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What is the landlord's responsibility?

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FTRenter

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? West Virginia

Alright, well... I just moved into this place in April. This has been my first time ever renting so I'm pretty clueless as to what's my responsibility or the landlord's. I've read over the lease many times, but it's only a page and a half long and doesn't say a whole lot about anything that is bothering me.

From day one the landlord has promised to fix this or that but not once has he done any of it. The only thing that was ever done was we were missing a mailbox and even then it wasn't the landlord, but instead it was his father, who finally brought one over about two weeks after we moved in.

The kitchen floor has a weak spot that was about the size of my foot when I moved in, but it's caving in more and more and now about the size of three of my feet. There's several bad spots in the floor throughout the house, but that one really bothers me as it's caving in so fast, I'm afraid it'll fall through completely and I pray it's not when my daughter walks across it (she's only 1 year old, though, and probably not heavy enough - more likely I'd forget to step over it and step on it and my foot fall through).

There's a hole in the living room ceiling where there should be a light, but isn't. It's just some cut wires hanging down. We've been in the dark for months as he continues to promise to fix it but only shows up when he's wanting the rent. He says there's not even any power to the wires that are exposed and he'd have to bring in a maintenance guy to do the wiring - but again, no sign of any maintenance guy or anyone attempting to give us light.

The previous renters obviously kept animals in the back bedroom because the urine smell was so horrendous when we first got here. I used all sorts of sprays to eliminate the smell, odor eliminators, urine-be-gone type stuff... shampooed the carpet several times and while the smell weakened considerably, when the heat kicks on it's back in full force... throughout the whole house all you can smell is urine. It's unbearable to me to be in the house when the heat is on so I simply keep it off.

These are the three main things bothering me. There's several other minor issues, most I've been taking care of myself. But I don't know if these are still too minor because for instance, I don't need a light in the living room to live and the carpet I could possibly rip up and replace? So is that my responsibility to take care of them (if I choose to) or should he be fixing these things? And if he is supposed to, but since he's not... what options do I have?
 


Who's Liable?

Senior Member
Inform the LL in WRITING(send it CRR) of ALL the items in question. Also inform LL that if they are not repaired in a timely matter you will be calling the housing inspector of your county/city.

Exposed wiring, sagging floors and urine are a life safety risk and NOT something to play around with.
 

FTRenter

Junior Member
Ok... first, what is CRR? Second, what would qualify as a "timely manner"? If he has, for example, 90 days to repair the stuff it's kind of pointless as we only did a 6 month lease and would be getting out of here by then.

If it's really that serious maybe I need to look up a local lawyer in the phonebook? I asked around online at the free forums first 'cause I didn't want to seem silly calling over something that may be petty. I mean we've lived with it for almost 3 months waiting on him to do something, 3 more won't kill us, I guess.
 

Andy0192

Member
CRR is Certified Mail - Return Receipt Requested.

Timely manner is whatever your state's Landlord/Tenant law says. Look it up, read it.

You can pay a lawyer to do the steps for you, but you don't really need to. Just do things in writing, give the Landlord a chance to comply with the law, and if the Landlord won't fix it, get the local housing/code enforcement office involved.

Good luck.
 

atomizer

Senior Member
Your issues don't seem that major to me and can probably be taken cared of in couple of hours. Your LL obviously does not value his property or he would have taken the time to fix them. If you fear falling through a soft spot, you might want to place a piece of plywood over the floor boards that you are concerned about. Don't expect miracles if you call code compliance, but rather patch work just enough to comply with the investigators expectations.

Since you never know what an inspector might do, you might want to start putting some money away just in case the city red tags the building and gives you a few hours to move.
 

FTRenter

Junior Member
Atomizer - you're right about patch work. This guy is so cheap... there's a section in the kitchen cabinets where there was supposed to be four drawers down in a row, but apparently something happened to the bottom two drawers and instead of replacing them, even if they didn't match the rest of the cabinetry, at least they'd be usable, but no... he covered the area with a cheap kids chalk board you could get at the dollar store for 50 cents, making the area inaccessible and unusable.

There are problems everywhere - the floor, not just the kitchen but through the living room, the hall and bathroom, too. The cabinets - some have no support and I won't put glass dishes in them. The walls appear warped from water damage. They wave and curve in and out and too thin to support a normal picture frame - it's not dry wall, but some sort of cheap paneling. That back room carpet I mentioned is thin as paper, looks like it's something from my childhood church and there is no padding underneath it. The floor vents aren't secured in place so when I lifted them (to pull some garbage I could see down in them out), I saw there was no padding and the floor itself looked like some recycled wood chips mashed together... particle board I think it's called? And then there's the plug-zins that nothing stays plugged in properly. Any plug you stick in slides right back out 75% of the way so it's only in enough for the items to work.

I mean, really - this place is just crazy. Don't know how he gets away with renting it as it is. If it weren't for my situation when moving I wouldn't have gotten it myself. Places that are free or discounted for those with financial aide are up to higher standards than this place.
But I was moving from Mississippi and this was the first person, after months of looking online and calling around, who would deal with us long distance sight unseen (no wondering why, now). It was even a little over our ideal price range, but time was running out and we were running out of options. This is why we only did a 6 month lease, in case we didn't like the place. Now, I'm glad we did and can't wait for it to be up.

Anyway, sorry to ramble... thanks to all for the tips, advice and guidance. I'll do a bit more researching and see what I can find.
 

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