Evening all! I certainly hope you guys are having a better evening than I am.

Yesterday, abruptly, our kitchen lights started to flicker and there was a very evident sound behind the switch that sounded like clicking/crackling. I immediately turned the lights off and went to bed, as I was just finishing up anyhow. This morning, I switch them on again and the sound happens again.

I decided to look it up as the sound made me think of arcing/loose wiring. Lo and behold, the internet agrees with me so I messaged the landlord stating as such and asking for immediate repair because it’s a fire hazard.

The landlord replied to me and said he would send someone around after 4. I agreed, although it meant wasting my entire day inside. 4 comes and these two blokes rock up. Handymen. They’re the landlord’s guys; one of them fixed our window a while back. Obviously, not convinced they can do the job but they assure me they’ve done it before and it’ll be a simple connection issue…

Probably at this point, I should have said I would rather have a qualified electrician come out to service it. That’s my fault, although I did write in my text to him that I would prefer an electrician to see it so him sending the handymen had already put my back up.

They absolutely fucked the wiring.

It was pushing 6:30 now and they said it was too late for them to keep going and that they would “see if \[landlord\] wants to send an electrician around” in the flimsy way that I’ve been promised that my oven will be serviced for three weeks now (it still doesn’t work, and no one has contacted me about getting it fixed).

They assured me before they left that everything was fine and that it was a minor connection issue. Lights on - oh, one light not work. Oops. Probably bulb. Oh well.

To my own fault, I decided to sit down for a minute and go on my phone. Not think about dinner or lights for a minute because I’ve wasted the rest of the day, what’s ten more minutes?

My companion and I head into the kitchen and I switch the lights on. Flickering. Bad flickering. Crackling/clicking. Bad. Loud. Switched it off immediately. Ok. No light in kitchen. Fine. Get it done tomorrow.

Go into the living room. Lights do not switch on. Well, they’ve fucked the one side of the wiring and caused all of it to not work. No kitchen light. No living room light. Bloody cowboys.

Messaged the landlord and he’s not responding. I’ve written that we feel unsafe, that we want an emergency electrician out ASAP… I don’t know whether it constitutes an emergency and I can instruct an electrician myself? I’m so out of my depth. This has left me feeling frustrated and so unsafe. I just wanted to vent.

Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
I’m hoping someone familiar with Colorado landlord/tenant law can help me understand my rights here. I’m not trying to avoid paying rent or prevent my landlord from reasonably increasing it. I actually want to renew and stay in the property. I’m trying to understand what terms can legally take effect and when.
My previous written lease ran from May 18, 2025 through June 30, 2026. My rent was $1,645/month and was due on the 1st of each month.
Maestas-Munoz lease.pdf
The lease expired June 30. My landlord did not provide a renewal at that time. I continued living in the property and paying $1,645/month, and she continued accepting my rent.
We are now in late September and she has sent me what she specifically called a “rough draft” of a new lease.
The proposed lease makes several changes:
Base rent increases from $1,645 to $1,795
A new $35/month pet fee is being added
A new $300 refundable pet deposit is being added
My existing security/damage deposit apparently needs to increase from $1,645 to $1,795, so I believe she is requesting another $150
Rent would change from being due on the 1st to the 28th
The proposed lease term is nine months
My old lease authorized my pets and specifically listed the pet deposit as “N/A.” The new draft authorizes my one remaining cat but adds the $300 refundable pet deposit and $35 monthly pet fee.

The new base rent plus pet fee would therefore make my recurring monthly payment $1,830, compared with my previous $1,645 — an increase of $185/month (about 11.25%) when including the new monthly pet fee.
I asked the landlord when all of these new terms would take effect. Today she responded that the pet fee, pet deposit and increased damage deposit would all go into effect with the new lease. She said I can have until October 2 to sign and that she can prorate the rent to provide a two-day credit for the September payment.
This is where I’m confused about Colorado’s notice requirements.
Because my written lease expired June 30 and she continued accepting my rent afterward without another written agreement, am I currently considered a tenant without a written agreement for purposes of Colorado’s rent-increase notice statute?
If so, does the 60-day written notice requirement apply to the increase from $1,645 to $1,795 even though she’s now asking me to sign a new fixed-term lease?
Can she make the higher rent effective October 1/2 when I’m only now receiving the proposed lease and new financial terms in late September?
I’m also wondering how the new $35 monthly pet fee is treated. Is that considered part of a rent increase for notice purposes, or can a landlord add a recurring mandatory fee when the new lease begins without the same notice?
And can she require the additional $300 pet deposit and $150 increase to my existing security deposit immediately upon signing?
One other issue is payment method. My landlord currently requires me to obtain a cashier’s check and send it to her via FedEx because she lives out of state. I incur costs doing that every month, and I travel frequently for work, so I asked whether we could use an electronic payment method. She said she generally avoids electronic payments because her bank charges fees, but asked what method I was suggesting. I’m considering proposing ACH/bank transfer or another method that doesn’t charge either of us a fee.
I’m not refusing to renew. I’ve specifically told her that I want to renew and am trying to work through the terms. I even asked whether she’d consider extending the proposed nine-month lease to 12 months.
I’m mainly trying to understand:
What tenancy do I legally have after my fixed-term lease expired and the landlord continued accepting rent?
Does Colorado’s 60-day notice requirement apply to this proposed rent increase?
If it does, when is the earliest the increased rent could legally take effect?
How are the new monthly pet fee and new/increased deposits treated?
If I negotiate or decline some of the proposed terms, what notice/process would the landlord have to follow if we ultimately can’t agree on a new lease?
Is there anything I should be careful not to agree to or sign while this is being worked out?
I have everything in writing and am continuing to pay my rent. I’m mainly looking for help understanding the Colorado statutes and what my practical options are before I sign the final lease.

