The management agent did not repair my house that I am renting.?

Question

Hi,

I have live in this house for almost 7 months. When the first day we had a walked through the house, the management guy made notes of all defects in the house. The major one are my windows , have no storm windows and net frame. They said they will fix them but nothing until today. The house is old and during summer, we have a hard time open the windows because they were stuck by paint that they painted over the frame of the windows.

Every single month I wrote a letter and call but no one respond to my window concern. Now, one of the soap dish at the tiled wall of one of my bathroom fell, exposing part of the wooden wall. When I looked at it, we found out that the way the fixed or attached the soap dish was a big mess and used wrong type of adhesive. Now since the wood wall is exposed, we cannot use the bathtub becasue the wall will get worst.

We also have leaking water from the duct system due to no filter installed in it. We cannot buy the filter becasue it is custom size. The way they construct the duct system was so weirs that we cannot easily find any standard filter to fit in.

We have called and sent letter but no one call or say anything to us ( as usual). We have enough of these. Our car was broken into and we are concerned that they might be able to break the house since the windows are not secured.

We feel like to get out from there and cancel the contract but we afraid of not getting our deposit back.

Please advice if any.

Answer 1

I hope you have copies of your letters, and sent them certified mail.  And did you by chance get a copy of the list the manager made upon move-in?  They should have given you one to have you sign off on it as part of the deposit return agreement.

That water leaking could cause mold damage, which can make everyone in the house very sick.

It sounds like you could get out of it in court and get your full deposit back, plus even some of the rent you paid.  You're not really living in a place that sounds suitable for living in.  But Legal Aid in your area might be able to help you better.

You might also consider contacting your local housing authority.  They're a great resource, especially if you have documentation.

Answer 2

I would contact your local Legal Aid to get some free legal advice.  It sounds to me like you have an easy claim.  

My guess is that if you move out and bring suit to reclaim your deposit, if they withhold it, you will be able to represent yourself in small claims court and not have to pay an attorney.

Be sure to keep copies of everything and take so many pictures that you think that you are overdoing it.