My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Maine
1st of all I have no lease, we are a month to month rent. We also paid no security deposit, and only paid (1st and last months rent upon moving in, still have original copy of receipt in my safe. and hand written rental agreement)
I have lived in a apartment since 2003. My landlord passed away in March of this year in 2009. His wife took over the property, and never did a walkthrough when he was still alive. She did her first walkthrough a month ago. Directly after she told us she might be moving, and wanted to give us a heads up, so we could have 90 days to look for places.
At that point I told her we were applying for a mortgage in the same week, we were planning to move by end of July anyway. A few days later she told us we were slobby and we damaged the shower in the apartment and she was going to sue us once she assesses the damages upon our moving out. About 2 years ago the "handyman" fixed the shower from leaking, it was pouring into our stairwell because the wall was rotting away. He patched the spots and sealed all the existing cracks and half-assed it to not leak anymore. Never doing anything with the physical plumbing. The current landlord probably doesnt know he even did this.
Right after we got 2-3 notes taped to our vehicles mostly intimidation letters to scare us away. The first letter was one that said she didn’t think our apartment was safe, and how could our baby live in such filth, and called us horrible parents. Directly after that I called code enforcement and said my landlord said she didn’t think our apartment was safe and she didn’t think we should be living there, could someone come by I want a report. I told them that she had not done the last 2 repairs that we had reported to her and if anything it wasn’t safe because she demanded to not ever pay any upkeep on the apartment to keep it safe.
1.5 weeks later code enforcement showed up, and inspected the place. A few days before he came we got a legal "NOTICE TO QUIT" stating we had until July 31st to move out.
Right after she got the note and required her to fix a few things immediately, which she didn't... around the 24th of June, then we started getting nasty notes from her stating she wanted us out before she moved in the 30th of June. Get off my property immediately, or I will have the cops forcefully remove you from my property, and suing you will be the best money spend since my late husbands death.
Code enforcement told her that she immediately needed to have someone install more smoke detectors, no detectors in bedroom, but in rooms surrounding it, and a few outlet covers.
AND>.
LEFT A 2 PAGE LONG LIST OF THINGS THAT WERE WRONG WITH THE APARTMENT THAT NEEDED TO BE FIXED WITHIN 30 DAYS, WHICH WOULD PUT US STILL LIVING THERE AT THAT TIME
She left her "Handyman" our downstairs neighbor to install them and take care of it and she moved. I immediately got a note that day saying
"Here is your legal 24 Hour notice required by law to enter your apartment to install smoke detectors" "Handyman's name" will be up tomorrow to put them up.
- Smoke detectors so your baby doesnt burn to death
- Electrical Covers so your baby doesnt electricute to death
That night I approached my landlord on our lawn that conjoins between hers. She started yelling at me for no reason and screaming, and I asked her about a vaccum that was taken out of our mud room entrance, and she said I really dont f**king care about that go find it yourself, and get the f**k off my property, go take care of your baby like you should be.
I called the cops that night, after she threatened me and had them come and make a report for evidence that she was verbally threatening me to leave even though my legal eviction had a whole month to go.
I got home and no one had entered our apartment, I asked the "Handyman" if she had let him, since I didnt want to leave the door unlocked, and he said for what.
He left a bag of smoke detectors, light covers, and some electical caps on your front steps.
I replied with I know but she told me your going to come up.
He immediately told me to go F**K myself and he didnt want to deal with me, and get out of his face. Then told me to get away from him. And threw a fit and took off.
I recorded the conversation I knew it would end that well
Now I'm at the point of having my landlord live 75 miles away, I need to be out in 29 days, and I don't have a way to contact my landlord (like I would even like to, she threw a fit and told me to get the f**k out of her house immediately, and called me a bad parent)
I have kept pretty good documentation and every nasty intimidating letter she has sent to us.
Whats my next step besides moving out and making sure I leave stuff as found. She has no idea the condition of how this place was when I Moved in. All her husband told her was there was new carpets, and fresh paint on the walls when we moved in. And yes there was. But the carpet in living room was white and very thin, so now its got 6 years of traffic wear on it and has picked up a number of random stains, mostly our fault, which I am ready to pay for.
BUT>. how many years is the life on a cheap carpet? from what I can find 7 ? and I have lived there 6 now.
LOL.. sorry about the LONG>>>> story.. but im totally lost on approach of this.

