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Renting - Advice Needed

So, I posted last week about running into some problems AFTER we signed the lease on a townhouse.  It's rented by a realtor; however, the actual owner lives in Las Vegas (we're in Nashville).  The fence is broken, there's no storm door, the icemaker is broken, etc.Well, tonight I was baking some cupcakes because tomorrow (Sunday) is my mom's birthday.  I had the cupcakes in the oven for 25 minutes, like the recipe said, and they were still SUPER gooey.  So I left them in and kept checking back on them.  Still no difference.  I touched the pan, and it was barely hot!  But the oven was still on.  Fuckshitpiss.  I love cooking, and the oven's broken?  Are you kidding me?Also, I was getting ready to (finally) put up the shower curtain in the bathroom and we realized that out of the 3 shower curtain rods laying in the closet - all 3 were broken and unusable.  They need to be replaced.  Should this come out of OUR pocket, or should we ask the realtor to pay?Cliff's Notes:  Townhouse ended up sucking that we already signed the lease on.  Oven's broken.  And the shower curtain rods are, too.  Can we ask for him to pay for the rods?  The oven will HAVE to be fixed or we'll have a huuuuge issue.

Re: Renting - Advice Needed

  • The landlord should be paying for the repairs...not the realtor. Check your lease to see what is supposed to be included.  The oven definitely needs to be fixed.  You might be out of luck on the other stuff.  Go through and make an exhaustive punchlist of what is broken, missing, needs to be replaced, etc.  Send it off to your landlord, requesting him/her to rectify and/or respond. Did you not notice that the fence was broken and that there was no storm door when you signed the lease?
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    Kate ~ Mommy to Matthew 3/29/07 & Kylie 12/30/08 & Chase 3/31/11
  • Ii think it's a good idea to document all of the damage now. Take photos, etc. Send a certified copy to the landlord / realtor. This should ensure that you don't get charged for the damages when you move out.
  • They didn't have you do a walk thru with a floorplan to mark all the problems first?
    The Bee Hive Est. June 30, 2007
    "So I sing a song of love, Julia"
    06.10.10

    BFAR:We Defined Our Own Success!
    image

  • Ditto on documenting all of the damaged or nonworking items and sending it to the Realtor, who I'm assuming is the rental agent.I would include the shower curtain rod but just go to Wal-Mart and buy one for $5 now. We did in our rental house.
  • Extra ditto on documenting...taking pictures things like that.  My mom is our "landlord" and she always tries to play the buy it and i'll reimburse you, then we do and she doesn't or complains about it.  I asked her what she is going to do when we move out and she was like you have to give me 60 days to find someone...I'm thinking of looking into a looney bin for her. 
    imageBaby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • I'm not really too familiar with renting from a tenant perspective, but FI and I have done some research on the landlord end, as we have debated renting out our condo instead of selling it when we get a house.From what I've been able to gather, the shower curtain rods may be debatable (And they do only cost like $5 at Walmart), but things like the oven, the fence, etc ... pretty much anything that could lead to an insurance loss should be the landlord's responsibility. The only loophole I could see them possibly having is if all of the problems existed BEFORE you signed the lease and you didn't work out how they would be taken care at that time. But I'm not really clear on that.Again, the one thing I really am sure of is if it can lead to an insurance loss (Or is something that an insurance company could decide to drop their policy over if they did an inspection ... the oven and the fence are definites on this), the landlord should be covering it. Because if something happened, like the oven caused a fire and other units were damaged because of it, its the landlord that would get sued, not you guys. HTH a little.

    If you fire a WP member, you're against America.
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    "Meg cracks me up on the regular. Now she gets to do it in two different forums. Yay!!" ~mkrupar
  • Something that has worked for me in the past, as a last resort after notifying them repeatedly of broken stuff with no response, was sending a letter by certified mail to the landlord (and another to the property management company, if there is one), listing what is broken and next to each broken item a reasonable estimate for repair. Then tell them that if they don't at least fix something big and basic (like water, heat, oven, etc.) in oh, say, 5 business days you'll just get it fixed yourself (or buy a new one - I'd go used or super cheapo tho) and deduct the cost from the rent. I've done this all of two times and both times they got what I wanted fixed taken care of in like two days. You have to be aware that you aren't always legally entitled to deduct the cost of repairs from rent (this depends on local and state law), but on big stuff you may be able to, and just the threat sometimes gets their attention. Also be aware that this can ruin a landlord-tenant relationship, but on big stuff you may be willing to take that risk.
  • I would think it wouldn't matter whether the oven and fence were already broken when you signed the lease.  If they were to break after you moved in, your landlord is still responsible for the repairs.  I have a friend who rents out a condo and she has the plumber, contractor, handyman guys that she uses as her "official" repair men for the condo.  Their numbers are on a sheet that she gives to all renters and it is their responsibility to contact the repair men to make appointments.  The repair men then contact the landlord so she knows what's going on.Contact your landlord and find out how s/he needs you to proceed.
    The Bee Hive Est. June 30, 2007
    "So I sing a song of love, Julia"
    06.10.10

    BFAR:We Defined Our Own Success!
    image

  • ETA:  I have a friend who rents out a condo and she has the plumber, contractor, handyman guys that she uses in her own home as her "official" repair men for the condo.
    The Bee Hive Est. June 30, 2007
    "So I sing a song of love, Julia"
    06.10.10

    BFAR:We Defined Our Own Success!
    image

  • If it is rented through the realtor and the owner didn't say "call me instead" I would contact the realtor about the repairs. Definitely take photos and then call them as well as sending them a letter.Our current landlord just has us repair whatever and then send him the bill and we pay less for rent that month. For things like stoves they will probably come in to confirm it's broken and then buy a new one. Shower rods and storm doors *might* get repaired but they may also say that since they were broken when you moved in they won't replace them.It won't hurt to ask :)
  • Sorry, I went to bed last night and didn't check this again until this morning!  The realtor didn't walk thru the place with us prior to us signing a lease.  There was a lock box, and he gave us the code to go in and look around ourselves.  This was the first time we'd ever rented, and we went two separate times at night to check things out.  Never occurred to us to look at the stove to make sure it works, etc.  We made a list of things we noticed prior to signing the lease, and he said he'd include those in our lease (aka he'd fix them as terms of our lease).  Since moving in, we've found more problems.  I sent him a firm email last night, since my past emails have been "Thanks so much for all your help!" Adding "if possible" at the ends of sentences, etc.  Nice stuff like that.  I was firm, and he actually said to call his repairman and either they'd fix the appliances or replace them.  He also said he'd pay for the shower curtain rods.
  • Oh, also, we have no way to get in contact with the owner of the townhouse.  We go through the realtor for everything.  Also, the girl that lived there before us was a total nutcase, apparently, and broke all the blinds/curtain rods/etc. according to some of our neighbors.  She also left some holes in the closets (they have already been fixed, per our request).  The storm door:  we saw it in the storage closet before moving in and just assumed it worked.  After a maintenance guy came out, he said it's broken and needs to be replaced.  Our realtor said he'd replace it after we've been there for a month, as to deduct it from a larger rent check (we're just paying for a half month right now).
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