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View Full Version : Can I Sue Landlord for Back Rent??


mrwilson1965
Jul 22, 2012, 05:35 PM
I feel like I am stuck in this place. I am on HUD and SSI, low income. Anyhow, I've been living in the same place for nearly 7 yrs. Now. I couldn't find anything within the price range required by HUD for assistance. So I find this place, it's really little the living room is 8' x 16'. I found that out myself :) when "I" had to measure a piece of carpet to lay down, after I tore the Old piece out after 5 yrs. Of telling my landlord that it needed to be replaced, because after the first winter then 4 winters later, because the sidewalk leading up to my front door was all crumbly and people were tracking mud and grit into the house. Well finally I get a new sidewalk :), ME pushing the wheelbarrow, no pay nothing knocked off the rent, just being a nice guy up to this point. Oh yeah, me and a friend also hammered out the old sidewalk, still have the pile to prove it... lol. So I come home one afternoon from a 12 Step Meeting, where the first step is all about Honesty :) OK, so I get home and there's a huge roll of carpet laying on the sidewalk, cool, so I start to work, me and my friend, taking everything out of my living room and putting it in the laundry room, under the house actually is where I live, this place has been added later. So we get all the stuff off the floor, then we wash and paint the walls, with the paint the landlord gave me. We get finished with the painting, then we start tearing out the old carpet/padding, Wow... what a surprise. The concrete floor has a huge Y shaped Break, not a crack covering the entire area 8' x 16', with a weed growing out of it.. lol. Well, I cut the padding, and cover the floor, but the carpet the landlord gave me is used, and not big enough without cutting and splicing, so I tell the landlord, and was given a New roll of tape to tape the pieces together... So, no new carpet, no compensation for the work that I've done to the place, and no appreciation... what to do.. what to do... about living in these condition's and moving on

rlathery
Jul 22, 2012, 05:50 PM
I feel like I am stuck in this place. I am on HUD and SSI, low income. Anyhow, I'veSo, no new carpet, no compensation for the work that I've done to the place, and no appreciation... what to do..what to do... about living in these condition's and moving on

1.) Consult the lease. (Because usually in the lease it will tell you what he can and won't do.)
2.) Tenant law says the landlord has to make it liveable, nothing about making it fancy. (But it is his responisblity to take of normal wear and tear, well in my state its like that.)
3.) You can't exactly dock rent, then he would have a right to evict you because it was not a written or verbal agreement that you would be given discounted rent.

Lesson learned- I told my landlord there was a problem with my toilet. He never fixed it and then it over flowed one day and his insurance adjuster is trying to make me pay. Note always follow up verbal agreements with a written agreement. This ensures you have proff of warning, unlike me he is denying I gave him warning and they are sueing me for 13K. Look up them laws and don't budge and take pics, best advice!

Fr_Chuck
Jul 22, 2012, 06:31 PM
The land lord is not required to replace the carpet, you WANTED it, the landlord is not required to fix the side walk, YOU did that.

Sorry I see nothing that you have claims for

mrwilson1965
Jul 22, 2012, 09:31 PM
Thanks for the response :)