greenestdragon
New Member
My jurisdiction is: Ohio
I found an apartment in what many people had told me was a nice, or at least acceptable, area of Cincinnati, Ohio. I signed the lease on October 4, 2008, for one year.
It wasn't until I came by the next day that I noticed a strange smell. I also noticed that after about 20 minutes, I began feeling dizzy, my throat began swelling up, and my eyes started stinging. I figured it might be the brand new carpet or carpet glue (I'd read that new carpet, especially the cheap variety, can have this problem), so I reopened the windows to let the place air out for a few days.
Over the next few weeks, the weird smell remained--my dad and Brian (my boyfriend) both noticed it, also. My dad used his steam cleaner and I tried a trick I'd read about online--I dumped baking soda all over the entire carpet (a total of 16 pounds!!), let it soak in, and vacuumed it up a few days later.
When nothing worked, I left a message for the apartment manager in mid-October expressing my concern about my physical reaction to the place. I mentioned the new carpet as a possible cause. I also asked a few other unrelated questions. He never called back. I tried again later that week with no response.
Finally, I wrote a certified letter on November 24th, 2008 explaining all of my efforts and symptoms and concerns, and told him that I was not actually sleeping in the apartment due to this problem. I told him that we needed to discuss this to see if we could determine a cause and/or solution (also included a few unrelated questions) and asked for a response. I asked him to write me back me back by either snail mail or e-mail (for documentation purposes). Again, no response.
Around December 30, I sent another certified letter stating that since my physical reaction to the place was not diminishing and since I had not heard from him once since October 4, as well as for health reasons, I felt that it would be best if I ended the lease early , and I'd like to discuss this with him. I was a little worried since there was no mention whatsoever in my lease about ending it early. But according to my informal research online, breaking a lease in Ohio usually amounts on average to paying one or two months rent and forfeiting the security deposit, based on single agreements. And since he had not contacted me AT ALL since October 4, that would hopefully work in my favor. I continued to pay rent in the meantime, not wanting to be sued.
I went over to the apartment on January 3rd on a whim and happened to run into my neighbor. She asked me if the AM had reached me yet about giving me a key to the outside door and I said no--that I'd been trying to reach him for several months. She laughed and said "Yeah, he doesn't return phone calls." We got to talking, and she told me all about the various problems with the apartment ( including squatters, prostitutes, and bedbug infestations, which the AM WAS, in fact, aware of). There was also the matter of the "lady" who lived in my apartment before I moved in.
This lady was nasty. The apartment smelled so bad, even from the hall, that my neighbor was embarrassed to have visitors. When the "lady" opened the door, gnats would pour out into the hall. She also had roaches, which spread to other units. The lady had a constant cough and sore throat and was generally sick all the time. When she moved out, she left almost everything there. My neighbor was there when the AM opened the door to discover trash bags full of rotting substances crammed into the closet from floor to ceiling. Used sanitary napkins were strewn about willy-nilly across the floor. A few inches of pure urine sat in the litterbox and, of course, urine was soaking into the carpet around it. This was so foul that the AM had to immediately run outside and vomit in the bushes. Even after the AM hired someone to clean, repaint, and replace the carpet, my neighbor claims that it still smelled like the nasty lady.
So that would explain why I feel sick after being there. Now I know why the AM didn't want to talk to me--he KNEW what was causing my symptoms. He hadn't told me this, naturally, and he flat out lied about the bugs (three infestations in the last year, all of which he was involved in treating, and he "wasn't aware of it"?). My neighbor told me that several other people had moved out early due to horrible conditions in the apartment (for example, the landlord refused to fix a heating problem last year and people were wearing coats to sleep for months). These people just moved out and stopped paying rent, and when the AM finally called them, they didn't answer their phone or return his messages. He did not go after any of them to collect rent. She felt bad for me and told me that if he tried to sue me for rent, she would stand up for me in court. She advised me to just move everything out, cut my losses and not to worry--he wouldn't go after me. The next day, Brian and I moved every last belonging of mine out of the apartment.
