Crappy Landlord

[Jschmuck2]

So I moved into this new house in July, and it's been pretty bad from the word go. However, the situation is kind of unique. My friend/roomate's parents own the house and I pay rent to them, but that's about all I see or hear from or about them. Let me vent:

• When I first moved in, no one did a walkthrough of the house with me, nor was there anyone to collect my first months rent.

• There was never anyone present in the first two months I was here to collect my lease

• The landlords, having realized this, asked for July's rent, in October.

• I cut them a check for two months rent and security deposit on approximately October 9th. It is now the 24th and they still haven't cashed it. That's a lot of money to have outstanding.

• The bills don't actually come to my house. They are all sent to my friend's parents. Apparently (and I was never informed of this) they pay the bills, and I'm supposed to pay them. However, if something goes wrong with a utility I have absolutely no recourse, as my name is not attached to any of them.

• They charged for me the utilities from Aug/Sept (combined) in October by sending some photocopied bills back with their son. That money was also included in the yet-to-be-cashed check.

• We have caught at least two rats in the house. I'm pretty sure it's their responsibility to take care of that.

• To the best of my knowledge, we have no smoke alarms in the house.

What would you do?

 

[sourceninja]

Move

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

move.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

pork his momma, punch his daddy, and live in a van down by the river!

 

[DeadByDawn]

Charge the rats rent.

 

[meltdown75]

if you want to be sure of your rights, there is an applicable peice of legislation for your location (i'm assuming somewhere in the US). get it and review it. here in Canada it is the Tenant Protection Act so I'm sure you have a similar peice for your area.

because it's your friend's parents the situation is unique. you should definitely be getting receipts for your rent though, and should have a copy of the lease at the ready if you ever need to review the conditions.

just approach them and deal with the issues accordingly.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Originally posted by: DeadByDawn
Charge the rats rent.

I'll draw up the lease tonight.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Thing is:

They don't have my lease. I still have it. I never gave it to them. In hindsight, that was a pretty good move.

 

[NogginBoink]

You can review your state's landlord/tenant laws and attempt to enforce them against your landlord ($$ and relationships are the cost here) or move when your lease expires.

 

[woowoo]

FWIW....
They do not have to "Collect" the rent, you need to mail them a check.

Not being the account holder with the utility companies could be a good thing.

They need smoke detectors.

Do you have a written lease?

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
Thing is:

They don't have my lease. I still have it. I never gave it to them. In hindsight, that was a pretty good move.

even if they did, you could argue that they haven't provided a basic thing that they said they would. hence, they've broken the agreement first and you're free to move.

 

[kravmaga]

Agreed, I lived in a shithole studio apartment when I was younger, with a crazy chinese landlord similar to your experience. And the only real recourse to counter the ****** landlordness was to move and not think back of how horrible it was. But every other week something bad would happen... it was under a restaurant that went in and out of business, one of the renters caught fire to a stove... had children stomping on the ceiling at 3am constantly... the septic tank blew up and was splilling raw sewage out for who knows how long, ants had taken over the electrical socket and actually tripped the electricity spark reset by blowing themselves up in the wall socket.. I lifted the socket cover and there were no less than 10000000 ants all compacted into that space... I moved out and the landlord had the gall to ask me if I wanted to move back in... The only way to improve on a situation like this is to get the fvck out.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Originally posted by: woowoo
FWIW....
They do not have to "Collect" the rent, you need to mail them a check.

Not being the account holder with the utility companies could be a good thing.

They need smoke detectors.

Do you have a written lease?

I do mail them the check, however, they don't cash it in a timely manner. I do indeed have a written lease. They never got it. It's in the trunk of my car right now.

For the record, I'm in California.

 

[Gibson486]

no smoke alrams is a fore hazard and can make any place of living inhabatible in MA (you have to move out until it is fixed, but the lanlord must supply acceptable housing). As for the rats...are they rats or mice? If they are rats, get the hell out of there. Either way, the only thing the landlord has to do is set up traps to attempt to correct the problem. It just cannot get crazy like having mice run around all day long in your apt.

No one has to do a walkthrough when you move in, and a security deposit and first months rent is to just take teh place off the market. If no one collects your rent, it is your resposiblity to give it to them.