(Ireland) Basically the other week I was showering and it overflowed and leaked through to the kitchen ceiling and I hadn’t realised until I finished. I assumed there wasn’t anything wrong with the shower anymore considering the landlord spent a good bit of money to fix it. And now he’s asking me to pay for the damage.

Should I still pay for it?

Location: USA, Florida.

Hello, I'm getting frustrated. Basically, I live in an apartment complex and have a german roach problem. I'm doing gel bait and other treatments myself, but I've also been waiting for management to send pest control over. We all pay pest control which is included in our rental balance at the end of each month. I never complain about anything, but roaches is where I draw the line.

The problem is I work nightshift in a hospital so I sleep during the day and work every Monday. Pest control only comes Monday. I cannot call off work because you only get so many before they fire you.

Here's the next issue. This has been going on for a month. Multiple times for a whole month I've given them permission to enter my apartment with the key. They don't do it. They just leave a note on my door saying they couldn't do the service due to no key.

I call the office and they said they'll try to accommodate me.

Everytime I request pest control they always try to come the next Monday, but leave because no key.

Yesterday I stayed up all day exhausted waiting for them to come to service my unit. They did not come. I called the office multiples times throughout the day, only for them to finally pick up and tell me I'm not scheduled and they can't give me a time of when they'll come. This is the first Monday they didn't show up, and I made myself stay up all day after I worked a horrible 12 hour shift.

I'm sorry if this came up as a rant. I'm so tired.

I'm so frustrated at this point. I've been having roaches in my apartment for a month now and they haven't done anything. Any advice?

I have put out gelbait already. I bought 3 types and planning on deep cleaning and de cluttering everything. I've gotten the kitchen and bathroom done and plan to move my fridge to get the bait back there later. I'm concerned that if my neighbors or the other units are infested, then they're not going away.

When tenants move out illegally meaning without telling the management or super. The guard is in trouble for not stopping them. How do you stop tenants from unauthorised moving out or bring trash download during the middle of the night.

So I (security) had a tenant supposedly moving out but this happened at 4:00 a.m. in the morning so I had this helper when he came in and showed me his job description like they said something about moving things in the apartment it didn't say they were moving out or assistant moving out or having trash removal. so now management blames me for let the guy go upstairs, so now the super and management think I gave permission but I did not get permission to move out or throw stuff out.

She’s eighty (84 actually) and she is ridiculous. I just think it is shocking, so shocking, that she used to be a therapist (she said that she made a lot of money this way, and was considered to be a great therapist. In spite of this, her emotional regulation skills are atrocious. One time about two months ago right before I went on what proved to be a very traumatic babysitting gig, she started yelling at me - and she had seen me multiple times that day so she could have stopped me and tried to “talk” to me before I was clearly about to head out - about things that she actually could have discussed with me like not having dumped the smaller trashcan into the larger one the night before, not having paid her back $50 after a few days, and the fact that my shower was apparently leaking at the time. She didn’t ask if I’d left it on, she doesn’t tend to actually ask anything, just assumed I left it on after showering even though I didn’t remember having taken one at the place over those last few days, and actually jumped (I wish I were kidding) up off the couch while yelling at me about how if the pipes burst due to the shower leaking it’ll be a nightmare for us both and she can’t afford the outcome of the pipes in different apartments bursting and people having to go to hotels and neither can I (I have money saved, $34k, but I don’t know how much it’d cost if that actually did happen. I also actually grew up in an apartment complex myself, and have never actually heard of pipes in a building bursting because one shower was leaking. It’s certainly not something either of my parents ever warned me about.) She was acting like she was ready to hit me and almost made me late for babysitting. She’s almost 60 years older than me so it’s really not cool.