The lady was a serious hoarder, and from what I understand, hoarding can cause all kinds of health issues like black mold and mildew. There was some serious hoarding and general nastiness going on in this room, and I suspect that there is something there more sinister than a little surface dirt--something that cannot just be covered up with paint and and carpet.
Anyway, on January 4 (after he received my second letter), the AM finally left me a message. I called back and reiterated (via voicemail) that I would like to end the lease on January 30 and mentioned that there was nothing left in the apartment that belonged to me, so I would like to meet to sign some papers to end the lease and drop off my keys. I did not let on that I knew about the nasty previous tenant. We left messages for each other back and forth for a few days until January 7, when I tried to call him but got a recording saying something like "This person cannot be reached at this time." I tried back a few times but finally figured his phone had either run out of minutes or been turned off. So, I sent an e-mail on January 9 restating what I'd said in my voicemail. He did not write back and I heard nothing from him for another month.
After that, I decided that I was finished with trying to contact him. Before I found out he was a liar, I had been patiently trying to work with him and had paid 4 months of rent without even living there, and he was essentially ignoring me while collecting rent.
He finally left me a voicemail a month later, on February 7 (presumably, when he noticed that I hadn't sent him a rent check for February). Not once did he mention anything about my requests to end the lease early and my complete lack of intention to ever live there, which I had expressed to him by letter, phone, AND e-mail, starting in December. No, he said that he'd been trying to call (um, no) and "like he said" (again, no) he could have the carpet professionally cleaned, even though he'd checked with the manufacturer and the carpet and padding were standard and the same throughout the building. I did not call him back. He called again on February 9 stating the same thing, and again on February 10, saying he hadn't gotten a rent check from me for February.
So, my question is: how, exactly, should I handle this? I am going to send him another letter, stating again that I had been telling him since November that I was unable to live there due to health reasons, and that I had given him plenty of notice that I needed to end the lease (it was clearly stated in my letter on December 30, and also in voicemail/e-mail). Are there any rules/laws in Ohio that would work in my favor (since he refused to contact me for over a month after I told him that there was a problem serious enough to keep me from living there)? Would you advise that I make an offer for ending the lease? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks much!
I found an apartment in what many people had told me was a nice, or at least acceptable, area of Cincinnati, Ohio. I signed the lease on October 4, 2008, for one year.
It wasn't until I came by the next day that I noticed a strange smell. I also noticed that after about 20 minutes, I began feeling dizzy, my throat began swelling up, and my eyes started stinging. I figured it might be the brand new carpet or carpet glue (I'd read that new carpet, especially the cheap variety, can have this problem), so I reopened the windows to let the place air out for a few days.
Over the next few weeks, the weird smell remained--my dad and Brian (my boyfriend) both noticed it, also. My dad used his steam cleaner and I tried a trick I'd read about online--I dumped baking soda all over the entire carpet (a total of 16 pounds!!), let it soak in, and vacuumed it up a few days later.
When nothing worked, I left a message for the apartment manager in mid-October expressing my concern about my physical reaction to the place. I mentioned the new carpet as a possible cause. I also asked a few other unrelated questions. He never called back. I tried again later that week with no response.
Finally, I wrote a certified letter on November 24th, 2008 explaining all of my efforts and symptoms and concerns, and told him that I was not actually sleeping in the apartment due to this problem. I told him that we needed to discuss this to see if we could determine a cause and/or solution (also included a few unrelated questions) and asked for a response. I asked him to write me back me back by either snail mail or e-mail (for documentation purposes). Again, no response.
Around December 30, I sent another certified letter stating that since my physical reaction to the place was not diminishing and since I had not heard from him once since October 4, as well as for health reasons, I felt that it would be best if I ended the lease early , and I'd like to discuss this with him. I was a little worried since there was no mention whatsoever in my lease about ending it early. But according to my informal research online, breaking a lease in Ohio usually amounts on average to paying one or two months rent and forfeiting the security deposit, based on single agreements. And since he had not contacted me AT ALL since October 4, that would hopefully work in my favor. I continued to pay rent in the meantime, not wanting to be sued.