As far as I know, if you have to pay your bills through them, they have to supply you with how they calculate the cost they give you along with numbers from the gas/electric company.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
So I moved into this new house in July, and it's been pretty bad from the word go. However, the situation is kind of unique. My friend/roomate's parents own the house and I pay rent to them, but that's about all I see or hear from or about them. Let me vent:

• When I first moved in, no one did a walkthrough of the house with me, nor was there anyone to collect my first months rent.

Did you document anything? If not, you're kinda stuck if they claim damages. They may not nitpick, so this may not be an issue. But you didn't help by not asking for one, or doing something yourself like take pics.

• There was never anyone present in the first two months I was here to collect my lease

That's not really relevant.

• The landlords, having realized this, asked for July's rent, in October.

Good...?

• I cut them a check for two months rent and security deposit on approximately October 9th. It is now the 24th and they still haven't cashed it. That's a lot of money to have outstanding.

Have you asked them about it?

• The bills don't actually come to my house. They are all sent to my friend's parents. Apparently (and I was never informed of this) they pay the bills, and I'm supposed to pay them. However, if something goes wrong with a utility I have absolutely no recourse, as my name is not attached to any of them.

This is how it works at apartments. They likely want to keep the utilities in their name for whatever reason. I don't see this as a big deal. They are still responsible for making sure these services are up and running

• They charged for me the utilities from Aug/Sept (combined) in October by sending some photocopied bills back with their son. That money was also included in the yet-to-be-cashed check.

You got a copy of the bill and paid, great. What's the issue? About the uncashed checks, ask them

• We have caught at least two rats in the house. I'm pretty sure it's their responsibility to take care of that.

Have you reported it (in writting)? Yes, pests are their responsibility.

• To the best of my knowledge, we have no smoke alarms in the house.

Have you reported it (in writting)? Yes, smoke alarms are their responsibility


What would you do?

All of the above may vary by city/state.

 

[Reel]

Claim squatter's rights and evict the son.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2

Originally posted by: woowoo
FWIW....
They do not have to "Collect" the rent, you need to mail them a check.

Not being the account holder with the utility companies could be a good thing.

They need smoke detectors.

Do you have a written lease?

I do mail them the check, however, they don't cash it in a timely manner. I do indeed have a written lease. They never got it. It's in the trunk of my car right now.

For the record, I'm in California.

If they don't have a signed lease, and you feel like being an absolute prick, you could live at their place rent free for quite a while as an "illegal tenant" if you know how to work the law. It could be quite expensive for them to evict you.

Not that I'd ever condone that, of course.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
Thing is:

They don't have my lease. I still have it. I never gave it to them. In hindsight, that was a pretty good move.

Why on earth are you paying rent then? Your legal status appears to be squatter. If you want to leave, then withhold the amount of the deposit (which you will never see returned no matter what) from your next rent check and move out when the amount you have paid covers the time in residence. This is fair, you don't screw them and you don't get screwed. If you want to stay tell them you want the terms of the lease straigtened out. and the lease finalized so you have recourse to hold them to their end of the agreement. If they are honest and responsible (not likely given their carelessness to date) they will get their act together and clarify the lease. If they are not, be prepared to move.

 

[salt9876]

You need to move before they start asking for money to repair the crappy house.

 

[Turkey22]

Sounds like they havent been landlords for very long or are first timers. I've only been one for a couple years now however my parents were landlords for a long time so I have someone to ask. You complain because there is noone there asking for rent? A landlord shouldn't have to come ask for rent, if I have to ask then there is a problem. If they are local you should be dropping it off or mailing it. They should have collected the lease when you signed it after going through it with you. However that doesn't really affect you in any bad way. Not everyone goes to the bank every week, I wouldnt leave that kinda money just hangin out there but they have 90 days to cash I think. Technically they are letting you earn interest on their money for longer (all in all a good deal for you). Bills should have been discussed up front obviously (why didnt you ask?), but this kind of setup is pretty standard. I give the renter the elec but wrap everything else into the rent price. Have you discussed with them any problems you have (rats, smoke alarm)? If they dont know about the rats how can they do something about it? Not having a smoke alarm is negligent, but just ask for one,