****10 pts Landlord / Rental Property?

We live in Colorado.
My family and I (I am 18, have younger siblings, and mom and dad) are living in a home that we currently rent. It is a nice home and the rent is really cheap. I have talked to my mom about all the issues I see in the house.

We currently have NO gutters on our house. The landlord decided to put siding on the house, the siding people had to take the gutters off to put the siding on and apperantly disposed of them. So when it rains, ( I come in through the front door) I get dripped on while I am trying to unlock the door. It is like a faucet turned on - a stream of water.

We get mold in the basement. I along with my sister have our beds pushed up against the wall in our rooms because there is really no other place to put them. Whenever we get rain or snow (moisture) the wall facing the outdoors gets mold on it and the carpet gets a little damp. My sister currently has permanent mold spots on her carpet and I on my wall. Occasionally my sister and I get sick from the mold.

The basement window wells typically fill with water and stream in through into the basement. We think we might have fixed it by digging around the windows and putting rocks in, but not sure. The last bed I had had mold growing on it because of the water coming in through the window. I now have a new bed with a mattress protector on it, but am afraid it still might be volnerable to mold.

There are other issues as well, such as the linoleum is coming up, but these issues are not as big as the other ones.

My mom has written several letters explaining the big issues, but nothing ever gets done. It seems like the landlord is just in it for the money. This is just and income property for him.

Please! How do I motivate my mom to do something more than write letters [that just get ignored anyway].

Do we have any rights as tennants? I am just scared we might get evicted or something. We signed a one year lease when we moved in three years ago, but never signed another. There was a verbal agreement that we would just abide by the old lease.

Finally, in the old lease we agreed with the landlord that we would only have one dog, which we also had to pay extra monthly rent for. I recently got a puppy, but never told the landlord. Is this really a bad thing? I kinda feel dishonest, but then again we currently only signed that one year lease when we moved in three years ago.


I know I am venting a little, because we have had quite a bit of rain this year. I am just being nit picky, or is this typical of rental properties? Please give me detailed answers if you can - please don't tell me to just go look it up for the state, give me a link or something at least!

*******10 points for detailed answers*********

Sunflower2010-06-23T02:54:23Z

Favorite Answer

You really should tell the landlord you would like to sign another lease to make things more legal. As far as a second dog I can't tell you what to do about that. Yes yous do have rights as tenants. If you still have the old lease then it's better than nothing. You can contact the board of health about the mold and other conditions. You can also contact the housing inspector if they have that out there. If not the board of health should be able to tell you who to see if they can not help you.

There has to be some kind of health laws or inspectors of some sort out in your area. You may also want to consult with a lawyer who specializes in tenant- landlord disputes. The consultation should be free. Whether you are willing to retain them as your lawyer or not is up to yous but then if yous do retain them there will be a retainer fee of some sort. The lawyer will then begin to take legal action by starting with a warning letter.

Have yous tried talking to the landlord and telling him of the problems you are having with everything. Would he be willing to fix the problems so yous don't get sick? The house is his responsibility and any repairs that need to be made should come out of his pocket. Is there anything in the lease stating he is responsible or will take care of things when they need to be fixed under normal wear and tear or from weather damage?

Yous have the right to live under normal and healthy conditions that you pay for. Yous also have the right to be more than upset that your landlord may be a slumlord which is one who does not fix the things that need to be fixed and just keeps making money off the tenants while they live under non livable conditions. I hope your mom made copies of all the ignored letters she has written. First rule of thumb always make copies of things to cover your tail ends in cases like this and others.

If yous ask the landlord to fix the problem or have already asked and he does not take care of it in a month then my suggestion is take pictures of all the damage that has been done to everything. This includes the mold, the windows and where the water comes in when it rains, no gutters on the house and anything else that has been damaged or needs to be repaired to fix the problems of water damage or mold. The carpet or whatever flooring damage there is all of it needs to be documented and photographed.

Do not show the pictures to the landlord. Just hang on to them cause you will need them most likely. If the landlord does not fix the problems then do not threaten him or get nasty. Hire someone to make the repairs or do it yourselves. Keep all the receipts of everything from paint to whatever it is that you have to pay for out of your own pocket including labor if you hire someone to do it. Whatever yous do do not tell the landlord your intentions if he refuses to make the repairs or ignores yous.

When the following months rent is due just deduct what yous paid out of pocket from the rent and give all the receipts to the landlord and whatever money is left to cover the rent for the month. It is perfectly legal and if he takes you to court then all the court and lawyer costs are on him. Make copies of all pictures before and after pictures and copies of all work orders by the professional if yous hired one.

Also make copies of all receipts of everything yous bought or paid for. This will cover yous all the way around. If any one has gotten sick or been to the doctors with any respiratory problems that may be related to the mold or dampness from the rain getting in and things getting wet is also something that can be used against him. Doctors bills or medication from being sick any medical records that will help.

I know it all seems like a lot but you did want to know what could be done in a detailed manner and no websites, links or other. So these are the only choices from personal experience I can give you if you are willing to do the foot work to get what yous need. I wish you all the best what ever yous do and good luck.

Jared2016-07-19T05:34:52Z

2

whitefangz12010-06-23T02:21:33Z

No law requires rain gutters, but the landlord is legally required to take care of the mold problem.

One problem you will have, however, is that your lease is no longer valid. By law, any contract regarding real estate must be in writing in order to be valid. A verbal agreement does not count. This means that you are on a month-to-month tenancy and can be evicted for any reason with just 30 days notice.
You can move out without facing any penalties. You can fix the problem and withhold up to one month's worth of rent to cover the expense of taking care of it yourself. You can go on a renter's strike and withhold rent until the landlord takes care of the problem. If he tries to evict you and you prove to a judge that you made numerous attempts to have the landlord fix it and he failed to do so, the court will find in your favor, order the landlord to fix the problem, and rule against the eviction as long as you pay all the rent you withheld. BUT this does not prevent the landlord from turning right around afterward and giving you a 30 day notice to vacate in retaliation.

Sgt. Streb2010-06-23T01:46:53Z

If you keep pushing the landlord you will probably get evicted. Since there is no longer a lease, you are living under Tenancy at Will, which means that he can evict you for no reason at all.

Honestly, once mold starts growing there is no way to stop it so at this point in time your best bet is to start looking for a new house.

adrienne2016-06-04T03:31:18Z

You cant get him to do anything he doesn't need to do. Carpeting costs a lot of money you know! You may want to ask if he would consider getting the carpet professionally cleaned or just move in and rent a carpet cleaner.

Show more answers (1)