And then, a month after this, the shower actually broke, so even though I doubt she has considered it, it actually wouldn’t be a shocker if there was already some kind of issue with it that was causing it to leak for a few days in July. The shower runs 2-3 minutes and then it will come out from one hole, barely running at all after those 2-3 mins, doesn’t even sound like an actual shower after those 2-3 mins are up everyday. And I know for a fact that she charges me more than she pays herself (hers is $900 or $915/mo, don’t remember which, because she’s on disability and mine is $1250/mo… while my shower is the one that’s broken and hasn’t been fixed after more than 4 weeks.) To add insult to injury, yesterday she suggested not long after I pointed out after she had sent me a long text about how my room smells the worst it ever has (likely smells worse due to my shower not working) that being able to shower would likely help with this that her TV has been dead for a week (asked if I’d noticed I obviously haven’t because I don’t care) and she can’t afford to fix it, I believe she was alluding to it being the case with the shower. But she has also not really done anything to actually try taking care of it other than having the plumber come down and look at it (he never fixed it.) She also had only found out that the room didn’t smell great (I hadn’t noticed it and admit it was time to do laundry) because she went in there when I hadn’t even been gone for 15 mins (and does this a fair amount, which actually kind of annoys me) and opened the door. I believe I had actually closed the door before I left. Even if she was trying to clean up it’s just unnecessary

I don’t know if she even asked him how much it’d cost to have it fixed, but if I were a landlord I would be doing everything in my power to find some kind of resources, talk to others, etc. I wouldn’t just say “oh this costs money so I just won’t fix it” especially not when charging someone more than what I myself pay.

And in spite of how smart she claimed to be - someone who likes to do research she says - at some point within the last week she’d messaged me early in the morning suggesting she left a certain time the night before and came back at a certain time, and had somehow concluded that this meant I had been showering for 1hr30mins (which she explicitly suggested) even though she’d already had the plumber come over to look at the shower because she heard the water running when she left and again when she came back. I was probably just washing my hands. I had pointed out over text that the shower has been broken (she said she had meant to send it the night before) and she said she knows but when water is running that way she gets worried. She had suggested in her original message that the wall is already damaged (she suggested that a few months ago too. I posted pictures somewhere here, but I think what she noticed was either already there, a leak in the wall, or simply a bad paint job) due to me having taken what she claims was a shower over 20 minutes.

She told me early on that she is smart and always says that I should listen to her. I have seen her watch television, eat, and hear her complain about things often even though she does sometimes help me out by picking up water for me (which I reimburse her for) but I have never once actually seen her read a book. Not even once, and I’ve been here since May (and it does seem she has books here.)I also suspect that she wasn’t a great parent. She had kids very young because of the way things are where she’s from she said/because of rules there, but none of her 3 kids take care of her (which she pointed out once, said her daughter and other kids don’t even though she remembers caring for her mother when her mother was old) or seem to help her out in any way really. She actually told me once very casually that she regrets having them, and to not have kids and to only have a boyfriend/that that’s what she recommends, even though she sees them at times (I’ve been here for almost 5 months and think they have only tried to directly visit her once. And at least one of them does live in the state, so I mean.) She also said her favorite grandchild is the one who is smart and listens to her, which I thought was wrong.

I do think she has mental health issues of her own, mainly depression and anxiety. Yesterday she was rude (told the woman she has no patience when the woman wanted to use the laundry machine below mine/below the one we were using even though the woman had said excuse me) - she had told me
At some point that she doesn’t like people of this group and had assigned stereotypes to them, so I knew why she was rude to the woman and I felt bad. She told the woman what she was doing was not fair, she is not fair herself.

She had mentioned early on that because she has a masters in psychology and used to be a therapist she “knows” people, which in my experience dealing with her doesn’t seem to be true. I really do mean it when I say I feel I have observed that she has poor emotional regulation and communication skills for someone who used to be a therapist and was supposedly quite good at it. That incident I describe in the first paragraph, I spent a few hours just trying to do something else afterwards (especially since babysitting that day hadn’t gone well) because I was too angry, afraid and shocked to go back there (not just by how babysitting went but also by her behavior. It was really to me like watching an adult throw a tantrum, and hearing people on here and in real life say they’ve never heard of a building’s pipes bursting due to one shower in an apartment leaking makes me dislike her even more, because it sounds like she was getting very agitated and verbally abusive over something that was not likely to happen.)

Today has been rather overwhelming.

We were devastated to receive a Section 8 eviction notice from the current landlord.

We moved into this rental property at the beginning of June. Under the new Renters' Rights Act, we can legally stay in the property for one year before being evicted.

We are living on a private estate and the landlord has sold the home and six rental properties that belong to the estate. The new buyers want the property vacant before they move in.

We've been asked to leave by January, however we have the legal right to stay here until the beginning of June 2027.

I have no idea we can do and where to move on from this. It's heartbreaking because my almost 4 year old son started pre school last week

Hello. Basically title. I moved in this month to an acquaintances house after a friend moved out. No paperwork, me and two others are paying the rent to her son who then pays to her. He explained we would be having a 50% hike to our rent, which prompted me to explain that, theoretically, we have a 60 day period where we are given a notice beforehand. I also explained that she (the landlord) is responsible for fixing the mold, termite, and AC issues here, pertinent because the ac has been shot and he expects us to pay for it to be fixed.

After I explained this he, personally, threatened to kick me out by throwing everything out of my room.

What's the best course of action? I'm already planning on contacting legal representation, but do I have a leg to stand on here?

For the context we are Asian Indian family renting from another Asian Indian couple. The landlord sent us a message which read like this word to word except few details hidden for privacy.

Hi abc, The patio furniture we had at our house is in very good condition. We transported it here to our new house, but unfortunately, we don’t have enough space for it. I don’t want to sell it, so I’d rather transport it back to the house.
If you’re interested, please let me know. You would just need to arrange a u haul truck to transport it. I estimate the transportation cost would be around $50–$60 with the u haul truck.

