James

City: 
Fairfield
Residence Type: 
detached
Landlord Type: 
Private Landlord -- No Rent Control

Our landlord's behavior toward my wife and me has been uniquely egregious. I'll share some highlights here for brevity; you might want to call me for specifics, because I believe our experiences and how we've responded to our landlord's actions may be of great help to your readers. Summary: In Oct. 2011, my wife and I entered into a 3-year residential lease agreement with a private landlord. We had no history on her, but she quickly became a major nuisance - no smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in the home for 1st 30 days of occupancy, until we threatened to call fire marshal; repeated entry into backyard to turn on swimming pool filter and add water to the pool without providing 24-hour notice to enter (we pay for water and electricity); failed swimming pool filter timer, pool autofill feature, pool vacuum underwater light and major leaks in solar heating system wasting our water-landlord refused to fix any of these; numerous "imminent dangers" of an electrical safety nature pointed out by County Building Official and placed in writing that landlord was eventually forced to remediate; landlord filed small claims action against us (!) to try and recoup (from us!) $5,300 of our rental payments that County Sheriff and Court garnished to satisfy a plumbing bill/court judgment the landlord never paid (landlord lost the case, but we had to spend a lot of time preparing for and attending the hearing); landlord filed for temporary restraining orders (TROs) against us for asking for her address (which she still refuses to give us) and other alleged violations of her privacy-the Court refused to issue any TROs against us; landlord came to my office building attempting to enter secured areas to complain about me to my boss-she also sent emails to my boss about this; landlord publicized our Social Security #s, bank account info, and birthdates to spite us; even before small claims judgment (described above) was rendered in our favor, landlord referred me to a collection agency for alleged non-payment of rent (a year earlier)-agency had the three credit reporting bureaus place a negative comment/collection action agaisnt me, that took me a month to have expunged; lots of other stuff to tell, but these are the highlights. I can't imagine a landlord being this bad-she could be the poster child for "Bad Landlord"). We've somehow made it nearly through the 3 years, come Oct. 17, 2014, and are now looking for a new home. Of course, she gave us a bad rental reference. Our attorney has also just filed a major civil suit against the landlord for these and other violations. This will be interesting.

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