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Preface: Moved into new apartment on November 1st, 2011. Since then, I have had to make the following maintenance requests:
1. Window in living room does not close (reported 11/2/11 - has never been repaired)
2. Water leaking in bedroom (reported 11/7/11 - will explain below)
3. HVAC unit on roof cycling on and off every 10 seconds all night, loud enough to vibrate the house (reported 12/22/11 - fixed 2/12/12 - 52 days)
4. Bugs on windows and in bedroom (reported 12/22/11 - exterminator called on 1/4/12)
5. Water leaking in living room (reported 12/29/11 - will explain below)
6. Window molding fell off onto floor (reported 1/13/12 - has never been repaired, did it ourselves)
7. Furnace doesn't work (reported 1/13/12 - has never been repaired)
8. Air conditioning doesn't work (reported 3/16/12 - has not been fixed)
9. HVAC unit appears to blow sewage smell into apartment when fan or AC is on (reported 3/18/12 - has not been fixed)
10. Floors are slick enough that it feels like walking on ice due to construction (reported 3/21/12 - has not been fixed)
The most important thing I want to focus on is the water leaking. It appears to be that the building is not letting out moisture, so the condensation builds up in the apartment and in the early morning it basically rains in here. To resolve this, we have had maintenance in our unit to replace each skylight, to insulate the pipes (exposed ceiling), to measure humidity levels, to adjust the height of the ceiling fans. Their last effort at this was to staple plastic sheeting to the exposed beam ceiling and then nail up sheets of what appears to be paneling of some sort -- which can't be up to code.
When I add these events up, my math shows that since November 1st we have had maintenance in our building on 47 separate days. In addition, seven of those days we had scaffolding in our apartment -- which is only about 700 sqft, so there's not much room to move in the first place -- and construction workers in here eight hours a day.
I understand they want to stop the problems with the building but apparently this is happening in nearly every unit (16 units total) and we're all totally fed up with it.
At what point do we basically say "look, you need to relocate us somewhere else"? Is there legally anything we can do about this? Would this violate the covenant of quiet enjoyment, even though they are for maintenance problems and we are the ones reporting them?
Yes, that is extremely excessive & I have no idea who or what dept you'd call to find out the legalities of it all since I've never lived in an apt before.
How old is this complex?
Ironically on another discussion board I belong to, I started a thread about reading apt reviews on how a certain corporation that owns a lot of the apts in my area have maintenance eployees that enter peoples' apts WITHOUT notice. Someone said how they were in their shower, came out front & 2 maintenance guys were standing in the apt & scared the heck out of her. There's other stories I've read just like that. I have no idea how they can legally do that, which I know is slightly different than what you're asking here.
The complex is less than two years old, but it's a "historic" building that was renovated into luxury lofts. Except the kind of luxury lofts that leak water onto all your stuff and have HVAC units that don't work and keep you up all night. The building itself is, I believe, from the late 1800s.
I'm trying to research every possible angle, but it seems like the best one is that the building literally should be condemned. Two people on our floor have had mold problems already, and putting up a second ceiling is not going to stop moisture -- it's just going to build up above the plastic sheeting and cause mold!
I've tried contacting the building inspector for the city and the person had absolutely no desire to come check it out, which made me wonder a bit.
Property management has told me flat out that they will not move us to another unit or even allow us to transfer to another one. They have reduced our rent slightly but did not offer any compensation for the months we paid in full despite the problems. I know at least one tenant is paying into escrow and we are looking into that option as well.
It sucks because the place is less than a mile from my job and is the right size and price for us... but when you wake up at 4 AM to water leaking on your face, it really puts a damper on your mood!
do you have a 1 year lease? If you really want to get out of your lease, talk to a local attorney. And read your state landlord tenant law. I think you might have grounds to break the lease and not owe future rent. But an attorney really needs to guide you and it might be best for an attorney to assist with your notice to move that you send to your landlord about breaking the lease and referring to the law about it.
also take photos if this ever goes to court...would mainly go to court if you break the lease and they try to charge you the remainder of the rent until lease term if they don't fund another tenent.
It sounds like they are needing to do major renovation work, but aren't willing to take the downtime on rents, so they just let someone move in and then do the work around them.
There might be additional avenues available to you since the property is classified as historic. Have you contacted the local board for the preservation of historic buildings? I bet they would be interested in the poor condition. And they might even have enough clout to do something about it.
Our biggest issue with simply breaking lease and moving is that it will entail starting a lease somewhere else. We weren't planning on being in this area for another full year, and it's very difficult to find 6-month places in this area. I also fully believe that we should be reimbursed for the time we have not been able to utilize our apartment.
It's close to work, it's walkable to downtown area for restaurants and bars... everything's great except the stupid building itself.
Preface: Moved into new apartment on November 1st, 2011. Since then, I have had to make the following maintenance requests:
1. Window in living room does not close (reported 11/2/11 - has never been repaired)
2. Water leaking in bedroom (reported 11/7/11 - will explain below)
3. HVAC unit on roof cycling on and off every 10 seconds all night, loud enough to vibrate the house (reported 12/22/11 - fixed 2/12/12 - 52 days)
4. Bugs on windows and in bedroom (reported 12/22/11 - exterminator called on 1/4/12)
5. Water leaking in living room (reported 12/29/11 - will explain below)
6. Window molding fell off onto floor (reported 1/13/12 - has never been repaired, did it ourselves)
7. Furnace doesn't work (reported 1/13/12 - has never been repaired)
8. Air conditioning doesn't work (reported 3/16/12 - has not been fixed)
9. HVAC unit appears to blow sewage smell into apartment when fan or AC is on (reported 3/18/12 - has not been fixed)
10. Floors are slick enough that it feels like walking on ice due to construction (reported 3/21/12 - has not been fixed)
The most important thing I want to focus on is the water leaking. It appears to be that the building is not letting out moisture, so the condensation builds up in the apartment and in the early morning it basically rains in here. To resolve this, we have had maintenance in our unit to replace each skylight, to insulate the pipes (exposed ceiling), to measure humidity levels, to adjust the height of the ceiling fans. Their last effort at this was to staple plastic sheeting to the exposed beam ceiling and then nail up sheets of what appears to be paneling of some sort -- which can't be up to code.
When I add these events up, my math shows that since November 1st we have had maintenance in our building on 47 separate days. In addition, seven of those days we had scaffolding in our apartment -- which is only about 700 sqft, so there's not much room to move in the first place -- and construction workers in here eight hours a day.
I understand they want to stop the problems with the building but apparently this is happening in nearly every unit (16 units total) and we're all totally fed up with it.
At what point do we basically say "look, you need to relocate us somewhere else"? Is there legally anything we can do about this? Would this violate the covenant of quiet enjoyment, even though they are for maintenance problems and we are the ones reporting them?
This is in Virginia if it matters.
Thanks everyone!
Why are you waiting for them to make that decision. Gees.........get on it.
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