Shitty landlord, what do we do?

Submitted by Quinnlos t3_zr0g9p in newhaven

Hi all, yes it’s one of these posts.

We’re a few mid-20 year olds living in one of New Haven’s older homes, as a result we expected some wear and tear here but it feels as though we’re being led on by our landlord regarding repairs and general required maintenance.

We’ve got windows that have cracks in them, as well as a window that’s coming off of its mounting that we were assured would be fixed.

I’ve got a hole in my closet floor that we’ve had the lumber brought for repairs and then just summarily left outside the front door of the house.

At least one of our toilets is clogging to the point of being unusable and we’ve attempted reach out to maintenance but at this point it seems we’re being ignored.

My question to you all is…what do we do? Are we within any form of legal right to do just about anything?

At times it feels like I can’t even trust the flooring beneath my damned feet and I’m just tired of being taken advantage of by the land leeches in this area.

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awebr t1_j113xvw wrote

Contact LCI to evaluate if there are housing code violations?

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Quinnlos OP t1_j114h0g wrote

I wouldn’t doubt it, we live on the top two floors of a three floor Victorian and regularly trip the power with an air fryer and two desktops, so it’s been a fun year for us overall power-wise.

Up until recently we had a pretty decent septic leak in the basement that they only addressed because we were constantly calling in about the smell.

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twoshovels t1_j11s3n6 wrote

Ok as someone who does a ton of maintenance for property management company’s in Fla . Every single tenant complains to me how the owner doesn’t do nothing. One thing the owners are on top of for the most part is the plumbing because that is a real health issue. These homes are no where’s near as old as a Victorian you are in. The electric is no game. The fact your tripping breakers with only3-4 things running? Is a huge no-no. Old house, dryer than dry in the walls. Please, please if you don’t have get smoke detectors please!! Get some,& have plan. Then have a back up plan. Think ahead!! Call everyone including code enforcement this isn’t safe. I have done a ton of work in some of those older homes in new haven and around. A lot of them are like tinder. With hold your rent then he will have to fix these things. It costs a shit ton of money & leg work to evict.

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Quinnlos OP t1_j11s9ej wrote

Thank you for the advice here! I knew at this point that the circuit had to be fucked if it was getting tripped up by so little, but I hadn’t considered the possible fire element.

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ProgMM t1_j12nhnw wrote

What do you mean “so little?” It’s an air fryer. It puts out a bunch of heat to cook your food. That’s energy, and quite a bit of it. Desktop computers ain’t exactly light users, either. Gaming PCs can have PSUs as high as 1200W, that’s as much as a space heater that’ll max out a standard 15A circuit. This is expected behavior.

Furthermore, if we say for the sake of argument that there was some hypothetical wiring deficiency that would mean it can’t actually carry the current it’s rated for... your breaker wouldn’t somehow detect that and trip at some lower level of current. It only trips to prevent overcurrent protection. (I’m going to leave out the advanced tripping for ground faults and arc faults, which your old breakers probably don’t have, and which do not sound applicable to this situation.) What I’m trying to say is, it sounds like everything is working as intended.

Just out of curiosity, is your landlord one of Daniel Greer’s property management companies? (Edgewood Corners Inc, Edgewood Elm Housing Inc, Edgewood Village Inc, F.O.H. Inc, Yedidei Hagan Inc.) I only ask because those bastards own a lot of old homes, and take a very... “hands-off” approach.

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snorkelbagel t1_j13jetg wrote

…. You understand that just because a pc has a 1200W psu, it doesn’t mean it pulls anywhere near that right?

PSUs are spec’s out ideally for around 70% total capacity power draw on the reg since thats where your typical power efficiency curve peaks.

And you haven’t needed to pull that kind of power on a system unless you are 1) cryptomining or 2) running multiple flagship gpus which runs in the order of several thousand dollars in the past few years, which if OP had the liquid capital for, probably wouldn’t be renting from a slumlord with roommates.

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ProgMM t1_j1jtbm3 wrote

Sure, but it still doesn’t mean that OP should be going around acting like he’s tripping breakers with two lightbulbs, and then acting like that they tripped because they somehow knew that the wiring was substandard

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Quinnlos OP t1_j12pzkd wrote

That would be the company unfortunately. I also totally understand that the air fryer is a large draw on the circuit, my concern is that for the whole of our two floors there seem to be about two individually operating circuits, which are also connected to the basement seemingly. Of course, I’m no electrician by any means, but I feel that for two floors to share so much of the grid of a house, and for a separate grid to be cordoned off to about one room in what’s considered an “apartment” is almost malicious oversight on behalf of whoever updated the wiring (if it’s ever been). But please correct me if I’m wrong or just making incorrect assumptions here.

