I have been living in my apartment with 3 children in good faith for the past 9 months. I signed a one year lease and was excited to finally have my first apartment.
During the term that I have been living here, I have been in consistant contact with the landlord regarding numerous issues that needed to be repaired in the apartment. I paid her on time each month and attached a letter whenever there was a repair needed.
I explained to her that there was lack of heat in my house. She flat out told me that I was cold because it was how I was dressed. There was a 3 inch wide gap in the back door leading to the back yard that she said needed to be repaired. When winter came, I was told to purchase a door sweep to block the draft. The door sweep was too short. Her response to me was to use blankets to cover the back door. It was still cold. I then told her that the drafts were too much to endure and she told me once again, that it was because of how I was dressed. After complaining about this issue, she changed the thermostat and it made the room warmer during the day, but then freezing cold at night. I had to purchase a space heater to put into my kids bedroom. I didnt care much if I was cold, I was more concerned about my children. This raised my electric bill several hundred dollars, and her response to me was that the space heater was “a choice” and not a necessity.
After becoming agitated (yet still paying the rent) I called the Building Department to investigate this heating issue. I was told that it was indeed chilly and he instructed her to fix the back door and seal up the drafts in the windows. Because I called the Building Department she has made threats to call CPS on me two times, for no reason. When she did not fix the problems the Building Department listed I withheld my rent. I told her that once the problems were repaired I would pay her.
She hired, (in my opinion) and unqualified worker to repair the door and the floors. While he was repairing the floors, he broke the window in my house with the blow torch. Allthough this was accidental, I told her the window could not stay that way because I have children that can hurt themselves. She told me that she wasnt going to fix the window until I paid the rent. At this point, I went BALLISTIC. I called the Building Department and he put us on 3 way and her story changed. She said that I refused repairs. I then proceeded to curse her out for the vermin that she is and then she hung up.
I told the Inspector that for MONTHS, (which I complained to her about too) that I have been asking for her to call the exterminator because there were roaches infested in my bedroom door, (which she said that I BROUGHT) mice and a RAT (yes a rat) in the wall. I told her it was keeping me up at night with the running, scratching and the biting of the steel wool (which it successfuly ate) as well as defication on my countertops, childrens clothing and floor.
She told me in exact words,
“If you are so unhappy here, then why dont you leave?”
Ok, so I want to leave, (obviously) and she wont return my damn security deposit. WTF DO I DO NOW?
