Fighting for What is Right: I’m Suing My Landlord

Remember how my apartment is trying to kill me? I moved out on October 15, 2011 and into a much nicer place. Very happy here, even if it is a bit more in rent.

I sent a letter to my landlord and requested all the money I had paid him to be returned to me do to the state of the apartment. I advised him that I was not going to pay for the 2 weeks in October that I would be living there.

He NEVER replied to me!

I moved out and waited for the check. I called him, he didn’t return any of my phone calls. I emailed him, nothing! Then the check came and it was half of my deposit. He would not refund my September rent and he took the rent for the 2 weeks in October and took it from the deposit.

Due to the fact that there was active mold and in his words “I can’t get to it as quickly as you’d like.” I’m suing him.

Landlords have 10 days to fix the problem. In that 10 days, he was unwilling to do it. I wasn’t feeling well that week, thinking it might be the mold, I took it upon myself to clean up what I could see. I know there’s a lot more mold under the wallpaper (who puts wallpaper in a bathroom when it doesn’t have ventilation?).

I have a friend who is an attorney and she offered to write him a letter requesting the money. If he doesn’t reply, then I will be taking him to small claims court.

I WILL NOT allow him to ignore me.

He is not going to shut me up by ignoring me. I will fight for what is right.

He was in the wrong! Not me!

He knowingly rented out this apartment with defects. He had been advised of the water leak before. The apartment above was about to have the ceiling cave in (the tenant didn’t want to fight him though). The previous tenants of my apartment had advised him there was a hole in the floor of the bathroom but then never bothered to follow-up. Two of his employees knew of the problems. One, who also lives in the building, told me “We know it’s been neglected.” And from what I hear from other neighbors, people come and go out of that apartment.

He fixed one problem after I moved in. The stairs to the front porch were unsafe, that was fixed almost immediately. But the rest was completely ignored.

He’s gambling with my money. He’s hoping that I will sit back and let him walk all over me. That is NOT going to happen. I have lost a lot of money by moving a second time not to mention living in an apartment like that for 6 weeks.

Hopefully the threat of a lawsuit, knowing I will contact the city inspector (I have his personal number thanks to a neighbor) and wanting to avoid any court costs will force him to do what is right and settle this.

I will keep you posted!

Have you ever had a problem with a landlord? How did you address it? Did you let them get away with it?

 

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