For those of you who do not know, renting can be a challenge! If you are a renter or will be come one I advise that you educate your self on the Landlord/Tennant laws for your area and State! I will save you alot of trouble down the road and hopefully lesson the "BAD LANDLORDS" out there preying on renters who do not know there rights!
We moved here back in Nov. 2006 and leased a home on Harrell Ave. from Billy R. & Melba Powers. Having placed a deposit a discussed a move in date we were promissed to have everything ready upon move in. On Nov. 2, 2006 we arrived to a mess. There was abandoned furniture left in the house, a used condom and tampon on the bedroom floor and the place was filthy! We should have insisted on our deposit right then, but we opted to give them a chance to make things right. We satied that night at a hotel and returned the next morning to make a plan on correcting the situation. The landlords insisted on rent before going any further, that should have been a clue as well. We paid out rent and hashed out the conditions of everything needing to be remedied. They bought a new frig., had a helper over to paint for two days and then that was it. As I did our move in check list I found the windows to be nailed shut, the smoke alarms did not work, roaches were every where, a circut breaker had been pulled from the electrical box for the ac unit, door jams had been kicked in, and so much more. We started making phone calls and they did not return them, so then we sent letters, they went unresponded to and then we started deducting from the rent for the major things, like replcing the locks, smoke alarms, repairing the screen door etc... Then I had to get the officials involved! I called the bulding inspector, they wanted to charge me $30 to come out and inspect the house. I called the Fire Marshal, they never showed up. I called Environmental Health, they in turn sent me a letter stating I need to clean up what the landlord had done or be fined! I got that corrected right away and they (EH) contacted the Landlord to get it cleaned up. The landlord showed up for clean up and refused to accept the rent because there was deductions for repairs. He handed us an eviction notice and left.
We went to court on the set date with all our documentation and the landlords did not show up, so it was dismissed. So in retaliation the landlords broke a window, went into the house changed the locks and locked us out without notice. Now mind you, they can lock you out but they have laws to follow, they must post a notice of where you can get a key for access 24 hours a day. They left no notice, nor would they answer our calls. We had to file a "Writ of Re-entery", costing $105.00 to get back in to get our things! Personally I think the laws need updateing and there should be a better system for renters here. Needless to say there is alot more to this story but this is my basis for this blog. There needs to be a place people can go to check on LANDLORDS to see if they are trustworthy or not.
So I will tell you that we are sueing Billy R. & Melba Powers and you can check the local Justice of the Peace records to see if your landlord has claims against them.
Beware of renting from Billy R. & Melba Powers of Longview TX, they have a history of being "BAD LANDLORDS".
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