Unsafe/Unacceptable Living Conditions

Wow, sounds like you and your fiance have been through a lot. I’m surprised they aren’t taking you seriously. I had a father in law that rents out a commercial office & last year his place caught on fire due to a firework. I feel your pain. Hope the Fiance and Dog are okay.

I thought I would respond to tell you that I have filed a complaint before, and it was well worth the $35. I guess it just depends on what you hope to get out of it. In my case I had a landlord that wasn’t returning my calls about urgent repair request, so I filed a complaint with the RPA. Immediately after he was contacted by the RPA Agent, my landlord acted extremely professional and apologetic. He got the repairs done fast.

I think sometimes we need to stand up for our rights. If I were you I would file a complaint based upon how management has treated you. If nothing else it will give you the respect you deserve. I would love to see if your manager is still too busy for you after you file your complaint.

I think the reason the complaints are so effective is due to the fact that they are documented on the landlords public record. If they fail to be anything less than reasonable, it will hurt them for a long time. I read somewhere that the complaint stays on record for 20 years. Can anyone confirm that?

Good luck to you!

I am a 27 year old single mom with a 1 yr old boy and a 3 yr old girl and my 18 yr old sister who works and goes to college moved into a downstairs basement apartment two weeks ago. It is being managed by a real estate/ property management company. This winter the weather has been beyond unpredictable and sometimes harder to deal with than previous winters. We are currently just getting out of a bout of subzero temperatures with wind gusts up to 25 mph keep in mind 25 mph is not that bad some places but when it is 7 degrees out and there is a 5 mph wind it makes the temperature feel like -2 thats the math on that and its below zero often with 25 mph gusts. The day we moved into this place two weeks ago our breakers flipped off when we plugged in the space heater that was supplied by the owners they did this about 12 times before we figured out a system which plugs wouldnt flip them off and so on. We saw an oil furnace when we were previewing the place I assumed like a dummy that there was some form of central heat a dial a button a switch somewhere in this place I could flip off and on when i got cold or hot or for that matter just to get my kids dressed or give them a bath, NO THERE IS NOTHING! there happens to be a switch but its in the up stairs apartment I have no access to this at all, and they never use it, which I must admit I did find curious but its only been two weeks and they dont seeem to be around much. I actually wasnt aware that the switch upstairs would blow warm air into the basement if turned on I just never hear it on. Well today is sunday and the weather conditions began to decline rapidly wednesday night so thursday morning I call the realtor and told her my place wont hold heat the breakers keep flipping there is ice on the INSIDE of my windows and the temperature is dropping and there is NO HEAT source at all Pam what shall we do what will you do about this???? She told me she was going out of town until monday and to tough it out kid! she offered to send over space heater which I explained to her would be useless and why and she said shed call me before the day was out to figure out a solution, I never heard from her and she wouldnt take my calls I ran down to the only consignment shop open and speant 30 buck on blankets to cover my windows and the one door to our place which by the way didnt do jack diddly anyways i contacted her fri after several phone calls and she sent some hillbilly to my place with a bunch of space hater after the third conversation about why I cant use them and by the way Pam I am seroiusly concerned for the health safety and welfare of my children but she didnt give a crap, when this guy came over I refused the spcae heaters and told him why and told him to get down out of his truck which he never got out of or turned off for that matter and he said “nah pam just told me to bring these heaters by” then he left. On saturday I called my friends down at the police station to see if they could tel me who owns this crap house and they asked why and when i told them and that miss Pam the only number I have has been screening my calls for 48 hours he offered to call her for me and he did so here it is Sunday she never called me back or taken a single call of mine so I called the officer again and asked had he spoke with her he said No and offered to call again and said hed call me right back to let me know, five seconds after I hung up with him I get a call from the owner I think and her name was Donna shes hollering at me about why did I call the cops and tels me that I refused to let the hillbilly in to look at the problem when I told her what actually happened she accuses me of being a big fat liar, and continues with the projecting because shes obviously guilty of being WRONG in this situation and knows shes screwed a little bit of kindness wouldve probably fixed it all but she chooses anger even though I am the one with a 1 and 3 yr old heating my hell hole of a walk in refrigerator sorry cheap firehazard excuse of a deathtrap for a house with my oven at 550 and the oven door wide open but only when my kids are down for a nap because that is ridiculously unsafe but my only option and with no reponse at all let alone any diligence or effort towards fixing the problem , i pretty much lost my cool called her some choice words and hung up in her. Later this evening I find out that the girls living upstairs are moving out so I called one of them at work Ive never been able to catch her at home but I know where she works so I call her up to find out the deal, She informes me that they dont even have power not light heat nothing in at least one bedroom and they have extention cords running through the house that one of them caught fire before because of the plug in got too hot, that their breakers go off everyday without fail they have virtually no heat and that they complained of this in october or november of 2010, I have been irate because it has been 4 going on 5 days with no response they have been living there for 4 months with nothing done, the house is such a fire hazard health hazard period that it should be leveled and I am being screamed at by the excuse me but bitches who knew I had kids and knowingly took my money and let me move in this place, factis its not safe for anyone but its my job to protect my kids and they took that ability away from me litterally! What are my rights? Can I sue? I dont even care how much money I get as long as my costs are reimbursed and they are made an example of, I am so completely frustrated and tonight I feel helpless tomorrow I wil feel empowered because its monday and Ive got nothing to do tomorrow but handle this… but still???????????/ps i took a temerature reading at 1230 pm after I got home from church I was gone for 2 hours with no heat nothing on it was 30 degrees in my kitchen just in case you wanted to know thank you

Andrew, go online and search for website for your Secretary of State. On that state you will find laws and publications. Click on it and see if there is anything that reads . Landlord and Tenant Act. Click on it and you will be amazed as to what information you will find. You will also find forms to fill out to file a formal complaint against the landlord for various reasons and that they have so many days to comply or face a fine or even let you out of your lease without any penalties. Hope this helps

i rent an apy,for almost 1yr and there are lots of repairs the landlord havent fixed my ceiling leaks and has come down,and has caursed mold,leaks in all the rooms,structure promblems also,have called,writen and nothing has happened i dont know what to do i am retired and cant afford to move