Renter Advice Blog

is my landlord allowed to charge 25 dollars per day for late rent that sounds crazy to me because of christmas i am a little short i get paid the 10th but she is going to charge me 250 dollars more for rent being ten days late   second someone told me that the landlord is required by law to pay one utility bill like water trash or sewer is this true please help

On 12/5/2008, I received a flyer from the Apartment complex on my door.  It says, "As of the current date, you have not renewed your lease term.  If you renew by 12/31/2008, you will continue with your same rental rate.  If you do not, you will be assessed a month to month charge starting on January 2009 rent."  My apartment number is written on this flyer along with my current rental rate and what my month to month rental rate would be if I didn’t renew my lease.  There is no signature on this flyer, however, the Community Manager’s name is on this flyer, the apartment complex phone number, and the Community Manager’s email address.

I went to renew my lease today, however, the manager on-duty told me that my rental rate will increase a little more than 10% due to the fact that there were some errors on my original lease.  This was an error that they had made, and I was unaware of it until today. 

At first, the manager on-duty told me the flyer that was sent to me was not correct, and there is nothing she could do.  Then the on-duty manager called after I left the office (without signing my lease because I needed time to think about the whole situation) and said that after talking to the community manager, they will try to lower the rental increase, but there will still be an increase. 

I understand that once a lease expires, there is no contract therefore, a landlord could charge whatever they want.  However, I have a written document from the Community Manager stating that they will honor the lease as long as it is renewed by the 31st, shouldn’t they honor it?  I am not asking for much…I just want to pay the same rental rate!! 

Me and my dependants need to know what our rites are a.s.a.p.  as the landlord has just told me he has received notice of forclosure on the home me , my wife and three children live in. He says he’s not sure of when they will lock us out.

  Please Help’

   The Powell’s

We have rented a home for two years.  Over the course of the two years, lots of maintenance issues have cropped up that were covered up, either cosmetically or with a band-aid solution.  Most of these issues arise from a greater moisture problem in several areas of the house.

I have been renting an apartment in my complex for more than fifteen years.  I always pay my rent and take care of the property even calling security when I see something which could cause damage to the property.  Every time something has gone wrong, I have tried to be understanding and patient.  The landlord refused to give me a lease when the last one was up.  His representative has always seemed nice but she is at the other end of the state.  The hall bathroom linolium continually pops up from the floor because the heating pipes are too close to the surface, the shower spigots have never been sealed and the entrance to my apartment sits in several inches of water when it rains because there is no drain and it slopes into my entry.  In March, they found mold in the hall bedroom and began removing it.  This took over two months and during that time I asked for an adjustment in my rent.  They gave me a small adjustment but when I asked for another after three months of not haveing the work finished they refused.  The representative said I was lucky they hadn’t raised the rent this year.  So after more than six months the bedroom doors are still not put back, the screen on the window is leaning against the wall and the electrical is unusable because the cover plate is not on and it jiggles.  When they found aspestus is the apartment, they removed it by putting plastic over the door of the hall bedroom and venting out the window.  We could not afford to move, and they assurred us it was perfectly safe and refused to help us leave for the time needed to remove the aspestus.  Other apartments in this area are going for up to $300 less and are not leaking.  Today, I found a stream of water coming out of the hall bedroom and called to complain.  Her cell phone cut me off five times, each time I was able to only leave a piece of a message.  Finally, since this was a long distance call, I just said the hall bedroom was leaking and I was very unhappy.  She called me back, yelling that I was rude and that this wasn’t working out.  It seemed like a threat of eviction to me.  I’m tired of continually dealing with slow, uncaring maintenance and with people who seem to feel that I will take whatever threats and insults they hand out.  Frankly, I am fed up and ready to find another place to live.  The problem is that I have lost my job and though my husband works we don’t have much money to pay for moving.  If she evicts me, can I get my security deposit back, it’s $980, and do I have to pay the rent for this place when being evicted and not being able to use the bedroom?

We found a foreclosure notice on the front door of the house we are renting.  We just entered the two-year lease on October 1, 2008.  We suspect that the landlords were already in default when they entered the contract.  The notice indicates that the property will be sold on January 6.  What right do we have if any?  we have copies of the leae, and receipts for our rental payments.  If someone buys the property, do they have to honor our lease?  Can we be evicted?  Is there any minimum amount of time we would be given to move?  Can we get our deposit back, if not from the landlords, from the entity that purchases the property?

This is tricky, and I hope someone here can help.  My roommate and I just recently moved into an apartment (the first of december).  On the third of december, our neighbor set his unit on fire, causing extensive damage to his and smoke/water damage to ours.  

We have a company working on the restoration, but they’re taking their time (due to insurance issues…all parties involved have insurance).  It’s sucking money out of my insurance and that’s going to run out soon (we’re on week 2 and this was only supposed to take "2-3 days")

However, the apartment complex won’t meet with us, citing that ‘it wasn’t their fault the fire started’.  We’re just trying to figure out why we have to pay rent for a month/month and a half that we weren’t able to actually LIVE or even MOVE INTO our unit.  Everyone is pointing fingers at each other and i’m wondering what our recourse is towards the apartment complex?  

