Posted by Dan, iowarenter@aol.com, on 9/12/02

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You know, I have been a renter for about 15 years and lived
in about 12 different apt/homes, but I have never run up
against a bad landlord until now.

This guy has at least 3 different names for his company,
lists someone else as the "President" to keep his name off
of it, and flagrantly breaks the Landlord/Tenant Code in
many ways in our City/State. He lets his properties run down
and only fixes what the building inspector orders him to
fix, regardless of how it is affecting the health and safety
of the occupants/tenants. He's been doing this for 20 years.
The problem is, no one is stopping him. The Building
Inspector, even when given a detailed list of the
violations, refuses to follow up on them unless they are
painfully obvious. As the head inspector put it "We only do
a visual walkthrough, we don't poke, prod, test, sample or
monitor anything. If it LOOKS ok, it's not a violation."
This attitude appalled me. Afterall, the PURPOSE of the
Housing Code is to "Promote the health, safety, and wellfare
or the occupants and tenants."

In my case, a known foundation leak (known by the landlord)
was never adequately fixed before we moved in. We did not
notice it because of its location and the fact that there
was carpetting on the basement floor. We suffered severe
allergy and asthma problems for the time we lived there. We
eventually found out the house had mold in the insulation,
in the carpetting, on drywall, in the wall, and in the
rotted floorboards which we could not see. We did everything
by the book and notified the landlord in writing, giving him
a 7 Day Notice to repair it and clean up the mold. He made a
feeble attempt to fix it, but when all was said and done,
the foundation still leaked, a plumbing leak in the wall was
"gushing" water, and no mold had been cleaned up, just
painted over, carpetted over, and covered up with a new
shower surreound. Because we couldn't "see" much of the
mold, and because the Building Inspector refused to do a
thorough inspection, he dismissed the charge that there was
mold in the house. How am I supposed to prosecute the
landlord when the Building Inspector gave the house a clean
bill of health? He did require the plumbing to be fixed, but
not the foundation. The head inspector said "every house has
foundation leaks. It's acceptable." But as many of you
already know, trying to go up against a city dept is not
easy, especially when they have it written into the code
that they are not liable for anything. So, to date, I have
an atty who is still looking into this but not seriously
(not retained yet), I have notified the City Council, the
State Atty General, and the Dept of Housing and Urban
Development. So far, not one has responded. I have 4 kids
and a wife, and we all suffered different illnesses in the
rental house during our time there. We all improved after
moving out (due to landlord's breach of lease for not
adequately fixing foundation leak and removing mold). I was
diagnosed as being allergic to at least one of the molds (I
had bulk samples taken to state Hygienics Lab for analysis),
and have continuing chronic sinusitis. My asthmatic stepson
had some serious attacks in the house, but is fine now.

Are we due any damages for our suffering?

The costs we have incurred to date are greater than what we
could get from him in Small Claims court.

Oh, and one other thing, the landlord turned in a settlement
letter to his insurance company, and we gave them a
statement, but they are sitting on it.

I cannot think of anything else to do to resolve this
matter. The landlord has a very bad reputation in town, has
reputed ties to another landlord who was convicted of money
laundering, and continues to do his tenants dirty. He has a
common practice to keep security deposits and try to get
more money from tenants moving out by trying to charge them
for damages which existed to the unit before they moved in.
He needs to be stopped. Many of his tenants are low income
people, and so what he is doing hurts them a great deal more
than it hurt me. I am willing to go up against him. My
evidence of his wrongdoings is in the documents, videotape,
and notes I made while going through this.

I was prepared because my wife and I are landlords. We know
many GOOD landlords, but this is the first BAD landlord
we've come across. I could not live with myself if I did to
others as he is.

Your input is most welcome.

Dan
iowarenter@aol.com

Re: Landlord Negligence Causes Health Problems in AsthmaticC, 7/25/03, by Brenda.

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