This is just SO wrong!
 

OK, first a little background -

I fondly call my landlord the Slumlord. He owns several properties here in town and is lazy as well as a skinflint. Theoretically, in the summer, we are not even supposed to water the lawn because he doesn't want to pay the water bill. So, the yard in front of the fourplex I live in looks like hell - all burnt up and over grown with weeds. Finally, last summer, the city made him at least cut the weeds down and I started to water my portion of the lawn on the sly, so things got a little better - no thanks to Slumlord.

Slumlord also refuses to repair or replace window or door screens. All the screens have holes in them and let in every fly in the county. But Slumlord doesn't "do screens." He treats his other properties in town just as bad as he treats this one.

I guess he doesn't care because he doesn't live here - he and Mrs. Slumlord have a posh place in upscale Durango. Mrs. Slumlord is a lawyer and has her practice in Durango, also. So what I'm getting at is that Mr. and Mrs. Slumlord are doing quite well for themselves.

Well, last week my furnace decided to die. It made a bunch of weird, loud, clicking sounds and gave up the ghost. I called up the Slumlords and left a message that the furnace was no longer of this world and that I was getting pretty cold. This was over the weekend, and I didn't hear anything back from them until Monday (I wore lots of sweaters, meanwhile).

Monday morning, Mrs Slumlord calls me up all chirpy and tells me that she talked with a friend who works for an outfit funded by the state that helps low income people (ie me) who have heating emergencies during the winter months. In fact Mrs. Slumlord's office is in the very same building as the state outfit, and her friend had given her the application forms to give me to fill out to apply for emergency help as a low income, disabled person.

Mrs. Slumlord generously added that while we were waiting for the state to come through with a new furnace, Mr. Slumlord would drop off a couple of those oil filled heating thingies that run off electricity. (Electric bills here are listed in krugerrands, btw).

What? WAIT! I do not own this place. It is Mr. Slumlord's obligation to provide a functional furnace - not mine. When I leave here (which can't be soon enough), the furnace is not going with me. It will be Mr. Slumlord's property.

So, how can he take advantage of the fact that just because he has a low income tenant he can tap into this special state fund that is supposed to be for people in need, not fat cats?

I'd like to call up the state agency and demand to know just what is going on, but then again, I really don't want to be stuck paying the extravagant electric bills those oil heaters are wracking up even as I type this. But I am mad. REALLY mad!

what kind of furnace? Who paid for the fuel to make the house warm via the furnace?

just start a fire ,
Ya gots to keep warm

Gas. I pay for the gas with help from LEAP. But there's a big difference between helping me with my gas bill versus helping the landlord refurbish the apartments he owns. To my mind, anyhow.

@ Zip - I'd be very tempted if this wasn't a 4-plex.

http://www.cobar.org/index.cfm/ID/17...ns-of-Tenants/

Colorado sucks. You should move your ass out of that evil state.

Sam, there are two things you should do right away.

1) Google Colorado Landlord-Tenant law (handbook)
Look for the sections on repairs and building codes...
heating/windows and the words "habitable" and "example letter"

2) Put everything in writing, and mail it US postage first class, unless the handbook says something different.

Having Mrs Landlord as an attorney does make your task somewhat more difficult,
but you too can/should get an attorney if you want to stay in this same place.
Usually, there are attorneys who will give one-time advise or
even write a letter or two on your behalf, without charge.

Best wishes for what may be a difficult journey ahead.

I don't think the state of Colorado (or the city if it's the citys funds) will subsidize a furnace for Mr. Slumlord's property. He isn't poor. It's HIS property - they can't use your living there as an excuse to get a property upgrade/update. He OWNS it - not you.

I can't imagine they think they can get a cheaper deal b/c you live there. the Furnace is NOT your responsibitity, as you well know.

Put your rent in escrow till they get it fixed.

What about this part glatt?

But landlords must meet/exceed building codes,
and must follow HUD Regs, even in the State of Evil

Thanks for the link, Glatt! Colorado IS an evil state. Other than Boulder and parts of Denver, Colorado is inhabited by all of Merc's best friends and the laws are written accordingly. I very seriously considered moving to Montana last summer. I may yet.

@Lamplighter - I don't think there is a handbook of Colorado Landlord/Tenant Law. You're right that the landlord in this case would have to follow HUD regs. But I've tried going through them on other questions and HUD is nothing if not Byzantine - very hard to find information from - at least for me.

Sam - Call the Gas company and tell them AND your landlord that you smell a gas leak.
That should get some attention!

Call yer senator , state rep , Alderman , Mayor , tell them Slum lord is trying to defraub the Gubment by forceing you to use Gubment funds to fix HIS Property ,
Id be ready to move fast there after , but i Bet some thing happens

Actually, I've been thinking of carefully saving all my documents, as well as a written account of what has transpired and using it for blackmail. Heh heh heh. So, Mr. Slumlord, don't you think my apartment should come with free cable, including HBO, Showtime, and all the other premium channels? It would give me something to do besides sitting around here and writing the papers and my state representative about this interesting transaction you've pulled off... :cool:

Hell call the channel 5 ( or what ever ) News ,
publicly embarrass him ,

^this one. There must be a "Channel Whatever on your side" around there? Hell, if not, I'll send you one, we have way too many here....

