I have rented a property in St. John's County for the past 14 months. When I intially rented the property, I was given the impression that the Real Estate Broker was part owner and that the property was managed by a property manager. I met her and gave her the initial deposit and first months rent, but she stated that she forgot to bring the lease with her. She continually forgot to bring it when collecting the rent. Although my rent has been paid on time, I received a letter insisting that I build a fence around the inground pool or they would lose their insurance and affect their mortgage. Then the central air quit working, in spite of frequent filter replacements and normal tenant maintenance. The toilets both started leaking at their bases in both bathrooms. All of this she insists that I must pay to repair or I will be evicted. The toilets did this a year ago and she paid for a plumber to come out and at the time stated for future repairs "call them and then deduct the payment from the rent". Now she says it is my responsibility to absorb the cost myself. Isn't that the Realtors responsibility as owner/broker?
Thanks for any input.
Valera

You likely won't like my answer, but it depends on what the lease says. DOLT there is no lease!

Basically you are on a month to month agreement, so the rules can change.

There is no lease, so doesn't that mean that they are responsible for the health codes, such as plumbing that works and a smoke alarm?

Besides, seems like extortion when they force me to fence in their pool in order to gain property insurance or they will evict me. Why should I put up a fence when I am not the owner?
At any rate, I have contacted the Fair Housing Board, the news channel person "On Your Side" and I am going to write a review about their business practices so that it is seen when people visit the Realty website. I work with more than 25 physicians who otherwise might have interest in purchasing properties in St. John's County since it is a popular area, but I believe that they will all take heed when they are made aware that they can't trust the ethics of this person.

I would contact an attorney.

Yes, that is my next step. It really stinks when I have paid so much rent for the past 15 months on a property that they bought for $78,000 to flip for commercial and have up for $1.7 mil. Since it is the land that is valuable, they could care less about the house and its condition. Just too bad that I didn't realize this up front! But it seems since they have made $16K off the rent that they would be willing to take care of their responsibilities.
Thanks,
Valera

I would not have let the lease issue slide - for 15 months you have lived there without a lease? I would have been on their butts right from the beginning, hounding them for it. I am not one to just let things like that GO.

So in some ways, you need to accept the fact that you could have addressed this sooner, and possibly decided that you didn't want to live there under those conditions and not have shelled out 16,000 in rent.

It's a shame and it's a hard lesson to learn, and it's so "nice" to be trusting. Unfortunately, people like this agent take advantage of people who trust them.

While I normally would have pursued the lease issue, it didn't seem to matter so much at first, I had just moved here to the area and thought it might be avantageous to not have one, in case I decided that I didn't care for the area. Also, since for the first 12 months I didn't have any problems, I didn't see the value in pushing the issue. However, I won't make the same mistake in the future.

So it worked in your favor for 12 months, then fell apart, so now you are pushing the issue?

I didn't think it really made a difference, I have never been in a situation with a slumlord before, I guess.

Most state make evicting a tenent between hard and very hard if they don't pay the rent. It would really be an up-hill battle for them for trying to evict for not putting up thier fence. I would check with a lawyer to find out your specific rights. I would then start looking for another place to live. Since you did not have a contract, the worst you could loose is your deposit.