RPA Tenant Rights Blog » Legal Problem

Carpet & Paint

Tylee — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 13:13:41 +0000

I have lived in my apartment unit for 8 years. I feel that i need my carpet replaced, as well as my walls painted. I am disabled in a wheelchair, so there are some tire tracks & marks that wont come out of the carpet, although I have paid 2 have it cleaned several times. The professional who cleans my carpet said that tracks & marks will just keep coming back. I feel that the apartment unit needs painting because of water damage stains that were never repaired correctly and just because of "normal wear & tear" from residing in the unit for 8 years.

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mice infestation-break lease?

taresa21 — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 12:20:28 +0000

we have complained about dead animal smell in the walls of my boys bedroom for several months. finally leasing company sent exterminators who found infestation in the attic, holes in the siding where birds and mice are, urine feces ect. the company also sent out someone to measure siding. Traps with poison were set inside my house and in the attic. the externinators were very forthcoming on the issue and that the poison eats the mice from the inside out and we could ahve more dead animal smell, but to call them and they will remove it. The mice in the attic however is extensive and they said it wont ever really go away all they can do is continue to throw more poison up there. The mice are so bad that they apparently ate all 10 sticks of bait in one week and the externinators had to replace it all. They are scheduled to return each week to check and add more bait. I have no heard from the siding guy. our lease is up april 30th but we want out now, i emailed the leasing company about all these issues and asked to be let out of our lease one month early so we can have time to find another place. Can they Not let me out? is there a way out of this without penalty. Im tired of catering to exterminators and siding people every single week with no resolve. And in all reality this needs to be dealt with while no one is living here. Mice are eating thru our food poop is everywhere no matter how much i clean and the only time my kids room doesnt smell like death is when it freezes outside!

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Landlord’s right to employment updates?

a palmful of stars — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 18:36:41 +0000

I live in the first-floor apartment of a two-family house in a city in CT with my boyfriend. The lease is solely in my name. The owner lives on-site in the upstairs apartment. When I signed the lease, I had just started a new job in the city. Prior to my signing of the lease, the owner (I’ll call her Sally) did a full background and credit check, and verified my employment and income. The lease was effective October 1.

Sally is nice enough, but she is extremely nosy. Even before we were fully moved in she asked us constantly about our comings and goings. We share common entrances to the house and I see her face-to-face almost daily. Her apartment overlooks my parking space and she is home a lot, so it is hard to leave or return without her noticing.

Here’s the complication – I lost my new job last week. The good news is I have qualified for unemployment, my company is looking to transfer me to another department, and my boyfriend is also gainfully employed; therefore I’m optimistic I’ll be able to honor the lease and pay the rent. However, I also have to deal with Sally’s increased prying. Since she can tell when I’m home because of the presence of my car, she asks daily if I have the day off, if I’m on vacation, etc. She also has been asking my boyfriend about his work schedule and his modes of transportation.

My question is: Does my landlord have the right to know about my recent lay-off? Can she use that knowledge to demand I get a co-signer? I know she has the right to do a background and income check before a lease signing, but does that imply that she is entitled to ongoing updates about my employment situation? It seems that since she hasn’t entered my apartment there is no grounds here for a breach of privacy complaint, but am I within my rights to tell Sally (respectfully and graciously) to back off?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

-C

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Can my Landlord do this?

Daisy — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 15:59:23 +0000

I am disabled and under a low budget , most of my check goes to the rent and bills….And we have new management that are careless and without compassion for anybody.

My questions are "Can the landlord do this"

* Charging me $50.00 late fee if the past landlords approved us to pay the rent either the 3rd or at first hour a soon they open the office the 4th of each month ( 1st– because our disability sometimes can’t remember important dates or the time we took our medicine etc…and 2nd- because I get my SDDI check every 3rd of the month )

And so far I had to pay twice late fees and she didn’t care my emotional distress disability.

* We have a little dog and because we never paid a deposit fee she want us to pay $300.00 fee when the past landlords told us was fine.

I did my research and my therapist gave me a letter to support the reason why "BUDY" is very important in our lives as a "Emotional Support Animal" and also alerting when I’m having a seizure so we shouldn’t worry to pay anything because we have rights.

* We have been living here for almost 3 years and never missed paying the rent regardless our low budget and because a mistake done 3 years ago by one of their managers where I wasn’t include on the lease, physically I wasn’t able to do much because at that time I was recovering from a mayor surgery something that wasn’t a problem at all during all this time "Can the landlord make me pay $40.00 to add me to the lease and run my credit report again"? when our lease is due in about 4 months… All this because we need a letter saying that I live in this address to get Energy assistance, a simple letter that we never had a problem to get it.

Now the stress start to escalate these ladies want me to pay $250.00 because I didn’t supposed to be living here all this time without being in the contract … Are you kidding me? Am I going to pay other peoples mistakes? Tell me if I didn’t proof myself being a good tenant,neighbor to have to pay extra….

Do you know what type of rights for people with disabilities have when are living on a low budget?

Without mentioning details that we were living with a gas leak telling us that smelling a little bit of gas everyday was normal…..Really?

Believe me the list keep going on and on and for my condition is very stressful also part of this is part of a retaliation against us because we didn’t want to participate on one investigation in the property because were risking our safety.