I went over to the apartment on January 3rd on a whim and happened to run into my neighbor. She asked me if the AM had reached me yet about giving me a key to the outside door and I said no--that I'd been trying to reach him for several months. She laughed and said "Yeah, he doesn't return phone calls." We got to talking, and she told me all about the various problems with the apartment ( including squatters, prostitutes, and bedbug infestations, which the AM WAS, in fact, aware of). There was also the matter of the "lady" who lived in my apartment before I moved in.
This lady was nasty. The apartment smelled so bad, even from the hall, that my neighbor was embarrassed to have visitors. When the "lady" opened the door, gnats would pour out into the hall. She also had roaches, which spread to other units. The lady had a constant cough and sore throat and was generally sick all the time. When she moved out, she left almost everything there. My neighbor was there when the AM opened the door to discover trash bags full of rotting substances crammed into the closet from floor to ceiling. Used sanitary napkins were strewn about willy-nilly across the floor. A few inches of pure urine sat in the litterbox and, of course, urine was soaking into the carpet around it. This was so foul that the AM had to immediately run outside and vomit in the bushes. Even after the AM hired someone to clean, repaint, and replace the carpet, my neighbor claims that it still smelled like the nasty lady.
So that would explain why I feel sick after being there. Now I know why the AM didn't want to talk to me--he KNEW what was causing my symptoms. He hadn't told me this, naturally, and he flat out lied about the bugs (three infestations in the last year, all of which he was involved in treating, and he "wasn't aware of it"?). My neighbor told me that several other people had moved out early due to horrible conditions in the apartment (for example, the landlord refused to fix a heating problem last year and people were wearing coats to sleep for months). These people just moved out and stopped paying rent, and when the AM finally called them, they didn't answer their phone or return his messages. He did not go after any of them to collect rent. She felt bad for me and told me that if he tried to sue me for rent, she would stand up for me in court. She advised me to just move everything out, cut my losses and not to worry--he wouldn't go after me. The next day, Brian and I moved every last belonging of mine out of the apartment.
The lady was a serious hoarder, and from what I understand, hoarding can cause all kinds of health issues like black mold and mildew. There was some serious hoarding and general nastiness going on in this room, and I suspect that there is something there more sinister than a little surface dirt--something that cannot just be covered up with paint and and carpet.
Anyway, on January 4 (after he received my second letter), the AM finally left me a message. I called back and reiterated (via voicemail) that I would like to end the lease on January 30 and mentioned that there was nothing left in the apartment that belonged to me, so I would like to meet to sign some papers to end the lease and drop off my keys. I did not let on that I knew about the nasty previous tenant. We left messages for each other back and forth for a few days until January 7, when I tried to call him but got a recording saying something like "This person cannot be reached at this time." I tried back a few times but finally figured his phone had either run out of minutes or been turned off. So, I sent an e-mail on January 9 restating what I'd said in my voicemail. He did not write back and I heard nothing from him for another month.
After that, I decided that I was finished with trying to contact him. Before I found out he was a liar, I had been patiently trying to work with him and had paid 4 months of rent without even living there, and he was essentially ignoring me while collecting rent.
He finally left me a voicemail a month later, on February 7 (presumably, when he noticed that I hadn't sent him a rent check for February). Not once did he mention anything about my requests to end the lease early and my complete lack of intention to ever live there, which I had expressed to him by letter, phone, AND e-mail, starting in December. No, he said that he'd been trying to call (um, no) and "like he said" (again, no) he could have the carpet professionally cleaned, even though he'd checked with the manufacturer and the carpet and padding were standard and the same throughout the building. I did not call him back. He called again on February 9 stating the same thing, and again on February 10, saying he hadn't gotten a rent check from me for February.
So, my question is: how, exactly, should I handle this? I am going to send him another letter, stating again that I had been telling him since November that I was unable to live there due to health reasons, and that I had given him plenty of notice that I needed to end the lease (it was clearly stated in my letter on December 30, and also in voicemail/e-mail). Are there any rules/laws in Ohio that would work in my favor (since he refused to contact me for over a month after I told him that there was a problem serious enough to keep me from living there)? Would you advise that I make an offer for ending the lease? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks much!
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