problem with landlord/owner - in a rental

[PhL0aTeR]

OK, I'll try not to make this long and drawn out.... here is the situation...

We (GF, friend and myself) found a house to rent earlier this year. It was appealing to us, because they did not require a deposit, or a pet deposit, and it was a grand a month for a 4 bed/2 bath/1 car garage. Having no deposit, i knew there would be some things wrong with it, and after moving in i fixed a bunch of things.

Prior to moving in, we had verbally talked about replacing the carpet with tile instead of used carpet, like they told us he wanted to do. The owner smoked, and even since the old carpet was ripped out, the stench is still in the house, although not as bad. I told the landlord that I might be willing to help pay for the materials to install the tile, but things have come up every month and left me shorter than i needed to be.

In the 3 months we have lived here the plumber has been here 3 times fixing different stuff. The last time we had a problem, one of our outside spigots sprung a leak and was flooding the basement, and we shut the water off. I called the landlord, he called owner, owner says call this company (i guess he had a deal with them). this particular company cant do it, and now its after hours, and the other places will be charging an emergency after hours fee, so owner says it will have to wait. I get a bit pissed off about this because we have been better tenants anyone could have hoped for in a rent house, as I keep the yard cleaned and mowed, i have excavated 2 trailer loads of trash from the property and taken it to the dump, something that we were supposed to be reimbursed for but havent seen anything. ANYways, it was at this point when i decided that rather than raise the value of a home that the owner could care less about, i would let them install carpet in the house, since we have been without for 3 months, just walking on the mudstained plywood floors. So last month when i paid my rent, I told the guy i didnt want the tile, and i wanted the carpet cuz i wasnt willing to "invest" for a person that didnt give a shit if their tenants had water or not. He said ok, and i havent heard anything from him. My GF went and dropped the rent check off to him tonight and asked aboutt he carpet and was told that we wouldnt be getting carpet, that we "had our chance" and was going to have to live with what we have.

What are my courses of action

[Sully]

Did you sign a contract or lease to live there ? If not, I would move out. Buy your own house if you can.. so many foreclosures on the market right now.. I'm sure you can find something you'd like at a good price !

[pilot]

Are you on a month to month rental or what type?

The rental should be in tenable condition.

Who ripped out the carpet?

Stop by a reputable carpet place and get an estimate for installation. Have them mail a copy to the landlord.

El Paso county should have a commission that oversees rentals.

Are you or your GF in the military or work for the govt?--use the Staff Judge Advocates office then.

Be prepared to move. This same thing may have happened to the last tenants.

Good luck.

[Suki]

i think by law a landlord has to provide livable space, so if the carpet is torn out and the floors are covered in nails and disgusting then i'd report his ass and get out of your lease. have you kept records of all these incidents? date, time and phone calls, reason for the calls, taken pictures? i would document EVERYTHING! and tell him to suck your balls and move out.

Our last landlord was a piece of shit like that guy, before we moved in, we told the property manager or whatever they're called that we wanted the kitchen floor repaired BEFORE we moved in, she said he would have it taken care of and we gave them our security deposit. when it came time to move in the floor was still fucked up. when we talked to him about it, he said that he can't replace the lanolium because it's too costly and that it's just a small blemish. there was a rip all the way across the kitchen! so he said that if WE do it, then he'll pay for materials. um, no, i'm not going to give up my weekends when he had a month to do it himself before we moved in. so he comes over with some epoxy and glues it. nice. then our disposal went out and he said to just throw things in the trash. i told him that's what we do anyways, however, if things get blocked up in there then it's going to cost more for plumbing and what not. so a month later he puts one in. next, the furnace goes out, so hot water and no heat and it was already into winter and FREEZING! we had no heat or hot water for almost a week!!! finally he gets that replaced, then the water goes out for another 2 days. great. when we moved in, the back gate was broken, something we didn't notice before because we didn't try opening it, well that took the ENTIRE YEAR before it got fixed. and then when summer came around, our pool key didn't even work! when i called and told him that he said it's the right one, but my sons friend is the HOA prez for that area and told us he didn't pay his HOA fees and that was why the fence was never fixed and he never received his new pool key! when we finally move out, he comes over and NIT PICKS the entire house!
what's this stain?
it was there when we moved in.
no it wasn't
whatever, it was.
what about this paint on the door?
that also was there when we moved in.
hmm
so needless to say, despite those things and a few other items he only gave us back $600 out of the $950 for our deposit. AND then tried to accuse me of not returning the mail key and charge for that as well. and the fucker had the nerve to ask us if we wanted to buy the place and he'd sell it at a decent price... WHICH WAS THE TOP DOLLAR AMOUNT! asshole.

it's so sad too, because we went back there a month ago to pick up my severance check that was mailed there, and he had new tenants moving in. they asked about him, and we spilled. they mentioned the kitchen floor and i just busted out laughing and told them if they can get out of that lease, freakin RUN!!!

sorry, just reading that reminded me of our experience. if you can look into buying then BUY cause it sounds like you're the type to fix up and keep up with a house, and atleast that way you'll gain from it and not someone else.

[64BonnieLass]

Dude, do a google search on CO Leasing laws. Shouldn't take long to find. A Dwelling must be "suitable" by certain standards. Print it off and firmly affix to said manager's door.

