Shower, What Shower?

[cloud138]

Ok, here's the story, I am a single young woman (age 20) who has been renting a PA apartment for the last six months. The landlord that orginally rented my apartment to me decided to sell the apartment to a couple that is in their mid thirties. Well, June 15th was the day that they went to settlement. June 15th was also the day that all kinds of problems began. When, I originally moved in, I had a verbal agreement with the landlord saying that if someone else moved in then I would pay $600 rather than the normal $575. As it turns out, starting on July 1st I am having someone else move in with me. The new landlord said that since I didn't have our agreement in writing that they are going to be charging me $650 for rent. After becoming very frustrated, I agreed to pay the extra cash each month. This is when I realized that this was solely a money making endeavor for these individuals and they were clueless about all business transactions. They even said the increase was due to the fact that they needed to buy a new roof for the property. Wow, I guess I am financing the new roof for their new investment property. But okay, last week, a fuse in the basement blew. I called them to take care of it while I was at work. When I am driving home (my job is 45 minutes away), they call and say that they have no key to my apartment and that they didn't get one at settlement. As I get home, I discover that the fuse is one that controls my refrigerator and all of my frozen foods are thawed out. The landlord fixes the fuse and all is okay. I am annoyed about the loss of food but I let it slide. Okay, three days later, the fuse goes off again. I call the landlord again to come out and fix it. He is 30 minutes late....quite an inconvenience since I am paying $40 a piece for two tickets to an amusement park and I am not there but rather at the apartment. Okay, so he finally comes and "fixes" it. I tell the other person who is patiently waiting to go to the amusement park that as soon as I use the bathroom we can go. To my amazement, there are no lights and the landlord just left. So, I had to call him again to come fix it right this time. He comes over and gives me a BS reason as to why he decided to put a higher fuse in a lower fuse spot. Still not working. I just keep thinking I should be calling to increase my renters insurance before this man causes a fire by experimenting with the electric in my apartment. Then, he decides to call an electrician because he has no idea what he is doing. Then he says possibly they can come out two days later since I am not going to be home. Remember I am still trying to go to the amusement park. Finally, I tell him that he is staying to wait for the electrician. He agrees. Now, the next day, I notice the water in the bathroom is chilly when I get a shower. But, I am never home too often and I work pretty far from my apt so I quickly hurry up and get off to work. This morning (the following day) the water is unbearably cold....No hair washing for me. That doesn't go over so well considering I work in a sales job that is dependent upon commission and as superficial as it sounds, appearance counts in closing the sales a lot of the time. But, I call the landlord at 7:30 am to report the issue. At 10:30 am, the landlord's wife calls back to say that the problem will be fixed in an hour. I have been out of the house for over 4 hours already so I inform her that I am deducting a prorated amount for the negligance of her husband not resetting the hot water heater after the electric was off to it and causing me to be unable to use the shower today before work. She flips out and begins to act in an inappropriate mannner saying that it was my fault for not telling her husband to check the hot water heater when he was there. Like it is my responsibility. Where do I go from here...Do you all think I am wrong for not paying her for today and do you think I should deduct the amount of the food that became spoiled? Is there a place to report a person like this in PA?

[idalis]

