When the rains leaked in and soaked the carpet in one of our bedrooms, the landlord’s response was a mix of “this never happened before” and “what do you want us to do about it?” Uhhh… fix the leak and dry out the carpet? They did neither, but the rains stopped and the carpet eventually dried out. Two weeks ago, it rains more, and the mold is in full bloom. We’re coughing and wheezing, and our doctor tells us we can’t stay there. No kidding.
We tell the landlord that this is unlivable, and that we’re reducing our rent by 50% for the unusable bedroom. YMMV, but California has a specific provision in law for this. They object and give us a 3-day notice to pay or quit. We laugh at their feeble and illegally-done efforts. We call the building inspector.
Today, the inspector is there with his pen, clipboard and a beetling brow. He knows this landlord and doesn’t care much for them either. Soon, we will laugh at the lengthy list of citations that the city is going to smack them with:
Multiple cites of water leaks, damage and visible mold growth.
A cite for torn carpeting on the stairs.
One for a blocked fire exit. *****
Cites for storing nine filthy used toilets on the premises.
Cited for leaving an open sewer. ******
Investigation of plumbing problems where running both washing machines in the laundry room causes sewage to back up into our kitchen sink.
Last but not least, citations for inoperative emergency lights. *******
About a month ago, someone left a 25" TV at the end of the hall, blocking the inward-swinging fire exit. Landlord was there a week ago to fix the door closer that someone broke and stepped over the TV to get at the door. Fixed the door, but left the TV.
** - The landlord actually told us that he took the cleanout cap off so the sewers would drain better. If sewage backing up onto the garage floor is better, then I guess he’s right.
*** - The landlord’s waiting for the fire department to come out and fix the lights. Dummy. The FD only fixes fires. :wally
So, who else wants to mess up their landlord’s week?
I hope you can afford to move - he may make your life hell.
A trailer park was required to make extensive and expensive repairs to the electrical system (these people have been w/o full power since Sept) and a couple days ago the owner gave all renters till june to move and requested they pay all the back rent they owed (withheld on advice of lawyer) by this thursday or soemthing.
So he told them in their little letters the other day that he is shutting the park down and turning into a vacant lot.
The professional strong men have just finished putting anything that didn’t move onto the truck and are at this moment driving to the new place. New place had a first month free deal, so we put that money to movers, rather than hurting ourselves. If the landlord tries anything stupid again, we’ve got a collection of written communications with them as well as a stack of info from the state to defend ourselves with.
**ivylass ** - Funny you should bring up Master Wang-Ka’s post on The Dangerous Apartment. Just yesterday, I saw a guy running away from the cops downtown. This guy had nerve though - he was handcuffed. He slipped on something and skidded face-first on the pavement. The character of Troll pops into my head with the advice “Gotta be careful runnin’ in handcuffs. Might trip on som’pin and scrape yer face off.”
Over more than a decade of apartment hopping, I learned that the only real way to deal with landlords is by giving them money, or by using your hat.
As in, “grab it and run.”
Another landlord I dealt with tried to bill me $700 instead of giving me my deposit back, and actually had his lawyer call us a few times. Why the guy thought we had $700 to give him, I don’t know; would people with that much spare cash lying around live in apartments like his? (rhetorical question, there…)
Apartment living in my youth taught me many important lessons, most importantly this one: the law will protect you ONLY as long as everyone obeys it. Sure, it may be illegal for the landlord to change the lock on your door for being two days late with the rent, but you’ll need to get a cop or a lawyer to make him behave.
Be wary. The story linked above is one of the few unpleasant confrontations I ever had with a landlord that worked out in my favor. Avoidance is generally a much more successful strategy.
I came home tonight to find the inspector came back and posted a lovely Notice of Violation" at the front door. Mr. Slumlord’s in a heap o’ trouble. Not only does he have 30 days to correct the violations described above, but the inspector realized that the landlord never proved that he actually had the fire alarm system repaired and certified earlier this year as previously required by the same inspector.
I really can’t think of much more to do to the guy in terms of torment. He’s actually a decent well-meaning guy. It’s his daughter that’s the royal pain. The Department of Building Inspection, Deaprtment of Public Health and the Fire Marshall will be occupying enoough of their time for a while.
