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I have had a horrible experience with my private land lord. She started yelling and hanging up on the phone right after the contract was signed , and making me wait for 2 hours with no contact to give me the key, not respond to my emails and phone calls requesting the light to be fixed , and finally after my request she sends me a personal email that she was planning to send to the owner. Is there any sites, or anyone that i can report her to?????????? I will be homeless in two weeks since I gave them my leaving notice, but now I am afraid any application that I turn in to be turned down since she will say horrible lies about me. Please ANYONE that can suggest ANYTHING???
I'm seeing A LOT of generalizations regarding small time property owners on this thread. If you hate landlords so much, then control your own destiny and BUY YOUR OWN HOME - that will take care of landlord problem. Geeesh... some people.
I'm seeing A LOT of generalizations regarding small time property owners on this thread. If you hate landlords so much, then control your own destiny and BUY YOUR OWN HOME - that will take care of landlord problem. Geeesh... some people.
I think if people were able to buy a home they certainly would. A lot of people have no choice but to rent.
Odd. I had more problems with management companies and complexes than I did with private landlords. The private ones were always more repsonsive, did a better job on repairs, way more flexible with lease terms, and seemed to care. I was treated as a human more than a customer.
I rented a house from a management company that A) didn't repair a leak from the upstairs shower that was going through the floor into the landing for an entire and B) wouldn't clean the carpet that had mold growing on it from the previous tenant and C) wouldn't fix the dishwasher for an entire month. Took six phone calls.
Most likely you would have some pull if you had read your local laws. Maybe not with the DW but mold and items that are considered emergency give you some grounds to stand on if you go over the local landlord tenant laws....Maybe not but I haven't seen anywhere yet that would allow you to stay in unsafe conditions.
I have had good and bad private landlords. In dealing with the bad ones I always kept it on a business and legal level. For example, one place was really falling apart but my rent kept increasing. I wrote a polite letter to the management company after several verbal requests telling them if such and such items were not taken care of I would call the Housing Authorities. They continued to ignore me. So I went ahead and had the city building inspectors out who found plenty of violations.
The management company had no choice but to fix these things. Then they turned around and raised my rent a lot. I checked my city's landlord tenant laws and discovered this was illegal. I went to an attorney who wrote them a letter telling them they were in violation of the law. They claimed it was a "coincidence" but lowered the rent back to what I had been paying. The outcome was that I was treated far better than the other tenants because I took action. No one else would.
I also cited the landlord tenant laws when I had private landlords enter my apartment whenever they chose. One crazy landlady continued to do so even though several tenants took her to court and each time she was fined. Some people just don't learn.
I have so many stories I couldn't begin to tell them. But I always used legal recourse to fight the battles.
Now I have a great private landlord who fixes things, has bar-b-ques for his tenants in the summer and keeps the rents lower than the neighboring buildings. I knew him from his reputation in the neighborhood. His tenants had nothing but good to say about him. Finally! After years and years of renting I found a decent landlord.
I'm seeing A LOT of generalizations regarding small time property owners on this thread. If you hate landlords so much, then control your own destiny and BUY YOUR OWN HOME - that will take care of landlord problem. Geeesh... some people.
Wow, why hasn't someone else said this to me before? What I'm going to do is give my landlord 30 days notice first thing tomorrow, I have $300,000 just burning a hole in my wallet so I'll go ahead and buy a home. Thanks for helping, I never would have thought of this without someone like you.
I live in LA and I agree 100%. The landlords want you to pay their mortgage, but they never want to spend a dime on maintenance. They rarely understand the concept of basic maintenance. In California "wear and tear" is written into the civil codes, so that normal repairs which WILL be needed when human live in a place, flush toilets, walk on the floors, cook, etc. are considered part of the deal, and the landlord must make reasonable repairs.
I have stories that would make your hair stand straight out on end. The problem with most private owners is they are stupid, poor money managers, and don't consider renters "human".
Had to add to my other comment. Enforcing the civil codes and lease agreements are very difficult if you have a landlord who's a greedy a&&hole, which most of them are.
Don't worry about having the current landlord say bad things about you. Get letters of reference from friends, employers, or have someone else pose as your current landlord.
I, too, have $800,000 stuffed in a box in my closet that I just found so I can get out of this renting thing.
80% of Los Angeles rent because the real estate is so expensive here. The landlords are exploitative and ruthless to the max, and there are thousands of dangerous illegal garage conversions and slumlords that break all kinds of laws because it's hard to enforce the laws.
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