By: Staff Reports
All accounts provided by anonymous students.
A winter surprise.
“We had a carbon monoxide leak in the house because the broiler broke, and the fire department and [New York State Electric & Gas Company] guys came and shut it as it needed repair. This was in the middle of January, just a day before a predicted winter storm. The property manager came in and gave us a couple of space heaters that had to be connected to two specific plug points, because the electrical work was done badly and would trip otherwise. We stayed for six days without heat. When we asked for the week’s rent to be deducted from the month’s bill, the property manager downplayed the entire episode. Once being assertive, this 6+ foot man slammed the door [in] our face and left. Never felt so threatened and unsafe in a space. We started hunting for alternate housing the same day.”
A security deposit debacle.
“Our landlord tried to take $250 out of our security deposit just for ‘cleaning’ after we spent three days cleaning the entire house before we moved out to ensure we wouldn’t wrack up any costs on our security deposit. It took us about a month to get any sort of answer out of anybody as to why that was taken out of our security deposit. The criteria for what would incur charges on the security deposit were clearly laid out, and we had done nothing like, [breaking] a window or something similar — and even took pictures of how spotless we left the house at the end. After a couple weeks of radio silence, we reminded them that they cannot charge us anything on the security deposit unless it is damaged beyond normal wear and tear, and, providing pictures of that fact, they quickly figured out that the charge was solely from the cleaners that they had sent to our house — and gave us back our money back swiftly. Long story short, take pictures of how you leave things and know your rights! It’s your money and these people think they can just take it if you’re not paying attention and don’t know your tenant’s rights.”
The most troublesome landlord.
“My first year living off campus was summer of 2020, following the height of COVID-19. A group of six girls and [I] decided to move off campus. During our original tour of the house, everything was looking well presented and taken care of. Upon move-in, we discovered the house to be quite the opposite. Despite being told that the house would be deep cleaned and ready for move-in, we found beer can graveyards in multiple cabinets — including the ones in our bathrooms — multiple windows broken, screens missing [and] our front cement steps cracked in half and no longer supporting the weight of the overhead roof on the porch. There was many infestations — wasps nests along the house in multiple places, squirrels living on our enclosed back porch and garbage under the beds, as well as covering the backyard.
Unfortunately, the issues didn’t stop there, with our breakers blowing constantly, food spoiling multiple times in fridges following breakers blowing, a constant running toilet and leaking showers that led to black mold in both of the bathrooms of the house. Our landlord was absolutely atrocious, always promising to send over people to help with our issues and very rarely them actually showing up. One of the biggest issues was a broken heating system from early November through March of 2021, leaving the house at sub-50 degrees Fahrenheit on more days than not throughout these months — with not even space heaters provided to us. It was a living nightmare. We threatened to call code enforcement on our landlord for not complying to [New York state] heat laws, [which require] that the indoor temperature remain above 55°F at all times. This threat was met with aggression, verbal harassment and threats toward myself and the other tenants. One of my favorite quotes from this argument was my landlord (a 55 yr old man) telling me (a 19 year old woman) that he hoped my ‘smart ass attitude serves me well in court.’
It didn’t even stop there. Finally, the weather warmed up and the lack of heat became less of an issue, [the issue] now turned toward our broken laundry facilities and water heater, both of which were out of commission for [two to three] weeks. Our landlord said that we should be thankful, and one of his other properties had a collapsed roof! Upon move out, [our landlord] tried to blame us for a literal hole in the attached roof that had caused water damage, as well as [to] charge us for the water bill that he had neglected to pay for the full 12 month term of our lease — resulting in more than $500 of late fees as well (despite our lease specifying that he was the one responsible for our water utilities). It took more than two months to receive portions of our security deposit back, and months of aggravated conversations since. This man didn’t fix the hole in the roof and slapped a coat of paint over the water damage on the roof and walls, and continued to rent the apartment for the next year — raising rent $100 a bedroom ($700 a month) for the following tenants. We reached out to multiple handymen and heating and water companies to fix these issues on our own, all which, upon finding out the identity of our landlord, refused to do service for us because he either already owed them hundreds of dollars or had active court cases against him.”