Legal Advice

[cpierce 5,000+ posts]

My roomates and I were supposed to be able to move into our house on August 1st, but of course the house wasn't ready yet, and still is not completely finished. There has been numerous problems with the house. Some examples are: 1. They forgot to put insulation (sp?) in attic, so it was extremely hot the first day we moved in, so we turned the AC down low which will make our electric bill pretty high. 2. The painting on the walls is not finished in some parts of the house, there are just big spots of unfinished walls all around the house which they have yet to fix. 3. The hot water heater didn't not work, but they replaced that. 4. The downstairs bathroom toilet was leaking all over the floor. 5. All of the baseboards in the house have scratches on them and some kind of white stuff on them aswell. 6. They have not put the mailbox up yet, its just sitting outside on the yard and we can't put it up because we are not supposed to mess with the grass //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

These are just a few of the problems we have been having. We have asked the guys at the real estate office to take some money of our first months rent but they have refused, because "its not their fault". I was thinking about getting the Better Business Bureau involved, but wasn't sure if they could help or not. Maybe even a lawyer.....

Any advice? Or is this just welcome to the real world?

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[AndyB 10+ year member]

I dont think youll be able to do anything about it... but i guess you could go over the contract with a lawyer... thats what i would do. Good luck.

 

[tRiGgEr 5,000+ posts]

You should not have accepted the keys and moved in until it was complete. That's what I did...

 

[jacko 10+ year member]

call the builder and complain... a lot.

 

[mjbailey21 10+ year member]

I work for a realty part time, and I know exactly what you're talking about!

Though, legally, I am not sure how far you can go. Did you guys have to put a deposit down?

If I were you, I'd ask to speak to the actual broker himself, not the "liscenced agents". They will say whatever they can (to some extent), to get themselves out of a phone call to their maintenence/make-ready crew. If you speak to the owner of the house or the broker of whom you're dealing with, things will move a lot faster.

 

[cpierce 5,000+ posts]

Yes we had to put a deposit down.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Did you have a contract in writing saying that the work that wasn't done was supposed to be done by the start of your lease?

If not, there's a good chance you're SOL.