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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    13

    Default Told to Leave Due to Voiced Safety Concerns

    Month to month verbal lease in Connecticut.

    I’m renting a small apartment over a 2 car garage that has an oil fired boiler below the bedroom. This apartment gets really cold as I have just learned. The last tenant (the owners brother) put fiber glass insulation paper side up against the ceiling to attempt to insulate it. No gypsym board over the insulation though.

    The boiler works (but is noisy at start up) and heat is supplied but the last technician Last to service it wrote on the service label the following:

    Needs new Boiler + Chimney Liner and Chamber N.F.

    I have asked him 4-5 times if he could have the furnace serviced and he states the technician was just trying to sell him a boiler and liner.

    I'm afraid to run the heat at night while asleep and the aparment gets down to 49 F on a 35 F morning.

    Well I had him over yesterday and brought forward some suggestions.

    1) Have the furnace serviced, guaranteed safe, and if it is bad and unsafe, I give him $2500 towards a new one applied to rent. If it is bad, unsafe, and he can’t fix it, allow me to leave and pro rate my rent (reimburse for time not used).

    2) I also brought forward issues were some of the paper of the insulation was exposed to the garage area and should be covered by sheet rock.

    3) I told him all the old wiring dangling from the ceiling should be taken down and the spliced multi socked extension cord without a junction box also taken down as the splice needs to be in a junction box.

    His response was that things are not working out, I am building a case against him, and I should find another apartment and I pleaded with him to let me stay on and he agreed.

    This morning he went back on his word and left a message on my machine telling me I’m the type of guy that is always looking for something wrong to complain about and I should leave. The apartment was immediately advertised on Craig’s list and he gave a potential renter my phone number who called me demanding to see the apartment soon as he is down from Boston looking for apartments and I obliged this.

    Well in a panic I went out and rented another apartment.

    I’m wondering if I was wronged here and are there any damages I can claim or should I leave it as is and part ways with taking my security deposit with me.

    Link to mp3 of voice message on my answering machine: I assume it is admissable as the landord knows hes being recorded.

    http://www.filefactory.com/file/a05f490/n/LandLord_MP3

    Thanks for all opinions

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Told to Leave Due to Voiced Safety Concerns

    I need to add that he promissed to have the boiler serviced before I moved in but has put this off in anticipation of me buying a tank of oil in which we would get a free servicing. But I don't want to buy oil for a boiler that really does need replacing and is unsafe (I want it serviced first). I'm finding out a bad chimney liner can allow CO's in the living space.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Told to Leave Due to Voiced Safety Concerns

    Apparently you consented to moving out, even if the landlord was something of a bully about it.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Told to Leave Due to Voiced Safety Concerns

    What Ide be probably looking for is moving expenses and overlapping rent reimbursement. But what you are saying is that I should have stood my ground and forced him to take eviction action and fight it in court.

    Either way, I may have lost as I don't think he even has a cert of occupancy. The zoning board has no record of this address as it it split off of one of his other properties and assigned a street number by him. So its officaily 25 Jones St not 27 Jones St.

    So my only recourse is to maybe contact the zoning board and building inspector and get him in trouble which wont do much for me but to burn a bridge and piss him off.

    It appears the system is set up to prevent an unfair eviction rather than just start awarding money for landlord behavior.

    Can I ask what your background and education is. I see you spend a lot of time here. Are you actually a trained legal professional with a working (paid employee) background in the legal system. I noticed you respond to all types of legal posts here not just tenant-landlord posts.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Told to Leave Due to Voiced Safety Concerns

    Well I have just under a quarter of a 200 gal tank of heating oil left and its getting cold again. This old boiler sucks down the oil quite fast. The apt/house also gets cold fast due to no insulation. I have a week to go before move out.

    Although I paid for the oil, the landlord now wants me to make sure there is plenty left for the next tenant to try out the house because the landlord does not want to pay for an oil fillup after I leave.

    He will pay me for any oil left in the tank. My delema is that the house gets down to 48 F in the house overnight if the heat is off. So do I freeze because the landlord doesn't want to fill the tank. I could care less about his petty reimbursement.

    I'm not talking about running it dry as that wont happen, he just wants a good amount for the next tenant so when the tenant buys the oil, he may get a free boiler servicing.

    The landlord is in a delena also: he has to pay 30-40 cents over spot to get a free boiler servicing or has to pay $200 to get a servicing. With the amount of soot I see forming, it desperately needs a cleaning.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Told to Leave Due to Voiced Safety Concerns

    According to this staement I may have a case for damages. Although the landlord did not file eviction, he clearly stated his desire to terminate the lease. And on top of that stated that my deposit was in jeaordy.

    Retaliation by a landlord occurs when a tenant seeking improved housing conditions through enforcement of housing codes, withholding of rent, or some other court action, is treated unfairly by their landlord as a direct result of the tenant's actions. Naturally, retaliatory acts are motivated by a desire for retaliation, and examples include:

    * Increasing the rent;
    * Decreasing the services provided to the tenant;
    * Filing an action for eviction;
    * Refusing to renew a tenant's lease; or
    * Threatening to do any of the above.

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