Landlord refusing to replace sofa, forcing us to buy one despite being normal wear, and threatening eviction.

[Jkdessert]

-Las Vegas, Nevada-

Hello,

I am going through an abusive situation with my landlord. I rent a furnished 2/2 condo from her since 2015 and unfortunately just renewed here. Maybe this is not relevant but we were paying $1100, she raised the rent last year $100 and again this year another $75. But anyway, we agreed to that.

The problem is the sofa that was here when we moved in has been deteriorating severely, it is a cheap white bonded leather sofa that has been peeling off horribly and the springs have been coming out as well at weird spots, which makes it uncomfortable to sit on. I mentioned this to her last year upon renewing the contract, to which she replied the sofa she bought was new when we moved in. She never sent proof of this though. We let it go. We renewed again this year, and brought it up again a few days ago and asked her to replace it, since it is so uncomfortable, and after all, we are paying for a furnished place. She refused and blamed it on my husband's size. He is not a giant, he is a 6' 4'' guy, 230 lb, and I am only 98 pounds, and regardless, it has nothing to do with the peeling, and the springs are just bad.

We sent her a very thorough, rational and polite e-mail with all the evidence of the sofa quality, and showed her bonded leather and cheap sofas are causes of lawsuits, and she may be entitled for compensation from the manufacturer, but it is certainly not our fault, as it was 100% normal wear. We did not jump on it, we have no pets or kids. She claims it is beyond normal wear, but has no proof, she accuses my husband from being "too big'.

We even took the time to go see sofas at furniture stores and tried to help her with getting a better quality one for her money. and sent her pictures of what we found around town.
After our thorough e-mail, she did not care a bit and said "comply or move out". The evidence is irrefutable but she is incredibly unreasonable and is trying to abuse us and get something for free when it is her responsibility to provide for a decent sofa one can sit on, as this is a furnished dwelling we are paying for.

My husband and I are feeling very stressed over this injustice and we tried to reason with her, which is documented, however it is impossible to reason with her so we are trying to see what recourse we have.

She also said we had to replace the sofa at our cost within 15 days, which is no where in the contract, and it seems like an absurd rule she came up with.

- Can she really threat with eviction over this?
- Can I file a claim against her, if so, what is the right mean to do this?
- I think any reasonable logical judge will 100% be on our side, however what are the chances that is not the case (what kind of trickery can she try to pull of?)

Thank you in advance,

JK

 

[xylene]

If your landlord is willing to let you out of the lease maybe that is the way to go, then sue her should she withhold deposit unreasonably.

 

[adjusterjack]

- Can she really threat with eviction over this?

She can "threaten" anything she wants. But an eviction or termination over this while the lease is in force would be a breach of contract.

- Can I file a claim against her, if so, what is the right mean to do this?

You can "file" whatever you want to file (whatever that means) but the bottom line is that she has no obligation to replace the sofa.

- I think any reasonable logical judge will 100% be on our side, however what are the chances that is not the case (what kind of trickery can she try to pull of?)

She doesn't need trickery. You would lose in court because you signed the renewal lease knowing full well that the sofa was crap and you accepted that way. What you should have done was insist that it be replaced as a condition of renewal before signing the renewal and given move out notice if it wasn't. You had two renewal opportunities to do that, but didn't. I hope you will be wiser when the next renewal approaches.

Meantime, if you want a new sofa, buy one and put this one aside and don't use it anymore.

 

[Jkdessert]

"the bottom line is that she has no obligation to replace the sofa. " I don't agree with this at all. She does have the obligation to replace a sofa in a furnished apartment due to normal wear. Yes, I could have brought it up before renewing the lease, however the fact I didn't does not eliminate the fact that the sofa is crap and she is trying to charge US for it.

So, if she does not want to replace the sofa, that is one thing, which I think is wrong, but on top of that wanting to charge us for it, that is extra wrong.

 

[FarmerJ]

Have you taken photos of it to show its condition and lastly you put into the subject line >forcing us to buy one despite being normal wear,< so did you buy another and what did you do with the original sofa ? If you still have it I suggest you store it , replace it if you wish and plan on bringing it out of storage when you move and put it back in and make sure you have a lot of other pictures to document every thing and plan on having to sue her for your deposit funds, If you have any more complaints re repairs use real paper letters sent via certified mail and keep a copy of each letter stapled to your postal receipts for your paper trails. From now on treat every communication with the LL on real paper as if you were going to need records for court. If she wants to evict you let her try to do so thru the courts , if she keeps telling you to get out keep in mind oral notices are worth the air they are written on.

 

[Jkdessert]

Yes, of course, I have taken photos of it last year (2017) and sent them to her upon renewing the contract; I told her while we were not asking for it to be replaced at that time, we did not want to be charged for it upon moving out, to which she replied vaguely saying she bought the sofa new when we moved in. We just let it go, as we were not asking for replacement back then, just wanted to make her aware so we wouldn't get charged for it later on (seems like that did not work out).
Then fast-forwarding to this year, we renewed again in July but realized we did not want to keep dealing with the sofa we cannot sit on, and sent her newer pictures of the deterioration shot with a high quality camera, and asked her to replace it. If I could upload them here for reference I would, as the deterioration is so clearly due to normal wear of a bad product.

Anyway, since she is not going to buy a sofa apparently, I am thinking in buying one as similar as possible and then send her a certified demand letter requesting the reimbursement, and if problem persists I guess we may have to go the Small Claims route with all our documented evidence.

I just wanted to confirm if she can legitimately evict us over a deteriorated sofa (due to normal wear). Makes no sense in my mind.

 

[FarmerJ]

When a landlord wants to evict someone for a reason other than non payment its going to make a lot more work for them to prove to a court the reason they want the tenant gone. SO if LL claims a tenant is too noisy in court but doesn't have copies of police reports in hand they are going to look pretty foolish. In your situation if the LL claims the sofa was new when you moved in then its possible the court will want proof of when it was bought or at least proof of its condition when you moved in to show the court. LL really cant force you to buy another one but It would be one hell of a stretch for your LL to prove you destroyed her property . On the other hand again you are free to store the LLs couch some where else and move it back in before you move out. ( just so you know , most every where its not cheap to file a eviction claim with the courts and if your LL wants you out claiming you violated the lease she is going to have to prove it.)

 

[reenzz]

The landlord is not legally required to provide a replacement unless you have proof that the sofa poses a health or safety issue. You can replace the sofa at your expense and take it with you when you vacate. You can not get a new sofa and expect the landlord to reimburse you.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

" Anyway, since she is not going to buy a sofa apparently, I am thinking in buying one as similar as possible and then send her a certified demand letter requesting the reimbursement, and if problem persists I guess we may have to go the Small Claims route with all our documented evidence."

Don't be an idiot over this. Try this route and you'll lose in court.

Gail