Apartments are raising rents and citing residents for maintence request

The apartment I live in is raising over $100 per month so are others I have heard. Infaltion is negative yet this is happening?
My apartment is also citing too many maintence requests as a lease voilation now. I have had too many;my microwave needed replacing, washer had to be fixed, neighbors cats on my patio all the time, trash in parking lots,dangerous ice and snow in parking lot caused personal injury to me, a lightbulb in a light fixture in my apartment went out and the blinds on the patio were broken when I moved in. Because of all their lack of maintence issues they are now threatening my dad to evict me? It is absurd.
Is it just my area or does everyone seem to be so negative anymore? What the heck is going on? I pay my rent on time. I am never loud like my neighbors and don't throw trash out into the parking lots. I am a good resident yet towards the end of my lease I am treated like a child for requesting maintence. I also once asked a question about when my lease was up. Am I not allowed to ask questions?
This reeks. I wander if this is happening all over the USA? The one good thing I can think about being homeless is that I would not have to worry about this anymore. Housing is becoming harder to have or keep anymore. Why is this?

i think its just about the complete disrespect for fellow people and incompetency in the workplace. :/
we have mold literally disintegrating our bathtub and the office staff insisted its mold and basically they don't want to hear any more about it. a holes.

You might want to check with your attorney general to see if they are violating any state laws.

Some apartments do this knowing that most people will never file a complaint.

By law, there are certain things they are required to take care of especially if it is a health issue.

Here's a section from Texas

You have a right to demand that the landlord repair any condition that materially affects your health and safety. Under Texas law, by renting you the property, the landlord guarantees that the unit will be a fit place to live.

www.oag.state.tx.us...

Sorry to hear about your problems.

Can I just clarify something? Did you mean a light fixture no longer worked, or a light bulb literally burned out and you called maintenance? Was there anything that your place of rent could do about the ice and snow? I don't know many landlords that have weather machines! Or was it an instance of not clearing commonly trafficked areas in a timely fashion?

The others you cited seem legit, but the ones I noted above seem a bit off. I can say with so many losing there homes, the renters market is getting hotter every day and if you don't live in a rent controlled area there isn't much you can do about the increase depending on the type of lease you signed. If you are lucky enough to live in a rent controlled area, go to the Rent Control Board and speak to some of their fine advocates. They are on your side.

Even w/o a rent board, if you bring city inspectors in to collaborate that your home is below basic living standards you can perform a rent protest by withholding it. However, you MUST pay into a separate bank account each month the rent you would be paying your landlord to stay on the right side of the law. If you live in CA, pick up a Nolo Press book on tenant law, you'll be glad you did!

It depends on the market, but I believe in most parts of the developed world, the most recent statistics show rents are still falling or stable.

Do your own googling.

Here's a link from January 2010 claiming US national rents have fallen for the past 5 quarters straight:

articles.sfgate.com...

There are still a glut of empty foreclosed apartments and landlords with places they can't rent out all over the place...

[edit on 3/3/10 by silent thunder]

There are city and or local codes that landlords must follow. It would be wise to check your local codes. If you find that they are in violation, turn them in. These things are starting to get out of hand, all because the landlords or apartment owners are getting tight about spending money for fixing things that can in the end hurt someone because it is broken or just in general dis-repair. And for the one who said that they were hurt because of ice-snow, unless it is written in your contract to clean your own walkway, it IS the landlords job to do it. And you should have contacted your lawyer.

Ok, first I started looking over your list, and some things I get, some things I'm not too sure of.

Your light bulb out, were you requesting that they change the bulb or was this a wiring/electrical issue? Honestly if you were calling to have the bulb changed and it is not stated in the Rules and Regulations or the Lease that such actions are taken care of by apartment maintenance, then you should be charged if they come out and do it. From state to state, they may need to alert you to the charge prior. I do personally, just as a matter of courtesy.

Second, in the rental increase, was this given during the duration of a lease you are in, or month to month? Typically apartments will raise the rent a slight bit to a lot depending on the housing market in your area. If you are month to month, they are required to give you 30 days notice of the increase. If you are in a lease, they simply can't and you should consult a lawyer or legal aid.

Cats from you neighbors, you need to report it to the office. There should be a pet agreement between the tenant and the landlord which should highlight whether or not that is a violation (on my properties it definitely would.)

Now to some that you may not like the answers I give you, please read to the end, I'm giving you perspective as a property manager...

