Roach Infestation and other issues with Landlord non-disclosure

[Edward Farrell]

Good afternoon BP!  I could really use your help here.

My name is Ed and I joined as a Pro member this year to push my real estate education into high gear prior to making my first investment purchase. 

In the meantime, my long-time girlfriend Cara, my daughter Laylah and I  moved into a rental house together in Cherry Hill, NJ, on September 1st with a solid 2-year plan.  We are looking to buy a house of our own and she asked for some time to save, so in the meantime, I was going to take some of my extra savings from sharing rent to start investing on my own.

However, from day one, living in the house has been a nightmare.  We were informed 2 days before moving in that they only had a temporary CO and that some additional electrical work needed to be completed.  The night before our official move-in date, the landlord provided our agent with keys so we could move some boxes in the garage and get a pre-emptive start on the move.  During our initial walk-thru the house, it had a HORRIBLE smell in the kitchen, an equally horrible smell in the family room (pet urine), and we found that the kitchen drawers and cabinets were infested with bugs - we had no idea what they were.  It took all I had to calm Cara down - we had no other place to go!

The next morning we text our landlords and advised them of the problem and that we'd like assistance in paying for their removal.  They agreed and then went on to tell us that the dishwasher was not working correctly and needed to be replaced and that the downstairs bathroom toilet had flushing issues as well.  With no other options since it was so last minute, we went forward with the move. 

Our move in day I had my cleaning lady there for 6 hours and the smell was still there.  Plus, a number of the cabinets were locked with magnetic locks (which we had to remove) and we found that one set of cabinets lead to the wide open entrance into the crawl space!!  No door, no barrier, nothing.  After our helpful movers and my cleaning lady left, I attempted to light all of the electric stove burners (stove was harvest gold, most likely from the 1970's).  One of them when I moved it since it didn't light gave me a strong electric shock!  I informed the landlords and just asked that the electrician look at it when he came to do the other CO work - they offered to replace it.  Ok! 

It took them 19 days to replace the dishwasher and 26 days to replace the stove b/c it was so old and 'hard-wired' the electrician had to come back and install a plug for it. 

But none of that compares to the bugs.  I had my pest control company come out to treat the problem and they concluded that we had a GERMAN ROACH infestation.  They are most common in restaurants and VERY DIFFICULT to remove.  We were told it would be a "process" and were told to remove any and all food, cooking products, plates, glasses, pots, pans (anything we cook with or eat on) from the kitchen until the problem was taken care of - approximately 2 months!!

It is October 23rd.  We have been eating with paper plates and cups since September 1st, and since we can't store anything in the kitchen, our dining room has become a storage area with plastic shelves, boxes and a china cabinet that acts as a pantry.  We have had FOUR pest control treatments and it appears we are near the end of the infestation and after a FIFTH treatment and inspection on November 3rd, we may be able to move into the dining room and kitchen like normal people.  We also intended to use our garage for work-outs as we are cross-fitters but we can't b/c we still have so many boxes for the dining room and kitchen still stored in there. 

When I saw the landlord on September 19th, I showed him traps with roaches in them, empty cabinets in the kitchen and our dining/storage room and told him that we wanted to seek a rental credit for Sept & Oct given the house's lack of habitability.  He said "I'll have to talk to my wife."  After that, we never heard from them again.

We provided a partial rent payment in October which would cover a credit for Sept & Oct with an explanation, again, of why we were seeking it.  They did not reply for 5 additional days and when they did, they demanded full rent payment and sent us receipts for the appliances they bought and the cleaning services they used prior to us moving in.  We replied that we understood and appreciated the appliances but it did not change the fact that we COULD NOT USE 2 OF THE ROOMS OF THE HOUSE like normal people do - nor the garage as intended. 

We exchanged emails for a few days and they said they would CONSIDER a credit only after we sent them the full rent payment for October and they evaluated the treatments we received from the pest control service - which we sent them already. 

We believe they are going to come at us with an attorney and try to kick us out of the house now that we have lived thru this Hell AND provided the pest control service to finally rid the house of the infestation. 

Has anyone faced landlords who just don't understand that they have to provide a HABITABLE home AND disclose issues like infestations? 

Could use some advice about rent credits, tenant rights, etc.  Thank you!!

Sorry so long...