And, when landlords lie?? (agreement, evictions, rental, security deposit)

[suzeeq521]

I keep thinking this title is "When Landlords Die"

Which, trust me, is a mess you just don't want to go through as a tenant.

Poor guy was elderly, went back to visit his homeland in Italy and never made it back.

I probably still owe that guy's estate money, but with multiple family members showing up all hours of the day & night, wanting cash or checks made out to them personally (a check for the estate would be made out to an account for the estate) and none of them able to provide the necessary paperwork (proving they represented the estate), I wasn't handing over a penny.

I asked the one nephew if he had that paperwork. He said it was in his truck, he'd go get it right then. I didn't see him again for a month!

Just moved out as quick as I could.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by suzeeq521

I keep thinking this title is "When Landlords Die"

Which, trust me, is a mess you just don't want to go through as a tenant.

Poor guy was elderly, went back to visit his homeland in Italy and never made it back.

I probably still owe that guy's estate money, but with multiple family members showing up all hours of the day & night, wanting cash or checks made out to them personally (a check for the estate would be made out to an account for the estate) and none of them able to provide the necessary paperwork (proving they represented the estate), I wasn't handing over a penny.

I asked the one nephew if he had that paperwork. He said it was in his truck, he'd go get it right then. I didn't see him again for a month!

Just moved out as quick as I could.

Yikes! That's horrible. The woman who owns this townhouse lives overseas; I hope she's in pretty good health!

[linley]

I honestly think that Landlords should have to supply the tenant with references like the tenants do the landlord. That would keep more landlords honest as well as let the tenant know what they are getting into beforehand. I once had a landlord whose son in law ( who was fresh from prison) repeatedly came in to the house with no warning. When I caught him and contacted the police and the landlord about it, she was livid, and gave me a notice to move. Fantastic. Wish I had known beforehand what kind of situation I was getting into there!!!

[manderly6]

Originally Posted by linley

I honestly think that Landlords should have to supply the tenant with references like the tenants do the landlord. That would keep more landlords honest as well as let the tenant know what they are getting into beforehand. I once had a landlord whose son in law ( who was fresh from prison) repeatedly came in to the house with no warning. When I caught him and contacted the police and the landlord about it, she was livid, and gave me a notice to move. Fantastic. Wish I had known beforehand what kind of situation I was getting into there!!!

You can ask for anything you want before signing a lease.

[snowmountains]

Originally Posted by suzeeq521

I keep thinking this title is "When Landlords Die"

Which, trust me, is a mess you just don't want to go through as a tenant.

Wow, that kind of thing never occurred to me! Sounds like this old guy didn't have a will or had one that was not properly executed. The same could happen to a tenant, couldn't it?

[Touchette]

Originally Posted by ssww

Wow, that kind of thing never occurred to me! Sounds like this old guy didn't have a will or had one that was not properly executed. The same could happen to a tenant, couldn't it?

That's not really a question for this thread, instances of death of a tenant, but the short answer is yes.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by linley

I honestly think that Landlords should have to supply the tenant with references like the tenants do the landlord. That would keep more landlords honest as well as let the tenant know what they are getting into beforehand. I once had a landlord whose son in law ( who was fresh from prison) repeatedly came in to the house with no warning. When I caught him and contacted the police and the landlord about it, she was livid, and gave me a notice to move. Fantastic. Wish I had known beforehand what kind of situation I was getting into there!!!

Retaliatory Eviction is illegal in my State and the penalty can be severe and punitive damages may be awarded.

I would have held my ground and believe any lawyer representing your landlord would have counseled your landlord to reconsider... at least this is way it works in California.

Almost all of my tenants are by referral from current or previous tenants and I have two repeat tenants currently that went the Home Owner route in 2006-07 and no longer own... so in effect my references are my advertising.

[jdm2008]

There is plenty of due dillegence that you can on your landlord before renting. You can look up when your landlord has been in court? Has he ever lost a case and had to pay treble damages or is he sued by tenants excessively(if so time to move on...) look for arrests, restraining orders, evictions(for other than non payment) that are thrown out of court etc. Ask pointed questions(why did the last tenant leave)? Look for violations and complaints with the health department If the apartment is occupied ask the landlord for a few minutes to speak to the tenant in private(watch for the landlord's reaction). If there are obvious maintenance issues ask if the landlord had been asked to fix that before. Ask how many security deposits he's deducted from in the past 2-3 years. If he says to many to remember, or all of them then time to move on....Yes he can lie but the questions should catch him somewhat off guard and you might be able to pick up lies. For the most part these questions eliminate landlords not justify that they are ok....
If you really want to go crazy look online for the purchase price of the building and from your unit's rent deduce the others unit rent, do this for all the landlords buildings, and try to get a rough picture of whether the landlord can afford maintenance.
No application form necessary....I would bet most tenants don't go through all this..I know I don't(some of it yes), but not enough information really isn't an excuse for getting duped.