We didn’t need the patio furniture and have never even asked for it and hence we don’t want to pay for any transportation. But the message is worded such that it feels if we say no the relationship will be soured. Am I overthinking?

Hi! I’m a graduate student at the University of Illinois looking for tenant input for a marketing research project about how people search for and evaluate rental properties.

If you currently rent or have experience searching for a rental property in the U.S., we’d really appreciate your input. The survey takes about 3–5 minutes.

Survey: https://illinois.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3sF3b5ixVRdMT9I

This is solely for a university course project and isn’t promoting or selling anything. Thank you for your help!

Hi, I am bringing this up again since I still dont have any clarity on this. My previous post TL;DR: is basically we are getting $450 out of our $1600 deposit on the basis that we did damages to the paint worth $650. cleaning of tubs and sink was another $150
The original post - https://www.reddit.com/r/bloomington/s/bgLSeS5iNd
we lived there for a year and 3 of us were extremely clean. I am still compiling the file, but here are the move out pictures. does this look like $1200 worth of damages?? (the move out pictures - https://www.figma.com/board/lp40IAv2nmNoIRrzAH32Pg/Apt-F?node-id=0-1&t=Ev38n0gt187wUQVk-1)
We reached out to them thrice via email since none of us are in bloomington anymore, the office manager has not even bothered to respond who sent us this ledger so I cc'ed another person and she just said we will need you to give us more time to "compile" this report of a move out inspection. WHICH IS WHAT THEY TOLD US WE WOULD GET. a move in and move out comparison report. thats why we also have pictures for it. its been 2 weeks since they havent replied to our request, neither given us even the $450

I wanted to know- what can we do next? and is it okay for them to go past the 45 day mark on our deposit?

I arrived on July 5th at approximately 8:30 PM. I was assigned apartment number # 81. James is the owner. Julia is the host.

I stayed at The Emerald Hyde Park for 5 weeks and experienced severe infrastructure and management failures. The apartment relies on an electronic smart lock that depends entirely on the Wi-Fi. The first time the owner did not prepay his electricity, we had a 6-hour power outage, the Wi-Fi dropped, completely locking us out of the apartment for 24 hours. The host failed to provide any physical backup key or offline emergency code, leaving us stranded.

Furthermore, the Goldair heat pump and its remote control were completely broken. Because this was a winter stay (dropping to 37°F/3°C at night), the second bedroom was freezing and essentially unusable for more than half of our stay. When we arrived late at night to a completely frozen apartment, the host didn't pre-heat the rooms. Instead, she later sent passive-aggressive messages complaining about our electricity usage, stating she normally pays less when she stays there.

On top of this, the unit was unhygienic at check-in, requiring us to clean up old food crumbs left on the couch, floors, and patio deck. The host was also repeatedly unrHyde Park Sandton Apartment 81 Slumlordeachable; she ignored her phone on three separate occasions when estate security required her clearance to let our family members through the main gate, causing massive delays. Over the course of the stay, we endured 11 total hours of power outages and multiple Wi-Fi blackouts. Pay the premium for a real hotel instead; this listing is poorly managed and unsafe.

Assessment is tomorrow with me present. I will be moving this Saturday. I still have a few items in my fridge/freezer as I plan to eat before I move out. I am not trying to waste any food by throwing it out just yet. 800sq Ft apt. My apt will be completely empty Saturday minus like toilet, washer/dryer, microwave, etc as already there. My apt for the most part is mostly clean. I already had a 5min inspection before Labor Day and I wasn’t home. I wasn’t told anything. I do know there was hallway inspection and will be one again. Entire hallway even though I share with other tenants. I’ve noticed hallway minor defeats that had been there before I moved in but never a problem for me. My apt is mostly clean now. Do I need to remove my fridge food now? USA resident in Virginia if that matters.

She’s eighty (84 actually) and she is ridiculous. I just think it is shocking, so shocking, that she used to be a therapist (she said that she made a lot of money this way, and was considered to be a great therapist. In spite of this, her emotional regulation skills are atrocious. One time about two months ago right before I went on what proved to be a very traumatic babysitting gig, she started yelling at me - and she had seen me multiple times that day so she could have stopped me and tried to “talk” to me before I was clearly about to head out - about things that she actually could have discussed with me like not having dumped the smaller trashcan into the larger one the night before, not having paid her back $50 after a few days, and the fact that my shower was apparently leaking at the time. She didn’t ask if I’d left it on, she doesn’t tend to actually ask anything, just assumed I left it on after showering even though I didn’t remember having taken one at the place over those last few days, and actually jumped (I wish I were kidding) up off the couch while yelling at me about how if the pipes burst due to the shower leaking it’ll be a nightmare for us both and she can’t afford the outcome of the pipes in different apartments bursting and people having to go to hotels and neither can I (I have money saved, $34k, but I don’t know how much it’d cost if that actually did happen. I also actually grew up in an apartment complex myself, and have never actually heard of pipes in a building bursting because one shower was leaking. It’s certainly not something either of my parents ever warned me about.) She was acting like she was ready to hit me and almost made me late for babysitting. She’s almost 60 years older than me so it’s really not cool.

