Renter has legal questions. No Water!!!

[JonathanD]

Hello,
My wife and I moved to Atlanta about 1 month ago. When I arrived with the truck there was no water. About 12 days later we had water(We were on vacation for 6 of those days).
Now a month later (2 days ago) our water is shut off. After some digging we find that the new owner did not return a compliance document. It will be another 5-7 business days before we have water if they turned in the paper work today(they didn't yesterday). That is a total of 10-13 days without water.

No toilet, no shower, no washing my hands. We had to buy paper cups and plates because boiling water to do dishes is a pain. Blah Blah Blah. We have friends that are about 15 min away so we can go there. I have bought $25+ worth of water to flush the toilets, mop the floor etc...

What can I do here? Can I ask them to forgo a months rent because this is an "Unlivable" house?

Thanks,


**Side note. not having running water gives me the faintest idea what living in a 3rd world country must be like. I feel very fortunate to be in a developed country.

[guy n. cognito]

Originally Posted by JonathanD

Hello,
My wife and I moved to Atlanta about 1 month ago. When I arrived with the truck there was no water. About 12 days later we had water(We were on vacation for 6 of those days).
Now a month later (2 days ago) our water is shut off. After some digging we find that the new owner did not return a compliance document. It will be another 5-7 business days before we have water if they turned in the paper work today(they didn't yesterday). That is a total of 10-13 days without water.

No toilet, no shower, no washing my hands. We had to buy paper cups and plates because boiling water to do dishes is a pain. Blah Blah Blah. We have friends that are about 15 min away so we can go there. I have bought $25+ worth of water to flush the toilets, mop the floor etc...

What can I do here? Can I ask them to forgo a months rent because this is an "Unlivable" house?

Thanks,


**Side note. not having running water gives me the faintest idea what living in a 3rd world country must be like. I feel very fortunate to be in a developed country.

lack of water makes that unit "uninhabitable." You should not have to pay for the days in which you didn't have water.

[James Hart]

Is it the owner/landlord's fault the water is off now and was off before?
(I assume it is from what you've typed)

If so, they must not have a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) which means they have no right to rent the place out.

Check these out:
http://www.atlantawatershed.org
http://www.atlantaga.gov/Government/Planning.aspx

[Chunk-O-Funk]

No running water and you pretty much have'em by the nads.

Look up your landlord tenant legal agreement in your state. You should be able find them online. Every state is different, but no running water is universal and puts the apartment in an inhabitable state. Whats not universal is what you can do about it and how you go about doing it.

You can try and negotiate something with your landlord. Free rent and he's getting off cheap. He may be liable for putting you in another apartment until the problem is fixed. You would have to bring this to the city's attention to get anything done about it, though.

Anyway, arm yourself with knowledge and read the tenant landlord agreement for your area.

[NJL]

in san antonio, we would report the owners to the Code Compliance department.

you guys need water to habitate, this really sucks.

[JonathanD]

Yes, the owned has to file the paper work. We are not able to file the form.

Thanks for the links. I will let you know what happens.
Jonathan

[Fassa Albrecht]

Here in the UK stuff like this would earn you some money back.

A uni friend of mine moved into a property last year and the water supply was erratic, then switched off completely after turning brown. This lasted 6 WEEKS.

In that time they were given 2 2l bottles of water each (which had to do them for everything from washing themselves to dishes).The landlord messed up getting the thing sorted, not sorting out paperwork and stuff and my friend went to this independant ombudsman thing. Result? She got the money back for the time they'd had no water.

[gruda]

this is why i like my sig!

[Steve]

Provided the landlord is at fault:

In Florida your rent would be pro-rated to the days the occupancy was in habitable condition.