But I did go shopping for a new fire extinguisher. See, I’ve got a commercial extinguisher that either needs to be replaced or hydro tested this fall as it’s almost 12 years old. Lo and behold, there’s an identical extinguisher here that was hydro tested a few months ago, so I swapped them. Of course, the fire marshall might bring the untested and un-recently-recharged extringuisher to Slumlord’s attention sooner.
Nope. The building has just as many charged-up extinguishers as it did four months ago. One of them just isn’t quite as nice any more. My beef is with the building owner and not the tenants. I’m not going to do anything to endanger the tenants. Next year, the extinguisher company will just tell them that there’s one that needs to be hydro tested or replaced.
It might also help to mention that the building owner was cited by the city for not having *any * fire extinguishers in the building. Last summer, a glass of old spit would have been better than the empty hallway extinguisher cabinets.
It’s still not clear. Did you take a fire extinguisher that was in your building? The fact that you replaced it with one of your own (which apparently needed recharging or testing) shouldn’t enter into the discussion, IMO. It still sounds like you stole it.
There’s no net change to the number of fire extinguishers. I’ve simply swapped one operating extinguisher for another.
As for changing the value of the landlord’s inventory of extinguishers, how is this different than people destroying carpet with secretly-planted grass seed, hiding fish or pet fur in the heating ducts, ruining the fridge by turning it off and leaving a dead squid inside, or killing a dishwasher by dumping sand into it and wrecking the pump? It’s a far sight cheaper than replacing a major appliance.
It’s a minor payback for making us cope with sewage backing up into the kitchen sink and the furniture that was ruined by the water leaks. Not to mention the health problems we’re suffering from the mold.
Destroying a rug that might have had to be replaced soon anyway is one thing - maybe a misdemeanor could be construed as criminal mischeif or a misdemeanor, but … a quick google gives me this section of the California penal code:
148.4. (a) Any person who does any of the following is guilty of a
misdemeanor and upon conviction is punishable by imprisonment in a
county jail, not exceeding one year, or by a fine, not exceeding one
thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment:
(1) Willfully and maliciously tampers with, molests, injures, or
breaks any fire protection equipment, fire protection installation,
fire alarm apparatus, wire, or signal.
(2) Willfully and maliciously sends, gives, transmits, or sounds
any false alarm of fire, by means of any fire alarm system or signal
or by any other means or methods.
(b) Any person who willfully and maliciously sends, gives,
transmits, or sounds any false alarm of fire, by means of any fire
alarm system or signal, or by any other means or methods, is guilty
of a felony and upon conviction is punishable by imprisonment in the
state prison or by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars
($500) nor more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that
fine and imprisonment, if any person sustains as a result thereof,
any of the following:
(1) Great bodily injury.
(2) Death.
How do you know that it hasn’t gone bad in the interim?
You’ve swapped one that you didn’t own for one that you did own. It’s not up to you to decide they are equivalent, especially with fire fighting equipment. Regardless of your intent, this action is still wrong on several levels. If they were equivalent, why bother switching them?
It’s different in degree only. All the other things you mentioned are stupid, costly, and probably actionable as well.
You deal with those by dealing with those, not by taking the moral low road and stealing a piece of fire fighting equipment. Anyone who takes any of the actions listed above loses all of my sympathy. They’ve become part of the problem, not part of the solution.
this was in a town I used to live in a ways away from here.
I have a friend that was moving out of his apartment. His landlord was a total bitch (on one occasion she tried to run another friend of mine and myself over with her SUV, we jumped out of the way).
So we decided to throw the party of the summer. WE DID. There was a kiddy pool (not a cheap blow up thing, this was some two feet deep) in the kitchen filled with floating beer cans.
I don’t exactly remember the end of the night but we flooded the apartment after wrestling in the pool (a couple inches of water pretty much in every room). Both the police and the landlord were there.
We caused some 40 thousand dollars worth of damage to the place. New floors, new carpet… yeah. and we got away with it. My friend skipped out of town for a bit and eventually the landlord gave up.
I think that was the most fun I’ve ever had.
I have photos, lots of them, but posting them could get me in some major shit… incriminating stuff (but man, funny as hell, there are several photos as a tribute to the fun we had at that crazy place around the apartment).
But this is assuming you’re pretty sure you wouldn’t get caught.
Solicitation or advocation of illegal activities will NOT be permitted on this message board.
Consider this to be an official warning to all who posted such in this thread.
