I have been living in the same flat for the last 11 months. It is a very small building where the Landlady resides on the 2nd floor and rents her 4 other apartments to other tenets (though as of this writing only 2 units are paid for and occupied).

I was coming out of the shower on Friday and fell (no floor towels to cover the slick tile )
I'm fine, but my arm smashed the cheap porcelain sink literally shearing half of it off. (I will post pictures latter today)
I, of course, told my landlady who became enraged and furious, aggressively telling me that since this was ALL my fault, I would have to pay for it.
All logical so far, but Wigbers even though I caused the financial loss, didn't I pay a large security deposit to this woman to cover any unforeseen, accidentally damage like this in her apartment???
Why should I be strong armed into paying additional money out of my pocket when she already has my security deposit money to cover such matters?
Even though no solution has yet been reached regarding this issue, my landlady is already "threatening" not to renew my lease over this trivial bullshit unless I pay for the damages out of my own pocket...
Can she legally pull these types of threats on me and make me worry about the future of my living situation?
Isn't this called extortion?

Anyone else had these type of Landlord issues/nightmares or have advice they can offer?

Question:
What kinds of experiences have you had with flatmates and landlords? Do they include asinine threats and pseudo-legalese that invariably degrade into odd, barely human interactions?

Choices:
I've never had any issues while renting, except the landlord's pernious dog always tries to eat my rent check.
The landlord is cool and smokes 6" bongs with us, but never remembers to fix a goddamn thing, like turning the hot water on.
The landlord likes Tchaikovsky, I like NIN we threaten each other through the thin walls and the only reason he doesn't kick me to the street is the free weed and my reliable source of income :)
My landlord and I get on so well, he changed all my locks while I was a work and "neglected" to inform me.
My landlord and I are both avid civil war enthusiasts, we both fight for the South but are willing to fire on one another to determine who will be the cottonpicker...

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PradaWillie,

Flatmates?

Oh, I couldn't possibly comment...

Landlords? It's worse if you rent through a real estate agent who's working for the owner of the property. Because you've then got two sets of fuckwits to deal with (man, I wish the friggin' recent Australian property boom didn't happen. Or that Jamie Durie didn't happen.)

I won't go into the nightmarish ordeal of pain and humiliation that marked my interaction with my last landlord, but I will recommend that you contact a tenants' rights advocacy group and think about handling all future communication via certified letter.

At this point you can probably say goodbye to your security deposit, and your landlord will try to get you to pay for the sink. She's kind of holding the cards right now: if you don't pay to fix the sink, it won't get fixed, and she's already cashed the deposit check (months ago, I would imagine).

If she does keep insisting that you're responsible for the damage, and if she does refuse to fix the sink, you may be able to contact some kind of local authority to report her as a slumlord. She's required by law (in the States, anyway...not sure where you are) to keep the place livable at least. Different municipalities define livable different ways, but not having a working bathroom sink fits my definition, anyway.

By the way, are your forearms made of pig iron, or is the sink made of something extremely brittle and fragile?

The security deposit is to pay any damages when you *vacate* the property, not to cover repairs while you live there.

Definitely contact a tenant's advocacy organisation, as they will be able to tell you what your rights are in this matter.

To me it does sound like you could be legally libal for the damages and required to pay for the replacement of the sink of equal quality to the one in the apartment.

In Denmark a certain portion of your rent goes to an "internal maintanence" account, which you can then use when stuff breaks, or the walls need painting, etc. And if you move out before fixing stuff, they take the money out of your security deposit before they take it out of the internal maintainance account.

My sister's apartment building in Rochester is run entirely different. She can call them to change a lightbulb, and they recently repainted her entire apartment for her.

quote:

By the way, are your forearms made of pig iron, or is the sink made of something extremely brittle and fragile?

hehe

Come back later, pedal. You're going to love these pictures I'm going to post. The porcelain sink just snapped and I didn't even get a bruise.
It was pretty fuckin' cool.

Please ignore the dirty dishes, sink hair, and general nastiness. I share it with young men.





And all that damage was from a single swipe of my arm. I must have hit a structurally weak point because that whole section came off almost completely in one, singular piece. There was only one second piece from the bottom that wasn't more than the size of a Post-It note.

quote:

And all that damage was from a single swipe of my arm. I must have hit a structurally weak point because that whole section came off almost completely in one, singular piece.

You must have a Bionic arm.

Seeing the condition of that sink, having you replace it with a new one seems out of line. It looks like it was due for a replacement.

The black liquid inside looks like pure evil.

quote:

I share it with young men.

you are a man. a very very ugly one.
you're a disgusting human who should be hung for his sins.

If that is porcelain and it came off in one piece, then couldn't it be repaired? You mentioned it may have been weak along that line, so maybe it was repaired before. Probably cheaper to buy a used sink from a thrift store like Goodwill. Then mount the same hardware to it.

But it sounds as though your landlord is the sort who will hold all of the above against you. If moving really is such a hassle that you'd rather just do what it takes to stay another year, then you might first investigate your options and run them by her for approval. When you are at fault, a conciliatory attitude goes a long way towards getting along.

I want to know why there are dishes in your bathroom. But really I don't.

EDIT: in the US, tenants rights usually vary from state to state and there are .org websites devoted to helping people navigate the issues to know where they stand. You can typically find an expert to offer an opinion on the situation.

quote:

you're a disgusting human who should be hung for his sins

I think you are confused charmakarmacat about who I am, nevertheless I should be hung for my sins. It's all explained right here.

Also check and see if your city has specific requirements for landlords, some incorporated cities do. And by the way I hope you never did anything in that sink other than urinate.

heh.
I have a sneaking suspicion many men were keen to relieve themselves there. That is our secondary half-bath that I used exclusively to shave and micterate in, hence my left over facial hair in the drain after breaking the bloody fixture.
I figured why clean a broken sink that will be replaced in a matter of hours.

A few years ago I lived in a flat that had very big windows. One morning I opened one of them and because the sashcord was broken, it fell back down on my hand and broke my little finger. No damage to the window. I got my landlord to give me six weeks rentfree in exchange for not suing him because the broken sashcord was his responsibility. Fixtures and fittings.

You probably don't have much room to maneuver here but you could try to say the floor tiles are a hazard and therefore she should agree to go halves with you on a new sink. Or just go down to Costco or Ikea and get a cheap one for $40.

Never had a landlord (bought my first house at 20 when I left home.. nope, not rich, just bought cheap and made sacrifices!!), but have been a landlady when I rented my house out for 3 years when I first moved in with krad.

As FP says, the security deposit is for when you leave. Twice I had tennets move out without paying the final months rent, one of them also left me with significant damage which the security deposit didn't cover, as I took one months rent as deposit..

having seen the sink, it depends on what the sink was like when you moved in. if it was as gross as in that picture, you should have a signed inventory stating that, inwhich case I would very much argue that, while you are responsible for the breakage, you shouldn't need to pay for an equal fitting. If it states the sink was in good state of cleanliness and repair, then, personally, I think you would be very much responsible for the expense I'm afraid.