Alcoholic Landlord

[Limbo]

I live in the District of Columbia and signed a year lease with my landlord commencing June 1, 2001. My security deposit is $800.00

I rent the basement apartment, while my landlord lives above me in the house. The house is older, consequently a lot of noice filters through the floors. Within a couple of weeks of moving in, I talked with the landlord concerning the television blaring at 3 am in the morning. He made an attempt to keep it down.

A few weeks after that the stumbling, moaning, vomiting, banging, and yelling started from 8 pm in the evening and sometimes until 1 am. He then sleeps for a little bit, and starts again at 4-5 am. This activity seemed to have subsided for a month or 2, but now has been on going for the past 2 weeks. I can't work or sleep.


I do not want to move but realize I don't think I have any other choice. My questions/concerns are:

1-) How do I go about terminating the lease?
2-) How do I go about getting my deposit in a timely matter (lease states 45 days and I will need it before then for another apartment).
3-) What do I do in the meantime? It took me 3 months to find this place, and I anticipate it may take a while again. Do I pay October rent due to the first?

Thank you for any direction you may be able to provide me!

Desperate-Limbo

P.S. I called the landlord this morning to advise him of my concern and spoke with his brother. I inturn expressed my unhappiness with him and stated that if things did not improve that I would be leaving. I did obtain the brother's phone number.

 

[Gene Gayda]

I'm taking your post pretty much at face value. Info from the other side could cause many of my suggestions to be changed.

The Deposit. You get to make the decision to stay or go (and accept the consequences). The landlord gets to hang on to the deposit for the 45 days as you have agreed in writing. I'm very sure a good lawyer could get the deposit released early, but the lawyer would literally charge thousands paid by you. So, don't plan on the deposit early (or possibly ever) if you break the lease and leave early.

October Rent. Pay it. Until you have another place lined up, you don't want to be forced out of your current place. Ask around and discover how long it takes to finish an eviction in DC. This datum will assist your planning for further timing.

Terminate the Lease. Read the lease for words about termination notice (probably in the part about what happens at the end of the lease). If the notice period (perhaps at lease end) is shorter than an eviction, give *written* notice for this length of time to your landlord whenever you have a new place lined up. Pay all rent that comes due during the notice period. The landlord will probably charge you for breaking the lease by using some (all?) of your deposit for charges he will list. When you have received the deposit square up (or after 45 days if not received), initiate a small claims lawsuit. The burden will be on you to prove to a judge the concept of "constructive eviction." This is normally very hard to do by yourself. Also, the longer you stay the more the judge will doubt you. If you can convince the judge, he will award most (all?) of the withheld deposit back to you.

Good luck.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

My response:

Go to Radio Shack and buy a good tape recorder and a "sensitive" microphone (expensive, but really worth it).

Then, record one of his vomiting, and coughing jags.

Then, install a JBL "L100" speaker to your ceiling with the drivers facing up.

Then, when all is finally silent, and you think he's gone to sleep, put the tape in your stereo tape unit (hopefully, you have a Nakamichi tape deck), and then turn that sucker up as loud as you can ! Put his vomiting and coughing in an "endless loop".

Give him a little of the grief he's been giving you, and he'll be begging you to leave, and throwing your deposit money at you !

IAAL

 

[HomeGuru]

I agree with the response by IAAL except that in order to get the real stereo effect from the NAkamichi deck, you should install not one but two JBL speakers.
If you really despise L, get a good heavy duty bass reflex speaker like the ones the teenagers use in their cars to play the blaring hip hop and rap music.

 

[Gene Gayda]

Geesh, do I have to teach you guys everything?

The Nakamichi tape deck is OK, but you need to feed that to a Carver pre-amp with holography (to get the correct 3-D effect), then to a Carver amp blowing 350 watts *per channel* to some Accoustic Research speakers capable of handling the output.

The staging to hold the speakers to the ceiling may be a little tricky, though.

Good luck.


Gene

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

My response:

Our writer, I'm sure, get's the idea . . .

It's a sound idea.

And, it's quicker than court.

IAAL

 

[HomeGuru]

Very sound and very quick.

Don't do da limbo.
Lay down da Hip Hop Hurl by Scoop Froggy Frog on his drunken candy ass.

Burp. Croak.

 

[Limbo]

Not what I had expected to hear .... but great thinking nonetheless

To Gene Gayda, I Am Always Liable, and Home Guru-

Gene- I extend warm thanks for your reponse which detailed the "amunition" or there lack of for my fight against this dilemna.

I tend to agree with you all that moving will prove more trouble than it is worth, especially when you consider the ideas you proposed. It would not be my preferred method of handling his intrusive behavior, but just thinking about it, has me laughing my ass off.

The talk with the brother seems to have helped, as well as the fact that the landlord ended up hospitalized after his weekend binge for a cracked rib. PERHAPS this is a wake-up for him, only time will tell.

He came down this past weekend to offer an explanation for all the noise..... he slipped on cooking oil..... uhmmm okay whatever you say buddy!

Next time this happens, I will be armed with my taping gear, and relish the moment he falls asleep! hee-hee (*Devil Laugh*)

Thanks again not only for the valuable information, but more importantly for the laugh!

Limbo