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ProgMM t1_j12rbd8 wrote

Ah well okay, in all fairness that’s a bit worse than I assumed. But it still sounds like old wiring imo, from the days of far fewer appliances. Ideally, they would’ve replaced that by now, but as you can probably tell, those guys buy fixer-uppers and then never fix jack shit.

My good friend lives in one of their houses. Their furnace was locked out. The oil company wouldn’t send a contractor without authorization from the landlord, and they couldn’t get the landlord to authorize it. For fucking heat. My buddy would’ve even paid for it. Still got ghosted. Thankfully, between me and his dad, we ultimately got it working, but that just goes to show what you’ve already figured out— they’re negligent slumlords. And that’s hardly the headline when it comes to the scumbag who leads them.

Best of luck with all this. Hopefully withholding rent helps out. I doubt you’ll get anywhere when it comes to getting a basic standard of wiring, but the rest of this stuff sounds plausible.

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Old_Size9060 t1_j141jl1 wrote

If you’re connected to the basement electric - does that include a shared dryer? That could be a lot of additional electric that you are paying for and even if it isn’t, technically (as I understand it) in CT, if you are paying for any electrical in a common area, your landlord owes 100% of your bill.

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ProgMM t1_j12mcgu wrote

I don’t know how you think a breaker works, but a cooking appliance plus multiple desktop computers drawing over 15 amps is hardly out of the ordinary. And the breaker has no damn clue how good or bad the wiring is when it trips.

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twoshovels t1_j12nqxr wrote

Your right but did he not mention air fryer? The fact that it’s tripping when it should not means the owner needs a electrician in there.

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ProgMM t1_j12ogp9 wrote

Two comments up:

> I wouldn’t doubt it, we live on the top two floors of a three floor Victorian and regularly trip the power with an air fryer and two desktops, so it’s been a fun year for us overall power-wise.

Sounds about consistent with my experience in a 1930s house wherein the circuits extend the full longitude of the floor. Not optimal wiring by modern standards, but I think that’s something one just has to realistically work around

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twoshovels t1_j14jcvx wrote

So actually after I jus read this. Other tenants could very possibly drawing off the same breaker. I believe a air fryer use 12-15 at the most? An one laptop is .08? Now I could be wrong here. If I’m correct that’s not a lot. Probably is a shared breaker. This sounds like a disaster waiting. I hope not. I’m not big on electricity. In fact I hate having to do anything other than plug something in.

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ProgMM t1_j14n7r2 wrote

Gaming desktops can use as much as 12-15 themselves. They don’t often, but they can add up easily. I’m willing to bet those are 15A circuits.

Elsewhere in the thread, OP remarked that much of the apartment is on two circuits. It’s probably ancient BX wiring. Unfortunately, OP is renting from one of Dan Greer’s cheapskate shell companies, who will never ever be convinced to rewire an apartment. The other issues seem more plausible, but they drag their feet hard on anything.

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Coyote107 t1_j14oqxl wrote

Go to LCI and then file a fair rent commission complaint requesting to withhold rent until the situation is resolved.

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NATO1092 t1_j10zi0n wrote

Money gets everyone's attention. Make sure you're making your notifications official documents....emails...letters...etc. save all of it and threaten to withhold payment until you see progress. Be a nusance....follow up daily.

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Quinnlos OP t1_j10zwjf wrote

One of us has been dating all comms to them, I’ve been on the withhold payment train since the 3rd month in, but they’re anxious about doing so.

At this point I may just create an automation on my phone to reach out to both the property manager as well as the maintenance head with a list of our complaints until they’re fixed.

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NATO1092 t1_j110gdl wrote

Sounds like a good plan. I'm telling you. Money will get their attention. It's harder to evict you then to fix the items beed repairing. Just make sure you dont spend the money youre witholding.And I'm pretty sure you have the right to excersise rent withholding for poor conditions or maintenance/repair issues.

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Quinnlos OP t1_j111e0s wrote

Sounds good to me, thankfully our rent account is always in good standing to avoid issues regarding money expenditure so that shouldn’t be an issue, but we’ve got a letter written up with all previously mentioned repair issues and have let them know that we have a hard stop of January 31st before we take legal action at this point.

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oliviarose2021 t1_j11fvkh wrote

You have to apply to pay your rent into escrow. Elm St courthouse. Otherwise they can begin eviction proceedings.

