Hey folks. New to these forums, so please be gentle. The state in question is Iowa.
Here is the scenario. My wife and I had moved into an apartment unit about 10 days ago. We signed the rental agreement on the 5th of October. It is a month-to-month agreement. We did not actually move in until October 7th, which was a Monday. At first, everything was fine. The apartment was very small, but it was clean. Aside from a ceiling above the shower that was on the verge of collapse, a non-working light bulb, and a few nail holes in the wall, everything was more or less spotless.
That morning, I sent my landlord a text message, requesting an accommodation under the Fair Housing Act, section 504. My wife and I both had letters from our doctors expressing the prescription of a small companion/emotional support animal, one for each of us. Her and I both suffer from a series of mental health disabilities. No more than five minutes later, I receive a phone call from the landlord, and he is very obviously angry. He said "I have to allow it," but he also made statements such as the following: "If you bring those cats in there, we may as well consider that our 30 days," and "Those cats are going to be a problem." Long story short, he gave us verbal permission for the animals to be there, but he made threats of retaliation should we decide to exercise our rights as tenants.
The weekend immediately before this conversation took place, I had experienced a series of mentally and emotionally traumatizing events. I won't go into detail, but I will tell you that my brother committed suicide, my mother got committed to a psychiatric hospital (she suffers from schizophrenia), and my father got hauled off to jail. My family shattered over the course of 48 hours, and my meds were not doing enough. I was at risk of hospitalization. My wife and I decided to bring our ESA's into the unit and "face the consequences."
The very next day, the landlord entered our apartment unit without giving a 24 hour written notice, citing the bathroom ceiling maintenance as the reason for entry. My gut had told me to stay home from work that day, because I had a feeling the landlord would pull this. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he left the door to the unit open, allowing my ESA to escape. I was lucky enough to bring the ESA back into my apartment unit. But this event made it clear to my wife and I that we, nor our ESAs, were safe in the unit.
By this point I had contacted attorneys, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. An investigation is already underway, and I can file my official complaint at any time. I have waited to do this, though, because I want to give our landlord the opportunity to remedy the situation on his own, outside of court.
As a result of all of this, we moved out a week later. We had to wait for the new landlord to run background checks, process applications, etc. It was a very tense week. Every day at work, I was afraid to come home and find our animals missing. I openly acknowledge that we did not give him a proper 30 day notice to end our month-to-month rental agreement, but I did send him a text message the following morning, stating that we had thoroughly cleaned the unit, and had vacated it.
I had recorded a video, walking through the entire apartment, highlighting the state of repair we had left it in. We had only occupied the apartment for about a week. We were just barely able to afford rent + deposit at another apartment under different ownership. We are now experiencing financial hardship due to these events. In spite of this, we are breathing sighs of relief. Our cats are alive, and we have a roof over our heads. That being said, we want two things: Our deposit back, and the rest of October's rent refunded to us.
I sent another text message to the landlord, expressing our concerns. informing him of our termination of the rental agreement, as well as offering to set up a time and place to return the keys to him (he lives out of town). I had also indicated to him that I would be willing to walk through the unit with him, in order to address any concerns about wear and tear on the property, as a show of good faith.
He has yet to respond to me at all. I did not disclose the HUD and Civil Rights Commission's investigations, but I did inform him that I had contacted "a couple of government agencies." And this brings us to today. Does he have any kind of time limit to give correspondence? Should I even try to cooperate with this guy at all, or just take him straight to small claims? I am not the type of person to turn a simple disagreement/misunderstanding into a Judge Judy episode. But my wife and I feel as though we deserve some kind of justice.
Here is the scenario. My wife and I had moved into an apartment unit about 10 days ago. We signed the rental agreement on the 5th of October. It is a month-to-month agreement. We did not actually move in until October 7th, which was a Monday. At first, everything was fine. The apartment was very small, but it was clean. Aside from a ceiling above the shower that was on the verge of collapse, a non-working light bulb, and a few nail holes in the wall, everything was more or less spotless.
That morning, I sent my landlord a text message, requesting an accommodation under the Fair Housing Act, section 504. My wife and I both had letters from our doctors expressing the prescription of a small companion/emotional support animal, one for each of us. Her and I both suffer from a series of mental health disabilities. No more than five minutes later, I receive a phone call from the landlord, and he is very obviously angry. He said "I have to allow it," but he also made statements such as the following: "If you bring those cats in there, we may as well consider that our 30 days," and "Those cats are going to be a problem." Long story short, he gave us verbal permission for the animals to be there, but he made threats of retaliation should we decide to exercise our rights as tenants.
The weekend immediately before this conversation took place, I had experienced a series of mentally and emotionally traumatizing events. I won't go into detail, but I will tell you that my brother committed suicide, my mother got committed to a psychiatric hospital (she suffers from schizophrenia), and my father got hauled off to jail. My family shattered over the course of 48 hours, and my meds were not doing enough. I was at risk of hospitalization. My wife and I decided to bring our ESA's into the unit and "face the consequences."
The very next day, the landlord entered our apartment unit without giving a 24 hour written notice, citing the bathroom ceiling maintenance as the reason for entry. My gut had told me to stay home from work that day, because I had a feeling the landlord would pull this. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he left the door to the unit open, allowing my ESA to escape. I was lucky enough to bring the ESA back into my apartment unit. But this event made it clear to my wife and I that we, nor our ESAs, were safe in the unit.
By this point I had contacted attorneys, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. An investigation is already underway, and I can file my official complaint at any time. I have waited to do this, though, because I want to give our landlord the opportunity to remedy the situation on his own, outside of court.
As a result of all of this, we moved out a week later. We had to wait for the new landlord to run background checks, process applications, etc. It was a very tense week. Every day at work, I was afraid to come home and find our animals missing. I openly acknowledge that we did not give him a proper 30 day notice to end our month-to-month rental agreement, but I did send him a text message the following morning, stating that we had thoroughly cleaned the unit, and had vacated it.
I had recorded a video, walking through the entire apartment, highlighting the state of repair we had left it in. We had only occupied the apartment for about a week. We were just barely able to afford rent + deposit at another apartment under different ownership. We are now experiencing financial hardship due to these events. In spite of this, we are breathing sighs of relief. Our cats are alive, and we have a roof over our heads. That being said, we want two things: Our deposit back, and the rest of October's rent refunded to us.
I sent another text message to the landlord, expressing our concerns. informing him of our termination of the rental agreement, as well as offering to set up a time and place to return the keys to him (he lives out of town). I had also indicated to him that I would be willing to walk through the unit with him, in order to address any concerns about wear and tear on the property, as a show of good faith.
He has yet to respond to me at all. I did not disclose the HUD and Civil Rights Commission's investigations, but I did inform him that I had contacted "a couple of government agencies." And this brings us to today. Does he have any kind of time limit to give correspondence? Should I even try to cooperate with this guy at all, or just take him straight to small claims? I am not the type of person to turn a simple disagreement/misunderstanding into a Judge Judy episode. But my wife and I feel as though we deserve some kind of justice.
