knowledge, and has been unwilling to furnish anything related to the matter.

I wrote to the management a well-constructed motion for dismissal in my best legalese. It has been a week without response. The last report from the office manager is that the decision was now down to the ACCOUNTANT, because the owner’s SON (aka decision maker) was out of town.

I am far from the first tenant who has faced impasse with this agency.

They promote this place as a live/work space for creative artists, and after 2 years of no complaints I am suddenly told that I cannot practice my drums or electric guitar. They have bullied and harassed more tenants than I can count or could even know about. They have adopted new, extreme policies of throwing EVERYTHING in the trash left unattended in communal spaces, even personal property of residents, like a giant 300 pound organ that made its’ way INTO the dumpster within two hours of its’ temporarily necessary "mis-placement"…for sample example!

Does it sound like we have any hope of defending ourselves?

Can management be required to share the details of complaints against me?

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Landlord will not refund full security deposit

Marie — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:49:22 +0000

My boyfriend and I moved out of our previous home on 9/30/11 and we cleaned it according to the list we were provided by the former landlord. I put well over 20 hours of cleaning into the home so that we could receive our full deposit of $995. Well, after the 31 days of waiting for the refund, we only received $600 back and of course we were angry because of how much of our time we put into cleaning it so that we could receive the full deposit. On the move-out inspection list they gave us, it only stated that we have been charged for cleaning above normal wear/tear of $150 and damages/repairs above normal wear/tear of another $150. We know that this is incorrect for one because of all the time we put into cleaning the unit and secondly, we also took video of the entire place inside/outside to prove that we did infact clean the whole unit and that there were no damages we caused. So we called an attorney who said that they were required to send us an "accounting" of why they kept some of the deposit (which they did not until after we had the attorney send a letter) otherwise they should have given us the full deposit back. So we’re at a month and a half after we have moved out and we received a letter back from the former landlord stating what the charges are for and that they are still not going to refund what we feel are owed (which is $300). Upon reading the move-out inspection they finally provided, it appears that we have been charged to replace a door and door frame for the upstairs bathroom due to a hole that is 2"X2" (according to the landlord) of which we did not damage. We have proof of this as well. We have the move-in inspection that clearly states there is a hole in the upstairs bathroom, and we were also charged to have some lightbulbs replaced and as far as the cleaning goes, they have stated that it is for "light cleaning". So my questions are: should we take them to court for $300? According to Oregon law, we can sue for twice the amount and court fees. Second question is, are they allowed to charge us for damage that was caused by the previous tenant before us? As far as the cleaning goes, they said we were charged for "light cleaning", how is that considered above normal wear/tear?

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my landlord does not repair

Kandi Perkins — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 11:19:18 +0000

I have been renting my house since November 2013, about 3 months. In that three months I have had to replace both toilets, both bathroom sinks and replace the plumbing in the basement to keep it from flooding. After we got the water to stop flowing in the basement we discovered what appears to be black mold. I have also had to replace parts in the furnace, which currently and for the last 3 weeks still does not work properly. We have to keep open canisters of oil beside the furnace to deliver the oil. My husband rigged it up that way after we ran out of funds staying in a hotel after the first cold snap. We all have taken turns being very ill since roughly 2 weeks after we moved in. No matter how much I bleach and spray insecticide i still have flies in the house, even when its 1 degree outside. Where is my landlord in all of this, you ask? He lives behind me. His back yard connects to mine. He claims that all the problems with this house are due to previous tenants and he just needs the right ones to fix it up. After I have spent over $2,000 on repairs and lost over $5,000 in missed work due to flooding,breakdowns, and illness he is wiling to knock $100 of each month for 6 months for us to fix it up and make it "our own." Move, people say. We just sank everything we had into moving here and repairing it so we could use the bathroom and do laundry. Put next months rent in escrow people say. There won’t be any rent next month. We are small business owners with children and we are tapped out. So all we can do now is wait for an eviction and take or receipts to court and thats if we don’t freeze to death or die of some mold borne illness first. We are in Virginia. We are deperately looking for help. The scarriest part of this is that this man owns several other rental homes and they are just like mine.

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Water leak and angry landlord

Jimmy — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 00:03:09 +0000

I have had a water leak in my apartment. I live in eastlake ohio and i have just wicklife ohio and i have had some of my drywall come down in the bathroom. I have showed this to the landlord and i have just been asked to leave the unit i am in unless i can pay them 5,000 dollars they need to make the repairs. They said that i should not of have alowed it to get this bad. But how was i suposed to know that the floorboards upstairs were rotted out? The LL has threatend to take me to court if i do not pay. And will be evicted if i do not pay for it. What should i do? There is dry rot on the floorboards and i know i did not cause it.

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Can my landlord do this?

brakis84 — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 05:32:16 +0000

I moved into Tivoli Apartment Complex in September of 2011. Upon moving in I was under the impression that I was going to be renting apartment 1408. The day I was supposed to be moving my things into the apartment I was told that I would no longer be moving into apartment 1408 due to unsafe living conditions and they would be leasing another apartment out to me which happened to be apartment 1102.

