Fixer Upper rental

By Luanne

We have signed a six month lease for a single family home. Everything is going fine with the property manager, however the house has so many problems. My husband has missed meetings because he has had to wait at the house for a repair man. When it rains water comes into the dining room. They have had to replace the carpet since we’ve been here because of flooding. Two weeks after the new carpet was put in, it rained again, not as much but still enough to get about 2 feet of the new carpet wet. The knob on the sink is stripped and broke off one evening shooting water all over the house. The back door sticks our kids can’t even open it. The toliet handle sticks which caused our bathroom to flood this past weekend. The kitchen faucet drips. We have to buy Drano every week to keep the bathroom and sink water moving down the drain. We have had to have repairs done on the dryer, refrigerator, kitchen sink, air conditioner, electrical outlets, and light switches all within the first 6 weeks. The sink still isn’t fixed and we are waiting for them to schedule a time to come back to fix it again. The home is old and apparently has a lot of problems. We did not know we were signing a lease for a house that would need so much work. I am not looking forward to winter and more rain. We found out from the neighbors that this house has taken on water a few times. Two years ago they had to replace the entire floor because of flooding due to rain. Is there anything we can do to get out of this lease?

Edited on: Monday, November 3rd, 2008 8:01 pm

3 Responses to “Fixer Upper rental”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Agent Richards

November 6th, 2008 12:48 pm

Luanne,
After reviewing your blog post I can say that there may be some possibility of breaking your lease without penantly. However, proving that your landlord has breach the habibility agreement can be difficult. I would suggest filing a landlord complaint with the RPA. There should be a link at the top of this page.


Rachel

November 11th, 2008 7:48 am

Just an idea… if you have renters insurance I would file a claim with them. This way you will get an inspector to evaluate the damage. If they are willing to pay for the damage, great. If not, you will then have more paperwork and proof that the landlord is responsible.


anonymous

November 12th, 2008 6:40 am

Have you tried to work it out with the landlord? If the answer is yes, and you still haven’t come to fair terms; you will want to file a complaint. I would think that the best solution would be to stay, right. So I would focus on resolving the problems rather than breaking your lease agreement.


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