[WannaliveinGreenville]

This thread is from 2007. * But * good advice still applies

[NotLivinInSafeHome]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Retaliatory Eviction is illegal in my State and the penalty can be severe and punitive damages may be awarded.

I would have held my ground and believe any lawyer representing your landlord would have counseled your landlord to reconsider... at least this is way it works in California.

Almost all of my tenants are by referral from current or previous tenants and I have two repeat tenants currently that went the Home Owner route in 2006-07 and no longer own... so in effect my references are my advertising.

We wrote a letter via e-mail to the landlord's e-mail addy telling him our pet got bit by a snake, and the landlord knew there were snakes coming close to the house. We wrote them a postcard back in June, after I went outside and thought I saw a dog leash on the ground, it was so flat and long. Turns out, it was a live snake! Right near our back steps!
So, we wrote a postcard, askign them to at least send us money to buy a product you can use to prevent Snakes from coming near your house.
The landlord is a cheapskate and has often put our safety and our lives in danger. There's a big tree, that was about to fall, when we first moved here. The tree, while several feet from the house, the landlord, kept saying that he himself was afraid it would fall on him when he walked near it.
Did he do a thing about taking it down though? Nope! When it fell, it fell only a few feet from the only outside water spigot out in the yard. So, he actually saved himself at least $1000 by not taking the tree down, but put me & my pets' life in danger for over a year! I was so afraid for our cat, that they'd crawl over there and have the tree fall on them!
So, when we talked to the landlord on the phone, this summer, told them about the snake, their response was, "well, if you don't like the snakes coming near the house, just move out!"
He didn't even give a fig, he was putting our safety at risk! Our poor pet came inside and we noticed a huge half dollar shaped wound on their leg. We never let our pet go roaming, not our dogs anyway, and he's always with us, when we go for a walk.
However, there's thick woods only about 15 feet from the back door and That was exactly where I saw the snake coming up to the back door, and where our pet gets put out.
I had begged him to do something about the snakes back in late October 2009, after a poisonous looking snake started to chase me, when I was mowing the lawn!
Again, he wudn't cut all the 3 foot long grass that surrounded our yard, though that was also his property and asserted that, "Oh, it's "good" there's snakes in the yard, they'll take care of rodents!"
Well, for god's sake, we didn't even have a problem with rodents. Our problem was with snakes, but I couldn't get him to mow that 3 foot tall grass for over 2 1/2 months!
It cost us over $75 to take our pet to the vet and get treated for that wound, for it started to get very inflamed and infected. It's still bothering him to some degree, to this day, and I really should have taken him back a 2nd time but couldn't afford it.
We looked up our state laws and it states that the landlord is supposed to maintain a safe, habitable home in the N.C. area, but he won't do so. So we took it off the rent, then he claimed to small claims court, that we didn't pay the rent at all! We did the rent, only we paid about $100 less or so, because there was other stuff we were forced to buy, just to keep alive!
This house is like a jungle, even though we are in the city limits. There's nothing he's willing to do, to keep us safe, nothing! He wouldnt' even call an exterminator, but when I did, he got really angry, saying, "Oh, I wish you didn't call an exterminator", like he wants to keep secret all the problems this house presents to us, the renters.
I'm also afraid someone is going to get hurt, so I've complained to him a number of times, in writing, but I think he just throws all my letters in the trash and doesn't even bother to read them.
We had wasps out near the back door porch, right next to back door. He was sent an e-mail that also told him we had wasps near garage too, but he didn't bother to finish reading even the subject line, telling him to check the garage too.
Everytime we went to get our lawn mower out, we had to worry about being attacked by flying insects and we're highly allergic to these insects too!
God, this guy acts like he's got some God Given Right to endanger his tenants' lives.
I don't knwo what to do. I doubt our city building inspectors will do anything. I've heard many horror stories about even businesses whose landlords wouldn't fix anything for months, and they were forced to move out!
I guess I could contact the attorney general, couldn't I?
Could I take him to small claims court, and get back all the money we've been forced to spend, because he won't fix something and that ends up costing us alot of money, not to mention aggravation, and just a lot of stress!
We're disabled too and we don't need any more health problems.
We've paid the rent for years on time, in full, but he refused to give us a reference, saying he'd do that after we moved out!
What good is that going to do us? Are we supposed to drive around for weeks at a time, renting a moving truck and staying in a motel?
This landlord has cost us hundreds & hundreds of dollars and is destroying our health too.
What do we do? Where do we file a complaint?