Friday, March 4, 2011

Renters, Know Your Rights!

I'm sure most of you have rented a house or apartment at one time or another. Those of you that have, and have lived in several places have probably had to deal with "landlords from Hell".

The following article explains your rights as renters, and what your landlord's obligations to his renters are, and his rights as well.

Most landlords are real estate investors. It's a business to them. They couldn't care less about you. They only care about making a profit, as do all Judeo-Capitalists. It's important to understand your rights and not let them take advantage of you, which they will if they get the chance. Don't let them get away with it.

Landlords may have a good reason why they haven't fixed the pipes or returned your deposit. Then again, they may not. It's up to tenants to tell the difference.


Dan 88!

By Karen Aho of MSN Real Estate

First off: a shout-out to all the good landlords out there. Thank you. Now, this is not about you.

No, this is about the not-so-great landlords, the ones who give good landlords a bad name. The ones who do little, spend less and feed tenants some pretty wild lines about why the air conditioning is still out.

Tenants, take note. If the landlord starts sputtering, only you can prevent a long, strange trip in the apartment. No housing cop is going to drop by for a routine check. Landlords themselves may be unaware of their legal duties; no one makes them take a test to enter the rental business.

"Tenants do have rights, but those rights aren't going to jump off the page," says Steven R. Kellman, director of the Tenants Legal Center of San Diego. (Bing: Learn about tenants' rights to privacy)

Step one: Know which of the landlord's explanations are pure wind. Housing laws vary by state, but tenants have some pretty basic rights everywhere. For a sense of what they are — and how you can respond — start with these seven landlord claims. Then, for more, check out our first installment, "Don't fall for these 10 crazy landlord claims."

If the landlord doesn't respond, seek help from a tenants association in your area.

1. Landlord's claim: 'It's my apartment. I can come in whenever I want.'
Tenant's response:"Sorry. You may be paying the bank for the mortgage, but I'm paying you to occupy the space. So, unless it's an emergency, please set up a time in advance."

Some landlords may be a little more coy, even polite. Christine, a Maryland renter, says she had a landlord upstairs who entered her apartment repeatedly. He told her he had to bring her a fire extinguisher. Another time, batteries. Then another fire extinguisher. One time, he checked the television hookup. Finally, she left.

"Always trust your gut instinct," says Christine, still fearful about having her full name published. "I ignored it for months and knew right away when he started making excuses for coming into my apartment that something was not right."

Here are the facts: The landlord does have a legal right to enter, even if only for an inspection, but laws govern when and why. In most places, the landlord must provide at least 24 hours written notice along with a time. Only in an emergency may a landlord enter unannounced.

So if the washing machine is overflowing and the folks downstairs are getting a soaking — OK, the landlord can come in with a screwdriver and some towels.

Even month-to-month renters without a lease establish tenancy and have a right to privacy. So unless there's a fire, a flood or a pack of squealing raccoons, landlords will have to snoop through their own families' stuff.

2. Landlord's claim: 'By the way, we're renting your apartment for Mardi Gras.'
Tenant's response: "Excuse me. No you're not. My lease isn't up."

Meghan Chapman was living in a New Orleans rental— sweetly perched right on the parade route— when management slipped a 30-day notice under the door after Christmas. She and her boyfriend were welcome to return after the high-rent month.

"We went and talked to them," says Chapman, who had several months left on the lease. "They had no sympathy."

According to New Orleans lawyer Hardell Ward, a provision in Louisiana law allows a landlord to take possession of the property — even in the middle of a lease term — as long as the landlord provides one month free rent and has put that option in the lease.

Still, adds Ward, who works with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, he's seen other tenants get kicked out before Mardi Gras without the free month.

And, to be sure, the law in other states does not allow a landlord to terminate a lease.

"That's blatantly illegal," says Janet Portman, a landlord-tenant lawyer with Nolo, a publisher of legal information. "If you have a lease, the whole point is you have the apartment for the duration of the lease, unless you do something like not pay the rent or some other bad behavior."

The upshot: If landlords say they want the unit back for their nephew, or themselves, or a wealthier tenant, it's almost always not OK — until the lease is up.

3. Landlord's claim: 'It's just a standard lease — no worries.'
Tenant's response: "Uh … well, I'm going to need the standard one day to review the document."

Guess what? There's no such thing as a standard lease.

That's right. You can find lease forms at legal sites online; leases distributed by property-management associations; even leases that some guy typed out in his basement and printed on paper with stately legalesque borders.

That's all fine. But there simply is no "standard lease," even for a particular state.

"It's a catch-all phrase aimed to prevent you from asking questions or scrutinizing," says Portman, also author of "Every Tenant's Legal Guide." "It's not like an IRS form."

Portman doesn't take sides and helps landlords, as well. She reviews leases for organizations throughout the country. The scary part, she says, is that many documents — even ones the lawyers draft — contain clauses that not only favor landlords but that also wouldn't hold up in court.

"They ask people to waive their rights to habitability … to notice to enter … to repair and deduct," she says. "They're not legal, but the tenant doesn't know that."

Always ask for a copy of the lease to review overnight. If something doesn't make sense or seems troubling, call a tenant advocate or lawyer for help.