Do we have to pay rent because of this?  I know insurance will cover it…but it seems silly that we have to put up the money first and let insurance take their time to reimburse us.  Isn’t the apartment liable for ANYTHING?  Why are we the ones being punished out of all the parties considering we’re not at fault?

Are we able to escape our lease?  This certain circumstance/displacement issues aren’t covered in the lease.  They won’t give us time to discuss moving to another unit or anything.

They’re basically washing their hands of it completely…and I’m not even sure where to turn.

Thank you for your time!

~Nick

So, I moved into a house with a first time landlord with 2 of my guy friends. I only wanted a six month lease and the lease on the house is one year. The guys agreed that after six months I could leave and they would find a new roommate. Well with a little short notice around the end of the 5th month, I gave my roommates and my landlord my verbal notice and paid for the 6th month, even though I wasn’t there anymore. After 30 days the guys call and ask me to pay for another month because they haven’t found time to look for another roommate. Mind you my name is still on the lease until they do so, therefore I couldn’t say no, so I just said whenever I can, I will but try to take care of it. Now after almost 90 days of me not even living in the same state, they want me to continue to pay. Now they are getting evicted. There is 3 of us and a Guarentuer on the lease. What is going to happen?

my roommate complained that there was pet odor in my apartment. my landlord told me verbally that there was no smell and my lease says all i had to do is have the carpets professionally shampooed when i left. i requested by email that i could break my lease early because my roommate constantly harassed me about the carpet even after the landlord said it was fine, and he agreed in an email to break my lease and return my deposit assuming no pet damage.

Can my Landlord’s porperty manager do this? I have resided here for almost 9 years, 5 of which this landlord has owned this house. I am a good tenant, pay my rent on time, and care for the property as if it were my own.  Last June, my Landlord hired a property manager. This woman has been very difficult to dal with in every situation with her. She previously placed bad tenants above me that I had to call the police on in 1 week, and they were removed by the end of mthe their 3rd week here. Weds, the night before Thanksgiving, she called at 8:44 PM and told my son she was coming in here Friday after Thanksgiving with an exterminator to spray my house. I was out of town from 7 PM on weds, and did not return howme til after 10 PM on Thursday, which is the first time i saw my son, and checked my aller ID, and he told me about her call. I sent her an email, and told her that I am cooking my entire holiday meal friday, and am sick as well, and that she needed to reschedule the exterminator for the following week. ( she managed 6 properties for my landlord. but manages 24 all in total). I called her friday morning to make sure she checked her email, and she asid she did not- And stated that she would be coming through with an exterminator this fater noon. i started to tell her no, and the reasons why, and she talked over me, and I hung up on her. I called my landlord, and left hima detailed mesage- this is black fridsy, a day which most people are either recooping from the holiday or going out shopping all day!  She should have taken that into consideration and scheduled this all for next week to begin with. After leaving this mesage for my landlord, I called her back to try to talk to her and explain why I am not oing allow an inspection and spraying in my home today, and she started screaming at me and threatened that if I didn’t let her in, I would be geting evicted, said that I have roaches and that she can’t rent the upper apartment becuase of them and she knows they are from me because there hasn’t been anyone living there since last July so they are from me.  I have never had more than a few spiders and 2 baby mice in this house during the entire time I have lived here!

I have called my landlord, and am awaiting his reply- she alo tried to evit me in July becuase I called Police after asking her new tenants above me to please stop with the profanity everytime they walked back and forth by all my open windows, and Police came and asked me what I wanted, I said simply respect and consideration, they must be respectful of their neighbors. They agreeed, and This property manager came to my door and tried to evict me! I said wait a minute? I call the Police because they are disorderly and you’re evicting me? She said Yeah, 30 days get out. My landlord and I talked and he said no way, you aren’t goin anywhere you are one of my best tenants. And I am still here…Now I feel strongly that if she serves me with an eviction - for not allowing her to come in with an exterminator after calling my son like he did- Can I sue her for wrongful eviction? If thats the only reason she has to try to evict me, then she will need to work harder, because having a tenant with extenuating citrcumstances and ASKING TO RESCHEDULE , saying this cannot and will not be done today brcause I am ill and am cooking my holiday meal today- would most likely not be sufficient reasons to evixct someone when I have lived here with this landlord for 5 years and the only problems ever here are caused by the people that end up renting in the upper apartment. The former property owner here rented to many of people above me and we always got along ok with out any significant problems. I am not the reason that they cannot get a tenant in that apt right now- it has been vacant since last July, and it is shown frequently, I do not do anything to stop anyone from rentin that apartment, its just alot of stairs, and small and expensice for the size. thats not my poblem.,,,But is my denying her coming into my aopartment sufficien grounds to evict me because I am not allowing her in today and have asked her to reschedukle? Its bad enough shes accusing me of having roaches! Idf i had roaches, we would have seen evidence of them long long time ago-  there atre NONE. Anyone can you help me calm my nerves, I am really ill too on top of this today. I would appreciate a prompt answer~~~