My husband, daughter and I (about 6 months pregant at the time) rented a home from James Kokosoulis for a lease term starting in June. Our home was located at 1525 S. Wolf Road in Des Plaines. We were paying $1825.00 / month in rent for a three bedroom ranch. Upon moving in, we noticed that there were many, many deep rooted problems that we were never told about.in normal circumstances, you inform your landlord of problems you are having with your home and he fixes them. Well in this case, my deadbeat landlord ignored all requests on most occasions.
Our plumbing never functioned properly from move in. It started off with the bathtub backing up. We called James numerous times and after about a week of him promising he would send someone out the next day to no avail, he showed up at our house at around 9:00 PM to look at it. He said, "We'll need to get a plumber." OH REALLY? So what we were expected to do in the meantime? He suggested my daughter and I follow him to one of his other rental properties and take a shower there.
The first one we went to had no hot water, so we headed over to another one. The second place we went to had about 3-4 men working inside. The bathroom had no lock on the door, no blinds on the full sized window facing the street and no shower curtain. Thanks, but no thanks. I advised James that I expect a plumber out first thing the next morning. Lo and behold, his "plumber" came over that afternoon. His "plumber" was his handyman who supposedly was an electrician as well and handled the small little things that needed to be done upon moving (changing our light fixtures outside after we complained about THAT numerous times). He had not a clue what he was doing. He tried to rod out the bathtub and guess what? We now had raw sewage errupting from the drain in our basement bathroom.
It was determined that the problem was a lot more in depth then just rodding out a bathtub. The handyman didn't have any suggestion as to what was wrong. He advised he would contact James and tell him. Well we didn't hear from James and probably wouldn't have unless we called him multiple times. Again, promises of sending out a professional were never fufilled. After that, things just began to go futher down hill. We would wash clothes, and sewage would shoot up from the drain in the basement, as well as from the toilet upstairs. If you flushed the toilet in the basement, sewage would come from the drain in the bathtub upstairs.
My uncle who is a LICENSED plumber came over one day and noted that our house smelled of raw sewage. Lovely. We told him of the continuous problems we were having and he easily determined that all the plumbing was running on one line which is completely ridiculous for the amount of bathrooms we had. He also advised that tree roots were growing the pipes under the house most likely which is causing all the backup of sewage and it was a very big job, which is most likely why James was avoiding sending a real plumber out.
As a tenant paying the amount of rent I was, I don't care how much money it costs to fix, I expect it fixed. Especially if the health and sanitation of my family is involved!
This isn't the worst of what happened.in early August, we had an extremely rough thunderstorm with terrential downpour. My 4 year old came running into the living room yelling, "Mommy, my walls are raining!" Her walls are leaking water like crazy, and I mean creating puddles on the floor in her bedroom. Same thing with our bedroom and same thing with the nursery. My mom calls us up from the basement telling us the carpet in the basement near the windows is drenched. Every single room in that house with a window was leaking like mad! Once again, we call James numerous times with lack of a response. When he finally does decide to respond, he promises he'll have someone come look at it tomorrow morning. They never show up. This sort of behavior from him proves to be a patter and we're sick of it!
The straw that really broke the camel's back was when my mom decided to rearrange the furniture in the basement. She called me downstairs yet again in a panic. This time there is MOLD growing on the carpet where her heavy furniture layed (her bed, her dresser, her nightstand which all happened to be pushed up against the wall). It was a horrifying sight! Here I am, just gave birth, with my four year old daughter and my family is exposed to mold damage that has gone completely unignored by my landlord and I assume this could have prevented had he sent someone out to look at the water damage when we informed him of it!
Once again, we contact him, call him NUMEROUS times, no response until about a week later where he yet again promises us someone will be out and guess who he sends out once again? His handyman! A week later! Guess what time he showed up? 10:00 PM! And surprise, surprise, there is nothing he can do to fix it. The run around to the 100th degree as usual.
That very moment, I get online and start researching what my rights are. There is something called a "Constructive Eviction" which basically allows you to leave the premises if the conditions you are living in are deemed a hazard. Well mold was the first thing on the list of valid reasons to claim, as well as plumbing problems.
We didn't know our legal rights at this time but we started toying around with the idea to move sometime in early to mid September, after we gave our landlord rent for September already. After researching our rights a bit more in depth we decided moving was the best route for the healthy of my family and I. We notified James of this and he threatened us at first, saying he was going to keep our security deposit, then pleaded with us to stay, saying he will reduce the rent. How about you fix the problems?! We said no way. Since rent hadn't been deposited yet, we withdrew the funds as the bank claimed it was too late for a stop payment. We moved out towards to end of September and since James still had our security deposit called it a draw.
Well, last week I got some lovely court papers telling me I am being summoned to court! He claims we left damage to the basement carpet (hilarious, mold damage from his leaky foundation) and damage to the front door. That is even more hilarious considering we left the house in better condition then what we received it in (debris and garbage all over the place). The door was in perfectly fine condition when we left. We drove by the house two weeks after we moved and it was hanging off it's hinges. Hmmmm, wonder who caused the damage there? He is also wanting backrent for breaking the lease. Well little does he know that I am not required to pay backrent since we claimed a Constructive Eviction. I have hired a lawyer who is in complete and total awe over this situation. He thinks my case iron clad! He can't believe that James is trying to pursue this and after we expose his numerous code violations, maybe he will learn his lesson instead of trying to rip off innocent families!
Renters in the market for a home in the des plaines area beware! James kokosoulis owns a lot of rental property in the area! He is an unresponsive, dead beat slum lord!
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