4. Landlord's claim: 'Other people in the area don't have air conditioning.'
Tenant's response: "Well, isn't that special? Now can you fix the unit I'm paying you for?"

This is an even bigger stretch than the popular "No one else complained" or "It's just you."

All miss the mark. A rental agreement is between the tenant and landlord. What others do in the building or the neighborhood or across town is irrelevant. If you agreed to pay for an apartment with air conditioning, the landlord has to maintain the air conditioning.

"It's just basic contract law," Portman says.

Real Estate reader "Herkxena" reported being fed that line by an apartment manager after requesting that the air conditioning be repaired quickly; it was hot, and the tenant's elderly mother shared the unit.

The manager said they'd get to it when they could find a repairman "and that I should just live with it because others in my area have apartments with no air conditioning."

Herkxena informed the manager that the lease agreement included air conditioning. When the manager hung up at that, Herkxena called headquarters.

"We had a new heating/air-conditioning unit installed within 24 hours," Herkxena writes. "Had I not complained to the corporate office, who knows how long it would have been?"

That situation carried a health risk. But even without such a threat, the old "don't complain" argument just doesn't hold water, lawyers say. Landlords must address repairs in a timely fashion.

If they don't, in many states, the tenant can pay for the repairs out of pocket and deduct the cost from rent or be allowed to break the lease. Tenants should put requests in writing and save a copy.

5. Landlord's claim: 'The paint is peeling? You must have done it!'
Tenant's response: "No, I did not stand outside and peel the paint. Now, please return my security deposit."

Tenant advocates hear it all the time. A landlord — who may already have spent the security deposit — blames tenants for everything from pre-existing cracks to worn plumbing.

"Rarely do you hear a landlord say, 'Ha ha ha. I stole your security deposit because it was so easy.' Think about it: What's easier, stealing candy from a baby or stealing your security deposit?" says John Fry, assistant director of the Illinois Tenants Union.

Scott Rubel, a former California tenant, had a landlord who "would fix her houses as cheaply as possible" and who accused a tenant of peeling the paint off the outside of the house.

"She actually thought someone had time to stand around and scrape little bits of paint off here and there," he says.

Unfortunately, in cases where the landlord keeps the security deposit, it's up to the tenants to sue in court, and finding an affordable lawyer willing to take the case can be difficult to impossible, Fry says.

Your best bet: Photograph and document everything during a walk-through with the landlord before you move in. If you do go to court, the burden of proof for damage is on the landlord, Portman says.

And the landlord cannot deduct for ordinary wear and tear (See No. 4 here for more).

6. Landlord's claim: 'Sure, take my word, you can move out any time.'
Tenant's response: "Can you put that in writing, please?"

Tenant Anna K. thought she was free to break her lease. The landlord said so himself at a hearing about the rent increase, saying: "We are reasonable people; if a tenant can't pay the rent, it doesn't do anyone any good to force the tenant to stay."

Six months later, Anna K. received a little surprise in the mail: a bill for the remaining six months of her lease. Fortunately for her, the landlord had violated his duties by not attempting to rent the unit, instead moving in his daughter. Anna K. took him to court and won.

In many other cases, however, tenants aren't so lucky.

"We see this all the time," Kellman says. "The landlord knows when he says, 'You can leave early' that the tenant misinterprets that" to mean the tenant can break the lease.

"The reason (landlords) say that is they have an unhappy tenant and this is their way out," Kellman says. "The landlords get their cake and eat it, too: They have a contract on a unit where someone is obligated to pay the rent, and they're free to seek out a higher-paying tenant."

Kellman calls it: "Don't worry, be happy — until the bill arrives."

The solution: Trust only what's put in writing.

7. Landlord's claim: 'The pool will reopen in two weeks.'
Tenant's response: "And when the pool is closed for more than two weeks, is there a deduction on the rent? Or am I paying for a pool that I can't use?"

This wouldn't sound like an outrageous landlord claim if we didn't hear so many stories of tenants eagerly awaiting a pool that never opens. Or maybe it's the clubhouse, the gym or the advertised movie night.

"It's part of the landlord's pitch," Portman says. "This happens all the time."

If the amenity played a role in your decision to rent, and it's unusable, you're likely entitled to move without penalty before the lease expires.

"The reason you're breaking the lease is the landlord has broken the lease by not delivering what he promised," Portman says.

The solution: Talk to residents about the building's amenities before signing on the dotted line. One person moved into a complex with a pool only to learn later from tenants that the pool had been closed every summer for three years.

Comment:

I'd like to answer a question some of you may have. In regard to the replacing of the air conditioner in the situation mentioned above, why did the manager refuse to replace the air conditioner but when the tenant contacted the corporation that owned the building, she got service? What was the manager's problem? The answer to that is, that often, when the owner of a property is a corporation, the manager gets a bonus percentage of any money he or she saves the company, so naturally, a greedy, unscrupulous manager would be likely to make someone live without an air conditioner so they would get a percentage of what the company was saved as a bonus.

Did situations like this occur in National Socialist Germany? Not very often, and when it did, and was reported, these unscrupulous landlords were dealt with quickly and severely. We could do that here in this country as well.

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