Elderly Mother in Senior Rental Community Required to Pay for Door Replacement

[wing8lc]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Delaware

My mother lives/rents in a senior citizen community, subsidized by the government, all tenants are on a fixed income and are elderly. My mother is 78.


The existing storm door has a hinge that has finally broken from normal usage (the storm door is approximately 20 years old), the clam like metal hinge became wore down, thinned and finally broke into.

the maintenance man can't find a replacement hinge and therefore, the office has notified my mother that they will install a new storm door and that she is reponsible for the cost. ($200 plus)

I am also finding out that the onsite-office, initially made all the senior citizens pay for the storm doors 20 years ago when they had a contractor install them. The money was added to their rents.

My mother has lived there about 10 years. The door was there when my mother initially rented the unit.

My 2 questions:

Isn't this illegal to make the tenants buy storm doors to begin with? And second, isn't it illegal to make my mother pay for a replacement door because they cannot find a replacement hinge- which was very clearly broken due to normal wear and tear of decades of use?

My mother's income is very low. $630 a month fixed ss

[Mr. Knowitall]

The requirement that occupants buy doors would be consistent with condominiums, but not so much for apartments. I suppose if the tenants wanted them very badly, and there was no requirement that the landlord provide them, the landlord could agree to install them at tenant expenses. Do you know exactly what happened, way back then?

A tenant should not be charged for the repair of something that breaks due to ordinary wear and tear.

[wing8lc]

Yes, I do know what happened way back then. That's exactly what happened- the new complex came without storm doors and the tenants wanted them and signed papers to agree to pay for them. The costs were spread out over their rents until paid in full.

However, that was 20 years ago. My mother moved in 10 years ago with the door being an existing door. But she does not remember if she signed anything agreeing to be responsible for the door. And even if she did, is this legal? these apartments are government funded. HUD I think.

Is it even legal to originally hire a contractor and charge the tenants? (even if the majority wanted it- which by the way, there are 50 tenants and I'm willing to bet that at least one tenant disagreed back then but the majority ruled- they did all 50 apartments)

[SChinFChin]

The issue here is what a landlord is "legally required" to provide under local and state laws.

Landlords are legally required to provide doors, windows, etc. A storm door however, may not be legally required, so the landlord can charge for it if he so chooses.

I don't if there is a tenant's association or if there are special clauses in the leases that covers this. For instance, I had made the mistake of letting tenants leave air conditioners in good working condition behind, the new tenant takes over and uses it, and then expects me to repair it. So I put into the lease the air conditioning is for the tenants use, and it is his to repair.

For a while, I even removed perfectly good AC's after a spat with a tenant over repairs. So I let tenants buy it themselves, and when they do that, they never expect me to repair them.

On another occasion, a senior who rented an apartment wanted handbars bolted to the walls to facilitate her safetly taking a bath. We offered to buy her a portable one that can be removed, and she turned us down. She contends if we rent to seniors, we have to provide handbars.

We checked we were advised we do not have to legally provide them, and not only that, we can legally require the tenant to remove them afterwards, such as I can legally require a tenant to take an AC away so I'm not going to have the following tenant bug me to repair an AC that is not mine.

As to the storm doors, if the decision was to install them years ago, I can see the community wanting to look nice and have all the units to look uniform. Not only that, I have also seen some neighborhoods where residents can't afford to replace storm doors, and before you know it, wooden front doors starts deteriorating, and looks awful. And one door like that can make a neighborhood look SLUMMY.

I realize $200 is an awful lot for someone with a retirement income, but without looking at the lease, and anything else that governs the community, it's hard to tell if it's ILLEGAL.