All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Learning yourself is ok. Tempting to come to a forum for the "easy" answer, but the best answer here is a redirection to your local laws. Probably a click or two away from where you are right now. If you are still unclear, consult a lawyer. Generally, the landlord can not just start getting rid of a tenants stuff - it's a "process of permission" so to speak. 

 Houses too close together. Bad drainage. Location. Houses worth less than zero.

*Finished Basements come close to immediate rejection. I might be willing to offer $30k-$40k less. Or I'll pay a fair price once the finished basement is removed.

LOL. Perhaps they're not entirely wrong.

Getting sold sucks. Or does it?

I think the answer is we would actually prefer to be sold if we're honest. It saves a lot of time and hassle. I think what we mostly resent are sales people who somehow don't have the skill of selling us and making us love them for it.

Is being firm on price a quality you desire in an agent? Your agent has shown you they are. For me the only question left would be their loyalty to me. Will they be firm for them but not for me? I look for value when I buy things, including the service of an agent.

I've found that after the dust settles I am happy to be sold, but only if I was sold a good value and did not get taken to the cleaners.

Food for thought - lol.

Joe hit it straight, it's hard to say how they will react. But, you broke it so, you should have to fix it. Too few renters grasp that concept. They often think an accident is different from negligent in terms of responsibility - it's not. Consider yourself lucky if you don't have to pay.

What happened? Looks like you dropped the washer on it. Or, the washer got caught on the flooring and you forced it. Looks like blunt force trauma to me.

Assuming you want to leave the apartment and not stay, what you do is use the threat of filing a complaint with the city for failure to repair and make livable the unit as leverage to get you out of your lease. What you seek is a written mutual termination, without penalty. That means you owe nothing other than rent for the current month, nor owe for damages (assuming you have not caused any). The likely and best scenario is the security they hold will be used towards current rent. You might be able to negotiate for waiver of current rent, but that's a stretch if they hold a deposit. This is not so much about right or wrong at this point, more about what the resolution is going to look like.

But remember, you need the agreement in writing and you need to get it before you file a complaint. Once you file, you lose that leverage because the damage to the landlord (meaning they now have the city in their business) is already done.

If they do not agree, file the complaint and hold back rent until the problem is fixed.

Sorry you are going through this. Your landlord sucks. They are either a bad person in the first place, or have gotten in over their head - in either case they suck, and so do the punks they have running around fixing things.

 I think it's fantastic and would love to see this sort of product develop. I do worry about what making and receiving a claim will look like and also worry it may in fact lead to more damages!!! But, as a new idea I love it.

Just because you think something should be a certain way does not mean anything legally. What matters is the condo documents. If the HOA is acting outside of their rights defined in the documents, you can challenge that legally. But with all things, it's one thing to have a rule written and another to enforce it. These are civil matters so you won't be able to call the police, you would need to file in civil court.

Then again, if all you want to do is vent some frustrations here, nothing wrong with that either!

Good luck. 

I'm not sure I understand. Protected from what? Does your landlord know your intent to move out early? Were you going to make good with that or were you going to skip out on rent? Security is for damages, not rent. Sounds to me like you are worried your plan to skip out early will come out once the landlord moves in and he might not like that. No?

If not, then like I said, I don't understand the problem. What you have is a golden opportunity to make things easier, not harder. Your lease expires so no issue there. If your lease does not allow a sub-let, which is what you would be doing by letting someone move in, the landlord is the sub-letter in this case so that pretty much makes it a moot issue (agreed upon modification by virtue of him moving in). It's not like the landlord is going to take you to court and ask for sub-letting "damages" or present cause for eviction when he is the person who you sub-let to!!! If you are simply worried about the amount of rent he owes vs what he might come for later as the landlord, a simple written agreement, two copies each signed by both parties, just like lawyers do it, ought to be plenty, simply stating the landlord is moving in and how much rent they are going to pay. Get witnesses to the signing if you think that's not quite enough (one for each party signing). 

Good luck Joseph Smith - lol.

Perhaps you could delay the closing. Two months over-lap is excessive, but one month is really nice if you can afford it.

I self-manage. I have few enough tenants to know their stories intimately. Their stories are not all the same, yet they are all the same. Very typical of anyone in America.

Our state has a 60 day freeze on evictions and foreclosures, expiring May 27th. Our governor has extended the shut-down to the end of May, schools are closed for the year. I will not be surprised to see the freeze extended considering our particular governor. Not sure if the state will provide any assistance, crickets so far. Of course we have unemployment and food stamps and a pretty good food bank system. Property tax, water utility and energy are not being deferred. I pay tax and water, tenants pay utilities (water bill follows the property owner in Milwaukee).