• Welcome Guest
Real Estate & Landlord-Tenant
Welcome to FindLaw Answers! Ask a Real Estate Law legal question and let the FindLaw community help you find legal answers and information.

This is the place to ask questions on buying a home or selling a home; foreclosure; leases and security deposits; eviction; and property law.

Get your Real Estate Law questions answered by clicking the "Post New Question" button and then selecting the correct Real Estate Law sub-topic for your legal question.

Before you post, please carefully read our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Community Guidelines.
  • Ask a Question
    • Show discussions ...
  • Keep Reading
    • Leaking roof = Mold
  • 79818
Question from KimmieLynneNov-6
My husband and I moved into a rental house about 4 months ago. The month that we moved in we noticed the roof was leaking in several places. We  mentioned it to the landlord as soon as we noticed, he said he would get someone to come out the following day. No one ever showed. So 2 months ago my husband lost his job and I am still on maternity leave so we made payment arrangements with the landlorn in order to catch up on the rent.  Now there is visisble mold in more than 4 rooms in the house. The attic is seriously infected with mold, and there are several large holes in the roof. He doesnt want to fix these things becasue we are behind on our rent. We have a newborn baby who has breathing problems and affected by the mold... What can we do?
  • Answer this Question
LegalEagleHelp Nov-9 79818.2
You can not just move out.  Go down to the General District court and begin putting rent $$ into escrow until the landlord fixes the issue.  Send the landlord a writing (keep a copy for your records) stating the proble and what your intentins are.  GIv hima reasonable amount of time to repair the issue if not proceed to the courthouse.
Report Violation
Fallen Nov-9 79818.3
You are free to contact the local code enforcement/building dept. folks and ask for an inspection.  Failing that, you can ask a professional to come do an inspection.  If it's a health-safety issue, you should be staying elsewhere. 
 
It also doesn't sound as though you've even written to the landlord about this, but that's also advised.  You're free to file a petition against the landlord in the local landlord-tenant court to seek to have the court order the problems fixed, and you can also seek a rent reduction for the time you've had to deal with this. 

It can seem like you weren't terribly interested in addressing this until you started having money problems, however.  Please don't let your nonpayment of rent keep you from pursuing your legal remedies.

"We have a newborn baby who has breathing problems and affected by the mold..."

No sane parent would have their child with "breathing problems" staying in a house with mold issues.  Please have the child stay elsewhere, with friends, family -- even friendly acquainteances --even if they don't have room for you.  This shouldn't be something you'd need to consult with strangers about, frankly.
 
*  *  *

LegalEagle Help, of course the poster can just move out.  :)  Of course, that may have consequences.  As for referring to "the General District court" and presuming that the court has a registry into which the poster might be able to pay the rent, you seem to be presuming where the poster lives.  (If you are psychic, please advise and I won't worry about whether the response is accurate in future.)

 

Report Violation