I wonder if at this point they're just hoping for a disaster they can file an insurance claim on. Glad you're in a better situation, highway or no.

Prop management company claimed they were "winterizing" it... they did drain the outbound water. I think someone just didn't realize which valve was the right one to close. Dummies! I even took a picture of that valve and put it up here a year ago. Along with the pictures of the first drywall fall with the roof leak.

I have a suggestion from many years of traveling and hearing road noises -ear plugs!

Attachment 50521

:comfort:

whyIoughta

There is absolutely no ground on any outlet in this place, including those outlets that are three-prong.

~ now i'm into first-world problems and that's good ~

I worked on a house like that once for Rebuilding Together. In that instance, the outlet boxes were grounded, but for some reason, they never ran the ground to the actual outlets. I just pigtailed a short wire to the box and used that to ground the outlet. The wiring might also have a metal armor that can be used as ground, but that is a pain in the ass because making good electrical connections to the armor is pretty difficult.

If you are worried about this, and there is no ground present anywhere in the wiring, you can replace the first outlet of each circuit with a GFCI outlet and feed the downstream outlets off that protected outlet. Then the whole circuit will be GFCI protected, which meets code. There are little stickers in the GFCI package that say "no ground - GFCI protected" and you stick those on the outlets down stream so that it's clear there is no ground.

Half the outlets in my house have no ground, and I've replaced most of them with GFCI outlets.

I personally wouldn't worry about it though. Ground is a good idea, but not necessary.

Thanks. I think I will do that.

There are a few places where I'm more concerned... one, Turt's huge aquarium, which is heated by two heaters that run line voltage right into an inch above water level. And two, the bass amp is noisy, and that's completely unacceptable.

I don't think a GCFI outlet will help the amp, but maybe you will get lucky and there is ground in the wiring that was never connected to the outlet.

For the turtle: is the aquarium made of anything but glass? I'm pretty sure the turtle itself will be fine if the water becomes electrified, since there wouldn't be any current flowing anyway; the risk would be if the water had a potential to ground, and you completed the circuit. If this happened, you could preempt the problem by tripping a circuit breaker if, say, the aquarium had a metal enclosure that were grounded. Which is to say, it's probably not a big deal.

For the amp: Get a $3 cheater plug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheater_plug) and run a wire (basically anything will do, even bare wire, altho you probably want >14 AWG to be arbitrarily kosher in this one narrow aspect) from the ring part to the nearest ground source, such as a copper pipe feeding a sink, etc.

It's come to this: I have one carload of stuff left to haul out of the old place, and one trip to get rid of the washer/dryer. There's probably half a dumpster's worth of crap I'm leaving behind.

The storm last night set down a good 10" of snow, in record low temps. But the warming is now on, and by Saturday we'll begin 6 days of almost entirely above-freezing temps. This was exactly the sort of thing I feared when I was there, and realized that I had to escape, fast.

And so I will make the last two trips out there in the middle of next week, and you know what - I'm secretly hoping that the roof has failed.

Some of the beams have been rotting for about a year. But I don't think it will fall. It has one thing going for it: the house is no longer heated. And that side of the house faces north. That means there probably won't be ice damming, and the melt might drain off to the sides, instead of directly into the house.

If I was still there, I'd be heating it, and the lack of insulation in that room would cause the thaw to happen exactly in the wrong places.

There's no question that, if we had a winter like last winter, it would have completely failed. What a great thread that would have made this! As it is, we can only hope that I've escaped disaster by a hair. That would still make it a good story, if it can't be a great one.

What it is is a great move by you, no pun intended, great story notwithstanding. Good job man, guts plus initiative equals success. I'm happy for you. :)

I just realized that, for the last two weeks, this thread has been a report on the number of carloads I have left. :D

Reminds me of the abandoned building with a hole in its roof right near my office. That hole has been in the roof for years, and I keep expecting to see the whole thing collapse inside its brick outer shell, but it's still standing. I think wood takes a long time to rot to the point of failure under its own weight or the weight of snow. But there's no doubt that water pours inside that building with every rain and snow melt. You wouldn't want to live in there or have your stuff in there.
Attachment 50555

That looks like a picture billboard, but in reality those balloons are really what is holding that building up.

Beats a bridge.

Til it falls in.

Missed this at the time -

Katkeeper! nice to see you :)

Well, to be fair, hot air is holding up a lot of things in DC...

:D

Dear Undertoad,

Please be advised that your security deposit is being kept by the owner for payment of February 2015 rent. I can be reached at the phone number above with any question. Thank you.

Property Manager

~

*fume* *fume* *fume*

Dentists in Blue Bell have felt my rage over less.

FINE. LET'S DO THIS.

Dear Borough of Collegeville, Property Inspector:

I have rented, and have now vacated the property at 60 E 5th Avenue. (It's about 500 feet away from the Borough building; the last driveway on the right before the apartments, down at the bottom of the hill.)

This property is in unlivable conditions, and it is likely to deteriorate further, creating unhealthful or dangerous conditions.