Originally Posted by cloud138

Ok, here's the story, I am a single young woman (age 20) who has been renting a PA apartment for the last six months. The landlord that orginally rented my apartment to me decided to sell the apartment to a couple that is in their mid thirties. Well, June 15th was the day that they went to settlement. June 15th was also the day that all kinds of problems began. When, I originally moved in, I had a verbal agreement with the landlord saying that if someone else moved in then I would pay $600 rather than the normal $575. As it turns out, starting on July 1st I am having someone else move in with me. The new landlord said that since I didn't have our agreement in writing that they are going to be charging me $650 for rent. After becoming very frustrated, I agreed to pay the extra cash each month. This is when I realized that this was solely a money making endeavor for these individuals and they were clueless about all business transactions. They even said the increase was due to the fact that they needed to buy a new roof for the property. Wow, I guess I am financing the new roof for their new investment property. But okay, last week, a fuse in the basement blew. I called them to take care of it while I was at work. When I am driving home (my job is 45 minutes away), they call and say that they have no key to my apartment and that they didn't get one at settlement. As I get home, I discover that the fuse is one that controls my refrigerator and all of my frozen foods are thawed out. The landlord fixes the fuse and all is okay. I am annoyed about the loss of food but I let it slide. Okay, three days later, the fuse goes off again. I call the landlord again to come out and fix it. He is 30 minutes late....quite an inconvenience since I am paying $40 a piece for two tickets to an amusement park and I am not there but rather at the apartment. Okay, so he finally comes and "fixes" it. I tell the other person who is patiently waiting to go to the amusement park that as soon as I use the bathroom we can go. To my amazement, there are no lights and the landlord just left. So, I had to call him again to come fix it right this time. He comes over and gives me a BS reason as to why he decided to put a higher fuse in a lower fuse spot. Still not working. I just keep thinking I should be calling to increase my renters insurance before this man causes a fire by experimenting with the electric in my apartment. Then, he decides to call an electrician because he has no idea what he is doing. Then he says possibly they can come out two days later since I am not going to be home. Remember I am still trying to go to the amusement park. Finally, I tell him that he is staying to wait for the electrician. He agrees. Now, the next day, I notice the water in the bathroom is chilly when I get a shower. But, I am never home too often and I work pretty far from my apt so I quickly hurry up and get off to work. This morning (the following day) the water is unbearably cold....No hair washing for me. That doesn't go over so well considering I work in a sales job that is dependent upon commission and as superficial as it sounds, appearance counts in closing the sales a lot of the time. But, I call the landlord at 7:30 am to report the issue. At 10:30 am, the landlord's wife calls back to say that the problem will be fixed in an hour. I have been out of the house for over 4 hours already so I inform her that I am deducting a prorated amount for the negligance of her husband not resetting the hot water heater after the electric was off to it and causing me to be unable to use the shower today before work. She flips out and begins to act in an inappropriate mannner saying that it was my fault for not telling her husband to check the hot water heater when he was there. Like it is my responsibility. Where do I go from here...Do you all think I am wrong for not paying her for today and do you think I should deduct the amount of the food that became spoiled? Is there a place to report a person like this in PA?

you can break this lease and move, since the apartment is unfit to live in, but first i would contact the department and building and safety and the DWP in your area. and then department of consumer affairs. i would also file for small claims in court. take pictures and record all dealings with this slumlord

[elklaw]

You can break the lease and explain why you are doing so, and if the owners are smart, they will agree to a moveout date and no damages and no more rent paid by you. And do not expect a deposit back. It is possible that they received no keys and were not told anything about the property, but the fuse situation could be dangerous. You may want to get some estimates of repair for a professional to do the work and agree to pay if you receive rent credit for repair costs. If not, then the repair estimates will provide you with the problems, thus proof of the problems if you have to go to court to break the lease or are taken to court for breaking the lease.
You can call the public health and safety folks, but if you do not have a place to go live, it could cause you a problem because they may say for you to move out immediately. But at the same time, this is not working out and I think if you can explain to the tenants it is best for them to start over with their tenants and for all parties to move on to avoide what would be a losing court battle for them, then that may be the best and cheapest practival solution.

[Don2]

I don't see where your landlord was so wrong for you to withhold rent, he is trying to remedy the problem. As for the hot water tank why would he check that when the problem is with another circuit? The hot water tank runs on it's own 220 circuit. I think something is wrong with the fridge or the recepticle it plugs into.

[grasmicc]

A few things:

"As it turns out, starting on July 1st I am having someone else move in with me. The new landlord said that since I didn't have our agreement in writing that they are going to be charging me $650 for rent."

It doesn't matter if the agreement was in writing so long as you can prove it.


"After becoming very frustrated, I agreed to pay the extra cash each month."

Why would you do that? Just hold your ground.


"This is when I realized that this was solely a money making endeavor for these individuals"

Business is ALWAYS A money-making endeavor, that shouldn't have surprised you.

I agree it sounds like you have had some problems with the place, but the landlord is making a good-faith effort to fix everything and I don't think any of this is enough for you to rescind your lease.

You can withhold a reasonable amount from your rent payments in order to make up for the harm that you have sufferred. Be conservative. The landlord will demand more, but just ignore him/

[cloud138]

Yes of course it is a business transaction to some point, but morals should never be neglected to make money. Update: I moved out of that apt, bought a house and the funniest part of all.....Both of the rental apartments are empty because they apparantly believe that they are renting some type of mansion because they are trying to charge about $300 more than comparable apts in the area. HAHA!