Badly need help!!!! Landlord wants to keep my security deposit.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

My point is most of my rentals are in better condition than those that don't rent. Do you want the govt. to demand you paint YOUR home every two years? I don't.

Where do we draw the line with government running our lives?

Judging by Tallysmom's profile, she is describing the law in California. I know of no provision in Pennsylvania law or the Allegheny County housing code which would require repainting every two years for painted walls.

In fact, Pennsylvania's warranty of habitability and court precedent has pretty much established habitability to be the ability of the property to be used for its intended purpose, i.e., you have to have certain things like electricity, water, sewage, heat and you need to be free from things like fire hazards, pests, toxic materials, broken windows, water damage and mold, but aesthetics are nowhere in the code.

[Hopes]

Tallysmom and Copanut are both very aware that they were talking about California law. Copanut simply went off on a Libertarian rant for the sake of discussion.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

My point is most of my rentals are in better condition than those that don't rent. Do you want the govt. to demand you paint YOUR home every two years? I don't.

Where do we draw the line with government running our lives?

But the government isn't demanding you repaint every two years. Just that you keep the rental in good habitable condition.

You sound the like the kind of person that would buy a unit or home in a good area, do the work right and keep it up.

To me -- and you -- this is a good sound business decision.

But there are a lot of landlords who have purchased low end housing in not so good areas... and treat the property low end, too. And Thank Heavens there are people out there that do this -- or the homeless problem would be HORRENDOUS.

However.... we can't write one set of laws for us and one set of laws for them -- we are a democracy.... and the laws are for us all. So they have to be somewhat encompassing.

And that means sometimes you get a law that sounds stupid... but isn't.

Like the repainting rule.

[Copanut]

I agree, T-Mom, but sometimes it just bugs the crap out of me. They only get involved when it's a rental unit. If a home on either side is owner occupied, do they enforce that law? In the govt. eyes it's OK to live like a pig if you own the house. But if you rent the owner must update, yeah, that makes sense.

What can I say, it just honks me off.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

I agree, T-Mom, but sometimes it just bugs the crap out of me. They only get involved when it's a rental unit. If a home on either side is owner occupied, do they enforce that law? In the govt. eyes it's OK to live like a pig if you own the house. But if you rent the owner must update, yeah, that makes sense.

What can I say, it just honks me off.

I have to say, in Oakland CA there are some enforceable laws about owned homes. Before the big subprime meltdown and resulting mortgage mess, it was easy to get houses tagged as blighted, and force the homeowner to keep it up to a minimal standard. With so many homes out there under foreclosure (just in my zip out of the nearly 700 homes for sale the vast majority are foreclosures), I don't think they can keep up.

If you had a big time drug house in the neighborhood there was a remedy also -- you and your neighbors EACH can sue the owner in small claims court and present your evidence -- keep a log of the noted incidents. If everyone does it, the owner will have no choice but to kick out the offender. Each person has to do it, because just winning one judgement of 7500 bucks might not mean a lot. But a lot of judgements for 7500 bucks hits him in the right place.

If it's an owner who's doing it, under zero tolerance fed laws, houses have been taken away from owners... a few big cases where the grandma was kicked out of her home and the grandsons were cooking meth -- the homes had to be demolished.

I've never had to resort to any of these things..... but I was going to this year. We had a Kawasaki bike dealer who had an burglar alarm that went off every Sunday in the AM -- and those cretins wouldn't come out to reset it until Monday start of business. I told my husband if they pulled that this year I was suing. If this were a good neighborhood there was no way this place would get away with it.

But, awwww -- he went out of business.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

In the govt. eyes it's OK to live like a pig if you own the house. But if you rent the owner must update, yeah, that makes sense.

Not, entirely, true, even in Allegheny County and Pittsburgh. Both have housing codes which apply to all dwellings, not just rental property. Although it is rare that a homeowner will be cited since homeowners rarely file complaints against themselves, it has happened, usually for unsafe or unsightly conditions.

[Hopes]

I don't know about that Joe.

Our neighborhood constantly complained and reported one neighbor.

Decades of complaining resulted in nothing. One day the house burned down.

It was bitter sweet for the neighborhood. We all felt bad for the family, but we were also glad the eyesore was gone.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Was that to the city housing authority or the county?

[Hopes]

Neighbors complained to both the township and the county.