we are supposed to be moving this weekend into a house my husband's boss's mom (sorry) owns. we have given our 30 day notice at our current residence and need to be out of here by the 1st which is monday. we went over and looked at the new house over a month ago and they were doing some work on the house like painting, getting rid of the fireants, and fixing things up. my husband has been talking with them all along and they have been telling him all the stuff theyve gotten done, one of the main things was the carpet in one of the bedrooms was in terrible shape and they said they were replacing it, well my husband met with them last weekend and gave them more than half of the move in money and got the key so we could start moving stuff in this week so we wouldnt have to do it all in one day, they said they were almost done painting but we couldnt start moving stuff in just yet and they would call us when they were done, they never called us so we called them last night....
2007-09-27 01:10:32 · 3 answers · asked by domsmom701 3 in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
and they said tey still were not quite done but if we wanted we could start moving stuff into the bedrooms which were done, so we took a load of stuff over last night and were completely shocked to find that nothing is done, they ave painted but done a terrible job, they never replaced the carpet and their is still tons of stuff in the house from the people who lived there before, even food in the fridge, the house is a complete distaster, we dont know what to do, we called them and they said everything will be cleaned by saturday but now say they are not replacing the disgusting carpet! we dont know what to do, they have a lot of our money and we are really worried that they wont be done by this weekend, what can we do? oh and i just wanted to add we dont have a lease or anything but my husband signed something saying we have a month to month tenency, aaahhhh im so mad, any thoughts?
2007-09-27 01:15:09 · update #1
As a landlord with several rental properties I can tell you the owner has no "legal" obligation to do the things you are talking about. As to the condition of the unit the owner has to comply with local code regulations and in NY State where I live there is something called the "warranty of habitability" (something similar probably exits in most states) which is where the landlord must provide access to heat, running water, etc… but none of those would cover the existence of carpet or the condition of it.
Pretty much the same thing for the cleanliness of the unit at move in time. However, there are certain things you should do to protect yourself. If there is a bunch of junk in the unit and it needed to be cleaned when you move in, take lots of pictures. You may end up having to clean the unit yourself and get rid of the junk. But then take this information to the landlord and work it out where the cost of doing that gets taken off your rent. Worst case scenario would be if you withheld the rent and he took you to court , you would most likely have a case with all the pictures as evidence.
As for the carpet he really doesn’t have to do it if he doesn’t want to. If you had a written agreement that he was going to replace it and you had a lease then it might give you cause to legally break the lease but it still wouldn’t legally compel him to replace it.
You guys are on a month to month tenancy which simply means either party can terminate the rental agreement with 30 days notice. (Check with your state laws to verify)
Personally, with the information you have provided I might think twice about renting this unit if I was you. These items are obviously important to you or you would not have taken the time to write. It seems to me that the guy has already lied to you and really doesn’t care about providing you a decent unit and you haven’t even moved in yet…
If the unit is in that bad of condition and you have a oportunity to stay where you currently are then I would. If he doesnt give you back your money takes lots and lots of pictures and take him to small claims court.
If you have no choice and have to move in anyway take all the pictures you can before moving in. This way at the end of your rental if he tries holding your security for something he should have done to begin with you have proof.
Good Luck
2007-09-27 01:47:52 · answer #1 · answered by Charlie 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Refuse to move in until they take care of the stuff they agreed to do.
2007-09-27 03:17:48 · answer #2 · answered by Roland'sMommy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
^^^ Excellent answer! ^^^
2007-09-27 02:05:26 · answer #3 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