What can I do legally with a landlord that just doesn't care.

[j.hall]

Four years ago I moved into an apartment that was owned by my roommates co-worker/friend. Since they were friends she allowed us to move in with no lease and no deposit which helped us out a lot. It started off really well. As the years progressed she stopped caring more and more about the apartment. Would fight us each time we called about something being broken. She moved out of state but sent us a typed up/printed two sentence letter saying our rent was going up by 100$ and all maintenance was our responsibility. That's just the start.

Three years ago, I became pregnant. I had a lot of issues with this pregnancy. High blood pressure, mild preeclampsia. My daughter was born under weight and she has a heart defect that she's already had surgery for once. My other roommates started to notice things with their health and just last month when I did a screening for my daughter we come to find that her lead levels were high. We then found out that the paint used in our apartment has lead in it. We've reached out to our land lord but we already know she isn't going to do anything about it or she's just going to kick us out so she doesn't have to deal with it. What I would like to know is legally what can I do. I've done research and found out that the issues I had while pregnant and the issues my daughter has can/have been proven to be caused by exposure to lead. Lead that she failed to let us know was in the apartment or again, just didn't care to know.

We are trying to move and my daughter is out of the house but still having to pay rent for a place that is slowly effecting our health so trying to save up money to move to a new place where you need first months rent and deposit is hard. What can I do? I've been told since we have no lease there isn't anything I can do and she can just kick us out for no reason which will pretty much leave us homeless.

State: Ohio

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state?

 

[j.hall]

Updated it, sorry meant to add that. It's Ohio

 

[DeenaCA]

Here's a site that discusses the landlord's responsibilities under federal and Ohio state law. These apply with or without a written lease. Also see the link at the bottom of the page for locating affordable legal services.

 

[FarmerJ]

Have you called your local health department to ask them if they have someone who can run test on the apartment before you completely move out? ( you need to do this while you are still in occupancy) As to the landlord did this landlord ever disclose to you in writing that due to the age of the building there was a chance there could be a lead paint dust hazard ? You may want to ask your county health dept or its building inspections desk or a tenants advocacy group in your state about disclosure laws . WHY do all that , and do it while you are still in occupancy of the unit ? while you are still a tenant there getting the place tested would prove that it was the cause of your daughters exposure! getting it tested by city /county means they can condemn it and LL will have to deal with it because they will be ordered to while its condemned so no one else can live there until the lead problem is abated / taken care of. BTW if its condemned by inspections then you don't owe another dime in rent.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

Have you or your roommates been eating the lead paint off the walls or window frames? Doing construction on the place where their might be dust from this paint?

Do you know when the apartment was last painted?

Gail

 

[LdiJ]

Have you or your roommates been eating the lead paint off the walls or window frames? Doing construction on the place where their might be dust from this paint?

Do you know when the apartment was last painted?

Gail

The baby had high levels of lead in her system. Unless there is some other potential lead culprit, which is very unlikely, the lead paint in the house is almost certain to be the culprit.

 

[j.hall]

The doctors actually called the health department after her tests came back and all they did was mail me a booklet on how to deal with lead. I bought a few lead testers and found that the paint on all the doors, windows and door frames contain lead. So we touch the paint every time we open a door in this house.

I've been waiting for a call back from the health department to get someone out here to get it documented officially but I keep getting the excuse that they don't have an inspector available to come out.

Thank you guys for all the responses. I keep getting the run around every where else.

 

[not2cleverRed]

The baby had high levels of lead in her system. Unless there is some other potential lead culprit, which is very unlikely, the lead paint in the house is almost certain to be the culprit.

Actually, that was the assumption my friend had when her son had lead poisoning. It turned out the culprit was a relatively new chair that she'd purchased from Pier 1 Imports - the child had been teething on it.

 

[quincy]

The baby had high levels of lead in her system. Unless there is some other potential lead culprit, which is very unlikely, the lead paint in the house is almost certain to be the culprit.

Exposure to lead can come from the plumbing, not just from lead-based paint. That would seem a more likely cause of problems in a pregnancy.

The Flint, Michigan, and the Newark, New Jersey, water crises were caused by lead in the drinking water.

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/basic-information-about-lead-drinking-water#getinto
If tests are going to be done to discover the lead source, paint and water (and furniture and toys and dishware - especially goods manufactured overseas) all need to be tested.

 

[adjusterjack]

What I would like to know is legally what can I do.

You can find another place to live and move out, that's what you can do. Should have done it long ago.

In Ohio you only need to give 30 days notice prior to the periodic rental date.

See Ohio statute 5321.17

https://law.justia.com/codes/ohio/2018/title-53/chapter-5321/section-5321.17/
I can't understand why people live in horrible places for years and then ask what they can do about it.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

"The baby had high levels of lead in her system. Unless there is some other potential lead culprit, which is very unlikely, the lead paint in the house is almost certain to be the culprit."

Not necessarily true (where do you come up with these things?). Lead has been banned in paint since 1978. Thus my question on when the place was last painted. And even if not painted, a surface that is smooth (not cracked, peeling, wet, flaking, etc.) is not a risk to folks living around such paint.

Has the OP purchased toys from Walmart that her child chewed on? Not so long ago there was a concern about such toys coming from China where lead requirements are far more lax than other countries.

Got that nice crib that grandma stored up in the attic for years for baby? If so, once teething began children are often like little rodents; did the little darling perhaps chew on the surface of such?

And, as previously mentioned, the concern of higher than desired amounts of lead in drinking water.

Gail

 

[FarmerJ]

Lastly just touching painted surfaces is not likely the problem what happens with older wood framed window sashes and the wood frames they are in is that when windows are opened and closed over time the painted surfaces wear down creating tiny dust particles and same with things like door hinges/ frames and doors them selfs that were painted say in the 40s / 50s/ and early 60s , the paint becomes damaged / cracked or even just worn away and again tiny dust particles could have lead in them which is why where there are younger children in a home if im not mistaken one thing that should be done was washing window sills regularly when the windows are opened and closed a lot in summer time. and yes plumbing can be a issue too, like the old main water lines that still serve some homes ( really old ones) can have a lead hazard, out in the streets the bigger main lines that service whole neighbor hoods may well have lead hazards since many cities still use the old lines until they plan for total street replacements where water and sewer mains are replaced too. As to toys I too remember back in 06-07-08 (roughly all the stories in the news and papers about all those toxic toys and even some dishes years ago were discovered to have lead in the paints and glazes used. AS to your child its sad this happened but often babies are crawling around on floors that may have dust from windows that were open and wind blew the dust onto the floor. Also some younger children also gravitate towards open windows an d of course hang on to the sills and fingers go into the mouth . SO there can be multiple sources BUT it would be handy if someone from inspections could get readings and tell you the numbers as part of your strategy to try to prevent your childs EBL from growing worse.

 

[quincy]

Here for additional information, from the CDC, on the various sources of lead and testing/prevention/remedies:

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/sources.htm