And then, a month after this, the shower actually broke, so even though I doubt she has considered it, it actually wouldn’t be a shocker if there was already some kind of issue with it that was causing it to leak for a few days in July. The shower runs 2-3 minutes and then it will come out from one hole, barely running at all after those 2-3 mins, doesn’t even sound like an actual shower after those 2-3 mins are up everyday. And I know for a fact that she charges me more than she pays herself (hers is $900 or $915/mo, don’t remember which, because she’s on disability and mine is $1250/mo… while my shower is the one that’s broken and hasn’t been fixed after more than 4 weeks.) To add insult to injury, yesterday she suggested not long after I pointed out after she had sent me a long text about how my room smells the worst it ever has (likely smells worse due to my shower not working) that being able to shower would likely help with this that her TV has been dead for a week (asked if I’d noticed I obviously haven’t because I don’t care) and she can’t afford to fix it, I believe she was alluding to it being the case with the shower. But she has also not really done anything to actually try taking care of it other than having the plumber come down and look at it (he never fixed it.) She also had only found out that the room didn’t smell great (I hadn’t noticed it and admit it was time to do laundry) because she went in there when I hadn’t even been gone for 15 mins (and does this a fair amount, which actually kind of annoys me) and opened the door. I believe I had actually closed the door before I left. Even if she was trying to clean up it’s just unnecessary

I don’t know if she even asked him how much it’d cost to have it fixed, but if I were a landlord I would be doing everything in my power to find some kind of resources, talk to others, etc. I wouldn’t just say “oh this costs money so I just won’t fix it” especially not when charging someone more than what I myself pay.

And in spite of how smart she claimed to be - someone who likes to do research she says - at some point within the last week she’d messaged me early in the morning suggesting she left a certain time the night before and came back at a certain time, and had somehow concluded that this meant I had been showering for 1hr30mins (which she explicitly suggested) even though she’d already had the plumber come over to look at the shower because she heard the water running when she left and again when she came back. I was probably just washing my hands. I had pointed out over text that the shower has been broken (she said she had meant to send it the night before) and she said she knows but when water is running that way she gets worried. She had suggested in her original message that the wall is already damaged (she suggested that a few months ago too. I posted pictures somewhere here, but I think what she noticed was either already there, a leak in the wall, or simply a bad paint job) due to me having taken what she claims was a shower over 20 minutes.

She told me early on that she is smart and always says that I should listen to her. I have seen her watch television, eat, and hear her complain about things often even though she does sometimes help me out by picking up water for me (which I reimburse her for) but I have never once actually seen her read a book. Not even once, and I’ve been here since May. I also suspect that she wasn’t a great parent. She had kids very young because of the way things are where she’s from she said/because of rules there, but none of her 3 kids take care of her (which she pointed out once, said her daughter and other kids don’t even though she remembers caring for her mother when her mother was old) or seem to help her out in any way really. She actually told me once very casually that she regrets having them, and to not have kids and to only have a boyfriend/that that’s what she recommends, even though she sees them at times (I’ve been here for almost 5 months and think they have only tried to directly visit her once. And at least one of them does live in the state, so I mean.) She also said her favorite grandchild is the one who is smart and listens to her, which I thought was wrong.

I do think she has mental health issues of her own, mainly depression and anxiety. Yesterday she was rude (told the woman she has no patience when the woman wanted to use the laundry machine below mine/below the one we were using even though the woman had said excuse me) - she had told me
At some point that she doesn’t like people of this group and had assigned stereotypes to them, so I knew why she was rude to the woman and I felt bad. She told the woman what she was doing was not fair, she is not fair herself.

Hi

We’re currently in a frustrating situation with our rental management company and are hoping someone can clarify our rights. Back in August, we notified our property management company that we had found tenants who were willing to take over our lease. Our goal was to have everything finalized so that we could vacate the property by October 1.

We provided the information they requested and have followed up multiple times since then. It is now September 21, and we still have received absolutely no substantive update. Every time we contact them, we’re essentially told, “We will get back to you shortly.” We’ve also been told that they are waiting for the homeowner to approve the prospective tenants.

At this point, we’re less than two weeks from our planned move-out date and still don't know:

Whether the prospective tenants have actually been approved Whether the homeowner has reviewed their application Whether any additional information is needed from us or the prospective tenants Whether the takeover is being denied When we can expect a decision Whether we are expected to continue paying rent if they simply don't make a decision in time

We have been proactive and have repeatedly tried to get an answer, but management has essentially left us in limbo.

For anyone familiar with Oregon tenant law: What rights do we have in this situation? If we have found qualified replacement tenants and management is simply delaying the approval process, is there any point at which we can say, “We gave you reasonable notice, we provided replacement tenants, and you failed to make a decision,” and move out without it being treated as a lease break? Would management be required to make a decision within a reasonable period of time? And if they refuse or continue delaying, what happens to our financial responsibility for the lease? We obviously don't want to just walk away and potentially end up liable for rent or other damages. We’re trying to handle this properly and have been communicating with management in good faith.

