Question about rental repairs for renters (San Diego: apartment, condo, appliances)

[mandasand]

Hello,
I am renting a condo and I have noticed a few issues but I'm not sure if they are issues or not.

Are these things that can be fixed and who is responsible? Should I say anything to the owner? I have lived here since April so I've had 9 months to assess:
1. Upstairs Bathroom: The power cuts when I blow dry my hair and I have to reset the breaker. The outlet has one of those GFCI outlets. This is more recent. I don't have any new appliances or anything upstairs.
2. Upstairs toilet clogs almost every time I use it. It is a newer occurrence, two months.
3. Upstairs shower goes from cold to hot to cold during the shower.
4. Leaky facets, especially the shower - it is constantly dripping.
5. The fridge makes all these awful sounds. It doesn't get very cold. I haven't tried adjusting the setting though.
6. No hot water for the washing machine. I think there is a spout but it's not connected.

I am worried that I would be a complainer if I brought all these up, so I am wondering if there are things I should mention and some things I should just live with. I am concerned about the electric outlets cutting power though. I am also concerned about the toilet because it keeps over flowing.

I know each unit has it's own water heater and electricity. But I'm not sure if the plumbing is shared or water lines are shared.

Thanks for the insights.

[otterprods]

1. Upstairs Bathroom: The power cuts when I blow dry my hair and I have to reset the breaker. The outlet has one of those GFCI outlets. This is more recent. I don't have any new appliances or anything upstairs.
= Landlord's responsibility.
2. Upstairs toilet clogs almost every time I use it. It is a newer occurrence, two months.
= Landlord's responsibility.
3. Upstairs shower goes from cold to hot to cold during the shower.
= Landlord's responsibility.
4. Leaky facets, especially the shower - it is constantly dripping.
= Landlord's responsibility.
5. The fridge makes all these awful sounds. It doesn't get very cold. I haven't tried adjusting the setting though.
= Landlord's responsibility.
6. No hot water for the washing machine. I think there is a spout but it's not connected.
= Landlord's responsibility.

So, as you can see, it's ALL the landlord's responsibility unless it's a problem that you created since you lived there, beyond just normal wear and tear. That said, it's probably not worth bringing them all up at once in one big laundry list. Some of them may not be realistically fixable by him (e.g. #3) and others may not be worth the expense (e.g. 1, 5). So he would probably just say no and there's not much you could do about it short of threatening to leave, which could end up really working against you. But some of the other things sound like totally reasonable requests. (e.g. 2, 4 and especially #6). He has a certain amount of responsibility to keep his property in decent condition. If he refuses to do things like snake out your toilet, replace some o-ringss, or hook up the washer properly, then he's probably letting other, more serious things go too, which you may discover the hard way over time. In that case, I'd suggest finding a new place when you can. But if he's willing to do those other things and then says, "What else?" that's maybe when you bust out the list.

[cruitr]

In contrast to otterprods, I'd submit your entire laundry list of problems right now. The longer you wait to submit these problems, the more likely your landlord will say 'you broke it, you fix it.'

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by cruitr

In contrast to otterprods, I'd submit your entire laundry list of problems right now. The longer you wait to submit these problems, the more likely your landlord will say 'you broke it, you fix it.'

All I'm saying is choose to your battles if needed and try to get the most important things fixed first. But if you don't think any of it will be a battle and he's good about fixing things, then by all means send him the whole list. Which is why I said:

Originally Posted by otterprods

it's ALL the landlord's responsibility unless it's a problem that you created since you lived there, beyond just normal wear and tear.

[mandasand]

Thanks all. I have been living with most of these problems for a while, except the fuse thing and the recent toilet clog.

I think I will write her an email and request the items be looked at. I hope she will be understanding.

[Pedro2000]

There are a lot of landlords who should never be landlords. You could even call them slumlords, but they really aren't that bad of a person or people, they just aren't really landlords. More like somebody who got a few bucks, had a dead husband/father/mother/grandparent and so on and figured they could make some extra money by renting it out.

In big cities there are a ton of slumlords, crappy places, cockroach infested places and so on. There are a ton of those people in San Diego as well. I lived in a few places over the years where the cockroach problem was blamed on one tenant. Except it got so bad that there probably were a million cockroaches just walking into the hallway. There were cockroaches in the laundry room. It was disgusting. And the landlord was never around and who the hell knows if the guy really existed. He had some drugged out manager take requests and you could complain to that person, but other than that, the landlord never came to visit. Hell I imagine if he did a lot of people would have probably buried the guy in his own cockroach hell.

