Desperate for help with my shifty slumlord. What can I do?

Question

The home was badly vandalized when I found it and I got most of the deposit knocked of by replacing much of the drywall and painting it myself. All the upstairs windows were broken and the banister/railing was ripped out. He said he would replace them once I fixed the walls. Well, he just hired a guy to install cheap storm windows. Not real windows at all. They are just nailed to the outside window frames and offer almost no insulation. And they are already falling apart after a year. And he never replaced the banister/railing, so I just have a gaping hole in my floor just waiting for me to fall and break my neck. There are many other horrific problems and he will do nothing. I even I thought of calling the local housing inspector, but I'm afraid they might condemn the house or something. It's a gorgeous house with a huge yard and we would hate to lose it, but it's impossible to heat when it gets down to 10 below! It's quite a canundrum and he has us bent over a barrel and he knows it

Answer 1

sometimes you have to do things yourself if you want things a certain way. I know you don't want to move so put plastic up over the windows in the winter, and hire a handyman to fix the railing. I know you don't think you should have to pay for it and neither do I but you want to live there and you need to be safe so just do it. take pictures of things before, if this landlord is so hateful you never know what he will say if and when you move out

Answer 2

You don't say what, if anything you have done to get the work done. Perhaps the landlord is just offering you quiet enjoyment of the premises, and does not wish to invade your privacy to do the work. In my lease, it says all maintenance requests have to be submitted in writing. My lease also says it is the resident's responsibility to report some items. I would think the bannister is a safety concern and you are required to report it to the landlord. Perhaps, along with the rent, you can include a request, and indicate permission to enter when you are not home, or not. A schedule of times that the work could be performed would also be helpful. (Put cc:file, at the bottom of the request) It may take more than one time to get the work done. Anyhow, a written request is the first step before taking any other. Is the rent cheap? Would it be cheaper to get it done yourself, or will there be a rent increase? How much time until your lease expires, or is open for rent increase? Also, there are ways to add insulation to window openings, like some kind of plastic stuff. Hey, it's your heat bill? Anyhow, if your rent is on time, and you are a good tenant, i would think a bannister would help keep you.

Answer 3

There is an arbitration process where you can withhold rent until repairs are done in order for the rental property to meet local standards. You still have to pay rent but a layer or somebody holds the rent money away from the landlord until he/she complies.

Can anyone else put a name to this and help this person find out how to begin the process?

Answer 4

Maybe you don't want to report him but you could ask the inspector if there's a way for you to hire somebody to fix the problems, especially the safety ones, and get the landlord to pay for them.

Answer 5

This is something that should be reported to your building inspector. As it stands, SOMEBODY is going to get hurt sooner or later. Move out before the somebody is you, and let inspector do his job so nobody else gets hurt.

Answer 6

I had a similar problem and the only solution I found was to move out. It will never work out and you will be happy after you have moved on. There are much better places out there. Good luck to you.

Answer 7

Do the repairs yourself, hire someone to do repairs and deduct that from your rent payment.

Answer 8

move

end of story

it's not your place.