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Bed bug situation

Brittany Henry — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 15:06:24 +0000

I lived at my apartment for about 8 months now and now I have bed bugs and they are saying I’m responsible because I brought them in. We’ll I didn’t but this is what the lady at the office said. When I moved here I had practically no furniture and I did not have this problem before I moved here. I’m very upset about her saying that I brought them here. I never knew of an apartment not taking care of a pest problem. Anyway I reported this twice the first time I’ve gotten bit I let the office know that I may have bed bugs. They sent out a guy who just put stupid traps down that didn’t catch anything but spiders and baby roaches no help. So I continuously get bites on my legs, arms, and neck thank God my 2 month old didn’t have any yet. Bingo one night I was up late in the dark on my phone and I feel something on my leg I jump up really fast, turn on the light and there it was a bed bug. With no hesitation I grabbed it for evidence and showed the office. Again now basically a month later they send the guy out for a third time to confirm it was a bed bug. Now it’s confirmed and they say I am responsible. I asked her how so and she tells me most if the time people bring them with them..true but I KNOW that wasn’t the case. Then the lady mentions that she changed the carpets well I told her just because you change the carpets doesn’t mean bed bugs are eliminated from within the walls, that was dumb to say. Also I moved right into my apartment not even a week and a half after the other tenants moved out so what does that tell you? I need help fast I don’t have money to pay for this and I know it isn’t my cause.

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neighbor

elmo — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:24:15 +0000

I have asked my neighbors politely to stop running and jumping around they knock

Things off my walls have no respect I have told the landlord and no results I’m at

My Witt’s end please help.

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landlady not returning deposit

jason — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 17:42:57 +0000

Hi i wonder if anyone can give me info on my problem. Me and my friend was renting a flat and gave 1 months notice to leaving. this flat was recently purchased by the landlady in question. Now we were renting this flat through a company called PMC which went bust and passed our flat to McAfee just before our ex landlady purchased the flat. Now at the time of the flat being moved from PMC to McAfee and the buying of the flat by our ex landlady no one inquired about the deposit. i.e when our ex landlady bought the flat she never bothered (even thought she was warned by McAfee) getting the deposit from the bankrupt company.

Anyway now our ex landlady has the neck to refuse us our deposit because she doesn’t have it (or didn’t bother to get it on purchasing) Now might i add that she is saying that the place was left untidy and the carpets were bad which i can assure is not true as we cleaned the place from top to bottom…and also might i add the landlady has never been in the flat (even though we had arranged for her to come inspect the flat on purchasing but she never bothered) to even know what the carpets have been like and i assure you them carpets have been in there since BC!

At the end of the day she cannot with hold this deposit on that ground as she never was in the flat in the first place. might i also add that our deposit was not entered into the new deposit protection scheme as we started renting before this came into the matter. any advice is welcomed and thank you in advance.

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Help With Bully Neighbor

Anon — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 22:30:36 +0000

My wife and I live in a 4-plex with no onsite manager. One tenant has grown dictative over other residents when it comes to using the yard, basement, and other communal areas. He has told each of the other three units differing ‘rules’ when it comes to having personal items in the yard, whether they can store bicycles in the basement, what can be place in the recycle bin, where their dogs may walk (pet-friendly building), as examples. He has essentially pushed everyone into their units and no one will confront him face-to-face as he has a passive-aggressive personality (retalitory). This tenant is also very disruptive with chronic arguments with his wife, violent door/window slamming (rattles the walls), and allowing his dog to bark at other residents. He has now decided to use the yard space for his own personal marijuana growing/smoking area, all the while excluding other residents from even entering the area. While growing is not a huge legal issue in California, the lease agreement states no smoking/drug use/criminal activity. We have brought all of this to the attention of the owners multiple times and have been told that it will be remedied, with the authorities if necessary. However, about six weeks have past since last contact and nothing is resolved.

The rest of the us here are considering submitting a joint request for these actions to cease. We are drafting individual letters documenting our issues to be sent by certified mail together. We have all experienced ineffectual action from the owners when bringing our concerns up individually. We all would like to mediate this with the owners directly, but will consider legal action if required. We all really just want this guy removed from the building. We contacted a local tenants union, but haven’t received any response in some time. I imagine they’re inundated with people.

I’m looking for any advice, suggestions, whatnot, from renters, landlords, whomever, on the situation. Does this sound like an appropriate ‘next step’? Should we bypass this and speak directly with a tenants rights attorney? Anything in particular to include or exclude from the letters? Can we actually ask to have this guy evicted for his behavior? Anything helps and thanks for reading!

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Help Please

James G Cook — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:38:26 +0000

Hi, can I have help?

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Landlord Breach of Contract

jennifer — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 07:08:32 +0000

I live in Dayton, OH in a fairly large apartment community corporately managed by a company that owns and manages 116 apartment communities across ten states. My central air has been non functioning since July of last year.

Corporate is now ‘offering’ to move me to a different apartment within the same community, but states they will only pay to move the following ‘large items': washer/dryer, beds, mattresses, dressers, chests, TV’s, couches, recliners, entertainments centers, desks, and tables and chairs. All personal items would be my responsible to pack and move.

The past 4 or 5 times I have moved, I have hired movers. I hired movers to move me when I moved to this apartment. I used Two Men and a Truck and can likely get printed records to document that I did pay movers to move me. Since I now have to move, due to the landlord’s breach of contract, are they responsible to cover 100% of the cost of my move? Could their costs also include charges incurred by me for something as simple as the need for a cable tech come out to re-set up my cable in the new apartment?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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