Suki, I had a phsyco landlord that tried to tear me to pieces upon moving out in order to keep my deposit. (after I noticed that his ass had sat upon my perfectly straightened comforter and that my perfectly organized underwear drawer had been "shuffled about". (perverted fooker)

I moved out with a proper notice - per contract. Upon receiving his letter of what was wrong with the apt when I vacated (which was nothing because I'm emaculate) I proceeded to draw up a very "wordy and legal sounding" Word.doc on lawfirm letterhead. The result: No questions asked and a check was received for the full amount of the deposit. (easy technique to apply)

Bottom line: Folks wanna fuck ya, then do an hour's worth of research, play the game and show them the cards "that THEY WILL PLAY BY"

One hour's research goes a long way. Not that this totally answers your original question, but I cannot provide legal advice. CYA, get semi legal on their ass with documentation and knowledge, and play smarter then they do.

[Bigrich12]

I live with my mom and we have lived in the same rental for the last four years. We pay about $1100 a month and the lease says that they are supposed to fix everything. Well, the fence is a load of crap, we have had a dog break out because of the huge holes, so being the man of the house, I have fixed it on numerous occasions. The windows dont stay open and the carpet is terrrible. We have had one or two water leaks, but i can repair them myself. My opinion is to talk to mushin_man or talk to el paso and see what they say. If we didn't have as much stuff as we do, then we would have been gone. But, as soon as i move out, i plan on buying a house. The market is a bargain right now and i don't know how long it will last. Buy while it is still a buyer's market.

[636Chick]

I'm with these guy's
If you signed a lease I would document and photograph all the problems so you have recourse to break the lease. Keep everything

If your on month to month give 30 day's written notice and bail!!!!

It sounds like the landlord would be what we call a SlumLord

When all else fails just smack the shit out of him roll him for the rent and get some nice tile!!!!! (sorry that's not very helpful:oops:)


Good luck

[xxuxx]

Also don't forget to tape all incoming and outgoing calls from the owner, landlord etc. I find this technique also helpful in getting rid of bad boyfriends as well.

[PhL0aTeR]

yeah, basically I just need some carpet installed. I am somewhat familiar with HUD laws, although i dont know if the same type of laws apply to rentals, i assume they do since alot of it is about safety, and if theres a tear in the linoleum, by HUD standars it must be patched, even if its with a peice of duct tape.

Just as an update, here is a letter I typed up and delivered to the landlord today.



Date of Request: 08/02/2007

Request Generated By: Jesse XXXX

PRIORITY:
X URGENT (ASAP)
 Rush (1-2 Days)
 Normal (approx. 1 week)

LOCATION OF PROBLEM:

 __XXX XXXXXX Dr W Colorado Springs, CO 80916 – Main level bedrooms, Living area, stairs___


DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM:
There is no floor coverings in these areas, only the plywood subflooring. Nails that need to be hammered in are prevalent, there is tackstrips and splinters all over the floor creating a safety hazard. I made a verbal request for carpet on 07/01/2007 while paying rent. This is my formal request for floor coverings.




Please complete form and give to Landlord, have landlord sign receipt.






___________________________________

Signed – Landlord (acknowledgment of receipt)



We shall see what happens..... Ive been getting alot of advice on buying, but honestly, i think im ready to get out of this state, so I dont want to have any ties here aside from family and friends... Also, im still in sticker shock moving up here from TX where you can get for 80K but cant get the same for 200K here....

[pilot]

Good for you man, good for you. Good luck.

[Suki]

Dude, do a google search on CO Leasing laws. Shouldn't take long to find. A Dwelling must be "suitable" by certain standards. Print it off and firmly affix to said manager's door.

Suki, I had a phsyco landlord that tried to tear me to pieces upon moving out in order to keep my deposit. (after I noticed that his ass had sat upon my perfectly straightened comforter and that my perfectly organized underwear drawer had been "shuffled about". (perverted fooker)

I moved out with a proper notice - per contract. Upon receiving his letter of what was wrong with the apt when I vacated (which was nothing because I'm emaculate) I proceeded to draw up a very "wordy and legal sounding" Word.doc on lawfirm letterhead. The result: No questions asked and a check was received for the full amount of the deposit. (easy technique to apply)

Bottom line: Folks wanna fuck ya, then do an hour's worth of research, play the game and show them the cards "that THEY WILL PLAY BY"

One hour's research goes a long way. Not that this totally answers your original question, but I cannot provide legal advice. CYA, get semi legal on their ass with documentation and knowledge, and play smarter then they do.

i know! he charged like 150 or something for 'oven cleaning'. WTF! a $5 can of that oven cleaner makes those babies spotless but apparently he had to have a professional come in and clean (which it was already cleaned but had some spots that would have needed the can of oven cleaner) the oven. i cleaned the house SPOTLESS, hell a CSI person wouldn't have found one print in that house! i even moved appliances out and cleaned behind those areas.

i'm so glad we bought a house and have no one to answer to, other than the bank with a monthly check! grrrr i despise that man!

[salsashark]

So what does your lease say about the carpet?

I'm not sure what kind of laws C Springs has regarding tenant/landlord relations, but in Denver, verbal agreements mean nothing. If you don't have it in writing, you don't have it...

Also, what does your lease say regarding abandonment? Most leases have a clause which will put you on the hook for the remainder of the lease or until the LL gets a new tenant. You don't have a security deposit to loose, so depending on what the lease says regarding vacating the premises, you may want to look into jumping ship.

I'd suggest contacting the C.Springs Housing & Community Development (http://www.springsgov.com/SectionIndex.asp?SectionID=53)people and seeing what your legal recourse is.

[Dysco]

Hell, I'll rent you my place in Aurora! The inside of the place is money, it just needs a new yard. 3 bed, one bath, 1 car garage. :D