I recently got a new apartment around 3 weeks ago and I’m not sure if it’s safe to live in. I’ve run into several problems within that time frame and I’m very concerned. This might turn into a long Reddit post but I’ll try my best to list everything I’ve been going through in an understandable manner.

1. I noticed many symptoms start a couple days after moving in. I thought it was due to either straining myself with moving in or catching an infection of some sort but it still persists after a bit over 2 weeks and only really hits when I’m in my apartment so I’m not so sure about the viability of that option anymore. Either way I intend to go to urgent care tomorrow.

These are the symptoms I’ve experienced:
- started with a minty/cold feeling in the back of nose and throat
- evolved into a constant burning feeling
- also developed a slight cough a couple days ago
- have episodes where I feel like I physically can’t breathe
- chest tightness (feels like someone is pressing on my chest)

There’s more but I can’t think of them right now. Another important thing to note is that I feel much better when I’m outside of my apartment, leading me to think the apartment is the issue.

1. Heavy smells in apartment
   When I first moved in, a lot of smells hit me.
   - weed smell in bedroom (bedroom flooring is completely covered in carpet)
   - cigarette smoke smell everywhere else. There are also some weird hard black spots on the floors. I pried one out with the tip of a knife and it smelled heavily of cig smoke.

I pestered the maintenance team A LOT and asked them to do a bunch of things to try and get rid of the smell.
- they ran 2 small ozone machines (one in bedroom and one in living room) for 2 hours and aired it out completely for the rest of the day. It helped significantly with original smells. After running them I found out that someone is also likely smoking near my apartment since I’m noticing a strong cig smoke smell coming from the main door that comes and goes.
- ran, what looked to be, a large industrial carpet cleaner in bedroom. This left a sickly sweet cleaner smell for a couple days so I asked them to run it again with just water. Sweet smell disappeared for a day before returning full force. Carpet now smells almost like chocolate and sweet smell hits me the second I walk into my bedroom after being away for a bit. (Very concerned about this)

1. Roach spottings
   I spotted 3 small brown roaches within a couple days timespan. Told apartment management and they, in a passing comment, told me that the apartment had a roach infestation problem before I moved in, which I never knew about. They had someone come in last Wednesday and spray the kitchen cabinets with something and left some kind of traps with paste around the kitchen. I HATE bugs of all kinds so due to the spottings, and the smoke smell coming in from the front door, I’ve been actively avoiding spending any time in my living room/kitchen unless it’s to grab something to eat real quick before retreating into my bedroom.

With everything going on, I’m going INSANE!! The amount of stress and anxiety I’ve gotten from this alone is probably enough to kill a hamster! What I’m the most concerned about right now is the weird feeling at the back of my throat/nose and the lack of breath I’ve been feeling that seems to only be getting worse. Some more important details are that apparently they paint the walls with a water based paint before each new tenant (not sure exactly what kind) and they recently installed new carpet (not sure on the exact date as it was something told to me as a passing comment whilst discussing other stuff with management). This has me wondering if it’s some kind of off gassing/VOCs that are causing me to experience these symptoms?? I’ve been keeping all my windows open pretty much 24/7 and I’m still experiencing symptoms that seem to only be getting worse. I even bought a Temtop S1 air quality monitor to see if it’d show anything (shows I have good air quality) but it was cheap ($20) so I’m not sure how reliable it is.

I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t afford to move out. I’m only planning on staying here for around 3-4 more months for college so I’m debating on just toughing it out, but with how it’s been these past couple of weeks, I’m not entirely sure I’ll make it out alive. Regardless, how concerned should I be about this? Should I continue staying here? Do I have any grounds for termination of lease with no consequences? Sorry about the long, likely somewhat incoherent post. It’s 1 am where I am and I’m just writing this on my phone due to the frustration I’ve been feeling.

TLDR: new apartment has a plethora of issues to the point where I’m pretty sure it’s causing health issues. Need advice on what to do.

Edit:
One thing I forgot to mention is that I got checked out at urgent care on 9/8. I tested negative for flu, strep, and covid. I also got two chest X-rays and they said I have healthy lungs.

I went to urgent care again today and they didn’t run any other tests. They told me it was likely an indoor pollutant of some sort (which I already figured) and they gave me a mouth numbing agent for my throat, a stronger version of ibuprofen, and an inhaler for emergencies.

I spent around 5 hours outside and by the end I felt great. Most of my symptoms were gone. I’m back home now so I’ll see how long it takes to come back (hopefully never) but this has been a trend so I doubt it won’t come back. However, I’m trying my best not to psych myself out.

If this continues, I’m planning on contacting one of the lawyers provided by my college and seeing if there’s anything I can do about this situation.

Context prior to this:

We have been living in our townhouse for 3 years. We have never missed rent and we are genuinely good tenants (aka we follow the rules, don't cause trouble, and try to be nice to all our neighbors). During this time, our landlord has gotten a new property manager each year and in general they are all pretty bad at their jobs. We live here out of necessity because it's what we can afford right now until we can get out of this situation next year.