As I was moving my things into the apartment I was immediatly accused by my neighbor who asked if I stole her grill, she then procedded to ask why we were making so much noise. To this day, she will knock on my door every time a cop enters the complex, when the grass is growing, and when the wind is blowing. These apartments are all around 500 SQ FT. I know for a fact she has three dogs, and four cats living in her apartment with her. Which is sad, considering the woman can hardly manage to get herself around. My boyfriend who visits has mentioned that has witnessed more than three dogs in her apartment. I believe part of our EXTREME roach problem is due to her apartment.

I was told that upon moving into the apartment, I was going to be recieving a new fridge. I never recieved the new fridge, and have asked about it on numberous occasions. The response is "we will go ahead and put a work order in for it."

The day I moved in, I noticed the apartment had a bit of a roach problem.No big deal. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to see the actual apartment until signing the lease, so I was not aware of this issue before moving in. I bought roach traps the next day from Walmart and those seemed to work for maybe a few days, then the problem got worse. I moved my fridge to be able to put a roach trap behind it and literally about 40 bugs came from behind the fridges frame. Some dead, mostly alive, but a lot of bug poop. I called the office again to ask about th fridge, and was told it would be in the following friday. I immediatly took everything out of the fridge and had to throw it out. I checked the cabinets which contained dry food, and already they were infested with bugs. Roaches, beetles. There’s about four different type of bugs living in my apartment at this very moment. I cannot leave food in the apartment, which is a big inconvience considering it is very expensive to have to eat out three times a day.

The panel behind the shower is also infested with bugs. Dead, alive, and again a lot of roach poo. Everytime I need to take a shower, I have to scrub the bathtub, and wash ten to fiften roaches and various bugs down the drain. It is impossible to take a bath in the apartment, due to the amount of poop that will fall from underneath the panel when the water hits it.

All of my things, are now infested with bugs. My dresser will have to go to the dumpster when I move, my couch will have to go to the dumpster when I move, along with any other furniture and all of my other electronics. Including my laptop and television which is now infested with bugs.

I think the biggest victim may be my poor dog, who now has to live with my mother due to the fact that I cannot keep dog food in the apartment with out it as well becoming infested with bugs. Her dog bed has become infested with bugs numerous times. MY BED is infested with bugs, and I cannot sleep in it any longer.

I have contacted the office three times about bringing out pest control. I was told that pest control comes out once a week, and that I would have to wait until Thursday for them to spray. I was fine with this, because I am a very patient person. I rarely complain unless something gets SO out of hand that I just can’t handle it anymore. Pest control ended up coming on Tuesday instead. Which caused me to be late for work, and since I had requested off Thursday morning, this was very upsetting to me. I was then told that he would return on Thursday to finish the treatment. I never saw or heard from pest control or the office again.

The following month, I was finally fed up with the A/C situation. I called them to come out, and they replaced the system which was very convienent. This seemed to keep the bugs away from a little bit of time, due to the temperature drop in the apartment.

Unfortinantly, now that it is becoming hot outside again, I have NEVER seen the problem in the situation that it is in now. Last night I walked into the kitchen to get water, and when I turned on the light to the kitchen I see about 40 bugs scatter across the floor, and see that I have stepped on and killed probably ten to fifteen of them. They were EVERYWHERE. The floor, the counters, in the sink, around the fridge, on the couch, as well as in the bed.

Not only is all my personal belongings now infested with bugs, and unusable. I have spent probably roughly six to seven hundred dollars in food that has had to be thrown away due to the problem. I won’t even try to guess at how many containers of dog food I have had to thrown out. I can no longer live in the apartment, due to the fact that I am AFRAID to sleep because of the amount of bugs. I am afraid to shower because of what is behind that panel in the bathroom. I am afraid to brush my teeth with the water due to the amount of bug resedue I have witnessed coming from the faucets. I am afraid to use the fridge, the stove, as well as any surface of the dwelling for my personal belongings. My school backpack has now even become infested with bugs.

Did I mention that there is mold literally GROWING in my cabinets and have been since I moved in?

I do laundry at my mothers house, since the laundry rooms in the apartment complex smell like urine. She no longer allows me to bring my clothes over, due to her finding roaches and bugs around her home.

All of this being said, I am NOT a dirty person. I pay very serious attention to detail and I clean my apartment with bleach and lysol on a daily basis. The counters are cleaned, the floors are mopped, the bathtub is scrubbed, and my dog is clean. I have never in my life seen so many bugs at one place in one time. NOT EVEN WHILE CAMPING.

On 6/2/2012. I called the office of Tivoli and explained (once again) the situation that I am living in. I was asked if I had anywhere to stay until Monday. The office manager was not going to be in until then, and they would send pest control out and possibly talk about having me transfered to another unit. Once again, there was a work order put in for the fridge I was supposed to receive upon moving in.

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