Rental nightmare, new place, any recourse? (1 Viewer)

[ghostguy123]

So my daughter just moved out on Dec 1st into a house. When we went to see the place in November the previous tenants had just left, so the place wasn't move in ready, but obviously we were told things would be clean and fixed.
So, fast forward to day 1, as we are moving in the furniture, the place was obviously not cleaned, like, at all. Cobwebs in most of the corners, had to use like 4 swiffer pads in each room, toilet and shower hadn't been cleaned in who knows how long, mold on wall behind toilet, thermostat not working (that got fixed), etc....
We contacted the management company we did the lease with, the lady gave my daughter a 50 dollar credit. Yippee.
So over the course of the next couple days while spending 10 hours cleaning my daughter finds a mouse dead in a trap in one of the kitchen cabinets (a cabinet we had not looked in until that time). Mouse droppings everywhere where something was moved away from the way like the stove, fridge, etc.....
We just sent them a message a few minutes ago about the mouse stuff. Also the pipe under the kitchen sink is leaking where there was previously a garbage disposal, and we thought they would replace the garbage disposal, but instead they replaced it with a leaking pipe. Yay.
So I guess what I am wondering, is there any recourse on any of this? My daughter paid 1st and last month with security deposit, so the next rent is due on January. I suppose if everything gets taken care of then there's really nothing that can be done, and everything will be fine.
I'm just wondering what can be done from a tenant perspective, if anything, if things done get taken care of.
It's clearly obvious NOTHING was done between the prior tenants moving out and my daughter moving in. The manager lady said she was surprised cause she had been using the same cleaning service for 8 years, and had a couple complaints lately. Maybe that company left town, who knows.
So what can you do, if anything, if you move into a place where everything is super dirty and you find something new that is broken like every few hours?
I am guessing the answer to all this is probably nothing can really be done except continue to pay rent assuming they address the issues as they arise. The 50 dollar cleaning credit is horse crap for sure.
TIA!!!

 

[BassNBrew]

So my daughter just moved out on Dec 1st into a house. When we went to see the place in November the previous tenants had just left, so the place wasn't move in ready, but obviously we were told things would be clean and fixed.
So, fast forward to day 1, as we are moving in the furniture, the place was obviously not cleaned, like, at all. Cobwebs in most of the corners, had to use like 4 swiffer pads in each room, toilet and shower hadn't been cleaned in who knows how long, mold on wall behind toilet, thermostat not working (that got fixed), etc....
We contacted the management company we did the lease with, the lady gave my daughter a 50 dollar credit. Yippee.
So over the course of the next couple days while spending 10 hours cleaning my daughter finds a mouse dead in a trap in one of the kitchen cabinets (a cabinet we had not looked in until that time). Mouse droppings everywhere where something was moved away from the way like the stove, fridge, etc.....
We just sent them a message a few minutes ago about the mouse stuff. Also the pipe under the kitchen sink is leaking where there was previously a garbage disposal, and we thought they would replace the garbage disposal, but instead they replaced it with a leaking pipe. Yay.
So I guess what I am wondering, is there any recourse on any of this? My daughter paid 1st and last month with security deposit, so the next rent is due on January. I suppose if everything gets taken care of then there's really nothing that can be done, and everything will be fine.
I'm just wondering what can be done from a tenant perspective, if anything, if things done get taken care of.
It's clearly obvious NOTHING was done between the prior tenants moving out and my daughter moving in. The manager lady said she was surprised cause she had been using the same cleaning service for 8 years, and had a couple complaints lately. Maybe that company left town, who knows.
So what can you do, if anything, if you move into a place where everything is super dirty and you find something new that is broken like every few hours?
I am guessing the answer to all this is probably nothing can really be done except continue to pay rent assuming they address the issues as they arise. The 50 dollar cleaning credit is horse crap for sure.
TIA!!!

Send the management company a letter outlining your reasonable expectations and ask the broker in charge to contact you. It looks like a real estate license is required to conduct property mgmt business in Ohio so you do have some leverage. If you don't make progress here you can threaten filing a compliant with the real estate commission. This won't really get you anywhere but they (mgmt company) will have to spend hours responding to the complaint so they'll likely make you happy before having to deal with that.

Ultimately your answer is to document the issues and file a small claims lawsuit against the owner of the house (not the mgmt company) for breach of lease.

 

[leftcoastguy7]

Gross. No way I would want to live there after all that.

I would immediately vacate the property. Tell them to cancel the lease and you want all your money back.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Does she like the place?

 

[GroveDiesel]

The manager lady said she was surprised cause she had been using the same cleaning service for 8 years, and had a couple complaints lately. Maybe that company left town, who knows.

That just seems to be an admission from the management company that they didn’t actually do their job and verify that the place had been cleaned, repaired, and was ready to rent. I would not expect things to get much better.

 

[BroncoFreak_2K3]

File a complaint with the local tenant resource center

 

[BassNBrew]

Gross. No way I would want to live there after all that.