I lived in another place where the laundry room had 4 washers and 4 dryers. Well 1 of those washers were out of service the entire year I lived there. Another washer barely worked and you had to bang on it to even get it to work. And that's after paying 1.25 for one small load. People used to spray paint SLUMLORD on the laundry room walls and the property manager used to get pissed. She was a nice old lady, but she was getting free rent or something and never really fixed anything. My fridge was some 20 year old piece of crap and just stopped working. She tried to say I put to much things in the freezer and it leaked and blah blah. I never even ate at home or was home at that point so there was nothing in the damn fridge. She did help me get a 'new' fridge though. Or more like there was a tenant who left down the all and she had somebody move my fridge out and replaced it with another 20 year old fridge from the empty apartment. The 'new' fridge worked, but I left before that thing would have been broken down.

In all honesty, sometimes it's better to rent from the big corporate buildings because you can complain, they usually fix things or have real handymen or contractors, they have real employees and managers and so on. Does it always work out that well? No, but in my opinion, its the luck of the draw when you rent from some individual who either is a dirtball or is a person who has no clue about being a landlord and doesn't want to, they just want the extra income. And in many places like San Diego, they don't need to fix things because if you leave, somebody else will move in right after you.

[bloom]

When did you move in?
Address all now (except maybe you can find a fix for #1) especially if you just moved in. #2-6 are essential issues. Spreading this out over months will make you seem more a complainer than this bolus now. Your list does not include any trivial items, to be labeled a complainer.

[Pedro2000]

It all depends on your landlord and/or property manager.

1. Upstairs Bathroom: The power cuts when I blow dry my hair and I have to reset the breaker. The outlet has one of those GFCI outlets. This is more recent. I don't have any new appliances or anything upstairs.

--- If it's an older building, you are out of luck. You are going to have to find a different outlet or not use the blow dryer in there. Some buildings just have old wiring and the landlord won't rewire the entire building because a tenant or tenants have issues with a blow dryer. Bring it up to them, but don't expect much change if it's an old building.

2. Upstairs toilet clogs almost every time I use it. It is a newer occurrence, two months.

-- This depends on how long you've lived there. If you've been there for awhile, landlord is going to blame you for clogging toilet. Call a plumber, etc because this would come out as complaining and most landlords are going to blame you for a clogged toilet if you have lived there for awhile.

3. Upstairs shower goes from cold to hot to cold during the shower.

-- Depends. I've lived in many buildings where if somebody upstairs was taking a shower, it would get cold or hot.
If you have a hot water heater in your building, take a look at that, call somebody to check it out, and if it needs to be replaced, then Tell the Landlord. That is their problem. But if it's a complex where the hot water isn't in each apartment or condo, it might just be old pipes, an old heater, etc and if everybody complains, maybe something will get done, if it's just you, then nothing will be done.



4. Leaky facets, especially the shower - it is constantly dripping.

-- Depends on how bad it is. If it's loud and annoying all day, it's wasting water so complain to the Landlord.

5. The fridge makes all these awful sounds. It doesn't get very cold. I haven't tried adjusting the setting though.

-- Adjust the settings, try and get it to work on your own and see what happens. If it still sucks, complain to the Landlord that your fridge is on the fritz and doesn't work right.


6. No hot water for the washing machine. I think there is a spout but it's not connected.

-- Did your place come with a washer and dryer? If so, try and figure out how to hook it up and hook it up yourself.

Always try to get things working on your own and then when things aren't working, complain.

[otterprods]

Great response by Pedro. They realy all have to be reported and prioritized separately. Just saying, make that <<whatever>> fix 'em! is oversimplifying and doesn't take into account things like the seriousness of each issue, state of the building itself, disposition of the landlord… etc.

That's why I said you may need to choose your battles if he/she is not really eager to fix everything in one maintenance spree. People can give some decent advice here sometimes, but most don't take the time to read previous posts, much less think about what your individual circumstances may be. So take it all with a grain of salt and take the time to read the more thoughtful ones, like Pedro's.

The only thing I would add/modify to his response that you should only attempt the work yourself if you can do so with a reasonable level of competence and decent tools. If you go in there with a pair of vice grips and a butter knife and strip everything out or otherwise damage it then your landlord will be able to blame you for everything even though it may have been broken before you broke it more.

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by otterprods

...
The only thing I would add/modify to his response that you should only attempt the work yourself if you can do so with a reasonable level of competence and decent tools. If you go in there with a pair of vice grips and a butter knife and strip everything out or otherwise damage it then your landlord will be able to blame you for everything even though it may have been broken before you broke it more.

I would suggest that even if you have a reasonable level of competence and decent tools, do not go in there until *after* you discuss it with your landlord and obtain consent. Your landlord may not want to fix unessential things, but you may be able to come to an agreement that your landlord will permit you to fix those things. You might even be able to negotiate some rent relief if you may some repairs.