Can a landlord do this?

[Shara Jones]

My mom and I have been living in a small 2 bedroom rental home for over 11 years now. Recently, on April 6, 2018, we had our yearly house inspection because we are in Section 8 housing. The inspector found that the carpet was a trip hazard, as it had frayed in the hallway from 11 years of living in the house and needed to be replaced. He told my mom who in turn notified our landlord. She had a professional come in and measure the house and it was planned that the project would happen on April 15th. He let us know that heavy stuff could be left alone but little personal stuff had to be moved. In turn, my mom and I made the preparations to start moving items out of our rooms and into uncarpeted areas of the house. These areas are the kitchen, washroom, and bathroom. The day came and the company she hired put down the carpet. That day, I had started a new 12 hr job early in the morning and was not present for the work being done when they arrived that afternoon. I did speak to my mom on the phone at different times in the day, before they arrived and after they had started. When I arrived home, the job was done did that but she came in after it was done and decided to have the inside of the house repainted as well. We take care of our walls, no bad damage except for pushpin marks in the walls from hanging things and grease stains that are/were easily cleaned off the kitchen walls. She also made it known, “As landlord, I’m only obligated to provide paint, not a painter.” She told us.

At the time, due to having to nearly move all that we owned to uncarpeted, laminated floors in the kitchen, washroom, and bathroom, it had left us with literally no space. We even had to fill our bathtub! The first painter she had come look at the house April 19, 2018. He made it known since he was doing the painting by himself, it would take him some time and he would be by in a week after he got off from his job, sometime after 4:30pm. We waited, leaving our stuff in the uncarpeted areas as we felt it would be unnecessary to move back if we were going to have to move it back if he was coming back to paint. There are 6 rooms: 2 bed with a closet in each, 1 bath, living room, kitchen and washroom(where washer, dryer and fridge are). The day the man was supposed to start, he never shows up. She calls and tells us he has canceled because he had too much on his plate but she was coming by with a new painter. Well, she provided the 2nd painter: a relative of hers. These areas walls were painted with a latex paint she provided. For this house, the job took nearly a month due to him getting sick, having family matters and working other jobs as well. We didn’t make a big deal about it because we understood he was a busy man doing his aunt a favor. But when he wasn’t here, I did some of the painting. I painted whole hallway, my closet in my bedroom (he added a second coat to that), my mom’s walls and closet (he did the ceiling because I’m short), and part of the bathroom he didn’t finish. When he finally finished, 2 days before the inspection, I helped him do the kitchen and the living room. On May 3,2018, we received a letter from her stating that the cost of the painting job “was $900 for 7 rooms and 4 closets” and we had “six months to pay, by November 1st, 2018”. She even sent a copy to Section 8 here in Dayton, OH. I had asked our painter how much the paint job was. He told me that usually he doesn’t get paid for his work. She does other things like make him food as payment. So, the price of the job wasn’t made known to us until we received the letter with no receipt, handwritten, official or otherwise. My mom and I find this unfair and wrong because the house only has 6 rooms and 2 closets were painted, and that was in the bedrooms. We and from the painter asking, we were only notified of the bedroom closets needing painting, and that was because we were present when she said it. And the the kitchen and washroom paint job is not the best and especially since I ended up doing some work myself because our house was still out of order for the time we waited on the painter. She’s even gone so far as to state on the letter she’ll be making visits because of how the house was when we were waiting for the house to be painted. It was a safety, fire hazard”. This we don’t disagree with but for the fact that she decided to have the house painted, we couldn’t put our stuff back right away. And when her first painter canceled, we were left on hold for a week! Why move things when they would have to be moved right back out in such a small house? My mom and I, in the time we were waiting, had decided to leave our rooms empty just in case paint got on any of our possessions. Can she even do this? Would it be a waste of time to fight with her in this to Section 8 and Housing Choice?