C
ChynnaDoil
Guest
Turmoil with Landlady
I'm really hoping that someone can guide me and my fiance as to what to do with our present situation. My fiance has lived at our present address for about 3 1/2 years now (I have been there full time for about a year. When my fiance moved in to this apartment there were some things that needed repair and at the time the landlord (who is now deceased) agreed that the repairs should be done. However, after his death his widow ignored the fact that there were problems in the apartment. Within the past year a lot of things began to go wrong in the place. There's a wall in the lving room, underneath a window, that apparently had water damage within the wall....the plaster has bubbled out and started to peel off. The kitchen ceiling is buckling in one corner and the bedroom has a portion of the ceiling that a huge chunk of plaster is coming down. In the bathroom you cannot take a bath becuase the hot water comes out brown (this does not occur anywhere else in the apartment). And when you take a shower hot water comes out of the hot water handle. All of these things were brought to the landlady's attention. She repsonded by saying that these things were our responisbility. My fiance also had a washer and dryer that came with the apartment. Both no longer work at this point. When a repaiman came and looked atthe items he told the landlady that since they were old they wouldn't be worth fixing. When she was approached about replacing the items she said that it was not her responsibility and that she had nothing to do with the washer and dryer. All of this is going on and mind you she raised the rent and then claims that she has no money to fix the apartment up. The last straw came about a month ago when the landlady told us that we could no longer park our car where she designated that we park it becuase she decided to rent the parking space out to some new people who had moved in up the street into a house with no driveway. She now wants us to park my new car near our back door underneath a dead tree(that she doesn't take care of by getting it trimmed) that has caused damage to the neighbors home by falling branches. When my fiance asked her to sign an agreement taking responsibility in the case of damage by the tree, she refused saying that if there was any damage her homeonwner's insurance would cover it. This caused a huge argument and after that my fiance called the housing inspector on her becuase of the state of disreapir in the apartment. An inspector came and cited many of the things we've been telling her about.However as of yet she has not said anything to us about it nor has she done any of the work. This past weekend we had bad winds here in NJ and wouldn't you know it, my car's paint was all scrathed up becuase of falling branches from her tree. When we approached her about it yesterday she said that it was an "act of God" and that we should take it up with my insurance company. I couldn't believe it....it was becuase of her that my car was now being parked where it was and now it is damaged. I called the insurance company and they told me to try and get her to pay for the damages, if that isn't successful, then try and go after her in civil court.....which I am strongly considering. Throughout all of this this woman was screaming and yelling abut how it was not her problem and then she tells us that that was it and how she's had enough and that she wants us out as soon as we can find a place (which is no problem becuase we're moving on December 1st to a new house. Now my question is this, is that a verbal eviction? I understand that when the housing authority gets involved an eviction cannot take place as well. We're in Montclair, NJ and I'm not sure where we can go with this. The funniest part of all of this is that the landlady claims she has no money for anything yet, 2 weeks after telling her "poverty sobstory" to us she took delivery on a new refridgerator and dryer....I almost flipped out. She really doesn't think that we'll take her to court on this. Ans she seems to feel that she ahs some immunity becuase both her late husband and son work/worked for the town as sanitation workers. If anyone has any legal advice I would greatly appreciate it. We have no idea where to go with this one and being only 23, I have never had to deal with the law before. So any advice woulf be greasly helpful!!! Thanks!!!
I'm really hoping that someone can guide me and my fiance as to what to do with our present situation. My fiance has lived at our present address for about 3 1/2 years now (I have been there full time for about a year. When my fiance moved in to this apartment there were some things that needed repair and at the time the landlord (who is now deceased) agreed that the repairs should be done. However, after his death his widow ignored the fact that there were problems in the apartment. Within the past year a lot of things began to go wrong in the place. There's a wall in the lving room, underneath a window, that apparently had water damage within the wall....the plaster has bubbled out and started to peel off. The kitchen ceiling is buckling in one corner and the bedroom has a portion of the ceiling that a huge chunk of plaster is coming down. In the bathroom you cannot take a bath becuase the hot water comes out brown (this does not occur anywhere else in the apartment). And when you take a shower hot water comes out of the hot water handle. All of these things were brought to the landlady's attention. She repsonded by saying that these things were our responisbility. My fiance also had a washer and dryer that came with the apartment. Both no longer work at this point. When a repaiman came and looked atthe items he told the landlady that since they were old they wouldn't be worth fixing. When she was approached about replacing the items she said that it was not her responsibility and that she had nothing to do with the washer and dryer. All of this is going on and mind you she raised the rent and then claims that she has no money to fix the apartment up. The last straw came about a month ago when the landlady told us that we could no longer park our car where she designated that we park it becuase she decided to rent the parking space out to some new people who had moved in up the street into a house with no driveway. She now wants us to park my new car near our back door underneath a dead tree(that she doesn't take care of by getting it trimmed) that has caused damage to the neighbors home by falling branches. When my fiance asked her to sign an agreement taking responsibility in the case of damage by the tree, she refused saying that if there was any damage her homeonwner's insurance would cover it. This caused a huge argument and after that my fiance called the housing inspector on her becuase of the state of disreapir in the apartment. An inspector came and cited many of the things we've been telling her about.However as of yet she has not said anything to us about it nor has she done any of the work. This past weekend we had bad winds here in NJ and wouldn't you know it, my car's paint was all scrathed up becuase of falling branches from her tree. When we approached her about it yesterday she said that it was an "act of God" and that we should take it up with my insurance company. I couldn't believe it....it was becuase of her that my car was now being parked where it was and now it is damaged. I called the insurance company and they told me to try and get her to pay for the damages, if that isn't successful, then try and go after her in civil court.....which I am strongly considering. Throughout all of this this woman was screaming and yelling abut how it was not her problem and then she tells us that that was it and how she's had enough and that she wants us out as soon as we can find a place (which is no problem becuase we're moving on December 1st to a new house. Now my question is this, is that a verbal eviction? I understand that when the housing authority gets involved an eviction cannot take place as well. We're in Montclair, NJ and I'm not sure where we can go with this. The funniest part of all of this is that the landlady claims she has no money for anything yet, 2 weeks after telling her "poverty sobstory" to us she took delivery on a new refridgerator and dryer....I almost flipped out. She really doesn't think that we'll take her to court on this. Ans she seems to feel that she ahs some immunity becuase both her late husband and son work/worked for the town as sanitation workers. If anyone has any legal advice I would greatly appreciate it. We have no idea where to go with this one and being only 23, I have never had to deal with the law before. So any advice woulf be greasly helpful!!! Thanks!!!