Reduced Security and no receipt


Hello,
My husband and I recently moved out of 1 bedroom after our lease was up because our landlord refused to negotiate our rent and refused to investigate what is a potentially very serious safety issue. (We discovered a live gas line connected to our bedroom light fixture that was not properly capped.)

We gave our notice at the end of September and paid through the end of October, despite moving out in early October. We did quite a bit of minor work on the place during our 12 months there and left the place spotless. The one potential issue was having done some painting without permission. Previous tenants had painted both the kitchen and bathroom bright colors so we didn’t think it would be a problem. Plus, the quality of the walls was poor enough that the idea of being charged to fix them seemed out of the question. Adding to this, our landlord was in our apartment at least half a dozen times and never commented on the paint. It was a very light beige which was not noticeable different than the original off-white.

After we moved out we tried repeated to contact our landlord via phone and email to ask about our security and any potential damages. We did not hear back until last week, Dec. 11, two full months after we moved out!

We finally got the check back and our landlord took out $800 from our security to repaint the walls that we painted. It is suspect to me that it would cost so much to paint a third of the 560 sq. ft apartment. Plus, she has yet to provide us with any documentation or receipts.

Here are my questions:
- What are our rights if she does not provide proper documentation on repairs?

- Are there laws on landlords having to repaint every x years? The apartment was not painted when we moved in and I wonder when it was last painted. Is there any way to prove that the walls NEEDED to be repainted anyway and that therefore we should not be obligated to pay for it.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Categories: Renters
By CGRenter26 | 12/16/2009 1:49 PM | Comment

30-Day Notice Req’d?


My lease came up in August and I’ve been paying month to month and just informed my landlord that I’ll be moving out Oct 7. I’m wondering if I have any legal obligation to pay an entire month’s rent to have given 30 days notice. Is there a law requiring us to pay the entire month?

The reason we are leaving is because of potential safety issues. We are choosing to move instead of bringing in inspectors, which we could do, if necessary, to prove her delinquency.

Categories: Renters
By CGRenter26 | 09/29/2009 11:45 AM | Comment

Old Gas Lines Safe?


Hello,
I live in the top floor rental of a turn-of-the century brownstone. Recently (after permission from our landlord) I removed the very outdated light fixture in our bedroom, only to hear a slight hissing sound and smell the room start to fill with gas. I immediately put the fixture back in place and called our landlord who didn’t think much of it and suggested we have her handyman install the new light fixture if we didn’t feel comfortable doing it ourselves.

Sure enough the handyman was just as skeptical as we were. It is unclear whether the gas line is 100% closed off and there is also old, scrambled electrical wiring running adjacent.

With this knowledge, our landlord is still unconcerned. The handyman closed off the fixture which appears to also act as a cap to the gas line. Now we are left wondering whether this is potentially a very serious safety issue. We are about to sign a new lease and want to make sure the building is safe. What is the best way to find out whether the current set-up is dangerous?

Thanks.

Categories: Renters
By CGRenter26 | 09/25/2009 5:47 PM | Comment