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quote: "Are you serious? The OP pays rent just so he/she doesn't have to deal with this kind of crap himself/herself."
Under ordinary circumstances, yes- you pay rent so you don't have to do repairs. This is not that situation. It was an emergency due to a natural disaster and a tenant is obligated to mitigate damages if possible. If the house is deemed habitable, he is obligated to continue to paying rent. To tell him to just move out is irresponsible in terms of his future obligations and his credit.
My advice was to give him one way to stay in the house in the interim. Perhaps the landlord will find someone within the legal time period to do the cleanup.
All mold is not toxic!!! Don't you ever clean mold out of your bathroom?? If he moves out, the tenant will have to prove toxic mold in court. If he loses, he will pay.
Tenants make a lot of unfounded assumptions about their rights versus the landlord's- believe me I am in the business. You don't always need a lawyer, you just need to read the statutes for your state.
It was an emergency due to a natural disaster and a tenant is obligated to mitigate damages if possible.
The tenant does not have to effect repairs. The duty to mitigate damages in the context of a lease usually refers to the landlord being required to re-rent the unit in the case of the tenant abandoning the property; it has nothing to do with damage to the property.
Quote:
If the house is deemed habitable, he is obligated to continue to paying rent. To tell him to just move out is irresponsible in terms of his future obligations and his credit.
The tenant has already decided the house is not habitable. Is he supposed to just keep paying rent for a place he can't live in because he's afraid of the damage to his credit rating if the case should come down against him?
Quote:
All mold is not toxic!!! Don't you ever clean mold out of your bathroom?? If he moves out, the tenant will have to prove toxic mold in court. If he loses, he will pay.
The mold doesn't have to be toxic to violate the warrant of habitability. A unit which reeks of mold is not the same as having some mold in the bathroom.
If I were in the tenant's shoes, and were committed to the idea of withholding rent (whether or not that's justified in this situation), I would put the rent money in escrow ASAP. If you go to court, this will demonstrate that you're not simply a deadbeat tenant trying to find a quick way out of paying your rent, but that you withheld the rent because you felt there was a breach of the lease contract.
I don't think she said anyhting about being committed to withholding rent, she asked if she could break the lease a month early IF the home is inhabitable. I don't know the answer, I'm afraid!
I am wondering if the tenant was the owner and they could not get anybody to make immediate repairs would they just move out or would they roll up their sleeves and do what was necessary to get the problem resolved.
I remember many years ago bailing out the basement of our flooded apt. for 12 hrs. I never sent a bill to the landlord. It was my home.
I am wondering if the tenant was the owner and they could not get anybody to make immediate repairs would they just move out or would they roll up their sleeves and do what was necessary to get the problem resolved.
If the tenant was the owner they wouldn't be a tenant. Different sets of responsibilities.
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