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Don't attempt a self-fix until you send the list to the landlord, in writing.
Short anecdote: the gas water heater in our rental home was making noise, it was plain it needed to be flushed. So I flushed it without incident. Simple. A few weeks later an old part on top portion of the water heater failed (overflow safety regulator), having nothing to do with my prior heater flush. But of course when the plumber comes out to fix the failed part, one of the things the plumber and landlord discussed was the fact I had said I flushed it a few weeks ago. Then the obligatory conversation about whether I my actions had anything to do with the failed valve. In the end the plumber said no, but you could hear the gears whirring, if there was some way to pin the valve failure on me, and thus the repair.
But that is society today, you can't do a damn thing without someone looking to assign liability or blame. I don't like saying it, but the best course is to attempt no repairs, lest you get blamed for failures. Now, I don't lift a finger to fix anything in this house. Any problems, I call the property manager. Landlord can pay for it, and I no longer care.
Don't attempt a self-fix until you send the list to the landlord, in writing.
Short anecdote: the gas water heater in our rental home was making noise, it was plain it needed to be flushed. So I flushed it without incident. Simple. A few weeks later an old part on top portion of the water heater failed (overflow safety regulator), having nothing to do with my prior heater flush. But of course when the plumber comes out to fix the failed part, one of the things the plumber and landlord discussed was the fact I had said I flushed it a few weeks ago. Then the obligatory conversation about whether I my actions had anything to do with the failed valve. In the end the plumber said no, but you could hear the gears whirring, if there was some way to pin the valve failure on me, and thus the repair.
But that is society today, you can't do a damn thing without someone looking to assign liability or blame. I don't like saying it, but the best course is to attempt no repairs, lest you get blamed for failures. Now, I don't lift a finger to fix anything in this house. Any problems, I call the property manager. Landlord can pay for it, and I no longer care.
i agree, but I've also lived in many places where the landlord was never around and the property manager gave you the run around and lame excuses. For certain things I do agree that it's better to report it and hope they try and fix it. But other things, if you have any know how, it's probably better to do it yourself.
I had similar blow dry issues with an ex. She would plug it in and it blew out all the fuses. The big problem was it was an older building that wasn't built well to begin with, so the fuse boxes and everything wasn't in the apartments. It was out behind the building along the back wall and it was a pain to get to. So if you blew out a fuse, you had to contact the property manager wait, and then have her flip things back on or reset them. Or call somebody to fix it. I eventually just started to unlock the damn back gate and started resetting it myself if a fuse blew or something. I mean there were times I'd wait hours for the property manager. And hours with no electricity is a problem.
I lived in some other place where the electrical outlets sucked. You would plug in something and it just fell out or wouldn't even turn on. The landlord was cheap(aka cheap as in she still had the original windows in the damn place since the 1960s. Windows that shook if you just opened the door. And talk about not giving you any insulation. Anyway, it was a pain in the behind to have most of the outlets barely working and the landlord making excuses. So i went about and replaced all of them myself. New outlets, more protection, resets for the bathroom and kitchen, and more. I replaced some of the fuses in that place and so on. I was never going to get reimbursed for any of that, but if I'm living in a place for a year and the landlord is pretty much a cheapskate who never returns your calls, I might as well make it as livable as possible.
I lived in another place where the washer and dryer sucked and the landlord told me that if they broke, it wasn't her problem. So a month into that lease and those damn things were useless. I went out and bought a new set myself.
Sometimes you have to know your property manager and landlord, know your limits, and know what you're willing to spend and where you're willing to live. If you know the landlord hates people complaining about the place and is more on the cheap side of things or on the "never gets back to you" then you have to look at it as you live there, so what are you willing to put up with and what are you willing to replace? If you have a year lease and another 10 months left, sometimes it's worth it to replace a few things that make your life easier.
Thanks for the replies. It is not a property manager, but I rented the condo from the owner. The complex is not a rental property. There are renters there, but they are renting from private owners or owners that contract with a property manager. I have lived there since April. There has been a lot of issues with this place when I moved in. I won't go into detail. But, it was filthy and I did threaten to not move in. The landlord made some concessions and the disgusting pee carpet was replaced and some other minor things fixed. Her parents said it was spotless after the other tenant moved out, but my mom and I spent two full days cleaning. Repairs that were made were done half-ass by her dad. Any issues I had with this place I documented.
It was built in the 70s. It's unbearably cold in the winter and unbearably hot in the summer. There is a heater in the unit but it doesn't do anything. The water heater is not shared. Everything is pretty much original except there is laminate flooring downstairs and the appliances are more up to date. I will not make any repairs myself. That is why I pay rent. The landlord needs to take care of issues I have. And, I didn't break the toilet. It is old and the plumbing in the unit sucks. If a tenant lives in a place for a year and something happens with an appliance or plumbing, is it the tenants responsibility or the landlord?
It is probably my fault for not finding a landlord that is actually a landlord. This place was just supposed to be a transitional place until my husband can join me next year, then we will buy or lease a single family home. We have to sell our home in NorCal first.