Yawn....

What does your lease say? Does it say anything about him making repairs?

Colorado may have screwed up laws that allow a landlord to rent a place that isn't fit for habitation, but if he signed a contract saying that he will make repairs, then he has to make those repairs. Contracts are generally binding that way.

Outside of the lease, your only legal right in Colorado may be to move out, but you can still do other things.

He wants to make money by renting the place out. If you move out, he will need to fix the furnace to attract a new renter. So he's going to fix the furnace anyway. You just have to convince him to do it now, rather than after you move out. Explain this to him. Tell him that you are looking for a new place since he won't fix the furnace. It's a pain for him to have to find a new tenant, and it will probably take him at least a few weeks, which means he won't be receiving any rent during that time. I assume you have been a good tenant, who pays rent on time. He isn't going to want to lose you, since good tenants are actually hard to find.

You can also do as others have suggested by putting outside pressure on him. The media and government may take an interest in this. The Colorado Bar Association would be interested in the lawyer wife who is attempting to do some shady stuff. But to go after her, you'll need documents with her name on them. She's probably not dumb enough to put her name on anything.

I'd start by calling the landlord and telling him that the portable radiators aren't cutting it, and that you expect him to fix the furnace, and if he doesn't you'll be moving out.

Nope. The closest thing is the Albuquerque channels (400 miles to the south) which will sometimes post Farmington news. But Farmington is still in New Mexico and about 50 miles south. I do not kid when I say we're isolated out here.

But the good news (I guess) is that Mrs. Slumlord/Lawyer has contacted her friends in high places and someone from Housing Solutions for the Southwest (HSSW) is coming out to look at my deceased furnace today. HSSW provides weatherization and heating assistance to low income residents of my county - and is paid for out of both Colorado State and county funding. Hopefully, I'll have a new furnace sometime next week.

And the lawyer and the slumlord will have defrauded Colorado taxpayers and given just that much more ammunition to those who say "everyone" who gets energy (and other) assistance doesn't really need it, so let's cut the programs.

at least it will help keep your rent down

It BETTER keep my rent down and I BETTER get every penny of my cleaning deposit back WITH interest whether I clean up this place up when I leave or not.

Furnace Guy came out and inspected the situation. I asked him if it was actually legal to pay my comfortably well-off slumlord the money for the furnace. Furnace Guy said not only is it perfectly legal, that also the landlord wouldn't have to pay a single penny toward any of the furnace or installation costs, and that the total cost would probably run around $1800 to the taxpayer. I told him that was awful and he agreed with me. He said that the mostly Republican Colorado State Legislature had written the laws to benefit landlords and real estate types as much or more than anything else.

I don't know if this is true or not, but Furnace Guy seemed quite bitter over it, and I don't blame him. :eyebrow:

That's crazy.

My dad is a landlord - albeit in Ohio - and he has never done anything like that nor has anything like that been possible in Ohio.

Really weird.

It sure ain't that way in Oregon.

How does the rich stay rich? Cuz they're cheap and they'll cheat to save a penny. Okay, not all of them are like that but you get what I mean.

So it turns out you were not in any way victimized by this situation, but now you feel like you deserve something out of it?

So you're going to pass along extra costs to your landlord because... they have too much money? And followed the letter of the law to not have less of it and still replace your dead furnace?

I wonder if the landlord starts depreciating the cost on their tax return.

I also wonder if landlord is required to continue renting to low income tenants
(or whatever group it was that let the repairs qualify for the payment)
particularly if it was a federal subsidy program.

I whole heartedly agree with the title: This is just So wrong!

I think she feels a victim as part of the taxpaying society rather than individually. The furnace now belongs to the landlord. He could kick her out and install someone paying a lot more rent because the apartment has a new furnace -which was not paid for directly by him, but he will be the direct beneficiary of the extra income?

Renters don't give a fuck whether the furnace is new, only that it works.

What Monster said. I never said that I was being personally victimized. It makes me mad that my landlord who owns all kinds of property here in town and has a comfortable income is getting the benefit of a program designed (theoretically) to help out low income folks. If anyone else was living in this apartment, the landlord would be paying out of pocket for the new furnace. As it is, he's $1800 ahead of the game because his lawyer wife found a loophole in the system.

There are no "extra costs" here. My concern is that the landlord is such a stingy money grubber, that he'll make up some excuse to keep part or all of my deposit - he's done it to others who have rented here in the past which is why I mentioned it in my other post.

And he really shouldn't keep any of my damage deposit when I go. The place has not been damaged by me, and I actually will clean it just like I always do when I move out of a rental.

I was given these words of wisdom from a wise man once: If you want to have a big wad, you must be a tight wad. Just sayin'.