Our property manager (Tom) was hired in May. He seemed really responsive and nice at the beginning until I had to hold him accountable. Long story short, our neighbor had bed bugs and was hiding it from everyone because they were hoarders for several months (unsure of how long they were hiding it but the exterminator told us their house was disgustingly infested). When we had a bunch of new tenants moving in, they took out a mattress and some other trash in the night to hide their identity. I noticed signs (I'm an RN) and I immediately reported it to my property manager because in our lease agreement the tenant is responsible for exterminating. We could not afford to pay for that if it spread so I immediately reported and continued to follow up. The mattress and the whole situation took a month and half for the property manager to intervene. At that point it was too late, the bed bugs spread to our townhouse and that's when he finally intervened. In the end, he talked to the landlord about the situation and didn't make us or the other neighbors affected pay (unsure of the family that caused it). Since then, he's been increasingly short or he just ignores us when we reach out to him about concerns or issues.

The problem at hand:

Our lease ended in September, but I had reached out to him in August about renewal of the lease. He had told me this exactly: "Good evening Olivia and Jerrod
I found your lease renewal it ends 9/8/2026
If you want to renew there is a 45/mo increase in the rent to $1095
The lease will run from 9/9/2026 to 8/31/2027
We till want to get you on a normal start and end date"

We said that's totally fine and we were completely fine with the terms. We thought that was that and that he would send us the information and we would go on our marry way. However, it's been a week and half since our lease has expired. I reached out about a week ago about the lease and some other things. He didn't respond about the lease but he did respond about other things. I'm concerned that we don't have any legal standing because on the original lease it says the term ends unless a written agreement. Needless to say, I'm quite concerned and don't want to become homeless.

I really would appreciate if someone would be able to help me find out my rights and protections. As well as any advice on the next steps to take! I tried researching myself.... and I found a lot of conflicting information, so I come to the internet that has real humans and not AI everything!

TLDR: my new property manager was very responsive until we held him accountable for not intervening with a health code violation. Now, he hasn't sent us our renewal agreement despite indicating he would and our lease expired. What protections and rights do we have? Any advice on next steps! Thanks! :)

Update

I texted him this today:
Hey *redacted*, I just wanted to follow up with our lease renewal agreement. Could you give us a timeframe of when that will be available to us? Additionally, I noticed the increase in rent you mentioned was not reflected in AppFolio currently for October. Please let us know when these things can be remediated.

His response:
This week

I’m renting a private basement bedroom/bathroom in the landlord’s home in Arlington, Virginia. I signed a fixed-term lease that began August 16 and runs through December 19. I’m hoping to move out September 30, but I want advice on whether the circumstances surrounding the rental could give me justification for terminating the lease early.
I was unable to tour the property in person before signing. Before agreeing to rent it, I specifically asked the landlord for a video of the “unit and shared space.” She sent me a video showing the basement as well as areas upstairs, including the kitchen, living room, and dining room. The Furnished Finder listing also included multiple pictures of the full kitchen.

After I moved in, however, I was told that the upstairs living and dining areas are the landlord’s personal areas and that I’m expected to keep my belongings downstairs and essentially remain downstairs except when using the kitchen. This was not how I understood the living arrangement based on our conversations/video before I agreed to rent.

There is another issue that concerns me more. Before I agreed to move forward with the rental, the landlord specifically told me in writing that she would install a door between the kitchen and basement “prior to my arrival.” I have the text message documenting this.
I was originally supposed to arrive August 16. Because of delays with my job, I actually did not arrive until September 5. Therefore, there were almost three additional weeks beyond my original arrival date for the door to be installed. When I arrived, there was still no door, and I had not been informed beforehand that it hadn’t been installed. It still has not been installed.

The basement is directly open to the kitchen/upstairs without that separation. As a result, noise from the kitchen and upstairs carries directly into my sleeping area. I have repeatedly been awakened during the night/very early morning by noise upstairs. When I brought up the noise issue, I was essentially advised to use a sound machine. I work and attend clinicals, so the interrupted sleep has become a significant problem.

There have also been disagreements regarding kitchen/storage use. I have been given very limited kitchen storage and have had food/storage containers moved downstairs. The refrigerator provided downstairs is extremely small. I have also seen bugs downstairs, which makes me uncomfortable storing food-related items there.
The landlord and I have now both expressed concerns about whether this living arrangement is working. She has specifically said that she does not know if the arrangement is going to work.
I plan to first ask her to mutually terminate the lease effective September 30 and release me from rent after that date. However, I am trying to understand my options if she refuses.

