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Originally Posted by Stroszek
Here's the deal: I moved into my present apartment in late September of 2003. Upon moving in and filling out the move in sheet, where you write about any damages to the apartment, I noted that the roof appeared to be leaking. There was a water stain on the wall above the fireplace. As I was the first person to live in that particular apartment, I knew that it was not something that the previous resident did, but rather a physical defect.
The apartment management has had the roof "fixed" many times, and sent painters to paint the walls many times as well. I put "fixed" in quotes because every time they fixed the roof, it would leak during the next storm. One day I came home from work to find that the wall was wet from ceiling to the floor. The carpet was also wet. This went on for months... They would claim it was fixed, but it wouldn't be, painters wouldn't show up, painters would spatter paint on my belongings, etc.
This has been such a HUGE pain in the ass that I can't really adequately describe the frustrations that I have gone through.
It is nine months later, and the situation has finally been resolved (I hope). The roof has been fixed, and the painters just left. The apartment management has offered to monetarily reimburse me for the pain in the ass that I have had to deal with, and wants to know what I think is fair.
My initial thought was to take the total amount of rent that I have paid thus far ($5584.34), divide it in half (because they provided the apartment the lease promised, but not the "maintenance...with reasonable promptness" promised in the lease ($2792.17). And then multiply that amount bt 13.617%, because the room affected is 13.617% of the apartment ($380.21).
But somehow, $380.21 jsut doesn't seem like all that much for all of the shit I have had to deal with. Am I being unreasonalble? What should I ask for? What would you ask for?
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From your calculations, I would guess that you pay about $600 a month for this place. You claim the maintenance was not prompt but also claim they attempted to fix it a number of times. Any court would see the number of times attemped as making reasonable effort to repair the defect. It is a nuisance as you mentioned, and they are offering to do something nice for inconveniencing you. But the reality is (unless you suddenly claim differently) that the apartment wasn't made uninhabitable. You also have to consider the fact that they had to work around the fact that you were still living there. They could have just given you notice, made you move out, and re-rented the apartment after the repairs were done.
I can assume you are on a lease. You could simply ask for your security deposit back, and a prorated period of days in which you could find another apartment since this one hasn't been satisfactory at all. Your full deposit (minus no cleaning) plus a week free is very fair and solves the problem.
The other side of the coin could be that you really like this apartment, it is priced reasonably, and you want to stay there, even with the problems. In this case, they have done the best they can, ask for something reasonable and continue to enjoy your place. The numbers you are tossing around on the low end still sound a bit high. I mean you are talking more than a half a months rent, to half of all rent paid.
Consider it this way, if you hadn't paid your rent, you are correct that they could eventually evict you. However most likely they would allow you to pay your rent and just charge you a reasonable late fee. Sure it is an inconvenience to them to wait for their money, etc. They get a nominal fee for it, but they cannot be punitive. If you got half a month's rent out of them. I would consider them very gracious and yourself very lucky.
Nick