Author Topic: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.  (Read 3326 times)

AlexK

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Re: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.
« Reply #50 on: February 19, 2021, 09:54:43 AM »
My property manager would be instantly fired if they told my tenant to leave the water main valve on while water is gushing out of broken pipes.

roomtempmayo

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Re: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.
« Reply #51 on: February 19, 2021, 10:24:26 AM »
My property manager would be instantly fired if they told my tenant to leave the water main valve on while water is gushing out of broken pipes.

Unless you were hoping for an insurance payout.

YttriumNitrate

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Re: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.
« Reply #52 on: February 19, 2021, 10:32:29 AM »
The OP has been complaining about their rental for the last seven years, but is paying far ($500+) under market rate. At this point, they should either move or start budgeting a couple hundred a month to fix things around the house because the landlord isn’t going to make repairs.

We've rented our house 6+ years. It's owned by an out of state landlord (I don't believe he has other properties) and run by a very large property management company. PM company does horrible repairs and has let the place go downhill. It's never been painted, drywall repairs are done poorly with no paint over them, the fence has huge holes in it, shower continually drips, carpets are brown, kitchen cabinets are warping or losing their door fronts, etc. Basically anything that has broken over the years has been ignored or just pieced together with spot repairs (ex. our dishwasher is from 1995 and has been "fixed" 5+ times). Mainly, they do subpar maintenance and never come and do the final details. Most of the time they end up saying stuff "can't be fixed" so I do it myself. But living here for so long all these half-assed repairs are adding up.
We're considering either buying a house or taking a sabbatical in the next two years. And I'm considering month to month to avoid the 2 month break lease fee if we want to move. We are very undermarket for rent but our house is in pretty poor condition. Assuming we have a 3% rent increase, our rent would be $1930 (MTM at 10% would be $2055). Other duplexes/houses in the neighborhood can rent for $2,300-$2,700 but they are recently updated and have AC or swamp coolers, while we can be 90+deg inside during the summer. Duplexes in around the same era/condition of our house can be $1,900 but are very rare. Our house hasn't been updated since 1995.

Repairs take months. Some never get done after reporting them over and over. Repairs are always half-assed so the longer you stay the worse shape the place gets. We've been there 3 years, the place is in worse condition than when we moved in. Holes in drywall. Ceiling stained, cracked, and peeling where leaks have been (they finally fixed the leak but not the drywall/cosmetics).

This is an old house and heating sucks normally. Lots of holes in the ducts in the crawlspace so a smell seemed reasonable. Last year I went and taped a few of the ducts so I thought they may have shifted since radon mitigation people messed around down there a few months ago. Well I was just expecting some misaligned ducts with holes. Instead, I found the drain from the kitchen sink is split. There are puddles of gross water/thick slimey mold mixture. It smells AWFUL.

I send a monthly email to my landlord on an issue that needs repair and I am on month 11. It went from "this is the first we are hearing of it" to "we are getting quotes." Now they now just ignore my emails/calls completely but at least I have a paper trail. Unfortunately, you usually find out about crappy landlords after you move-in and it costs you more money to leave than to deal with it yourself.

Zamboni

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Re: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.
« Reply #53 on: February 20, 2021, 07:05:10 AM »
lol, that’s quite a track record!

Sibley

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Re: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.
« Reply #54 on: February 20, 2021, 09:15:37 AM »
OP, I've been around this forum long enough to recognize several the quotes that YttriumNitrate was kind enough to post.

Frankly, I don't want to hear about your problems with your landlord. You're in an abusive relationship. That's your choice. You are an adult, you have every right to live in a shithole if you so choose. I certainly don't understand WHY you want to live in a shithole, but clearly you do. You must also accept the consequences of your choices. If you don't like the consequences, then change the choice.

Move out, or deal.

SunnyDays

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Re: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.
« Reply #55 on: February 20, 2021, 09:34:38 AM »
As the saying goes, "You teach people how to treat you."  With 7 years of the OP paying for substandard housing, why would the landlord do anything now?  The tolerance level for living in a dive seems pretty high.  Apparently money saved is more important than anything else.

Villanelle

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Re: Renter. On day 4 of no heat. Pipes burst.
« Reply #56 on: February 20, 2021, 10:39:10 AM »
Had a long post typed, then I read the rest of the posts.  If you are month to month, just move out now.  Yes, you give up your cheap rental, but your rental is both inexpensive and *cheap* and you are getting what you pay for (or what your *don't* pay for). 


Also, as a landlord who experienced a sort of similar situation, I offered to pay for fr a hotel for a few nights.  My insurance informed me that they wouldn't pay for that but it would likely be covered under her renters insurance.  So they might pay for that for you.  When my tenant moved out (claiming it was uninhabitable), her insurance also paid for movers, so that's something else to ask. 

Or you can just stay, in which case you are about as cheap as your landlord so it seems like you are a good fit for one another.