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Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke
Because Section 8 housing is so difficult to find, it is foolish for a Section 8 tenant who has secured a house to aggravate the landlord. There is no guarantee that another place will ever come available if you have to move.
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There is no requirement that a LL may treat a section 8 tenant in such a capricious manner. A lack of financial resources does not somehow make an individual "lesser" or deserving of harsh treatment.
I refuse to back down in the face of tactics that a bully on the school playground might employ. You have no right to inform me or anyone else for that matter that I should act against my own integrity.
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Water included means household water. It does not mean water to spread all over the ground. The Section 8 landlord is not required to provider irrigation water included in the rent.
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Your psychic lease reading abilities have failed you. The lease states "water." It does not specify what type of water, nor does it specify whether a tenant may or may not care for the yard in a rental in a middle class neighborhood surrounded by homeowners who keep nice yards and exteriors.
Had the LL wished to amend the lease in this regard either way, he had the opportunity to do so for 4 years. He did not avail himself of this option.
In addition, if the LL wished to cover the cost of a utility increase, he had the option of giving 30 days notice of an increase in rent due to an increase in water rates. This action would have been:
1) Legal
2) Acceptable to the HA, as well as to tenants
3) An easy resolution that would have solved the problem before it ever even happened.
If the LL did not exercise his right to up the lease to cover his utilities, no tenant can be blamed for his decision. BILLING a tenant for his own inaction is ludicrous.
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If you had thought things through more carefully, you would have paid the extra water bill and stopped watering the yard. The extra water bill would have been a one time thing and you would still have a place to live.
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Once again, your psychic abilities have failed you. You make assumptions about events I never mentioned in my OP:
1) See above
2) I did offer to pay an additional fee in the summer for water when the LL expressed concern about the water bill in May. He never communicated further with me in regard to water bills until August 8th.
I have been a responsible tenant in the face of an impossible situation and an absentee landlord who cannot reconcile his own accounts as shown by the copies of his own book-keeping that he has seen fit to provide me with.
ALL YOU BOARD MEMBERS WHO HAVE DECIDED TO STAND IN JUDGEMENT NEED TO READ THE FOLLOWING:
I live in a four-plex with a SINGLE water meter for FOUR units. The LL never appointed me to be site manager and monitor the activites of other tenants, including a family with 3 small children who go largely unsupervised and like to play with the water spigots on both the front and the rear of this building.
Over Memorial Day weekend, SOMEONE who was NOT me broke off one of the water spigots and it began gushing water nonstop. EVERY OTHER tenant except me was indifferent to the situation. Two didn't notice it, the third didn't care. I called the LL and got his voice mail, so I left him a message on his voice mail. Twenty-four hours later the water was still running and the LL had made no return call to me nor did he send anyone out to fix the spigot.
I rigged up a half-assed fix with a garden hose, soaking myself in the process. This decreased the flow but did not stop it. I left a SECOND message on the LL's voicemail. He did not return my call, but he did send out some incompetant repairman who went around the back and replaced two spigots that were perfectly well working, ignored he spigot out front that was
still gushing water and drove off.
I called the LL a THIRD time and left a message on his voicemail. No return call, but the incompetant returned the next afternoon and
finally fixed the problem.
I never once so much as heard a "boo" out of LL until he sent me a bill on Aug 8 holding
me accountable for the water over-charge stemming from the fact that the final day of the water break was May 29, but included in the June bill.
The LL is somehow trying to make me responsible for the fact that he is a lazy, indifferent slumlord who doesn't keep on top of property maintenance.
You people all make these assumptions that I'm just some stupid low life who deserves to be kicked around because I'm on Section 8 when nothing could be more wrong.
Bottom line, this as much as anything else is why I am standing my ground and fighting this absurd billing and the LL's thoughtless and prejudicial attitudes which are no different than the ones expressed to me by you and some other people on this board.
I have as much right to fair treatment as anyone else. The LL doesn't have the right to deprive me of my housing just because I put in xeriscaping and informed him of water gushing out from the water line to his property and out onto the street. This could have gone on for a MONTH and cost THOUSANDS of dollars.
The LL should be thanking me and even giving me free watering privileges for all of next summer. Instead he deprives me of my housing. If I'd had a crystal ball, I'd never have left him a single message. No good deed goes unpunished.
You people with your air of superiority and your assumptions disgust me. But thank you so much for the great object lesson in societal attitudes towards those who are down on their luck. I should print out this entire thread and take it with me to the lawyer's tomorrow. It's people like you who create an atmosphere which allows injustices against those who are less fortunate in our society. Every last one of you could be in my position on the roll of the dice. YOU are part of the problem, and before you post your next condescending reply to a poster in trouble, go look in the mirror.
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