Trash in the parking area. Did you notice trash such as this when you moved in or did it recently start happening? If the trash was like that when you moved in and you found it offensive, why did you lease? If the trash is more recent, do you see people throwing trash out? Do you report them? Property management simply cannot be everywhere at once, and you reporting that you see things is a help.

Please also keep in mind, every time a maintenance request is filed for something like changing a light bulb, there is money spent. Maintenance is taken away from what they should be doing to fix something you could do yourself. More time away from what they should be doing, possible overtime. To maintain a profit in the face of illegitimate maintenance request, your rent will likely go up. The investors are not in the business of losing money.

Because of all their lack of maintence issues they are now threatening my dad to evict me? It is absurd.

That is absurd, and I'm also not buying it. Why are they threatening your father to evict you? If his name is not on the lease, there is no need to speak with him. You would not be evicted in my state for being a pain in the behind. You are evicted for gross non-compliance with the lease, rules and regs, pet agreement, etc or for non-payment of rent. If it is nonpayment, and you are basing this on refusing to pay the charges for maintenance, may I ask why you continued making requests knowing full well they would charge you for them? I doubt all those things happened at one time.

Blinds on the patio broken when you moved in? Did you report this when you moved in, did they have a punchlist to go through? You should have made a written request that upon move-in those blinds were broken then had them sign it and retain a copy for yourself. Your blinds may not have gotten fixed, but now you're looking at a potential deduction from your security deposit, which will be meaningless if you are evicted for non-payment as you'll lose it anyway.

99.9% of the time that I get complaints it is because people did not read what they signed. I ask every person to read the lease and ask questions before they sign their year away, only two tenants so far have in over a year. They are also the first to scream and moan when they get caught up in a violation of the lease, and I go as far as to provide them with copies when they sign so they can even go home and read it... still they don't.

Are there some bad landlords out there? Absolutely, and if I am totally off base in my response then contact me and I will do what I can to at least point you in the right direction to get help.

Jam321 brought up the point about providing a safe location. That is very true, especially in Texas. A broken washing machine, domesticated cats running about, microwaves and light bulbs do not equate to an unsafe living associate that directly threatens your safety. No court will uphold that. You have the potential on the non-clearing of the snow, but even that depends on the situation. People come and go at all times, that doesn't mean that maintenance has to be out there in one spot 24 hours a day making sure your one area alone doesn't have snow.

I am a good resident yet towards the end of my lease I am treated like a child for requesting maintence. I also once asked a question about when my lease was up. Am I not allowed to ask questions?

You are treated like a child, but they are talking to your dad about evicting you? Something is not making sense here. If you are involving your father in all of these matters and he doesn't live there, then perhaps you are acting like a child, thus deserving to be treated as one?

It sounds as if some of your maintenance requests (especially the light bulb) are really pushing it. If someone called me for that, I would tell them we don't do such things and they would be charged if I sent someone out to do it for them. Have you spoken to your neighbors about their cats? How long have you lived there? I am not sure how I would react to someone that came in with that many complaints during a two month span. One year, maybe.

Good luck, and again, if you do end up needed resources, let me know.

My dad is a co-signer on the lease. The light bulb was in a fixture on the ceiling that is part of the apartment. It needs a special light bulb and I do not have a 7 foot ladder.
I am allergic to cats so I can not go on my patio anymore. If I can't fix it myself I call maintence.
Yes I reported the people throwing the trash onto the parking lot.I know I did not do anything wrong that is why I am wondering how common this is now. I pay my rent in full every month.
I have read my complete lease and I have done nothing to voilate it.
This was over a period of a year all the maintence requests.
The ice and snow issue was a hazard because I fell and hurt myself.
The light bulb was not pushing out because it recquired a ladder,special tools and a special light bulb.

reply to post by DeathTribble


They have rock salt and shovels for ice and snow.

What I really wish is I can just have a permant home. I have had to move every year since 2008 due to rising rents. I want to settle down this is my third move.
I can feel it, hear it and even see it the desperation of everyone just to stay afloat yet those who have all the money just keep raising prices making it worse for us.
I am not even sure what kind of system we are in anymore when inflation is negative yet prices are rising. When lies are being spewed out and money thrown out the window figuratively speaking by politicans.
If prices can just lower somehow than we wouldn't need as much money.
I spoke with a guy from A T and T; he said he doesn't see a fix. We both more or less agreed our old way of life is disappearing.
We used to be the land of excess even the poor had cell phones now some people don't even have home phones.Sad in the "richest" country (USA); in the world.
IS it like this everywhere? Is it worse? Is it better? Where do we go when the USA finally crashes?