Help me punish my landlord.

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: macka
also there are laws in most cities that you can't have more than 4 unrelated people living in the same apartment.. just file complaints with the city about everythign you can... BUT WAIT TILL YOU MOVE OUT!!!
~macka

Never heard of that. Must be in the North Dakota or something.

 

[Kanalua]

Call the cops...seriously...if you're going to college, and your Univ. has a law school, find out when they have their free advise nights, and get some free legal advice on the situation...

 

[Curly01]

Hook the outlet up to 240 volts and see how long it takes them to fry their tools.

 

[Aquaman]

Just ask him for some compensation for the use of the electricity......... maybe a break on the rent or something. Not unreasonable a request.

Cheers,
Aquaman <<<<<<<<<< a landlord part time

 

[Linflas]

You may want to check and see if the realty company is the actual landlord or just a property management company the actual owner employes to free him from having to deal with the day to day running of a leased property. If so a polite letter to the actual owner may be the best way to go. A lot of times if you are dealing with a realty company they are really just acting as property managers for the owner of the house and the owner is generally not aware of actions like this.

 

[tm37]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: Roger
Call the police and file a complaint.
Not only did they steal from you, they did not have permission to enter your house.

PM Frenchie, he is a lawyer

On the permission to enter your home ... take a look at your rental agreement. They probably have permission to enter your home under certain circumstances, including maintenance, etc. I know it wasn't maintenance on your unit, but I don't think you'll get far with trespassing.

On getting even ... check with your local dept. of health & safety and get a publication on minimum housing standards.
That broken window & unsafe stairs ... if it's still broken, you can force them to fix it right.
Any insect/vermin problems?
Does the heat work properly?
Have gas appliances been inspected recently?
Do the windows operate?
Water works everywhere?

Of course, if you try to much retaliation, expect your rent to go up some more.

IN California the only time they can enter without 24hours notice is IF there is an emergency. Even for maintnence they cannot enter without at least giving you notice. I have fought this and won. However It caused my rent to go up and every little rule was enforced after that. Sometime when you win you really lose.

How much is your electricty bill normally? I would contact the landlord and let them know you expect to be rembursed. I wouldnot however threaten legal action. Youare more than likely talking about just a few dollars.

 

[kherman]

Originally posted by: maladroit
I'm in a house with 6 other guys. Today, there was a construction crew renovating the house next door, which apparently my landlord (a realty company who is trying to monopolize this whole area) recently bought. They asked if they could plug into an outlet in my house so they could work on the house next door. I told them no, they're not using our electric to do work on someone else's house, and went to work.

Today, I come home and read a note saying "We borrowed some electricity to work on next door. - Realty Company" They went to the realty company, got keys to our house, and used our electricity to work on the house all day. Don't ask why they couldn't use next door's electric, probably because a filthy slob used to live there and never paid his bills.

The issue with this, is that we pay electric separate from rent. It's not even paid through the realtor, we handle it on our own. And I'm pretty sure they don't have the right to come into our house and use our electricity without our consent. This realtor is a complete piece of sh*t company, it takes them months to fix things, such as broken steps which miraculously didn't kill anybody in the 2 months it took them to fix, or the broken window that they replaced with - get this - another broken, but taped-together, window. Then they go and raise the rent! But we sit here and take it in the a** because it's a pain to find housing, and even if we did find new housing, chances are it's owned by this evil company.

I feel like the time is now ripe to exact our revenge.

So did they break any laws doing what they did? What legal recourse do we have? I seriously hate this realtor and want to stick it to 'em.

1) File a complaint for trespassing.
2) Tell the landlord to pay your electric bill.

To my knowledge, it is illegal for your landlord to enter your house without permission unless there is an emergency. To do an inspecti0on, I think they have to give you 24 hours notice. Check your contract on that one. There should be power next door? WTF? Even for a house under construction, there is power available for the work crews to build the place.

 

[Frenchie]

As was previously mentioned:

1) file a police report for trespass by the landlord and the construction crew; also file for theft/theft of services relative to the unauthorized theft of electircal serives.
2) file a civil complaint at the small claims court in your jusrisdiction for trepass, theft, invasion of privacy and potentially violation of your states consumer protection laws.

 

[MacBaine]

All you have to do is say that you left $1000 in cash on the table when you left, and now it's gone.

 

[Kev]

Thanks. I think we're gonna try to work something out with the realtor first, though.

 

[JetsFanatic]

They stole kilawatts from you.
report them to the police.
I don;t care if the landlord let them
the electric bill is in your name and you pay it
not them