Heavy Roaches, and Damaged furniture (Duarte: apartments, lawyer, buying)

[mperrigo]

I have lived in my apartment for about 1 year in Duarte California. We have always had a roach problem here, but over the last 4 months it has progressively worsened to the point where it has become unbearable to be around the whole kitchen area. We have done all kinds of pesticides; we even bought electronic products from infomercials. This is a problem for ALL the units in my building.

The health department was here about a week ago, 6 men came, and brought 2 police officers’. All the neighbors were out they were interviewing each one, and checking their apartments. The landlord to this building is a typical stereotype of a "Slum-Lord". He never repaired anything, and often our hot water will be off for days on end, even during the winter season where we depended on it. There is no heating, or cooling in the building. This is extremely hard because my mother who is almost 60 is in remission from breast cancer 2 years ago, and this is very uncomfortable for her with no adequate heating or cooling, and all the problems with the vermin. To top it off, we have 2 bathrooms, and 1 does not work, the toilet always is clogged, and the shower leaks all over the place, and even through the walls into the living room.

Another disgusting thing about where I live is, the buildings plumbing is really old so often it gets backed up. When this happens, all the sewage will come up the drains in the cement area around my door, and it will smell of sewage for about a week or two before the landlord sends anyone to clean it. We as neighbors also told this to the health department and the police officers’, as they were surprised and disgusted. Couple times, we actually threw up

So my main unfixable problem is this. All our furniture, bedding, beds, stored clothing, and boxes we have in the apartment, are all going to be infested with eggs. We have a few items we have spotted large quantities of eggs in them. We need to throw all of this away, in order to prevent reinfestation to the new place I am going to move next month. Took a while to find some place else, as this problem progressed, and we never complained, and continued to pay our rent. So, what can I do legally to help ease the pain of the cost of throwing away 1 Queen, 2 Full, and 1 Twin sized beds, plus 2 couches, and numerous amounts of beddings, chairs, and anything that can be used in the harvesting of these eggs, and other bugs. I should have some type of protections against this, but I have not the slighted idea where to turn, and whom to talk to, until I stumbled across this site

Any help would be much appreciated, we are average folk, living our lives and just do not need to live this way

[Charles]

Why don't you move to a nicer place?

[sweettea1]

Um, I would move out as fast as possible and threaten a law suit if you don't get your money back on your rent. Take pictures of everything. That's absolutely the most disgusting thing I've ever heard.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by sweettea1

That's absolutely the most disgusting thing I've ever heard.

The wealthiest and most powerful kings in the world didn't live that nice 150 years ago.

[mperrigo]

Yea I can threaten with a lawsuit but that wouldn't do anything, I want to get a lawyer and go after it and get my money out of it. I know it is disgusting, and I have looked since the problem was getting worse, and finally today I rented a new place, and can start moving out immediately, but the problem is I need to throw everything out, Anyone know who I can contact to get a lawyer, or what actions to take besides just walking away?

[edelweiss]

I don't know about all your legal options, but I'm a huge fan of craigslist.org when it comes to buying yourself some new furniture at a good price. At least if the legal stuff doesn't work out or is too much trouble for you, you won't have to spend too much on replacing what you'll be throwing out. Good luck.

[bhcompy]

i used to work in the pest control business. when something like this arose some of our inspectors would get creative. vikane gas generally does pretty well against all bugs(not just termites). for a kickback, the inspector would place an item/items in a property being fumigated and have the fumigator(generally a 3rd party in california) pump in some extra gas to make sure of a good kill.

im not advocating doing this as it could jeopardize the licenses of the inspector, the fumigator, and the pest control company, but it happens and a creative person could possibly swing something like this to get some items cleaned.

also, a good pest control technician could clean the stuff up pretty good as well.

[marilyn220]

Originally Posted by mperrigo

Yea I can threaten with a lawsuit but that wouldn't do anything, I want to get a lawyer and go after it and get my money out of it. I know it is disgusting, and I have looked since the problem was getting worse, and finally today I rented a new place, and can start moving out immediately, but the problem is I need to throw everything out, Anyone know who I can contact to get a lawyer, or what actions to take besides just walking away?

Why have you put up with this for so long?

Just curious.

[pushkinswife]

Roaches

[CESpeed]

If you have documented proof that you tried to have your landlord fix the problems, then you may have a case. If you didn't, then it will be very difficult, but not impossible to win your case. Get any documentation you can from the health department that will bolster your case.