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Unexpected massive disruption

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fmarangoni76

Junior Member
Hi all,

My wife and I rent an apartment in Massachusetts. My neighbor recently had a water leak that stained our ceiling. Our landlady arranged drying and repairs through her insurance.

The problem is that the company performing the works badly underestimated the amount of disruption needed. They told us that they would have poked a small hole on one wall and house would have been inhabitable; in fact they opened up an entire wall ceiling to floor and removed plaster and paint from additional two walls and a ceiling. They disrupted the baseboard, part of the fixtures, and part of the furniture. Dust is unbearable as well as the noise of the fans they brought in to dry the walls; house is very small and we are now living in the bedroom. I am also concerned because my wife is 6 months pregnant. We notified our landlady saying that if we were told all this in advance we could have arranged to move temporarily, but she was poorly responsive.

My question to you is what are our rights in this situation? Do we have the right of asking for painting of the walls with a matching color? Do we have the right of asking for fixtures and furniture brought back to the original state? Do we have the right to ask for a professional cleanup of the apartment? What about asking the landlady to pay us hotel until works have been finished?

Thanks a lot for any input on this matter,

Francesco
 


FarmerJ

Senior Member
one thing I do not see you saying a boo about is the age of this house. WHY ? if the house was built before the mid 70s there is a higher chance the paint used may have contained lead , the older the home is the higher the odds that at some point in its history lead based paints were used so I suggest if its a older home see if your county can test for it. If lead is found in dust from the wall tear downs then insist that your county condemn the house , condemnation cancels any lease you have and frees you to completely move out since condemnation also will make the work on the house cease until your out then the county will force them to follow abatement procedures. If you do not find any evidence of lead in the tear down mess then I would suggest you also take alot of pictures and when they are done fixing this to send to her a certified letter and in the letter talk about the number of days you have not had use of x number of rooms and if they left a mess behind tell her youve taken pictures of the mess they made that needs to be cleaned up and tell her you want her to hire a local cleaning firm to clean it up in with in the next five days or you will hire it out your self and sue her for the bill as well as sue for a one time rent reduction since your unit had a reduced value, keep a copy for your self and see what she does. as far as paint goes there is no law that addresses cosmetic issues like that.
 

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