Advice- Issue Dealing With Landlord and Eviction

Discussion in 'The Cocktail Lounge' started by ddebrazza, Jul 7, 2021.

  1. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    Alright, ill keep this as brief as possible.

    June 23rd I filed a complaint with Maint. because our AC hadnt been cooling our apartment ever since it started getting hot.

    Next day, some guy from the apartment complex comes, does some work on the AC, and then later that night I am woken up by the smell of smoke and plastic, turns out whatever he did had caused the AC unit motor in the attic to catch fire.

    So they gave us a Portable AC (we have a 7month old infant child) to cool the house. It wouldnt work at all. The house stayed at 97 degrees all day until night time when it would drop to 90. Later we found out that the Portable AC had been improperly installed and that is why it wasnt working right but we did not know that at the time. So we were forced to go to a hotel.

    The "fixed" it but then the next day while doing laundry we realize a leak from the ceiling. The unit is still only going down to 78-79 (which is livable for sure) but is leaking 5-10 gallons of water per day from the ceiling. We are constantly switching out towels and emptying the 5-gal bucket of water...

    July 1st came around and the Unit still has not been fixed. Today is July 7th, and it is still not fixed. Each time the professional company has come out, they have told us that they have been here for the AC unit for the last 2 tenets also and that they have now recommended 2 times for a completely new AC system to be installed.

    Yesterday we were served with 5-day written notice to either Pay or Vacate. We have already begun our search for another place but with us working that makes it difficult to allocate time to viewing apartments. My understanding of the process is the next step will be for the judge to set a date for a hearing and for both parties to then have the opportunity to tell their side of the story.

    So my question is; What would you do in my situation. Stand your ground and move out. Go to the hearing and paint the out to be the slumlord that they are, or Just pay the rent + late fees and everything else, live here 2 more months and then move out when the lease is over.

    Additionally, when the water all began leaking from the ceiling, we had a brand new twin mattress ruined. A nice 350W CMH Horticulture light which was in a box in that room.

    We feel all this began and has happened because their employee did work to the AC unit which resulted in a fire and all these additional problems and damages.... not to mention the emotional distress it causes a family with an infant to have to scramble to find a new apartment or potential homelessness....

    Before we withheld rent, we offered many forms of assistance that would have been sufficient such as paying for the 1 night + 1 day we had to spend in the hotel when the house was at 97 degrees, offered assistance with electric bill since we have now been running portable AC for 18-hours a day which has more than doubled our energy consumption, or to even just pro-rate the few days the place was "inhabitable," and remove that from our bill... our company was super rude and told us to kick rocks essentially. Word for word they said their company policy was to provide 1 portable AC in this situation and that was all they could do.

    We informed them of our 8month old son and the danger to his health. They did not give a fuck.

    So again, I appreciate anyone who read this....

    What would you do in my shoes?
     
  2. StockJock-e

    StockJock-e Brew Master
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    Sorry to hear about these issues.

    Laws will vary from state to state and what ever your rent agreement says, so nobody can give you a clear answer without knowing more details, but IMO, pay the rent and buy yourself the time.

    Getting notice to vacate is standard practice upon late payment. While you may have plenty of valid reasons, the big problem here is that you have a small baby! If it was just you and the wife, not a big deal, but scrambling to find a place can make a tough situation even more difficult.

    If you had that heat wave it means you are in the PNW. Im not sure about the exact area, but it can be incredibly difficult finding good rentals in some areas.

    If you want to withhold payment over these issues, court dates can be set within 20 days depending on the district, longer for busy ones.

    How to proceed will all depend on how fast/if you can find another place.
     
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  3. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    I am actually in Arizona.

    We have one place that has availability, a larger, 2bedroom place that works for us. Weve been making a 1bedroom work but we really do need a 2nd now. Housing prices and rental prices here in Arizona are out of control. For a decent 2 bedroom, you wont touch anything under 1600$ the SHITTY places are going for 1000-1300$ month. I dont understand how anyone can afford to live here, I really dont.

