Problem with discrimination

By Pam Allen

I am a longtime faithful renter in good standing. I am also a single mom with two kids. I have rented our 3 bedroom basement apartment now for four years. I have always paid my rent on time and have put up with minor problems with the apartment. My rent started off at 750 per month and is now at 850 per month. While the rent is cheap the apartment is very basic with a great deal of problems. First of all the toliet does not work right. It is often plugged up because of a drainage problem. There have been times that myself and my kids have had to spend up to two nights in a hotel because of this. Also the bathroom sink leaks, and the water pressure from the shower/tub is very low. We often go without hot water. There are no extras. We have no washer and dryer in unit and do not even have a dish washer. We have electric heating that is provided by a space heater that I had to purchase. There is no wheatherization. My lanlord even rented the middle apartment of our triplex to a criminal family. The women was commiting identity theft (she did so against me twice by hacking my information and using my debit card to buy a IMAC lap top and them by stealing my SSN and using that for job verification.) Her and her family were also smoking and cooking crack in the middle apartment, and her son was selling pot out of this apartment as well. Unlike, when I was rented my apartment in this triplex, no credit check was done on this women or her husband because they were friends of another tenate that lived here at the triplex longer then I have. In the meantime they walked on the roof of my foyet several times causing a leak. The women also rean an illegal laundry business out her aparment which caused her to do up to 15 loads every Saturday. This caused the water heater to wear out and breakdown. No there is a leak which has backed up into my bedroom and caused the wall to buckle and give in, and the carpert to flood. There is now mold. Also when I went to open my bedroom window (which had two beebee holes in it caused by a previous tenant) in order to air it out the bedroom, the window cracked and broke. When I asked my landlord if I could move to the middle apartment (which is the same as mine, same size same amneties just upstairs) he said that he was being offered 1700 for it and was going to give it to someone else. He would not even let me look at this apartment. (1700 for a one bath 3 bedroom in a rundown triplex in Seattle, when there are luxury apartment down the road for the same price; he is not going to get that. I feel that I am being unfairly discriminated against. I should not have to live in a mold infested run down apartment. It is dangerous for me and my kids? What can I do?

Related posts:

Holy Cow, we couldn't find any other related post. Sorry. :(