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Bugs, moisture etc. WWYD? I'm so frustrated! Very, Very Long!
I don't even know where to start. This is going to be long and confusing but I'm not sure what to do other then move. Which is easier said then done. Here goes: My H and I are saving up to buy a home. We are hoping to have enough for what we need in about a year. I wasn't sure where else to post this.
For the last two and half years we've been renting a condo in a small complex with only six units. It's an old building, built in the 1950's. Our landlord bought the place, in foreclosure (for very cheap) as an investment property. When we were looking for a place to live at the time. We saw it as they were "renovating" it. We agreed to move in on a specific date, and they agreed it would be finished. Low and behold the day we moved in it wasn't finished, and it looked like a very crappy renovation job. Oh well, we needed a place to live and we figured anything that needed to be fixed would get fixed soon. WRONG!
A little back story:
Over the past two years, they have replaced the bathroom cabinets because they were covered in layers of paint. (The woman who lived her before was a "painter". But all she ever did was paint over everything including the exposed brick.) Who ever installed the kitchen cabinets didn't measure properly and the refrigerator sticks out about three inches over the door to the laundry room. We come to find out from the next door neighbor, (she is the God Daughter of our landlord) the guy our landlord hired to do all the work was not licensed, or insured or bonded. Our next door neighbor, finally convinced her to no longer use this man for maintenance.
Our landlord is a very elderly woman and any time we needed anything fixed she took forever to act on it. She finally turned over the responsibilities of keeping up the place to her God Daughter. Not that things got any better.
After about three months the door wall needed to be replaced. Who ever did that also did a crap job. We are constantly getting millipedes, centipedes and sowbugs. To this day we still have bug problems. My dad came in and resealed the door wall, after weeks of asking her to fix it. I did a little research and found out those sorts of bugs love moisture. She hired some other "yahoo" awhile back to fix several things. He spent all day cleaning mold and painting over a door in the bathroom. Something seems to go wrong every month, and that's not just the ongoing problems.
Well.... there was a big fight between the people on the association. The same guy was fixing the wood paneling outside and the other homeowners didn't like what he was doing so they chased him away. Literally. So now there is a law suit between two other owners and my next door neighbor for reasons I don't know. They are not that friendly so we mostly keep to ourselves. All house association drama that we don't know about because we are renters. Plus, the outdoor lights haven't been working in over a year, and it's very dark at night. We can't do anything about it because it's wrapped up in the courts. Everything around here seems to get done at a glacial pace.
Like I said we have a very bad mold problem in out bathroom and I tried almost everything to clean it, bleach worked, for now. The girl next door hired another painter to come in and repaint. All this time I'm thinking we don't need paint, we need to fix the moisture problem. When he showed up I was so happy because he also realized the fan wasn't working right. Which the last guy was suppose to fix. Not to mention our laundry room, which is another huge problem. I knew this from the beginning. The dryer does not vent to the outside. The girl next door gave me this plastic thing with water in it to attach to the dryer hose. It doesn't work. I continue to have a horrible moisture problem with my laundry room. You can see the moisture damage all over the walls. Bringing it all back to the bug problem.
The girl next door is a very nice person, but she is a total twit. For some reason she doesn't get it. I tell her what needs to get done she and all she says is I'll have someone look. It takes forever most of the time. I would love to move but we're hoping our next move is going to be a purchase, not a rental. I've looked for other places and they all seem to be way too expensive, they are way too small or they are dumps like this place.
The Pro's: It's a great location for both our jobs and the airport. The rent is reasonable for the area and she lets us have our dog for no additional cost. We also are on a month to month lease.
I know this is long, confusing and I'm sure I forgot some details but this was getting way too long. Please, what would you do? Who would you talk to? I'm sick of living in this dump of a condo. I'm not sure what will be more of a headache dealing with all of this or moving right now.
Re: Bugs, moisture etc. WWYD? I'm so frustrated! Very, Very Long!
She mentioned they were on a month to month lease. Honestly, I would move. Start looking and move as soon as you can. It's not worth the headache. For other rental options, don't forget about checking craigslist, etc.
I agree with the PPs: your best bet is to move. What you are saving financially in rent, you're paying for in aggrevation. The reason the rent is so cheap is because the landlord isn't keeping the place up and is cutting corners on the few "repairs" they do. Of course you'll have to pay more at a place where they employ a maintenance staff, use licensed repair people, etc., but at this point it sounds like it would be worth it.
FWIW, we ran into this too when we rented a house where the rent was cheap and had the same problems with bugs and mold.
For the bugs, I spray the whole house with Bengal every few months. (I think it's labelled roach spray, but it kills all kinds of bugs). I don't think it says on the bottle to vacate the house, but I still do -- it gives me a headache otherwise.
For the moisture (in an unventilated bathroom), I hired a professional (and paid for it myself) to retile the shower that was constantly getting moldy, and now my H sprays it with daily shower spray after every single shower. It's been six months, and there have been no problems. I also bought DampRid and placed it in the bathroom, and that seems to help too.
You can google your state or your city + tenant rights and see if anything comes up, too. But honestly your best bet is just to move.
If you're saving up and planning to buy a home within a year, then I'd stick it out with your current lease. It sucks, but you've already put in 2.5 years, why not several months if it will get you into a house faster. Moving costs money, plus it looks like you'll be dealing with higher rent and more than likely a lease to work around. Eat ramen, check your books out from the library, and save every penny you can so you can buy and be done with crappy leases forever.