Refund of security deposit/never moved in

[leahcar]

What is the name of your state? Indiana
My sister is elderly, disabled, and confined to a wheelchair. She has several medical conditions. I normally take care of her financial matters, however, my husband was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and I have been preoccupied. She recently rented an apartment sight unseen. The manager refused to allow her into the unit or even tell her which building it was in until she paid the deposit and rent. He told her it was "newly remodeled", had a handicapped ramp and her parking spot would be directly in front of the apartment because she told him she can't walk. She picked up the keys yesterday, 10-21-20, paid pro-rated rent for the month, told me the story and I went to look at this apartment...there is NO handicapped ramp and there are steps. The parking spots are on the side of the building OR across the street. It is crawling with roaches and there are signs of bedbugs. The apartment had not had simple, basic cleaning in a very long time. She could not get inside of course. I called him and tried to talk to him about all these issues. His response was that he would have someone clean it and have it sprayed for bugs! There is no way a woman with COPD and emphysema can live in an apartment crawling with bugs, even IF she could somehow manage to get in it. She will not be living there, not even for one day. He has refused to talk further with me and now tells her that if she pays him two months' rent that he will not "sue her." Can he do this even though he obviously committed fraud?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? Indiana
My sister is elderly, disabled, and confined to a wheelchair. She has several medical conditions. I normally take care of her financial matters, however, my husband was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and I have been preoccupied. She recently rented an apartment sight unseen. The manager refused to allow her into the unit or even tell her which building it was in until she paid the deposit and rent. He told her it was "newly remodeled", had a handicapped ramp and her parking spot would be directly in front of the apartment because she told him she can't walk. She picked up the keys yesterday, 10-21-20, paid pro-rated rent for the month, told me the story and I went to look at this apartment...there is NO handicapped ramp and there are steps. The parking spots are on the side of the building OR across the street. It is crawling with roaches and there are signs of bedbugs. The apartment had not had simple, basic cleaning in a very long time. She could not get inside of course. I called him and tried to talk to him about all these issues. His response was that he would have someone clean it and have it sprayed for bugs! There is no way a woman with COPD and emphysema can live in an apartment crawling with bugs, even IF she could somehow manage to get in it. She will not be living there, not even for one day. He has refused to talk further with me and now tells her that if she pays him two months' rent that he will not "sue her." Can he do this even though he obviously committed fraud?

Contact the Americans with Disabilities Association and ask for some advice from them about how to proceed. They will likely have some suggestions and could likely refer her to an attorney as well. What he has done is clearly fraud.

I will tell you though, that your friend made a huge mistake renting something sight unseen. She should have refused to rent anything at all from him.

 

[FarmerJ]

Call your city housing inspections desk and tell them about the condition of the apartment and your sisters health and ask them if they can come out , take a look and if need be condemn the apartment as unfit for human use. THEN if inspections does it and condemns the unit get a copy of the report and go file in small claims court suing him for full refund and then try to see if she can qaulify for a rental assistance program or low income housing for people with disabilitys.

 

[leahcar]

Contact the Americans with Disabilities Association and ask for some advice from them about how to proceed. They will likely have some suggestions and could likely refer her to an attorney as well. What he has done is clearly fraud.

I will tell you though, that your friend made a huge mistake renting something sight unseen. She should have refused to rent anything at all from him.

Thank you. I have called them, I'm waiting on a call back from them.

I know it was a huge mistake, she knows it as well, now. It would have never happened had I not been so preoccupied with my own issues. She said she didn't want to "bother" me with it and tried to handle it on her own. She's been looking for months for an apartment on the ground floor with no steps and there is simply none available in this area. She called this guy who told her he had the absolute perfect place for her but they don't last long so she needed to hurry and pay that deposit so he could hold it for her. She paid it that day...in cash. He would not accept a check. She was actually very excited about it and is heartbroken.

I called an attorney who told me that if she signed a lease anything he "told" her was irrelevant. She doesn't know what she signed. He didn't give her any paperwork, not even receipts. There were dozens of red flags, she just didn't see them.

 

[quincy]

If worse comes to worse and she cannot get out of the lease without penalty, she could look to having a ramp constructed.

 

[LdiJ]

If worse comes to worse and she cannot get out of the lease without penalty, she could look to having a ramp constructed.

Cockroaches and bed bugs. The lack of a ramp is the least of the problems.

 

[AlmostThere]

Did she sign a contract? Does the contract say anything about handicapped accessibility?

It also sounds as if your friend needs someone as her financial conservator. While stepping in to help her is admirable, it is clear that your current family situation is taking up too much of your bandwidth for you to fill that role for the time being.

 

[FarmerJ]

almost there Id like to offer you a mug of coffee {_P so you can re read the original post , the OP is the sister to the tenant and Saying > that your current family situation is taking up too much of your bandwidth < does not help the poster with reasonable options for the sister to get her money back, It is truly unfortunate that the LL took advantage of this situation BUT im sure between city inspections and if needed local TV channel consumer affairs desk story that will end up mentioning the address and LL on air as well as maybe even showing pictures of bug city is going to stay in memory for some time after its posted , meaning NO landlord in thier right mind would refuse to issue a refund knowing the media had the story of what was wrong with a building. ( so you know , one does not need a written contract to establish a tenancy , knowing who to pay and actually paying establishes a month to month tenancy that is still regulated via state landlord and tenant laws that also will address habitability

 

[LdiJ]

almost there Id like to offer you a mug of coffee {_P so you can re read the original post , the OP is the sister to the tenant and Saying > that your current family situation is taking up too much of your bandwidth < does not help the poster with reasonable options for the sister to get her money back, It is truly unfortunate that the LL took advantage of this situation BUT im sure between city inspections and if needed local TV channel consumer affairs desk story that will end up mentioning the address and LL on air as well as maybe even showing pictures of bug city is going to stay in memory for some time after its posted , meaning NO landlord in thier right mind would refuse to issue a refund knowing the media had the story of what was wrong with a building. ( so you know , one does not need a written contract to establish a tenancy , knowing who to pay and actually paying establishes a month to month tenancy that is still regulated via state landlord and tenant laws that also will address habitability

I really like the idea of getting the media involved.

 

[FarmerJ]

Down in Minneapolis & Saint Paul there have been some landlords who had all their business practices hung out by the media including pictures of the crapholes they rented out, The first one I remember hearing about being Laxman Sundae, the Tv station that aired the story about him showed many of the defects in his units from broken windows to doors & locks to non working heat and pest problems AND I imagine that he lost some applicants- potential tenants back then, More recently in the last 2 or 3 years there was another guy in North Mpls who finally began to lose rental licenses ( media again hung it all out ) There was another who sold some of his units and I feel bad for the buyers because the city fought tooth and nail to have those sales over turned , the landlord they aired out was https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffhp&q=stephen+frenz+landlord&atb=v219-1&ia=web , he sold some of the properties via contract for deed and many of the buyers had already been repairing the properties , the city was hell bent on the idea that he was still somehow involved even though they were sold and unless the buyer had breached the contract he would not have any involvement. SO my point again is if the LL is smart they wont risk media consumer affairs help desk digging alot deeper.