    There are a few more we want to try and look at this weekend but it does seem like we have a couple of options.

    My main concern is a) how quickly the court date will be set and b) If somehow the Landlord does win, how long would we be given to get our belongings out and/or find a new place to live if we havent found one already.....

    We definitely want to try and get a new place lined up ASAP. Our objective is not to squat here indefinitely. We just do not feel like they are due rent for their failure to meet the requirements of the lease which require them to maintain a habitable residence in reasonable repair. A broken and leaking AC unit in the summer in Arizona definitely would be a violation of this statute which is ARS 33-1361 (A) ... haha I have it memorized.

    So, you would just pay the money and the late fees they added on, so a total of now about 1300$ and just live out the remainder of your lease here to avoid the headache? and then find a new place in Sept/October?

    Im torn. I did get a form that due to COVID-19 will at least postpone them being able to file for eviction until July 31st, 2021. So at least that buys us a couple additional weeks to find a new place before they can begin the paperwork. Hopefully they will be severely back-logged and the court date will be set like 45-60 days out. Would make me shit my pants if the date is in like 2 weeks lol.

    Wish us luck I suppose.....
     
  4. anotherdevilsadvocate

    anotherdevilsadvocate Well-Known Member

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    Man I cannot imagine living 15 minutes in Arizona without AC. The only way would be to be in a pool 24/7.
     
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  5. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    Yeah not much of an update to this situation. We are looking for a new place to live but not having much success due to the housing market. The hot housing market has pushed a lot of people into renting and that has caused a massive shortage in rentals and is allowing landlords to charge whatever they want. 2 bedroom apartments are going for 1500-2000$/month standard. I know this is the norm in some parts of the country already but this is a relatively recent shift here. We used to be able to get a decent 2 bedroom apartment for 1000-1200$. And those gaps matter especially when you have to prove you make 2.5-3x rental rates... Just tough times.

    /rant
     
  6. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    Whelp. I finally was able to make contact with their parent/ managing company. So we shall see how this goes. Looks like we are heading for a court showdown.
     
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  7. RachXchange

    RachXchange Member

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    Good job dd thats definitely court needs to hear mabe a lawsuit.
     
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  8. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    The Regional Manager made some moves and this morning at 8am sharp there was an AC man here to install a completely new AC system.

    It only took from June 23rd to July 9th.

    I wonder what happens now..... I am sure they are still going to pursue eviction
     
  9. RachXchange

    RachXchange Member

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    Yeah that's really strange that's not good dang but hopefully whatever if somebody gets on top of them it should feel the I don't know who you would contact cuz I think the people on here would but they were giving you advice I'm like I have no nothing about that but I used to live in apartments when I was younger like 10 or plus years ago and I dealt with some issues but the company didn't really do anything it was ridiculous but yeah I'm sure there is somebody you can contact to hopefully get things from moving cuz that's just flat out that ain't right
     
  10. TomB16

    TomB16 Well-Known Member

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    These sort of stories are often presented for the purpose of getting people to chime in support. Certainly, I hope you can resolve your issues so I support you in that regard.

    The point, however, is you have framed this in a way as to make a case for your landlord being a bad guy. It is extremely unlikely you have presented all of the relevant information. If I were a betting man, I would bet hard that you will lose in court because of something not written.

    As a landlord, I've gone to ridiculous lengths to keep good tenants happy. I'm far from unique, in this regard. I know some landlords are horrible but every property owner is motivated to keep the the renter in place and the money flowing.

    So, here's the deal. Your landlord should make the building right. If they don't, you can take them to court but why would you? If you win in court, you will be back in a house with a lousy landlord. Maybe you ought to look for a better place to live.