I know that Trappe Borough has a process of inspection that happens during any change in tenancy. At the very least, this property should be inspected before anyone else attempts to live there. But it should be done sooner. Here's why.

Septic issues. At several points during my tenancy, the septic system completely failed, leading to raw sewage running into the back yard, and into the basement when that route became frozen or clogged. This went on for many months. Evidence is in the back yard of the property. It's not exactly soil back there. It's not exactly sewage either, but some of it was, last year. The septic system itself was partly exposed in its "repair" and, I think, partly covered up by an old wooden door.

The entire septic system and back yard should be investigated for unhealthful or out-of-code conditions before the property is authorized for any kind of use.

Infrastructure issues. During last year's unusual snowfalls, the poorly-sealed roof developed ice dams and then a very bad leak. For the last year of my time there, the leak slowly worsened until the entire interior of one room was collapsing. The property manager was notified, but seemed uninterested in solving the problem, even after getting repeated pictures of falling drywall from the ceiling.

During my time there I took some steps to alleviate the problem. But now that I've left, the continuing leak will continue to weaken the roof support, until it eventually collapses.

Also: the property manager attempted to "winterize" the place during my departure... but chose the wrong valve to close for the incoming water. This led to an inch of water in the basement when a joint near the actual first valve failed. I found it while clearing out the last few boxes of my stuff, and shut it off at the proper valve. You may want to turn off the incoming water line to this property.

One reason why this is important: in the past, when this house was vacant, it attracted college students who broke in. Students walk past it every day, going down the hill to the path through the hollow. At one point there was an alarm system installed, but it has not been active for quite some time.

The Property Management company is ABC Realty Corp at 38 Ridge Pike. If you have any questions, you can reach me at 123-123-1234.

Undertoad

OH LAWDY IT'S ON.


Definitely keep us updated.

Did you give the appropriate notice to leave or that you wouldn't pay more rent until the problems were fixed? if so, can't you refer the rental agency to this communication and demand that they return your deposit rather than give it to the owner/instruct the owner to return it?

No, I told them on Feb 1 that I'd be out by Feb 15th, but on the basis that conditions had become unbearable, not that they could fix everything and suddenly we'd be all cool again. They knew it was unlivable conditions. The lease was over. This is just coming up with any flimsy pretense to keep the money and assuming I'm not going to do anything. And they're right, I'm not interested in legal action or we'd be deep in it already.

So I'll just make sure I'm the last one to live there, and that she has no option to rent to anyone else, and possibly that her property is condemned and she is forced to sell for demolishment before she was actually interested in doing so.

Bluff that shit bro. Send the landlord one of your nicely written letters requesting immediate payment of your security deposit on the grounds that the house was totally unlivable. Copy and paste some shit from this thread, end with a note about how if you do not receive payment by some-date-about-a-week-from-now-maybe-ten-days, that you'll be taking them to small claims court for reimbursement of all the damages you suffered during your tenancy. Give them a quick optimistic-but-fact-based rundown of all this -- all the repairs you made out of pocket over the years, all the stuff you lost due to damage, etc. The max amount in small claims court in PA is $8k.

When the time comes to take them to small claims court, maybe you'll go, maybe you won't. But you're articulate and the evidence is on your side. Them avoiding it by cutting you a check for your security deposit would be a smart investment on their end. And arguing for it is only, at most, an hour or two of your time. Probably works out to a pretty good hourly rate.

Sounds like it is, indeed, on like a pot of neck bones, now.

At a minimum ask them to please eat a dick.

See, if the borough or county takes activity on behalf of the homeowner, they will put a lien on her house. Any work having to be done to condemn it will come out of that lien before anything else happens.

Usually security deposits have to be held in escrow by a third party. It's not like the landlord gets an interest-free loan. I'm not certain about PA.

Are there two entities, the homeowner and the rental company? If so, maybe the rental co is dicking you just to get their cut of February, knowing that the house is a ship that has sunk.

Still sounds like some fairly cut & dried small claims court shit. Especially if your lease was with the rental co, since any lien on a house owned by someone else wouldn't really effect your ability to extract compensation from the rental co. They presumably have other assets, and we're talking about chump change in the context of real estate.

Right, there is the home owner and then there is the property management company.

The property management company tends to like me, knew what I went through and said they'd recommend me to any future landlord. And I did a website for them, for a HOA, that I continue to host. So they are putting it on the homeowner. No way to know for sure.

If the lease was over, I'd say it's worth telling the management company that you expect them to return your deposit, on the grounds you stated. Then call in the council to condemn. Your letter to them will carry more weight if you're not a pissed off tenant who just learned they lost their deposit /2c.

plus it's bonus cash :)

If it comes to vengeance/revenge, buy a pony keg, leave it in the living room, with signs in the windows, "Kegger, here, now!", or "Free BEER!!".

Instant condemnation.

Well, I wouldn't do that without leaving unlocked the $200 worth of marine-grade front door combination deadbolt that Katkeeper bought and had installed.

