We have lived in this two story rental house for 5 years. Never been late on rent, never had any issues other than some ongoing plumbing issues that existed prior to us moving in. We had sewer back up in the downstairs in mid July. Immediately contacted the landlord and the plumbing company she uses. She brought her insurance agent out, plumber thought that the land had settled due to earthquakes/age, etc. Insurance paid landlord for the repairs. Basically the entire downstairs needed to be gutted - wood floors, drywall (due to mold) and the bathroom gutted due to prior plumbing water damage to us moving in that never was fixed. Landlord paid the gutting, got drywall put in and then quit working as soon as she got her rent in August. The bathroom isn't functioning and there is no heat down there since she was going to replace her heating source. Also during that two week time, her washing machine died and she brought another in from another of her rentals.
We waited patiently to see if she was going to finish up - knowing she was doing this on her own time schedule. We had a tree come down on the property over the road and again had to call her (which again made her furious that we were being so "demanding"). We asked if she intended to finish up the downstairs (since it's over half our living space and all of our belongings were scattered over our covered outside deck). She informed us that she wasn't going to do any more work until she "knew that it wasn't going to back up again". She basically blamed us for things going wrong on her rental.
We are at a loss of what to do exactly. We haven't had a signed lease since the first year since we have always been clear we would give plenty of notice if we were moving and we were quite happy and established in our neighborhood. We continue to pay the full rent ($1145) every month although not happily since we have been living in half the house since mid July.
Am I wrong to feel this is a standoff? Basically I know I can submit to her in writing that she has 10 days to do these repairs. And her response could be to tell me no. Ironically this means since no lease I can move but I still have to give her 20 days prior to the end of the month I believe? We have started looking for rentals but this isn't easy because she is so difficult to deal with right now that we don't dare use her as a rental reference (5 years worth). She also has 1645 dollars in a deposit which I can only imagine the battle involved in getting any of that back.
We are in our early 50's and after renting places since I was 18 years old, I have never dealt with anyone so difficult. Going the attorney route seems like a waste of $ since ultimately we just need to move (but I did take pictures of the downstairs and I do have the person who did the tearing out of the downstairs willing to give statements). What I would like to do is basically give her a letter stating that we will be out by the end of November (probably by mid Nov) and not pay ANY rent for November period. Since she has a huge deposit that I would have to undoubtedly go to court for, she can use that for the November rent.
Any advice/suggestions/guidance? I have come to the conclusion that renters should be able to ask their tenant for a darn reference check and credit check after dealing with this woman.
We waited patiently to see if she was going to finish up - knowing she was doing this on her own time schedule. We had a tree come down on the property over the road and again had to call her (which again made her furious that we were being so "demanding"). We asked if she intended to finish up the downstairs (since it's over half our living space and all of our belongings were scattered over our covered outside deck). She informed us that she wasn't going to do any more work until she "knew that it wasn't going to back up again". She basically blamed us for things going wrong on her rental.
We are at a loss of what to do exactly. We haven't had a signed lease since the first year since we have always been clear we would give plenty of notice if we were moving and we were quite happy and established in our neighborhood. We continue to pay the full rent ($1145) every month although not happily since we have been living in half the house since mid July.
Am I wrong to feel this is a standoff? Basically I know I can submit to her in writing that she has 10 days to do these repairs. And her response could be to tell me no. Ironically this means since no lease I can move but I still have to give her 20 days prior to the end of the month I believe? We have started looking for rentals but this isn't easy because she is so difficult to deal with right now that we don't dare use her as a rental reference (5 years worth). She also has 1645 dollars in a deposit which I can only imagine the battle involved in getting any of that back.
We are in our early 50's and after renting places since I was 18 years old, I have never dealt with anyone so difficult. Going the attorney route seems like a waste of $ since ultimately we just need to move (but I did take pictures of the downstairs and I do have the person who did the tearing out of the downstairs willing to give statements). What I would like to do is basically give her a letter stating that we will be out by the end of November (probably by mid Nov) and not pay ANY rent for November period. Since she has a huge deposit that I would have to undoubtedly go to court for, she can use that for the November rent.
Any advice/suggestions/guidance? I have come to the conclusion that renters should be able to ask their tenant for a darn reference check and credit check after dealing with this woman.