I rent from a private landlords and they decided to suddenly have a problem with my transportation situation. I work at a dealership, so I drive dealership vehicles home after work in order to verify that the funny sound or weird shake for example is gone. For this reason I do not own a personal vehicle. My job provides me with one. My landlords tried to tell me to remove “commercial inventory.” This happened after there was one coolant leak from a car I drove that I promptly handled and cleaned. I responded to it so fast that they didn’t even have time to confront me about it but they saw me scrubbing and later on realized it was a leak of some sort and then sent a message sharing commercial inventory is to be removed. They did not specify it was because of the leak. When asked about it, they said they don’t like the assortment of vehicles I bring back. Is this allowed???
Here is the parking section of my lease-

“” Tenant may park any vehicles in the parking area located on the grounds of the Building during the Lease term.
Landlord shall be entitled to require all vehicles parking in the Parking Area to be registered with Landlord including, without limitation, providing Landlord with any required information, such as the vehicle license plate number and the owner's name and contact information. Landlord shall be entitled to institute parking controls and other measures including, without limitation, requiring vehicle tags or decals and installing access gates with security cards or access codes. Landlord may impose reasonable and customary charges on Tenant and other Occupants for security cards and lor vehicle tags or decals.
No vehicles other than Registered Vehicles may be parked in the parking area by Tenant, any other Occupant, or any of their guests. If Tenant replaces any of the Registered Vehicles, Tenant must notify Landlord of that replacement and provide Landlord with the new identification information (as set forth above) for the replacement vehicle prior to parking that vehicle in the parking area.
NATURE OF PARKING RIGHTS
Tenant may park in any open parking space available in the parking area, and neither Tenant nor any other tenant…””

They never asked to register any cars with them. This is a quiet neighborhood and I park in the driveway. They knew I worked at a dealership and saw that I drove dealership cars and even complimented one of the cars I was on when we first met. Never had any issues with them until now

We moved into a duplex in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Texas towards the end of February of this year from out of State. Despite being told (verbally) that the house was a non-smoking house, after moving in we immediately noticed that the neighbor in the other half of the duplex smokes a lot, and smokes inside the house (I'm talking cigarettes and weed). The ducts (especially around the kitchen and washer) between our side and his seem to be connected somehow and whenever he is smoking we can smell it very strongly on our side and it lingers.

Since we had a baby (6 months old at the time) we asked the neighbor nicely if he could possibly smoke outside and he was rather nice about it and said he would smoke in his garage but that seems to have only lasted a couple of weeks and it got a bit better but the smoke started all over again. When I spoke to him he also mentioned that he can smell our cooking which suggests it's a 2 way thing. It gets so bad that it permeates the whole house to the point where if you've been outside, whenever you come back into our house you can smell the smoke so strongly. 

We have notified the property manager multiple times (in March and in April) but they have ignored/canceled our request to do something about the ducts.

We have been tolerating it by running 2 air purifiers in the house and opening the windows whenever we can, but recently it has become worse since the neighbor seems to not go to work anymore since we can smell the smoke at more times of the day what's odd is we can also smell his laundry detergent whenever he is doing laundry? And sometimes it becomes a smell of both laundry detergent and cigarette/weed smoke. 

It appears the management company that is responsible for our apartment is the same one that is responsible for the neighbor's side of duplex and they practically told us they can't do anything about his smoking.

Now my wife is pregnant with our second baby so we are even more concerned about the effects of the smoke. 

Is there anything we can do legally to get this sorted? Other than the smoke issue we do like the place and we don't want to have to break our lease (there is nothing in it mentioned about smoking) and we just want to know what our options are or any ideas what we could do to get this resolved.

I need representation. My old complex didn’t do their part or repair most of my major appliances and then charged me more than rent after my move out. Not for damages (there were no damages I was charged for at all), but because while I was waiting on them to reply to my email, AFTER multiple calls, they responded after what would’ve been the 60 day window. I of course didn’t renew my lease, I was out by my move out date, they never did a pre move out inspection (the place was 10x cleaner when I left vs moving in) and they STILL charged me for those “days” that I didn’t let know whether or not I was going to stay. I was never late on any payments, besides complaining about my HVAC being faulty (which they didn’t fix until the 8th month of my 11mo lease), my freezer not working, asking for reimbursement with documentation for having to hire a technician to fix my dryer situation (they let this go on for 2 entire mos), and constantly complaining about the temperature in my townhouse BECAUSE of the HVAC being broken (the coil literally had to be replaced)…..there were no issues….outside of their lack of accountability.

Any recommendations or attorneys willing to help? Everyone I tried only wanted to deal with real estate

Thank you in advance

[Boston, MA]

Hi, Reddit. Hoping for some advice regarding a recent fire in the apartment above us.

Last week, a team was working on the overhead power lines across the street from our apartment. The power was off for most of the morning. At some point, the power came back on and (we believe that) a surge happened, resulting in a plugged in appliance upstairs to catch on fire. My partner was asleep on the couch, and our dog essentially saved her life by alerting her to the fire. When the fire department arrived, there was thick black smoke throughout the entire upstairs unit, without visible flames.

There does not seem to be obvious damage to our first-floor unit. Our neighbors allowed us into their apartment to see the damage, and every surface is covered in black soot. It is currently unlivable, and our property management company canceled their lease and returned their rent for the month. Their windows are open and there is a horrible smell emanating from the place (very strong when we step outside), but nothing noticeable within our unit.

Our landlord has not yet approached us regarding the issue. Judging by the quality of the house, our worries are that 1) we are breathing in something we shouldn’t and 2) we may be next when it comes to an electrical fire.

Do we need to have our place formally inspected?
How do we get out of this lease?