home repairs & securing safe housing
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For 6 months, myself and my roommates have been dealing with an abusive roommate. They left and, subsequently left $450 worth of rent to pay. More context to the story here: https://twitter.com/yakfrost/status/1345080156650668038
While this is going on, my current landlord has shown little to no urgency in repairing the various issues wrong with the house.
The most pressing issue is the HVAC system, which is broken, and has been broken since the previous tenants occupied this house last year. An entire part needs to be replaced and the coolant is leaking. The broken HVAC unit and circulation has resulted in our electrical bill being $450 - to which our landlord responded we would be "responsible for paying for" when the HVAC unit was broken when we first moved in.
The landlord also has yet to fix the leak from our bathroom into the ceiling of the kitchen, and along with that, the basement constantly floods/the foundation of the house is becoming unstable.
Myself and my roommates are currently attempting to seek free legal aid for housing - however, it is proving difficult due to COVID and the overwhelming amount of locals who need legal aid for evictions.
On top of this, I owe $659.78 for the copay on neurospsychological evaluations and therapy sessions. It is has been difficult to pay any bills due to covering the bills for the former abusive roommate.
All in all:
$450 - Rent
$659.78 - Therapy/Evaluation expenses
$350 - House repairs/electric bill expenses
Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate your help.
Update: We have gone an entire winter without heating and paying $450-$550 a month for a broken HVAC unit. We cannot pursue legal action, as we have been silenced by related parties/they refuse to give us any information related to the incident so that we can take legal action. I am only looking for help in paying what we lost the past several months. Thank you.
Update 2: After we had a public inspector come to the house and issue a notice to the landlord of his failure to maintain the property, the landlord is trying to get us to pay for things we are not legally responsible for.
In doing this, we also discovered that our old roommate had been late paying rent every month he had lived here, so these fees were accrued in secret without any notice to us. The late fee on the lease is 10% of our current rent, which is $1800 a month. This amounts to us having to pay $180 for 7 months of his late rent.
One of our roommates has hired a lawyer, and we are trying our best to do with what we have, but given that we all have to move soon and are still suffering financially from everything we were put through, we need assistance, and likewise I also personally need assistance for moving.
We are asking for:
$1260- Late fees from the negligence of abusive roommate
$300 - Legal fees, personal moving expenses
If you will need further proof, contact me and I can link you a google doc with all the information/proof you need of our situation.
Thank you.
While this is going on, my current landlord has shown little to no urgency in repairing the various issues wrong with the house.
The most pressing issue is the HVAC system, which is broken, and has been broken since the previous tenants occupied this house last year. An entire part needs to be replaced and the coolant is leaking. The broken HVAC unit and circulation has resulted in our electrical bill being $450 - to which our landlord responded we would be "responsible for paying for" when the HVAC unit was broken when we first moved in.
The landlord also has yet to fix the leak from our bathroom into the ceiling of the kitchen, and along with that, the basement constantly floods/the foundation of the house is becoming unstable.
Myself and my roommates are currently attempting to seek free legal aid for housing - however, it is proving difficult due to COVID and the overwhelming amount of locals who need legal aid for evictions.
On top of this, I owe $659.78 for the copay on neurospsychological evaluations and therapy sessions. It is has been difficult to pay any bills due to covering the bills for the former abusive roommate.
All in all:
$450 - Rent
$659.78 - Therapy/Evaluation expenses
$350 - House repairs/electric bill expenses
Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate your help.
Update: We have gone an entire winter without heating and paying $450-$550 a month for a broken HVAC unit. We cannot pursue legal action, as we have been silenced by related parties/they refuse to give us any information related to the incident so that we can take legal action. I am only looking for help in paying what we lost the past several months. Thank you.
Update 2: After we had a public inspector come to the house and issue a notice to the landlord of his failure to maintain the property, the landlord is trying to get us to pay for things we are not legally responsible for.
In doing this, we also discovered that our old roommate had been late paying rent every month he had lived here, so these fees were accrued in secret without any notice to us. The late fee on the lease is 10% of our current rent, which is $1800 a month. This amounts to us having to pay $180 for 7 months of his late rent.
One of our roommates has hired a lawyer, and we are trying our best to do with what we have, but given that we all have to move soon and are still suffering financially from everything we were put through, we need assistance, and likewise I also personally need assistance for moving.
We are asking for:
$1260- Late fees from the negligence of abusive roommate
$300 - Legal fees, personal moving expenses
If you will need further proof, contact me and I can link you a google doc with all the information/proof you need of our situation.
Thank you.
Organizer
Amihan Rose
Organizer
Richmond, VA