bad landlords (rental, expensive, moved, bedroom)

[JessicaLynnn]

Hi, I have lived in my rental property for 7 months now. It is a 3 bedroom 2 bath home with a large shop on commercial property. My husband & I are both self employed.
When we first were considering signing up for the house in a lease we were led to believe the rent was a certain amount. So we found renters for the property we have a bank loan on and moved out of our house to rent another home from these people. Our reasoning for moving was to save gas money by being closer to my husbands work. I opened a small in home daycare in the home. When we actually signed the papers for the property the landlords had tacked on a lot of other expenses like homeowners insurance & property taxes & water. So the rent was actually higher than we had planned. We were already committed to moving at that point having found renters for our home & did not want to risk losing them so we still signed the papers & moved in.
about 2 weeks after we moved in I came home & caught our landlord in our house. He ran outside told me he had been fixing stuff and took off in his car. It was really creepy. Then the 2nd month we were there the landlords tried to raise the rent on us. I told them they cant do that & then they didnt push it anymore & said we were overreacting. Every month on our invoice from her she would put notes on it like you need to sweep the shop floor or there are some weeds in the alley you should take care of. How would she know the floor could use sweeping unless she went in there and had a look around? One day we came home & noticed they had taken a cd player that was in the house when we got there. They left our cds in a stack where it had been. Also they have hired a lot of different workers to fix a heater in the shop. we told them we dont care if it works or not. But the workers have come over more than 6 times and sawed through a celing above our computer & we found paint chips & dirt in the keyboard & all over the desk (that was the same month they told us to sweep the shop floor) Also the workers kept leaving the lights on in the shop and one time they left the heater on 80 degrees so just abt all of the flourecent lights burnt out. Now we cant see when we go into the shop unless we have a flashlight...so its kinda unusable. Our landlords also asked us if they could use a computer program that we had we said no since it is expensive & we dont really know them well. Now the program has turned up missing. The past couple months they have been demanding to see proof of my husbands business insurance and renters insurance which it says in the lease is optional. Now she is accusing my husband of working without contractor insurance which he does have we just dont feel the need to prove anything to them.
During the recent economic problems affecting the construction & housing market my husband was unemployed for over a month. Also our renter found himself without work & moved out of our house early. My husband did find work and has tried to get caught up with our rent that we fell behind on. He explained to our landlord that we would be caught up by the end or the month ( rent was due the 1st) she said we had until friday or she will find new renters for the house. Also her & her husband called both of us at least 2 times everyday after we were late making threats & ultimatums, it was pretty aggressive & overboard I thought. So we are afraid that even if we give her more money she will still try to evict us. So we have started looking for a new place & are not paying her any more money. The other day I was home alone and the landlords stopped by unannounced I didnt hear a knock on the door I just noticed them peeking in all the windows. It was really scary. I felt like they were sneaking up on me. I didnt open the door. I was really afraid they might not think I was home & come inside but they didnt.
I feel bad but we are moving since all of this has happened we just dont feel comfortable in the house. We paid 1st last & deposit when we moved in I figure we are not really ripping them off that bad. I am going to clean the house when I leave. It is like they never really turned the house over to us & allowed us quiet enjoyment of the property. I just know they will sue us but I think we have good reason for making our decisions. Hopefully a judge will agree. I think we are going to try to get a lawyer.

[Huckleberry3911948]

i think you have a lousy landlord. i think you have a weak case for a law suit. i dont like law suits much. people too often like to turn their malice into cash.

[Poltracker]

Next time the landlord comes over without giving you 24 hr notice as required by law (double check for your state) call the police and have them charged with trespassing. They do NOT have the right to be on your property whenever they want, nor especially to enter it without notice. Above all things pay your rent. If you withhold rent for any reason, the judge will find in the LL favor and anything you say are excuses. You will also have a hard time finding somewhere else to live.

Check your state's LL/tenant laws and live by them stringently. Be sure to keep everything in writing and take photos. Especially take photos on move-in and move-out so they cannot sue you for damages you did not create.

[pitt_transplant]

I think you should quietly clean guns while naked in your living room and wait for the LL to show up.
Feel free to smear beef blood on your cheeks...
(yes I am joking so giggle at the imagined look on his face...Lol)