Several repair & confidentiality issues with landlord

[tohejab]

We are one year into a two-year lease (HUGE mistake!!). Shortly after moving in and making friends with the neighbors, we found out the house has had the downstairs ceiling collapse due to burst pipes, had tenants store months of trash in the attic, pee on the walls... the list goes on and on. The siding & roof was replaced after water gushed down our walls following the first big rain, and a toilet that was rocking back & forth on rotten floorboards fixed after only two months of asking.

The landlord was politely notified via email of the rotting front door frame in July 2010. A "contractor" (her loose term for the handymen she uses) looked at it in December but never came back (she doesn't pay them and is super-cheap and demanding) and I texted in March that both front and rear entry doors were now rotting and I was only able to keep the back door closed by deadbolting it, when could we expect repairs? I was told money was tight and I needed to wait out the month for another house to close (she is a REALTOR) but nothing happened.

I went away on a week and a half vacation and mailed money orders for the rent. They did not arrive, but I didn't know that until I was on my way home and got a call from the neighbor that the landlord had been at her house asking about us, TELLING HER WE DIDN'T PAY RENT!!! and telling her how much money she was losing on the house! I immediately texted the landlord and asked if she had received my payment. She called and said no. She knocked on my door the next morning demanding payment. Having just arrived home late the night before, I explained that I would need to research the missing money orders and that while I was sorry for the inconvenience, I did not have an additional $1150 handy to replace what was missing. She berated me for not leaving the payment in the mailbox (NO!!! I was going out of town and didn't get paid until the day after we left town!!) and refused to discuss the delinquent repairs, saying the conversation wasn't about that, it was about missing rent.

YESTERDAY, she texts to tell me she has a "contractor" coming to check out the door at 5pm but didn't need to get in the house. Apparently, when she and the workers arrived, she went next door to the OTHER neighbor and proceeded to interrogate her about my vacation, asking about the duration, had I actually gone out of state, telling HER that I didn't pay rent and that she doubted that I had ever actually sent it (calling me a liar publicly!!).

I had code enforcement come out today to cite her for the violations re: the door frame damage, but that only guarantees that it has to be "fixed" not necessarily well.

I am SOOOO bothered by the borderline defamation going on in her running around my neighborhood telling everyone I didn't pay rent and how fishy it is I went on VACATION!!

I have another house I can move to immediately, but I don't know what rights I would have in this situation (8 months seems like BEYOND reasonable time to fix something...) as far as breaking my lease??

 

[army judge]

Breaking leases are as difficult as locating Osama bin Laden.

All that will get broken is your bank account and future ability to rent properties in 50 states, if you're not careful.

I suggest you pay the rent, if it is still outstanding. Otherwise, your lease will be broken by a judge ordering your eviction.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

You left town on vacation and your landlord never received the rent.

It would not be unreasonable for her to assume you abandoned the rental unit.

Her talking to the neighbors is not a legal justification for you to break your lease.

After all, your second sentence states that you did the same thing; made friends with the neighbors and learned all about the history of rental unit and the former tenants.

Gail

 

[tohejab]

Thank you both for your replies. I realize I sound just like any other deadbeat tenant who just wants out rather than deal with a difficult situation. Before moving to GA I worked with/for a broker who also owned multiple rental properties and my frustrations stem mostly from knowing how HE would handle the same situation and recalling the ethical and legal considerations he talked about. We pay our rent every month and do quite a bit of routine maintenance (shower head/knob replacements, minor toilet repairs, doorknobs, paint, etc) on our own, just don't feel that replacing rotten door frames we first notified her of eight months ago falls under the heading of "routine". I'm not concerned that she spoke with my neighbors to make sure I was still around, although calling, texting or emailing me directly seems like a reasonable first line of investigation (she claims she lost my phone number with her broken phone, although it is listed on my rental app and in several emails between us, and that her computer has a virus) I'm bothered that she (in her professional capacity) has violated ethics standards and I would think some legal privacy considerations by sharing all this information. It also frustrates me that despite my lease clearly stating that I am to mail my payment in the form of check or money order to a specified address, she insists every month that she'd rather pick up cash. She argues that the lease is just a standard form that she HAD to fill in a mail-to address on and that her preferences override.

I have the receipts from the money orders and have sent her documentation via certified mail of those and the claim cards to have them replaced/refunded along with a hard copy of the email from July. The code enforcement officer is citing her for the safety issues involving the door frames, so at least I know they have to be repaired to at least code specs.

 

[army judge]

If you want, you are legally able to hold her to the terms of the lease.

If the lease says you are to mail payments, inform that you'll be mailing the payments per the lease. Neither of you can pick and choose which provisions you want to obey.






But, do you really want to fight about this? No one forced you to sign that stupid two year deal, and you a savvy real estate professional, too. Come on, pay the lady, before you're standing before a judge who tells you the same thing, "Pay the lady, Mr. Defendant!"

 

[tohejab]

Thanks. More than anything I appreciate just having somewhere to air this out as no, I really am not much for fighting over it and am not any savvy professional, just familiar enough with things to feel like something isn't right. I made arrangements on Day One to reimburse her the missing money, just don't have duplicate cash on hand (family of five on a swim coach salary is a tightly run ship, especially after taking the only vacation we take as a family all year) and am frustrated that she's running around making an issue of it publicly.