I had been renting an apartment unit from this person fro August til November.in November my 5 yr old son and I left for a week to visit his father out of state for Thanksgiving holiday. Upon our return, after a 6 hour drive in bad weather, we returned home to find that at some point during the course of the week, a main had blocked, causing the unit to flood with sewage.
At this time, I went upstairs and alerted the landlady of this mess. I was handed a mop and bucket and was told she couldn't get ahold of her plumber, and that I needed to find one myself. I got ahold of the "Rooter Guy" and "Servpro" (a biohazard cleanup crew) on my own. We had to stay in a hotel overnight and pay extra to keep the dog with us.
The next day, I met the Servpro guys and was told that we would have to vacate the premises for at least 3 days. Having no family in the area, or friends with the extra room for myself, a 5 yr old, and a dog, we had to drive back to CT to stay with my child's father.
Over the course of the next two weeks, I was told that some of the baseboards, sheetrock, and plumbing would have to be replaced, and it should have taken about 3 weeks. I was told after 2 weeks, no one had started yet. I was told that "All the insurance adjusters are in Florida for the hurricane people." (Lie.)
I had to transfer my son to another school in CT. Another month passed and I was told "It should be done for the New Year." I left voice mails and hear nothing back. I rented another house in CT at this point. I called again and informed landlady of my intent to move to CT, as my son had already had to be transfered out of state to this new school, and we had to have a place to live. We had been living out of suitcases at my ex's house for a month and a half at this point.
On January 14 I went back to VT to pack up the belongings of ours that weren't destroyed by sewage, and found an utter nightmare. MANY of our things were thrown around and broken, after-the-fact. My Pfalzgraff dinnerware was thrown into a cardboard box in the living room, broken, with various food items, stored in the same box with paint thinner and spray chemicals. My kitchen utensils were stored in a usty box covered in sheetrock dust and under a used toilet plunger. The bottom skirting of my brand new bureau was broken clean off. My new leather furniture was covered in sheetrock (no tarp was used) and punctured. My toaster had a rusty drainpipe on top of it. The refrigerator had been moved around and left unplugged for quite some time before being apparently plugged back in, and the stench was unbelievable. My on-site professional massage chair was stored under a power drill, punctured, and missing parts. My son's posters were ripped to shreds on the floor. Several items were missing, including an old family album, an inherited coin collection, a cd player, an end table, and many of my clothes. Someone had "rifled through" my nightstand/underwear drawer, taken out a "very personal item" and put it in a box with some of my child's stuffed animals. My new DVD player was missing the scrolling knob. My house phone had been used, with weird random #s on the caller ID, and the wall cord had been snapped.
I took many many digital photos that night, before the movers arrived, and contacted the police. I filed a violation of privacy/criminal negligence report. The movers came the next morning and I had to come immediately back to CT to pick up my son.
I have sent this woman 3 emails, left phone messages, and am sending out a 1st class "return-receipt" letter this week with the photos of damaged and destoyed items. I have requested my security deposit refunded, and have heard NOTHING. At this point, I am pursuing a civil and criminal suit against her for compensation of security deposit, ALL damaged and destroyed items that occured due to negligence after the flood, and punitive damages for violation of privacy and theft.
One would think that after a family being displaced and homeless, as it were, for 2 months that reasonable care would have been taken to avoid any further damage or loss. None was taken whatsoever. What the police, movers, and I saw was a slovenly toss-about job and utter incompetence and negligence. This woman practices unsafe, illegal, and just plain unscrupulous rental practices. Do not ever rent from her.
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