need legal advice… Do we have a case?

Over the years (3 total) we’ve noticed things were falling apart. Small things like the bedroom door coming off of the frame while being opened & noticing it was screwed into spray foam (cheap fix from previous break). Many things similar in severity happened but we just dealt with them. When our fridge stopped working or the bathroom toilet needed to be replaced our property manager was johnny on the spot & had it fixed right away.

Recently withing the last 3 or so months, we’ve dealt with the septic coming through the toilets & showers/bath on 2 seperate occassions. The way the problem was dealt with was by "relief pumping" 2 seperate times 2 weeks apart & we were told to try & not use the water/laundrey/everything that much. The septic problems were so bad at the house the drainfield had to be completely redesigned in order to keep the septic from draining even more into the surrounding soil which has also caused the side of the house to sink. Our property manager had to put us up in a hotel for 1 night. On the 2nd day, we were asked to wait in the driveway if the septic people weren’t done to avoid having a 2nd hotel night bill. We demanded a 2nd night at the hotel only because the work on the septic wasn’t going to be done for another couple of hours after we would have been forced to leave the hotel room because of check-out time. 

Now, we started to notice that the brick surrounding the pellet stove is crumbling, soaked, & discolored from obvious water rot. That flagged us to inspect the outside of the house where the fireplace is and we noticed it is completely rotted on the under roof of either side and a crack running the length of the house on both sides of the fireplace. You can easily see a quarter inch gap that is obviously not sealed off which leads us to believe that is the reason the pellet stove stopped working.

When we notified our property manager about not being able to plug in a space heater & the pellet stove not working she called the owner to ask what could be done. She informed us the owners response was that he had no more money after dealing with the major septic/drainfield problems that he fixed before & he would allow us to break our lease. She offered to send a handyman over to try & fix at least our heating situation until we could find another place to move.

When the handyman came over he basically said there was nothing he could do & if he tried to fix the electircal issues it would more than likely cause a fire. This handyman also advised us to just move & that we should try & get some money/compensation. I found it very alarming that a licensed handyman mentioned any kind of fire hazard & now I really feel taken advantage of. The owner has collected $1100/month for 3 years ($40,000) & now that the lease is almost up anyways (end of march) and he is letting us break the lease? Although we told the property manager that we wouldn’t sign another lease anyways, we haven’t gotten any offical notice that we couldn’t re-lease.

We were also made aware from the current property manager that she wouldn’t even help the owner again leasing out the property & she was cancelling her contract with him as well. When we asked if she fealt the owner was in the wrong we were told that it was a catch 22 because everything we said needed to be fixed action was taken. That said, the problem is known now & even the handyman she hired said the house needed to be completely rebuilt. When we told her that she just said she would send yet another guy to look which again would come out of her pocket.

She offered to fill our oil tank for a month until we find another place. I can’t see someone who wasn’t worried about something spending all this money when the owner wont even reimburse her. Makes me think she is worried about what we could do if we wanted to. Still only bandaids are being placed until we peacefully move out. I am not an electrician so I don’t know what is safe & I also would assume if someone rents a home out it would be safe. Knowing that I am living in a fire hazzard & endangering my family worries me and also makes me mad that someone has been making money off myself & roommate when the house should have never been rented out in the first place! I don’t have the money to pay for a lawyer but if someone feels that we have a case I would be more than willing to pay out of the settlement if there would be one.

Below are pictures of the side of the house being held up by a 2×4 & the fireplace bowing on the inside where the house is sinking…

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