"If a tenant lives in a place for a year and something happens with an appliance or plumbing, is it the tenants responsibility or the landlord?"
Plumbing is the owner/landlord's responsibility. Unless the plumbing damage can be attributed to tenant abuse.
Appliance repair depends on the text in your written lease agreement. If the lease agreement does not mention appliances, the tenant is usually responsible for appliance repair.
In San Diego, heating is a necessity. You should ask the owner to repair or replace your heater right away.
I have considered doing some projects on my own to make it a little more comfortable, like painting the walls (they never painted, just Spackle over the holes, so there are all these white dots on the walls). I also thought about getting one of those grout repair kits and sprucing up the countertops. I decided that since I pay a whopping $1650 a month, I wasn't going to spend any of my own money to improve a place the landlord should be improving. The complex is small, and I would say 80% of the units have been updated. The one next door is so nice, granite, new appliances, updated heating system, etc. But, this is not a rental unit. Many owners have replaced the windows and remodeled from top to bottom.
There is a condo for rent next door for me. They are charging $1500. My husband said we'll be wiser next time.
"If a tenant lives in a place for a year and something happens with an appliance or plumbing, is it the tenants responsibility or the landlord?"
Plumbing is the owner/landlord's responsibility. Unless the plumbing damage can be attributed to tenant abuse.
Appliance repair depends on the text in your written lease agreement. If the lease agreement does not mention appliances, the tenant is usually responsible for appliance repair.
In San Diego, heating is a necessity. You should ask the owner to repair or replace your heater right away.
Thanks for the info. I do not believe I damaged the plumbing, so I will have to raise the issue and see what she says.
I will also say something about the heat. I'm like an icicle.
Many of your issues are the responsibility of the landlord. But as somebody else said you need to pick your battles. You already see that it's a private owner who keeps things on the cheap. AKA has their dad fix things. Throws some plaster on a wall and covers it and calls that painting. Anyway this is your landlord and in all honesty, these people exist all over San Diego.
Like I said there are far to many people in San Diego who shouldn't be landlords. And in San Diego, $1650 is pretty much a common thing. Hell that's on the cheap side of things in many areas. As far as the heater, I don't know, I'm from the Northeast US, so even this week I'm in shorts. Yes it has gotten a little chilly, but 45-55 isn't heater weather for me. And I've never had AC since I've been in San Diego. It saves a hell of a lot on electricity, but if you need heat, you need heat. So complain.
At the end of the day the issue is they might not do a damn thing about it. And you can complain some more, file complaints even, but most of the time nothing happens. YOu move out, somebody else moves in. The cycle continues in a place like San diego. There are many dumps for over $1500 in San diego. And far to many a-hole slumlord landlords who shouldn't really be landlords. You can always threaten to move out, take them to court, etc, but at the end of the day it' s not always easy to get out of a lease, some of these crappy landlords are friends with the courts.
Years ago, I moved out of a place and the landlord refused to give me my security deposit back. Claimed he had to spend thousands painting the walls. I barley was in that damn place as I was working all the time or traveling for work all the time. But he complained about little tacks for paintings or something. I never had paintings, still dont' have paintings to this day. Not my thing. Anyway, it went on for months, I even had a friend of mine who is a lawyer write up legal documents and everything. He even called the guy on the phone. For a long time he ignored me. It sucked because I also moved out of state at that point. I was living in Miami and fighting for $1K was a pain.
Long story short, turns out this guy was doing this to everybody. Except most people didn't fight it. They didn't care to fight it. Hell, I would have just said screw it, not worth it to fly back just to go to some small claims court and wind up getting 900 bucks, spending 500 bucks on a plane ticket and 100 bucks on a hotel. But my ex was one of those "fight for a point" kind of people and never really saw it as a money thing. So she finally got like 900 bucks back almost a year later as the guy kept rescheduling court dates, making up excuses, even had an attitude in court with the Judge after he lost.
Anyway, sometimes you have to look at what is worth fighting for and what isn't. Complain, try to get things fixed, but at the end of the day, your landlord might just not give a crap to do any of it or is just a cheap a-hole. You can threaten to move out and wind up in court and trying to prove you didn't clog the toilet. Can you get out of a lease because the heater doesn't work? Maybe. Can you get out of a lease because your blow dryer keeps killing the electrical outlet? No, a judge is going to tell you to buy a better blow dryer or stop using it.
I'm not looking to move out before the lease is up and even though she's on the cheap side I don't think she'll hold my deposit. I also don't think she has bad intentions. She knows I'm taking care of the place. I am a little nervous about bringing up these issues with her because I haven't requested anything except for the issues when I moved in.
Depending on when my hubby is able to get down here, we may try and see if we can get out of the lease a month or two early. There would be no problem renting this place out - she had 5 applications out when I rented it.
I know $1650 is not expensive for a 2 bedroom near the water. But it's sticker shock from where I came from.
No way should you call a plumber to look at stuff, That will just make the LL mad.
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