Landlord will not repair

By Voda

  Well here goes. October 2010 I signed a lease on a home in Arkansas. I did a decent walk through with the Female Landlord BEFORE I signed anything.  1:   I was told there was water that leaked in the basement, NOT due to the open crawlspaces, but where the junction of pipes meets the wall.  I was told the house was inspected and there was NO mold and that the water was either running in or dryng up so no mold would develop. Its a small unusable basment, I wasn’t worried about it after she told me there was no mold.     2: There were also many many wasps, including multiple breeds(hornets, black wasps, and dirt diggers?the redish brown ones that ATTACK) She informed me that they were merley "hybernating" NOT NESTING and would scatter not causing a problem in the warmer seasons. She also told me they were NOT NESTING in the attic and they would NOT be finding ways into the home. I figured if they were a problem she or I could afford a local pest control to exterminate and remove the ‘non existant nests’. She told me there were no OTHER PEST CONTROL PROBLEMS…  Ok well other than those two problems, the house seemed perfect!!! It’s old, stone, beautiful and LARGE ENOUGH! I only have one child and a large breed dog, but I have a lot of hobbies.  My husband and I were also recently dealing with identity theft, and some of our own debts that made our credit score TERRIBLE! So when she offered the lease with no credit check, I was on top of it. I needed a place near family while my husband was deployed. It was exactly what I needed.  So I sighned the lease a few days later and paid my first month rent and deposit.

   First problem in the house was LEAKING GAS!!! They had to come ‘repair’ the water heater three individual times, KNOWINGLY TRACKING CHICKEN FECES into the house from THEIR chicken coop. Then turns out it COULDN’T be fixed and they replaced it asap. Ok so far they’re on top of it all trying their best to fix the problems even though I had to clean after them everytime(including the mess after the water heater and on my counters etc).  The gas smell was still there though, and the gas company had come out each time to inspect the appliances. They even had to red flag BOTH the water heater(three times I might add) and the stove. Well the Gas Company is supposed to charge for these visits but I managed to get away charge free. They came out a COUPLE TIMES just to fix the stove which ended the gas smell(I’ve lost track at this point at how many times they had tracked chicken FECES into my clean home WHICH I HAD TO CLEAN UPON MOVING IN!!! THE WINDOWS WERE CAKED WITH OVER A YEARS WORTH OF DIRT AND LEAVES right where the window SHOULD be sealed! I didn’t open the windows before signing the lease, it was October and cold out. All the windows looked FAIRLY new so I didn’t think that was a problem.   INSIDE the house was dusty, I found an ENTIRE PILE OF CHEEZITS ON THE TOP SHELF OF THE PANTRY THAT I COULDN’T SEE BEFORE SIGNING THE LEASE that was RIDDLED with DEAD COCKROACHES! When I opened blinds I was finding FOOD FROM PREVIOUS TENANTS STUCK to them and so dusty that it has changed the color of some of the blinds. Trash bags full laying around with who knows what in them,  I started finding spider crickets and ants ALL OVER the house. The outside I ended up stuck with a HUGE pile of TRASH that she had left telling me it would be cleaned up before I moved in. This trash includes scrap metal, a FULL SIZE plastic Christmas Tree, and who knows what else just in that pile alone.  and thats not even all I found! I had to rake the front yard of leaves and found TONS of trash!!! SHARP METAL, BROKEN GLASS, RUSTY NAILS AND SCREWS ALL OVER, USED OLD FEMANIN PRODUCTS THAT HAD BEEN TORN UP EVEN TWO FULL FLOOR MATS TO A CAR!!! I HAVE A TWO YEAR OLD SON!)

