TWO NEIGHBORS in Tigard are fighting the same landlord. And their cases? They bear a striking resemblance. Both illustrate an all-too-common dilemma for Oregon renters: Sometimes, demanding basic repairs can mean risking the roof over your head.
The residents at 8980 SW Oak are all too happy to give a tour of everything that’s wrong with their house. The front door can’t lock; the roof resembles a forest floor, sprouting with moss and ferns; water leaks into the living room; the back wall is buckling (push hard, and it moves); the back porch is a mess of rotten planks; and the house is full of rodents.
“I’ve never actually seen a round hole chewed in the wall before,” says renter Chory Ferguson, pointing to a hole gnawed in the hallway. “It’s like Tom and Jerry in here.”
The house, like many on the block, is rented out by Aetna Properties, a property management company whose website touts 30 years of experience in Oregon. Aetna did not return requests for comment on this story, but their online reviews paint an alarming portrait.
They have one star on Yelp and one star on Citysearch. And reviews on owner Paul Williamson’s profile on incredibleagents.com describe him either as “unprofessional, corrupt, possibly criminal” or just plain “shady.” Six complaints against Aetna were filed with the Better Business Bureau in 2010.
A sizable pile of rubble sits in Ferguson’s front yard from the last time Aetna “fixed” his roof, back in 2007. But it still leaks. He says he requested repairs via phone and in writing this September, when the roof went unfixed and the rain started coming. In November, Ferguson and his roommate stopped paying their rent, some $995 a month. Aetna slapped them with an eviction notice, and the two hired a lawyer, Troy Pickard, who is countersuing for $13,000 for retaliatory eviction and for renting an uninhabitable home at above fair-market value.
“Whatever the fair value of this house is as a fungal experiment is the fair value,” says Pickard.
The lease is month to month, but Ferguson wants to stick it out until February, when he’ll move into a house he’s buying. With that timeline, it doesn’t make sense to move out and start a new one- or two-year lease.
Refusing to do repairs is the single most common complaint heard on Portland’s renters-rights hotline, says Ari Rapkin, director of the nonprofit Community Alliance of Tenants, which runs the free hotline. “It’s one that unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of robust protections under state law,” says Rapkin, noting that things have gotten much worse since the city cut its housing inspector roster from 10 down to five in 2009 because of budget cuts.
Withholding rent for repairs can work, says Rapkin, but it’s a big risk.
“It’s gambling the roof over your head on needing repairs,” he says. “It’s a quick way to wind up homeless.”
Instead, renters rights advocates recommend requesting repairs in writing, stating a deadline, banding together with neighbors who have the same landlord, and, eventually, hiring a lawyer.
Down the street, Mary Lou Devora had the same problems with the same company—Aetna refused to fix a stove that was so broken it sent off electrical sparks, leading Devora to live for three weeks without an oven or stove. This October, she went door to door, asking her neighbors who they rent from and whether they’d had similar problems. Out of the six neighbors on the block who rent from Aetna, she says, three were considering lawsuits. Devora won her own suit last week, netting $1,418.
“It wasn’t a lot, but the purpose was to do something,” says Devora. “I knew they’d just rent this house again in the same shape to someone if I don’t do something.”
You’re only gambling the roof over your head if the cops will actually evict you. Many sheriffs and police officers across the country are refusing to evict as a matter of conscience. The question is not, “Can you risk being evicted” but “Can you trust a police officer to see that you’re in the moral right.” Which is precisely why strong tenant protection laws should exist, police officers should not be the judges, judges should be the judges.
Why does Oregon have such lousy renter protections? As many Californians as move up here, you think they’d bring their enlightened tenant protections with them.
It is an intelligent use of state power to protect poor people from actively evil landlords. Otherwise tenants band together on their own and soon it is hard to convince anyone to pay any rent at all.
Oregon has some of the BEST renters right in the country, you’ve just got to know where to find them.
I just settled out of court with my past landlord for the same reasons and here’s 3 steps to help anyone having problems with uninhabitable living conditions and your landlord doesn’t do shit about it…
STEP 1: Call the city housing inspector and they’ll send out an inspector to look over the entire house and will send you and the landlord the report. (The city inspector will take a lot of pictures but I recommend you take a lot on your own).
*You need the report to help your case. It’s free and they’ll show up within a day or two.
STEP 2: Call C.A.T. and they’ll set you up with a pro-bono lawyer that specializes in renters rights and landlord disputes.
STEP 3: Meet with your lawyer!
*Everything throughout every step is free and you’ll get to learn a lot!
Good Luck!
Thanks wokman,
The Community Alliance of Tenants’ website is http://oregoncat.org/
and their renter’s rights hotline is 503-288-0130
I called once and their help was so good I became a member.
How does one go about changing the laws for an abnormal situation that causes tenants unnecessary mental distress? I know that sounds like a lame thing but I live in a mad house and am stuck there until I get my tax refund. My landlord rents their house by the room and does not have a written agreement with anyone. The landlord preys on desperate people who can’t afford more then $400 a month and knows they wont complain to the city about the shotty wiring, the fact that no one in the house has a key to the front door and therefore we can’t lock it. The landlord knows no one can legally complain about them walking into the house at 4am to play video games in the living room despite the fact that the landlord has their own computer/gaming systems. How do we go about changing the laws so my current landlord can’t just walk into the house they are renting out by the room(and the landlord does not live in the house) simply because the law says it’s like an apartment building and they have the right to be in the common areas?
thatonechick: For the problems you are referring to, there are laws, you just need to know how to use them. Call the C.A.T. hotline and they can give you some help. Even if you don’t have a signed lease, you have rights. Your landlord has to provide you with a safe and healthy place to live, and cannot come and use the living room whenever s/he wants. You have protections if you are a renter, you just have to know them and use them.
Emergence: I did call CAT, I called a lawyer. Both tell me since I don’t have a signed rental agreement and she rents by the room she does have a legal right to be in the house. I can’t stop her. There needs to be a law to stop people like her but there is not currently.
It is so ridiculous that these people have to go through so much red tape for a basic human need. I wish the government could step in and shut these slumlord companies down.
Oh my gosh dont get me started. No dishwasher (which was suppose to fixed and working the same week we moved in). Toilet works when it wants (he fixed it once and it goes out every day) we have asked and wrote letters to have it fixed. His answer is go to to Canby and use the Restaurants and the Stores bathrooms and he will get back to you in two weeks. He has put in 2nd hand insulation, he brought it in and who knows where he got it. Our floors and soggy and falling thru. We went to the county he has several volations and he never corrected them. He is over charging us for the house. We are paying 900.00 for a house that is falling apart around us. My husband is finding a toilet on craigslist and going to get it. So we can get it fixed for the 99th time. This is just the start of all the things wrong with this overpriced house. Oh yeah garbage disposal……….you just got to see it.
Oregon landlord tentant law says you can not be evicted as long as the landlord is accepting money. It doesnt matter how much. It is up to the landlord to fix and do maintain the building. So dont pay the rent. If you do send as little as possible and i am sure they or he will not refuse it.