Landlord, landlord,
My roof has sprung a leak.
Don't you 'member I told you about it
Way last week?
Landlord, landlord,
These steps is broken down.
When you come up yourself
It's a wonder you don't fall down.
Ten Bucks you say I owe you?
Ten Bucks you say is due?
Well, that's Ten Bucks more'n I'l pay you
Till you fix this house up new.
What? You gonna get eviction orders?
You gonna cut off my heat?
You gonna take my furniture and
Throw it in the street?
Um-huh! You talking high and mighty.
Talk on-till you get through.
You ain't gonna be able to say a word
If I land my fist on you.
Police! Police!
Come and get this man!
He's trying to ruin the government
And overturn the land!
Copper's whistle!
Patrol bell!
Arrest.
Precinct Station.
Iron cell.
Headlines in press:
MAN THREATENS LANDLORD
TENANT HELD NO BAIL
JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL!
Note: When talking about the landlords, I switch from he/him, she/her, and them. There are two landlords, a husband and wife.
The above poem is from one Langston Hughes. He was from the Harlem Renaissance and had a very prolific career despite his background. I think he escaped to France like a lot of African Americans writers did, but I could be wrong. Now, the reason I now shared this is to give the proper background to my blog tonight.
We've been having some issues with our landlords for a while. Most of the time I'm pretty laid back about the inconveniences that are caused either directly or indirectly by them. I do want to stress before I go further that they have been very gracious to us a few times. However, that does not give them free reign to be complete absentee landlords, which at this point they are.
Most of the issues, as I said, were indirectly attributed to them. They have a lenient screening policy which leads to less than desirable neighbors living directly under us. In our short two and a half years living here, we've gone through 4 sets of neighbors. The 1st couple was perhaps the worst engaging in daily fights with each other. They were so miserable they took it out on us as well going so far as to verbally attack Marion and I as we were walking to the store one night. It escalated to them calling the police on us (however, Marion and I were at my Dad's for the weekend and John was working). Calls to the landlords were left with a simple "Call the police on dem."
I suppose I was far too forgiving. The next set of folks were also fighters. Both these people were large people. They'd stomp around and have a daily 1:30am fight with furniture flying and various screams. Although Marion and I called the cops previously on the other two, we made a pact to just let the chips fall. Frankly, the cops never did anything anyway, so it was a fight with futility anyway. The woman in the couple would usually go outside hysterically crying and screaming, and after a while Marion and I didn't even bat an eye. At least, we figured, their beef was with each other and not with us.
The last set were college age females. She had a son and various Baby Daddy dramas going on all the time. There were fist fights on the lawn, fights inside, etc. One night, someone was banging on the door around 1:00am for about a half hour. We called the cops. They only helped the people by banging louder. After the cop left, the person banging went around back and was trying to pry open a window. We called the landlord who replied, "They're younger than you." We tried to impress upon them someone was breaking in, but they couldn't have cared less.
Anyway, I'm just relaying these tales to set up a general idea that they just really don't give a flying crap what happens here. As long as you keep your mouth shut and pay your rent, everything is a-okay.
So, for about two years we've had this leaking ceiling in the kitchen. It started in the area where an obvious patch was. Soon, the paint drooped, and water began dripping more aggressively. We told him, promises were made to fix, and that was that. Months went by. Finally, the paint completely fell. He made a feeble attempt to patch it with sheet rock this past August. One rainstorm later, his patch fell. Again, we told him. More promises to fix it were made. As of this writing, he has yet to fix anything. Nor has he even inspected the damage. I've sent two notices at this point, and nothing...but, an eviction notice.
Now, here's where things get a bit more interesting. With all this going on and their apparent lack of doing anything even remotely to do with our issues, I started looking at things. I started looking at NJ Laws. At the same time I sent them the "Notice Requesting Repairs" I also sent them a certified letter for them to apply my security deposit as rent. Now, you may be one of those saying that that's not legal...but, I would ask you to read NJSA 46:8-19. Specifically,
If the person receiving a security deposit fails to invest or deposit the security money in theemphasis added.
manner required under this section or to provide the notice or pay the interest to the tenant as
required under this subsection, the tenant may give written notice to that person that such
security money plus an amount representing interest at the rate of seven percent per annum be
applied on account of rent payment or payments due or to become due from the tenant, and
thereafter the tenant shall be without obligation to make any further security deposit and the
person receiving the money so deposited shall not be entitled to make further demand for a
security deposit.
So, that's what I did. The landlords claim this isn't legal. They've both said they put the money in their own bank account. Well, look here:
Whenever money or other form of security shall be deposited or advanced on a contract, leaseemphasis added.
or license agreement for the use or rental of real property as security for performance of the
contract, lease or agreement or to be applied to payments upon such contract, lease or agreement
when due, such money or other form of security, until repaid or so applied including the tenant's
portion of the interest or earnings accumulated thereon as hereinafter provided, shall continue to
be the property of the person making such deposit or advance and shall be held in trust by the
person with whom such deposit or advance shall be made for the use in accordance with the
terms of the contract, lease or agreement and shall not be mingled with the personal property or
become an asset of the person receiving the same.
He came on September 16th (after receiving the certified letter about this) expected rent (we've been paying weekly for about 2 years now). I told him that I gave him written notice and that by law he needs to apply the money to account. Basically, through because of this law, we'll be caught up on rent to November. Both landlords have no legal standing here. The money has mingled with their own funds, was not in a separate account, was not bearing interest, we never received annual interest credits/payments, and we never received any of the legal notices as required (which admittedly they can not do because they never put the money in any other account but their own).
Now, as far as that goes, we win rather handily. All that's required of me is to send written notice to use the security deposit as rent. They didn't accept it. They figured they could just evict us when we started to make noise. The thing is, I still wasn't mad at them really. Even when as soon as she got the letter she called and threatened us with eviction, told us we were harassing her, didn't like my attitude and all sorts of nonsense. I chalked that up to someone who simply doesn't know the law at all. But, a line was crossed when the 1st words he said to me were:
"You f*** with me, I'm gonna f*** with you."
Well, that's when a line was crossed. You may think why don't we just move or this and that. The thing is we're close to transportation and Marion's doctors more or less. It's close to Philly. If these people just took responsibility as landlords rather than being asshats, none of this had to happen. It just gets me mad when people don't do things they should and then have the audacity to threaten us. The funny thing is he gave me some papers from "The Truth in Lending Handbook" that summed up exactly what I told him. He's either illiterate or stupid, perhaps both.
As far as the 2'x2' hole in our ceiling, we went to Municipal Hall to find out if the landlords were registered (they are). While speaking with the Housing Inspector, she asked if things were fixed (as he failed the last housing inspection primarily due to the feeble patch job). We replied, no. She asked if she could come over and see it. We obliged. She was less than happy and stated he has five days to comply. This was around 1pm today. She was calling him around then. We haven't received any calls from them. If he simply shows up, I'm going to tell him to make an appointment. No 24 hour notice, no entry.
I'm tired of them. At this point, I just want what's right, and them to take responsibility for their actions.
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