The Worst Landlords In The World

• Cutting a giant hole in one renter's floor
• Breaking into a tenant's apartment and pouring ammonia on their clothes, bedding, and electronics
• Cutting the support beams to a renter's apartment
• Illegally entering a renter's apartment and dismantling their furniture
• Turning off the water,power, and electricity to tenant's apartments

S.F. landlords charged with tenant terror [SF Gate] (Thanks to Paul!)

Landlord's Crappy Boiler Costs Us Big Time

I live in a 750 square foot apartment in Brooklyn, NY. Per the lease agreement, my roommate and I signed to pay the heat separate from the rent. The first gas bill we received was $750, and the following gas bill was roughly the same amount. We knew that the price of gas was expensive, but for two people who make great pains to use the heat only when absolutely necessary, and occasionally use the stove to boil a pot of water, this seemed ridiculous. For all of 2007, we owe roughly $2000 in gas costs.

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Answers To NYC Renters' Questions

Slumlord Dermot Company Finally Installs Boiler

Huzzah! Dan's quest to not live in an icecube has succeeded. He writes:

The boiler's been replaced and I've had consistent heat and hot water since xmas. Now i just have this unholy clanking coming from the steam pipe every morning b/t 3 and 5 am which jolts me from my bed in fear that its about to explode and take me with it. The super says hopefully it will get resolved this week.

And despite the fact that I'm fairly certain that, for my troublemaking, Dermot will either price me out of my apartment or fail to renew my lease come august, I can take some solace in the fact that the elderly people in my building now treat me like a local hero for getting Dermot to cave in a way they had never been able to.

Last we checked, Daniel's NYC apartment didn't have any heat and he had to call his supervisor whenever he wanted to take a shower. Now there's been some developments as the powerful love of Consumerist exposure melts the heart of the Dermot Company, aka, Snowmiser. Dan writes:

Dec 13th
On Monday, I returned home from work to discover an unexpected message from the city building inspector tucked under my door, stating that he had come to check on my heat and hot water, but that, since I wasn't home, he'd check things out in a neighboring apartment.

I had no idea what would come of this notice, but then two days later (this evening to be precise), another notice appeared under my door announcing that Dermot will be replacing our now infamously busted boiler next Monday...

Maybe Landlord Will Fix Ceiling After It Collapses?

After cleaning black mold off the ceiling daily with bleach for about two months and pleading with the new landlord, he sent the pseudo-super, who barely speaks English, to fix the leak in my bathroom.

After ripping down the almost collapsed ceiling and the neighbor's kitchen floor, the guy discovered at least three different leaks, all converging on my ceiling.

Landlord-Tenant Law For Every State

Coldest Day Of Year. No Heat On. Thanks, Slumlord Dermot Company.

The roach situation has improved, but Daniel still has to call the super every time he wants to take a shower. Also, on Sunday, when it was 21 degrees in New York, he didn't have any heat until 6pm.

At the end of October, Daniel wrote us about the troubles he, and all the other tenants, were having with their building's shady management company, Dermot Company. After his story posted here, Dermot called him, "jumping through hoops to kiss my ass," as Daniel put it. He asked us to refrain from posting the news to make sure that they weren't just making kissy kissy nice nice to put out the bad PR. We agreed, and Daniel's instincts proved correct.

His update, inside...

What To Do When Rental Gets Foreclosed?

My wife and I currently life in Orlando, FL and we are renting a condo conversion. We have been renting the place since Aug 06, with a lease set up between us and the private owner. We recently signed a new lease (as our old one expired) in August. Things seemed to be going ok.

2 weeks ago both my wife and I got a summons, that let us know that our landlord was being sued by the bank he financed the house through, for not paying his mortgage since July of this year...

Stuck With Dermot Management, A Modern-Day Slumlord

A reader writes:

A major NYC real estate corp [Dermot Management] is seriously fucking its tenants, myself included, and I just signed my lease a week ago and am now stuck with these bastards.

I just moved into an apartment at 121 Seaman Ave., in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan.

The property is managed by the Dermot Company, which has been snatching up properties all around New York City and providing broker free rentals through sites like Rent-Direct.com, which is where I found my apartment.

The apartment seemed like a steal: A lot of space, a pretty nice building, a decent neighborhood (if far as hell from all civilization) and a reasonable rent. However, upon moving in to my new apartment, I made a few alarming discoveries: My kitchen is infested with cockroaches, I have only intermittent hot water, and there are no smoke detectors in my apartment.

Landlord: Quick, The 90-Year-Old Kicked The Bucket, Lock Up Her Stuff So We Can Rent Her Apartment!

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