  Now theres blackish colored mold growing on the wall in the basement(I have not had assesed so I cannot say for sure its the infamous Black Mold), and THATS ALL I CAN SMELL when the house has been closed up. She has told me multiple times to remove the syrofoam blocks that HER HUSBAND used to CLOSE UP ALL THE CRAWLSPACES AFTER I MOVED IN. Apparently to be nice and stop the ‘breeze’.  Airing out the basement isn’t going to make that mold go away.(BTW if those weren’t there, the wasps could just fly right into the house since most of the crawlspaces don’t have screens). WHY WOULD I have to remove the styrofoam myself? I didn’t put them there, I DIDN’T complain about a breeze or even ask them to do anything with them. They just did it while working on the water heater.  I told her the wasps were coming into the house six and seven a day at least.  She did nothing but tape up the attic door to keep them out and told me not to leave doors and windows with no screens open. Well half the screens were bent and didn’t fit with giant gapes so they would get in even opening windows WITH screens. THAT SHOULDN’T MATTER! AT THIS POINT IN THE YEAR I HADN’T EVEN OPENED ANY WINDOWS OR LEFT THE DOOR OPEN BECAUSE IT WAS STILL INCREADIBLY COLD OUT. But apparenlty warm enough in my attic for the wasps FLY around in SWARMS! This was Feb/Mar 2011. I HAD to call pest control and they actually had to FOG the attic because there were TOO MANY WASPS for him to spray. Well after fogging they never removed the nests, I don’t know why. So I told my landlord about this, and she informed me that EVERY house in this area is going to have wasps NESTING in their attics and that I shouldn’t have wasted my money on pest control because the wasps will just be back…Soooo originally telling me they wouldn’t be a problem was a lie? Now she is saying they will continue to be a problem and theres nothing SHE OR ANYONE CAN DO ABOUT IT.

  ANOTHER THIRD PROBLEM I had discovered immedietly was the house wasn’t caulked anywhere that I couldn’t see without getting on my hands and knees. Including the bathtub which had rotting floorboards under it. SO ROTTED that the bathtub was on an angle. I didn’t even realize it was on an angle until they came to repair it just last week. Now even my toilet has shifted INCHES from the floor having been so unlevel so long. OR they installed the toilet on ROTTED UNLEVEL WOOD.  She has continued to try and convince me to use the BACK bathroom "just because". I MAY just be paranoid but that makes me feel like they didn’t do a very good repair job and SHE KNOWS it. AAAANNND WHEN HER HUSBAND and his ‘other repair guy’, who I’m fairly certain but not possitive is his son, had come over to fix the tub, they made me very uncomfortable with some inappropriate comments. So inapropriate that after they assesed the damage and went for materials, I started getting ready to leave MY HOME so they could repair the damage without me there. They showed back up very soon with TWO JACKS and some lumber. I know this is all hard to explain in order, but I want this as accurate as possible to get the best advise.  Now I’m finding all kinds of odd things changing around the house that at first I thought was just me being absent minded. Now I’m almost convinced someone is coming into the home without my knowlegde. Theres also NO DEADBOLD on the front door and if I want one I have to pay for it’s installation and have it keyed to match the rest of the locks.  Ok I’ll do that when you drop rent for this dump. Its not worth locking up if I can barley breath inside, can’t play in the yard with my son without worries of injury and disease, can’t take a bath without fear of falling through the floor, or even sleep comfortably knowing the trees outside arn’t going to lose a dead branch on top of us. (this is another problem I mentioned to her. Now that the trees have come to life, I can see just how many GIANT dead BRANCHES are just hanging on the trees waiting to snap from the weather. She told me not to worry about it, they are trimmed every couple of years…) I’ll believe that when she snaps out of it and fixes what I have told her are major problems for ANY TENANT.

   NOT TO MENTION when I SIGNED THE LEASE I signed at least three pages, when I asked for a copy of the lease, I recieved A SINGLE SHEET OF PAPER FRONT AND BACK…THATS IT. I’ve had problems in the past with letting landlords treat me like hell and even some that TRIED to screw me over…INTENTIONALLY!!! I’m SICK OF IT!!! Whether this is intenional or not I’m NOT PAYING 800 A MONTH FOR A RUN DOWN, UNSAFE, and probably UNSANITARY HOUSE until October 2011. What do I do now? I really don’t WANT TO BE FORCED TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION! I Don’t know if I’d know what to do with legal action, or IF we can afford it!!!

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