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mmseratt · Jun 7, 2008, 06:03 PM

All right I am hoping someone might point me in the right direction.. I am living in a house for nearly 3 years now (renting) and the house is a complete wreck. It floods, it has all kinds of creatures in it, plumbing is horrible, electric is wired horribly and mold. We have had to trash a lot of our belongings because they get wet and molded when the house flooded. And I do believe it just needs to be torn down.. because the landlord does not care. It flooded and we called him to get it fixed and he told us that we need to speak to god and tell him to make it stop raining and then hung up. We called dhs and housing authority but they said they could not do anything.. I do believe he should get into some kind of trouble he owns a lot of rental homes and everyone knows what kind of homes he owns. Not the greatest.. but all he does is collect money and don't fix anything. We called him out twice because we have no cold water in our bathroom and he just left saying "ok bye" when I went in there to see it did not work and he couldn't say anything about him not being able to fix it.. Im sure he does this to a lot of his tenets and really don't think he should be able too. We are from Arkansas.. So is anyone has any suggestions or can point me in the right way so this guy can't get away with the way he runs his business it would be very appreciated..

twinkiedooter · Jun 7, 2008, 06:08 PM

You can contact the clerk of courts at the county courthouse and ask them if you would be allowed to pay your rent to the court and hold the rent money until the landlord makes the proper repairs to the home. In some counties this is permitted. If you do this, however, the clerk will send a letter to the landlord and advise the landlord that you have paid the court your rent and then the landlord cannot file to have you evicted. The landlord then is forced to make the necessary repairs on your rental home and prove to the court that he did so before he can get your rent money released by the clerk's office. I don't know how Arkansas works, but it's worth a try.

froggy7 · Jun 7, 2008, 06:35 PM

I will point out that the landlord is definitely running his business right... he's got people staying in a place for three years when he is doing nothing to fix the place. As long as you are paying rent, there's no reason for him to put more money in the place. Why in the world haven't you just moved? I could see maybe staying the year, if you didn't want to break the lease and didn't realize the conditions before you moved in. But at some point your lease ran out, and you have told the landlord that these conditions are acceptable to you by not moving. The only way to convince your landlord to change his ways is if he has property sitting empty because people won't rent it.

Fr_Chuck · Jun 7, 2008, 07:58 PM

And why have you lived there 3 years?? If you move and all this tennants move then he will not be making income.

Call the city code inspector, the city building inspector, but be ready to move if they condemn the building

mmseratt · Jun 7, 2008, 08:45 PM

I will defintly look into the court house thing that would be great! And the house is bad but the first 2 years were things that we could live with tried to improve them ourself. It's been about the past 8 months that is just terrible. And like I said he is a well know land lord people WILL rent his houses... and he knows it. There is not to many rent homes you find around here.

twinkiedooter · Jun 8, 2008, 07:08 AM

While you are at it, if you know of some of his other tenants and they too have not had essential items not fixed in their homes also, may I suggest that you contact them and tell them about putting their rent into the court registry and they also join in what you are doing and threby deny this slum landlord his rent until he fixes essential things at their homes? I am sure once the landlord is denied a few month's rent from a few tenants he will gladly comply with fixing essential items. Nothing hurts a slum landlord more than when you hit him in the pocket.

mmseratt · Jun 8, 2008, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

While you are at it, if you know of some of his other tenants and they too have not had essential items not fixed in their homes also, may I suggest that you contact them and tell them about putting their rent into the court registry and they also join in what you are doing and threby deny this slum landlord his rent until he fixes essential things at their homes? I am sure once the landlord is denied a few month's rent from a few tenants he will gladly comply with fixing essential items. Nothing hurts a slum landlord more than when you hit him in the pocket.

I can't thank you enough! You have been so much help. THank you.

excon · Jun 8, 2008, 06:44 PM

Hello m:

I'd check you state laws before I started withholding rent. If your state doesn't allow it, and you don't pay your rent, you'll be evicted. We have a copy right here at the top of the real estate page on a "sticky note".

excon

clvann · Sep 14, 2008, 05:42 PM

Make Sure Before Anything Else, You Write Your Landlord A Formal Letter Requesting That The Repairs Be Done, Get It Notarized And Certified That It Was Mailed To Him/her. After This , By Law He Has 30 Days I Believe, To Get This Matter Resolved, Or You Can Legally Tear Him/her A New One In Court.