Articles: House Or Apartment

Dear Consumer Ed: My apartment flooded because of a plumbing issue with the upstairs neighbor. The apartment management was great for the first four days, but now they say I have to find a place to stay on my own dime. They say the apartment is safe.

Dear Consumer Ed: I moved out of my apartment before my lease was up. The property management company made no effort to contact me to let me know I owed a lease cancellation fee. They turned me over to a collections agency. Can they legally do that?

Dear Consumer Ed: I am moving out of my apartment and just got a move-out inspection sheet with the following itemized costs:  Carpet - $75, Cleaning - $75, Blinds - $105, Crayon marks - $50, Damaged tub - $50. The tub is not damaged. Carpet is old (5 years). The apartment is clean.

Dear Consumer Ed: There’s an empty lot next to our house. The owner doesn’t maintain it, and we end up trimming the vines and hedges that would otherwise grow over our fence. If we continue to maintain that property, will we eventually own it?

Dear Consumer Ed: We have been leasing a home since July 2010.  Our lease is set to expire in August 2012.  We just found out today that the landlord has let the rental home go into foreclosure, with a sale date of July 3.  Whom do we notify, advising them of our lease?

Dear Consumer Ed: A supplier to a subcontractor filed a mechanic’s lien on my house.  I have paid the contractor, and he has paid all of his bills.  Yet my house is being held under a “cloud” from an unknown vendor to an unknown sub-subcontractor.

Dear Consumer Ed: I live in an apartment and have to pay my water bill to the management company.  My bill has risen by about $50 per month since a new management company took over.  I have spoken to others in the complex and their bills have gone up the same.  I believe the company is overchargi

Dear Consumer Ed: What can an apartment complex do if I do not pay the fine for breaking my lease? My apartment was broken into. I decided not to continue to stay at the apartments. I submitted the required 60-day notice.

Dear Consumer Ed: I hired a contractor to do some remodeling on my home. I paid for the entire job so that he could purchase the supplies needed. He did most of the work, but will not finish the job. What can I do to get him to complete it?

Dear Consumer Ed: A month ago my fiancée and I moved into a rental home under a two-year lease.  The second day we moved in, we discovered black ants all over our bathroom.  The landlord never disclosed that they had an ant problem.  They do have a pest control contract they took out a few months