I would immediately vacate the property. Tell them to cancel the lease and you want all your money back.

Do not follow this advice (the first part). You are in a legal binding contract. Your remedy is the court system.

 

[CletiusMaximus]

Gross. No way I would want to live there after all that.

I would immediately vacate the property. Tell them to cancel the lease and you want all your money back.

Do not follow this advice (the first part). You are in a legal binding contract. Your remedy is the court system.

If she absolutely wants to vacate they could claim the premises are uninhabitable due to rodent poop, vacate and demand return of the $$ paid. If she still likes the place and it’s just a matter of cleaning, I would just document everything very well and stay on top of it through the lease term.

 

[Johnny Rock]

With 10+ hours of cleaning I’d ask for $200-$250 credit up front.

Still document everything wrong because the good news is she won’t need to lean anything when she moves out at the end of the lease. No need fo her to go out of her way to clean under the stove, fridge, etc. at move-out.

 

[Judge Smails]

Hopefully you took pictures of it all

 

[fatness]

If she absolutely wants to vacate they could claim the premises are uninhabitable due to rodent poop, vacate and demand return of the $$ paid. If she still likes the place and it’s just a matter of cleaning, I would just document everything very well and stay on top of it through the lease term.

This makes sense. Whether your daughter likes the place or not is kinda important.

 

[Zegras11]

Shouldn't rent any place without a walk through performed with both sides going through the unit. Would have saved a lot of grief here and walk through checklists are an easy Google search.

She's just as much at fault IMO for not doing this before moving in.

 

[ghostguy123]

Shouldn't rent any place without a walk through performed with both sides going through the unit. Would have saved a lot of grief here and walk through checklists are an easy Google search.

She's just as much at fault IMO for not doing this before moving in.

I agree completely.
Just one problem. Had we waited for the house to be ready for that kind of a walkthrough, it would have been rented to someone else (perhaps that woulda been a good thing).

 

[ghostguy123]

Does she like the place?

Yes.
Ideally she wants to stay there and have these issues taken care of.
The management person told us it's probably just one mouse, and buy a couple traps. Lol. Thanks.
$100 has been deducted from January rent per the management company.

 

[ghostguy123]

With 10+ hours of cleaning I’d ask for $200-$250 credit up front.

Still document everything wrong because the good news is she won’t need to lean anything when she moves out at the end of the lease. No need fo her to go out of her way to clean under the stove, fridge, etc. at move-out.

Well, if she gets a cleaning credit, wouldn't that mean she would then need to have it clean again to recoup the full deposit when moving out?

 

[offdee]

The management person told us it's probably just one mouse, and buy a couple traps. Lol. Thanks.

lol at this. What's the saying...if you see one mouse that means there is many more nearby.

 

[ghostguy123]

The management person told us it's probably just one mouse, and buy a couple traps. Lol. Thanks.

lol at this. What's the saying...if you see one mouse that means there is many more nearby.

Nope, only one mouse. Guaranteed. That saying is sooooooô outdated.

 

[Galileo]

My son will be moving in to an apartment next August near Purdue. I am not sure where your daughter is living, but the management companies in some of these college towns have the most awful leases. They get away with it because there is always another customer lined up ready to rent.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

With 10+ hours of cleaning I’d ask for $200-$250 credit up front.

Still document everything wrong because the good news is she won’t need to lean anything when she moves out at the end of the lease. No need fo her to go out of her way to clean under the stove, fridge, etc. at move-out.

Well, if she gets a cleaning credit, wouldn't that mean she would then need to have it clean again to recoup the full deposit when moving out?

She will most likely get the deposit less the cleaning fee, no matter what.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Does she like the place?

Yes.
Ideally she wants to stay there and have these issues taken care of.
The management person told us it's probably just one mouse, and buy a couple traps. Lol. Thanks.
$100 has been deducted from January rent per the management company.

If she really likes it, then just do what’s necessary to make it livable. Get what credits you can get and move on. Keeping an eye out for more critters. Welcome to the real world kid.

 

[FairWarning]

My son will be moving in to an apartment next August near Purdue. I am not sure where your daughter is living, but the management companies in some of these college towns have the most awful leases. They get away with it because there is always another customer lined up ready to rent.

Exactly, especially if it’s in the student slums part.

 

[tri-man 47]

Does she like the place?

Yes.
Ideally she wants to stay there and have these issues taken care of.
The management person told us it's probably just one mouse, and buy a couple traps. Lol. Thanks.
$100 has been deducted from January rent per the management company.

If she really likes it, then just do what’s necessary to make it livable. Get what credits you can get and move on. Keeping an eye out for more critters. Welcome to the real world kid.

I agree with this. She likes the place, so continue to clean it up and carry on. You've gotten some compensation for the hassle, at least.

 

[Skipdog77]

Only way to go here is a class-action suit against Amazon.