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Quinnlos OP t1_j11g15d wrote

I’ve read about this in brief elsewhere but had completely forgotten, I definitely will be reaching out to the courthouse to get next stepping from them as well

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buried_lede t1_j1gzey1 wrote

Yes, do it correctly- big difference in outcome for you

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lazy-but-talented t1_j15b4ym wrote

absolutely do not withhold rent no matter what anyone else tells you, your landlord will have better standing to evict you for withholding rent . you do have the right to withhold rent but it's not as easy as just not paying there is a whole legal process for it where you might file a complaint and pay the court the rent that is owed while your landlord completes repairs. There is greater chance of you getting evicted for breaching your end of the contract by not paying rent versus the chance of your landlord getting repairs done because you stopped paying rent. Keep paying rent until you're directed otherwise by legal professionals not redditors

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suz_gard t1_j16mt8z wrote

This is true, the local news has been publishing a series on evictions in CT and in almost every case the tenants stopped paying rent because the house was legitimately falling apart, and the judge ruled against the tenant every single time. The stupid line they kept using was, We're at court over rent payments, not landlord maintenance. None of the documented maintenance issues were permissable evidence for the eviction hearing. I think CT has a law where you can pay your rent to the court instead of the landlord if you think they aren't abiding by the contract and the court holds your money until the case against the landlord is settled. Such a pain, but that's the legal way to approach it

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buried_lede t1_j1gzo73 wrote

Right, and there are also procedures for paying for repairs out of rent if your landlord fails miserably to do them. Following the procedures makes all the difference for the tenant- you want them to have the poor standing, not you. Always follow the rules. Lots of guides online for CT landlord tenant law that are easy to understand and follow.

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buried_lede t1_j1gzb49 wrote

I am not sure just withholding rent is OK. I think you can deduct repairs from rent but not just refuse to pay. Double check the rules

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eggheadslut t1_j120jpr wrote

Don’t quote me but I think in CT, if you mention a problem twice and they don’t do anything, you can hire someone else and have your landlord pay for it. And also, if you tell someone and than get hurt by the things that you mentioned after mentioning these safety concerns, you can get so much money out of them because they were told that these are safety issues. My dad had the same issue as a landlord, he refused to fix something and than the renter was like well this is a safety issue. So my dad was quick to fix it because it really was

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buried_lede t1_j1h01p2 wrote

You can even team up with the other tenant/s. So like, for OP, if the other tenant’s toilet is messed up too, and the building’s pipes are clogged with roots or something, you can both pay the plumber out of your rent, but you have to do it correctly or you are screwed. This is partly why I think LCI would be a great guide in this, plus, well, this house just sounds like it is in dangerous condition and should be inspected by them in any case. When LCI comes out to inspect, after the inspection, ask them if any of the issues are ones the tenants can pay for out of their rent.

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Cathy1212skigirl t1_j13l073 wrote

I think the best thing to do is get estimates for all the repairs with a start date for each. That might take some time in this economy. Mail them to your landlord return receipt requested. Include a statement that since it is the landlord’s responsibility to keep up the building, you intend bill him for the cost. When he doesn’t respond, go ahead and start them. Pay by yourselves, submit the invoices to the landlord for the completed work and tell him you will then deduct from your rent. Just keep copies of all your correspondence in case he tries to evict you. Who knows, he might be happy someone else is doing the upkeep.

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eastst328 t1_j150n7w wrote

Nothing changed. Still need buckets of

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buried_lede t1_j1gy2uf wrote

Wow. So, there are procedures for paying for certain repairs and taking it out of the rent you owe. If you follow those procedures, you can’t be faulted under the law. That might get your toilet working but after reading all the details, I am deeply concerned that most of these repairs are whole house, and go beyond the scope of what a tenant could pull off. I hate to say it, but I think you have to call LCI.

After that, maybe they can help you decipher which repairs you can make out of rent and which are too big. For instance, can you repair the hole in the closet floor or is there a floor joist cracked underneath, rendering that a finger in the dike sort of thing?

Btw, I’m surprised you mentioned septic. New haven is on city sewer, not septic. They either have clogged pipes, or cracked pipe or roots clogging their pipes- they need to get their plumber in.

Those companies owned by Greer are a big mess right now. You may not be able to resolve this without LCI. I don’t know why city hasn’t moved to have the court receive rental payments for their properties already, to be honest.

I wouldn’t delay calling LCI either. You need to get it going

Little more background on Greer property obstacles. They may not respond to the usual saber rattling which is another reason for LCI. The family is in a financial crisis due to both legal bills from criminal defense for the Greer patriarch, and the huge civil settlement his victim, a former student, won in court. He himself went to jail. They have been trying to shield certain LLCs from providing for part of the legal settlement, apparently so they can live on it, maybe pay their legal bills with it, etc. All their income from their Yeshiva is gone. All his grown children left town. His ability to work and earn any income is gone. They will be leaning on these properties very hard as a source of income to stay afloat.

If the repairs needed exceed the combined rents of the building, the court should be made the receiver and manage the building.

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MountainPrize464 t1_j1h1qn4 wrote

You go down to the office and u sit. If ur talking about pike or any other Similar. You refuse to leave til you talk to the guy who rents them out and you schedule and apt. And follow up constantly. Only way to get it done. And it may sound Karen but my living situation is worth the slight embarrassment. And they say they’re in a meeting, you sit and you will wait. A showing, u wait. Bc they will just dodge ur calls.

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