RipoffRecount

Refute this Recount [ Denial ] - (1) Posts

My husband has worked and known the owner for 9 yrs now. He is a retired U.S. serviceman. Needless to say, my husband has always respected him and when they occasionally worked together they never had any problems. In the ending part of June, Paul (my husband) worked w/John (owner). Our lease was expiring and needed to find another place to move to. John mentioned that maybe we could help each other out.

He has a condo 2 bdrm/2 1/4 bath ready to move in that is vacant. All brand new appliances His wife was recently laid off as a RN and money was tight due to having to pay for 2 places at once was stressful. John said that he needed to get the carpets steam cleaned and finish removing the rest of his things but he was short of cash. He said we could just move in the following weds and he wouldn’t charge us the remaining part of July since he still had personal belongings there.

So my husband wrote him a $300 check for deposit that night (mon) and a postdated check to be cashed on Thurs. for $1100 at work. John said on Sunday we could come and see the place after 6 pm. We showed up and John said the power company screwed up and didn’t have the power turned on. We had a flashlight tour and he said everything would be ready by Weds, for us.

I had made arrangements to hire a moving company and rental of an UHaul for the 16th. The kitchen overhead lights were not working (6 fluorescent bulbs), which I thought was odd since John had mentioned how bright the kitchen lights up, like a landing pad. Also, the area where we were going to put the W/D had standing water, not much, but just above the drain and a 2 ft. circ. puddle.

We called John and he said that never happened before. Then he commented that maybe the water table had risen since there was so much rain?? Sarcastically he had said that light bulbs worked and he’d be over Fri. to drop off 6 new bulbs, and we held off placing the W/D. Friday, the movers returned to place the washer and dryer into the basement.

The basement had drained and what looked like small bits of white paper and trash were left. Luckily, one of the movers used the toilet and flushed. Then all this stuff was coming out of the floor drain. When Paul drained the tub, OMG, the drain started bubbling and spewing. It overflowed so much that it went into the garage where my boxes were and out into the parking lot. No one had any idea that it was raw sewage until that moment. We immediately called John and he asked what we flushed because that never happened before.

My teenagers stayed at their friend’s house because I had no idea what was going to need fixed and no one could shower or use the toilet or run water until we got this problem fixed.
Paul had been calling and leaving messages to find out what was John wanting to do. When Paul signed the lease, John had pointed out that any repairs had to be Okayed by him in order for us to be refunded. Needless to say, a week had gone by till John that the drained probably needed to just be snaked.

So if Paul felt like it, he could just do that. However, in his lease, all repairs were to be done by a licensed contractor-which neither of us was.
By now, I had collected several estimates to give to John. Or course, he choose the cheapest and told us $100 to snake the drain was fine. There were 2 drains the main and the ancillary.

It was at a discount price of $100/per drain to be snaked. We got that done and it was stinking very badly throughout the house. Needless to say, raw sewage leaking out the garage didn’t smell any better. But we paid the plumber $200. John didn’t drop off the bulbs as he had told us he would. So we went and bought them to be reimbursed. Well, after changing them, the lights still weren’t working. John still claims that it’s something we did since everything worked before. We paid about $37/for 6 fluorescent lights and still it didn’t work. So 3 weeks later, we still have no lights in the kitchen. After 1 week of being there, I noticed that milk was starting to go bad w/in a few days where it normally wouldn’t. Other dairy products i.e. French onion dip didn’t smell right. I got a refrigerator thermometer.
It was 50 in the frig. I already had the frig maxed to its coldest temp. John was notified again. John was not returning any calls. After placing several calls to different appliance repair to get an estimate I had a svc. Call to my home on Fri. He informed me that the compressor was going out. It finally died and lost all of our groceries. Finally John called on Thurs. to let us know on Friday he would drop off the mail and pool keys along w/fixing the lights.

He came over Sat. and looked at the lights in the kitchen and then on I reminded him about the frig. He seemed upset and once again couldn’t understand why it was breaking. He angrily said something to the effect of I’m not buying a new fridge because I’m selling this place. Mon.he brought over the replacement frig. The copper tubing was left dripping w/our pot used to catch the water. The frig has an odor that I’ve been working on for the pst 2 days. I am unable to place any food in there.

The smell is very odd. I’m not sure what he used to cover up the odors, but it’s something I would not want to have w/my food. He claims he has no idea what odor we’re talking about and he claims that he has done what a landlord is responsible for. We are in no position to move again. We lost food in the sewer overflow as well as the frig breaking. Do we have any recourse?
Please help us.

Thank you. Jacque Blatchford