Need lawyer's perspective - Inhabitability issues and filing tenant assertion -

[Anonymous]

Could anyone give me some advice around this really awful situation, from a legal perspective or personal experience?

We have been renting a home since February in Vienna. We had low flow of water so we let the landlord know and she sent out a plumber. The plumber took pictures and showed us a blue substance coming out of and blocking the faucets. He said likely copper. He let the landlord know that he could not fix it and she would need to. We began buying drinking water. After a month and three more requests for landlord to fix, it wasn't fixed. We were dealing with sudden and new healthy challenges with our daughter so we just decided to drink our delivered water and not say anything else. Then in June we were told by one of my daughter's doctors that we may want to inspect the house for mold as we were all unusually sick. We found what looked like black mold in the shower and we let the landlord know. We sent her pictures. She insisted it was mildew, not mold. She sent her 20 something year old daughter over with a bottle of bleach to clean it. We refused and insisted it must be professionally tested. Landlord continued to insist. We told landlord we would like to terminate the lease and we did not feel safe that she was unwilling to test unless we agreed to pay for it. We offered for her to keep our security deposit and for us to end on amicable terms. Landlord refused and told us we must pay the duration of the 1 year lease. Then we saw she listed the house for rent at $4000 more than we are paying. She is a licensed real estate agent. When again we requested to complete the lease with her on amicable terms, she again said was only willing to do so if we pay two months more and she did not mention if she would return our security deposit. During these negotiations, we went out of town and she requested to allow a contractor to come in and inspect. We agreed. She then sent us an email saying we had abandoned the house (after being away for 1 day) because our toothbrushes and clothes were not there when the contractor entered the house. The house we rented was fully furnished. She told us that she was changing the locks and set the alarm and if we entered the property the alarm would alert the police. We alerted her to the fact that this was not legal for her to do as abandoning the house is only factual if it has been 14 days or more and without a court order she cannot illegally lock us out. She then spoke with an attorney and emailed us saying she changed the locks back and turned off the alarm and we are free to return.

We have filed a tenant's assertion but I am concerned as I do not know how the courts will look upon this situation. We do not want to continue the lease for many reasons but most especially because of how antagonistic the landlord has been to us and we just don't feel safe after all this. We did put our rent into a court escrow account until the hearing.

[Anonymous]

Next step should be complaining to the Real Estate licensing board in VA. If your story is accurate, she is clearly in violation of not only the law, but professional practices. You can get her license revoked and that would be ammunition enough for her to let you out of the lease.

https://www.dpor.virginia.gov/Report-Licensee

[Anonymous]

You sound like a pain in the ass OP, mineral deposits on old faucets and black stuff in showers is common stuff. Trying to triangulate it to your hypochondriac health issues is just you trying to paint your self as the victim. You entered into a lease you want out of, if I was your landlord I would have let you out by keeping your security deposit not because you’re right but just to shuffle you to the next persons problem. I learned long ago you can’t fix crazy but you can limit your exposure.

I bet you’re still alive in 6 months despite your exposure to a dirty shower and I bet you wouldn’t be so picky if you owned.

[Anonymous]

You rented an old house with old house problems.
Forget lawyering and move forward with your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like a pain in the ass OP, mineral deposits on old faucets and black stuff in showers is common stuff. Trying to triangulate it to your hypochondriac health issues is just you trying to paint your self as the victim. You entered into a lease you want out of, if I was your landlord I would have let you out by keeping your security deposit not because you’re right but just to shuffle you to the next persons problem. I learned long ago you can’t fix crazy but you can limit your exposure.

I bet you’re still alive in 6 months despite your exposure to a dirty shower and I bet you wouldn’t be so picky if you owned.

You're the one who sounds like the AH.