    If there are problems with your tenant relationship, as I suspect, you may find your landlord unsympathetic to your cause. Maybe you can fix the relationship? You would be surprised how much I have tolerated from tenants and gotten past to keep a tenant in place for years. Its always easier to fix a bad relationship than it is to go elsewhere and lie about why you have no rental history or references. Many landlords are smarter than tenants think. Only a moron believes the people who "Just sold their house and have no rental history." It's such a red flag, you shouldn't say that, even if you've just sold your house and have no rental history. Do you want to rent from a dumb one who buys that crap?

    If you can't call your landlord and work out something reasonable, then at least one of you is a total jack wagon. So, give it a go and bring some humility to the table.

    My advice is to go long on a good relationship with your landlord. It will follow you for a long time in the form of good references and a chill life.
     
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  11. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    16 days with a broken AC in the summer in Arizona.... We determined this to be a material non-compliance of the lease which requires the landlord to maintain the property in habitable condition and reasonable repair.

    We therefore, as is our right, chose to dissolve the lease and move-out.

    We are currently looking for an apartment and will move out ASAP.

    Prior to it getting to this point, we had offered many solutions such as 1) paying for the 1.5 days we had to spend in the hotel when our unit was completely broken and the apartment was 97 degrees .... they refused 2) we asked if they would pro-rate the rent for the days that the AC was broken... they refused 3) Our electricity bill had doubled since we have now been running Portable AC's around the clock because the AC didnt work, so we asked if theyd be willing to help offset any of the electric costs... they refused....

    So I feel like we tried to work with them and reach an agreement in good faith. They refused.

    This thread was not made to gather support... It was made because were about to be potentially homeless and I dont know what to do. We probably did make the wrong move, but when July 1st rolled around our AC had been broken for 7-8 days and there was no immediate fix in sight. So we decided we would need to find a different place to live and withheld the rent money for July in order to find a new place to live.....

    Hopefully we dont all end up sleeping in the park...
     
  12. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    As an update the Regional Manager stepped in and the unit was replaced BUT the Unit is still not cooling for some reason. We will wait and see what the temps read later today but it is 8am and it still wont cool below 78, which is super unusual. Usually in the morning we have no problems at all keeping the place cool.
     
  13. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    The new AC system is not working either. I could not make this shit up. The apartment is up to 82 degrees already and its only 11am.

    This is so fucked.
     
  14. T0rm3nted

    T0rm3nted Moderator
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    Sorry to hear man :(
     
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  15. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    Well, after 3 weeks. The problem is solved, in terms of the AC unit.

    Now to see what is going to happen with this Eviction.... I am sure we will be getting a court date in the mail very soon.

    We applied for a new 2-bedroom apartment on the other side of town and are supposed to find out an answer tomorrow. So fingers crossed. If get approved and can get a lease signed this weekend that will take a ton of stress off.

    A couple of job interviews this week as well. Something has got to give. 2020 was fantastic. 2021 couldnt be going much worse.
     
  16. T0rm3nted

    T0rm3nted Moderator
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    Hope your new apartment and job interviews go well this week!
     
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  17. StockJock-e

    StockJock-e Brew Master
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    Thats awesome to hear!

    Good luck with all of it!
     
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  18. ddebrazza

    ddebrazza Active Member

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    Thank you.

    Interviews are going well but nothing decided yet. So back to doing more applications tomorrow. I have a 2nd interview with one of the companies on Friday but the job is nothing special. The one job today was pretty exciting with some growth potential so I am really hoping I get a call from them tomorrow, but we shall see.

    On a positive note, we got approved for the 2 bedroom apartment that we were going for, so that is a HUGE stress reliever knowing that we go on Saturday to sign our lease for a new place. We obviously still have to deal with the legal proceedings of this place but I think it looks much better going into court with a new place already lined up and/or moved into.

    Hopefully things are beginning to take a turn for the better.
     
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  19. TomB16

    TomB16 Well-Known Member

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    Good luck, ddebrazza. Also, congratulations on the new apartment. :thumbsup:
     
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  20. T0rm3nted

    T0rm3nted Moderator
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    Glad to hear things are starting to trend upwards for you!
     
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