If I remember correctly you were renting on a monthly basis rather than a long term lease. Even though the house became what we consider uninhabitable, through no fault of your own, you notified them on the first but didn't vacate until the fifteenth. Is this their basis for keeping your security deposit, or are they just used to dealing with college kids who move away and can't fight it?

Right, that's the basis. The lease was over; but even when it wasn't, they weren't upholding their end of it by providing livable conditions. During the last 14 months of my time there, I could have stopped paying rent at any time on the basis of the roof leak.

But not so much stopped, as put it into an escrow account that they would eventually, possibly, recover if they proved there had been repairs. Which would then gotten weird because, as it proved out, they never had any intention of making repairs. I kind of figured that would be where it would lead, if they had no money and I stopped giving them any. I don't know where the laws go, at that point.

At some point it would have forced me to get out of Dodge and I didn't have the money to do that either.

In view of the circumstances (i.e. mid-month departure secondary to uninhabitable premises), it would be reasonable to call the property manager and ask why you're not getting half the security deposit back. The door for questions was left open. It comes at no cost to you and you may gain insight into how they may respond to your proposed retaliation from the tone of the conversation.

No drainage from the bathroom at Cottage of Prussia! :greenface

Why does this keep happening to me

First round of plumbers is vexed by weird hookup and now they need to go in via the roof!

It turns out no sewage system can endure my foul output

at least now the landlord is responsive and apologetic

Your shit froze

The roof? What the hell are your pipes doing in the roof of a one-story home?

If the air vents are blocked, there is a vacuum effect that will prevent drainage.

Exactly, quite often houses , especially if they're on a slab, have no access big enough to get a snake or auger through without pulling the toilet. But the vent through the roof is a clean shot into the system and usually full sized.

UT, do you have a garbage disposal, or putting food down the sink, or using blue toilet paper?

No garbage disposal, and actually the line from the kitchen is clear. They ran two different lines for this house because it's old and built before the modern world came around. If only I could pee into the kitchen sink

I can't offer the same expertise and advice that other Dwellars can, but you have my sympathy.
I have the same issue with shoes, and no third party involved. My foot-stank is so corrosive it actually eats shoes. Add that to the tissue thin skin which makes breaking in new shoes a chafing horror, and my new-acquired ability to bleed like a stuck pig... Came home with my boots full of blood AGAIN on Monday after meeting an old friend. And I wear those boots on a weekly basis.

Sometimes life seems to be on a shitty loop.
No offense intended (as unlike me, I'm sure your sewage problems are simply coincidental).

We've got a bad sewer line at work so Imma sit home...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/216CmVtl2fL.jpg

http://www.charbase.com/images/glyph/10133

http://spencers.scene7.com/is/image/...-a?$Thumbnail$

It started when masons installed a new concrete stairway with a landing that contained a plastic drain. An already cracked plastic pipe fell into the pipe. Part of that plastic eventually lodged deep down in the sewer line. With shit, food, and tissue paper, it formed a restriction; then a dam.

They tried a power snake from many directions including the roof. No solution. Then a fiber optic camera. It identified the blockage. They tried a high pressure water jet. That cleaned the plastic enough that a fiber optic camera could identify the plastic.

Next came a jack hammer to rip up the concrete floor to install a new sewer pipe. That was $2500 just for the plumber alone. Actually a bargain.

Now think about what you have flushed down there. And who pays for the plumber.

*fingersnap*
*fingersnap*
*fingersnap*
*fingersnap**fingersnap*
*fingersnap**fingersnap*
*fingersnap*
*fingersnap*
*fingersnap**fingersnap*
*fingersnap**fingersnap*

For the record: blockage was 30 feet down, camera found it was cast iron flaking off the outgoing pipes.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

OK, so your poop's not blocky, just corrosive. :haha:

Perhaps you live upstream on the Flint River?

I wonder if the water crisis is really fucking with Flint's vanity searches? :lol:

Heh heh heh :)

:lol2: :thumb2:

For the record: I was totally cool with August 4th, 2015: The Hindsgavl Dagger.

Another year down, another lease deadline passes, looks like I'm in for at least 13 more months.

~

In September they started demolition to build a big furniture store on the main road, two houses away from me. Demolition, site prep and construction has gone on 6 days a week, starting at 7am.

Despite having pretty good replacement windows, it's that deadly backup-beep sound which carries, and travels through every surface and into every bone of your body. Everyone actually on a job site, who might need to hear this sound, is now 100% immune to it. The rest of us can only suffer.

~

Armed robbery at the ATM up the street? Across from the one I normally use?! *shudder*

Agree, those backup beepers suck.

You never get used to it.

switch to that other one. They won't hit it twice. Yours is next

And, like I tell Momdigr all the time, when you use an ATM, look around for God's sake...:eyeball::eyeball:

Always be aware of your surroundings.

and for God's sake, let the butt of your .44 magnum (the most powerful handgun in the world, according to Det. Harry Callahan, since updated ;) ) peek out from under your cover garment. I never got robbed while carrying.

I tell Momdigr not to let anyone know she's packing til they're receiving lead. Treat the gun like the trigger. Don't touch it unless your pulling it. Don't pull it unless you're killing somebody.