It isn't worth hiring a lawyer for your situation. Just call up the Virginia tenant rights office, tell them you want to cancel your lease because of XYZ reasons, and ask them how to proceed. This should be easy given you should have the evidence showing that your landlord unilaterally changed the locks on you at some point.

If you need a lawyer's perspective, hire a lawyer.

signed,
a lawyer

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people here defending a cheapskate landlord.

Don’t rent your house to people if you’re unwilling to keep it functional and clean.

It is not the landlord's responsibility to clean the shower. The tenant (OP) was not cleaning the shower properly so mold grew. That will happen in most bathrooms if you don't regularly and properly clean them.

Agree that the landlord was out of line in locking the OP out of the house though.

Document everything. It sounds like you have contacted your local tenant housing resource already and have filed a lawsuit.

Your landlord was clearly in violation of a number of tenant laws, so you should be able to get out of your lease - and you absolutely should get your security deposit back too. It is imperative you continue to put rent into an escrow account.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people here defending a cheapskate landlord.

Don’t rent your house to people if you’re unwilling to keep it functional and clean.

Don't rent old house.
The end.

A lot of people here defending a cheapskate landlord.

Don’t rent your house to people if you’re unwilling to keep it functional and clean.

Sorry, but mold in the shower isn't going to cause health issues.

If you have a problem with the water, then look into testing yourself (I think you can buy a kit?) or call the town and ask them about it. They are super nice.

I suggest you talk to some kind of legal aid or get your own lawyer. This relationship is toxic and is never going to heal.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This PP is obviously a landlord.
And a bitter one at that.

Lol. 😝

NP. I'm not a landlord and would never want to be one. But yeah, OP seems like a nutjob.

You've both handled this really poorly. You completely overreacted from the beginning and set the tone for all this. She shouldn't have locked you out, but seems like that situation is handled. Can still report her.

Before that happened, you would have no chance of winning any case.

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.

This PP is obviously a landlord.
And a bitter one at that.

Lol. 😝

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.

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

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.

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

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.