ColoradoTenant
Junior Member
I just signed a lease for a house. The lease dictates that certain things must be done upon move out, such as hiring professional cleaners to do the hardwood floors and carpets, for example. The carpets are brand new, but the floors are in bad shape and were obviously not cleaned by the previous tenants. It's clear that in the past they have been used as a base for carpets, in one case there are staple tracks going straight down the middle of the room, there are dents, paint, gummy substance, burn marks etc... The lease states that even improvements can be seen as damage, so I worry about doing anything to these floors, and I also worry about being charged for the floors being replaced upon move out, as they were obviously not professionally cleaned before we moved in.
There are other things wrong with the house. For example, we discovered that the carport was converted to be an add-on sunroom, and the air return there connects directly to the crawl space. We have already observed mice entering the house through this vent, and there are mouse droppings in kitchen cupboards and behind the washer.
Several lights in the house are not wired correctly, indicated by not turning on with fresh bulbs, and the panels for the electrical outlets do not properly cover the holes in the sunroom, making me wonder if it was ever inspected by an electrician.
The ventilation ducts throughout the house are filthy. I believe this is a fire and health hazard. In one case, the filter behind a vent was caked with dust, and the vent was apparently spraypainted, effectively clogging the vent. When confronted, the landlord immediately said "that was supposed to be done" and that he'd have someone look at it early in the following week (move in was on the Saturday of a three day weekend).
We have read the city code and read our lease thoroughly. Several, if not all of these items, are covered in different areas of the code. He has made verbal promises to deal with these issues (electrical, vents, cleaning, swamp cooler, light fixtures, and more) but under the lease he has no responsibility to maintain the house short of endangering the status legally livable. The city's recommendation is to not make an issue about legally livable conditions except for in extreme cases, using a collapsed roof as an example. Because of these problems we have not moved in yet, but two of us don't have a place to live right now and are "couch surfing." Are we giving up any legal power by moving in now, and what kinds of things does the law state he has to do?
There are other things wrong with the house. For example, we discovered that the carport was converted to be an add-on sunroom, and the air return there connects directly to the crawl space. We have already observed mice entering the house through this vent, and there are mouse droppings in kitchen cupboards and behind the washer.
Several lights in the house are not wired correctly, indicated by not turning on with fresh bulbs, and the panels for the electrical outlets do not properly cover the holes in the sunroom, making me wonder if it was ever inspected by an electrician.
The ventilation ducts throughout the house are filthy. I believe this is a fire and health hazard. In one case, the filter behind a vent was caked with dust, and the vent was apparently spraypainted, effectively clogging the vent. When confronted, the landlord immediately said "that was supposed to be done" and that he'd have someone look at it early in the following week (move in was on the Saturday of a three day weekend).
We have read the city code and read our lease thoroughly. Several, if not all of these items, are covered in different areas of the code. He has made verbal promises to deal with these issues (electrical, vents, cleaning, swamp cooler, light fixtures, and more) but under the lease he has no responsibility to maintain the house short of endangering the status legally livable. The city's recommendation is to not make an issue about legally livable conditions except for in extreme cases, using a collapsed roof as an example. Because of these problems we have not moved in yet, but two of us don't have a place to live right now and are "couch surfing." Are we giving up any legal power by moving in now, and what kinds of things does the law state he has to do?