Landlord issues in Virginia

April 22, 2009 9:21 AM

Landlord issues in Virginia -- please help!

I live with two roommates in a house in Arlington, Virginia. I make an entry level salary, and they're both grad students. I found this place on Craigslist several months ago -- I was in a rush to settle somewhere quickly, they had a room open and it seemed to suit me. It's an old house and a little rundown, but I thought that wouldn't be a problem.

Since then, we've had recurring mold issues in our bathrooms, despite attempts to clean it up. We had a rodent infestation about which our landlord never responded to our attempts to get in contact with him (we eventually got rid of all of them on our own). We have an ant problem in our kitchen, which apparently was there before we signed our lease and has just reappeared. When my roommate and I cleaned out our kitchen cabinets, we found food that had expired in 2003. Per our lease agreement, our landlord should have made an inspection within 5 days of signing our lease, which he never did. Had I realized how bad this place was I would never have moved in. And our rent is not inexpensive -- for what we pay we should not be dealing with all of these issues.

The major problem is, however, that he rents the basement apartment to a separate couple. They have a different entrance, different mailbox, separate lease agreement, and we've only ever seen them in passing -- the basement apartment is its own unit. However, we recently discovered that our landlord never divided the utilities for the house, and for the past five months we have been paying for the water, gas, sewer, and trash for the basement apartment as well as for our own house. This is the most important issue that we need to resolve right away.

Our landlord has been difficult to deal with in the past, and we've been gathering information to confront him about all of these issues -- most importantly the utilities, but the rest of the issues with the house, too. I need advice on what resources we have as tenants in Arlington, how we should approach our landlord about this, and who we file a complaint with if need be. I believe the fact that we've been paying a separate unit's utilities because our landlord never made arrangements to split the units, and never informed us that they weren't split, is grounds for breaking our lease, but my roommates aren't sure whether they want to leave right now.

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated -- thanks.

posted by anonymous to law & government (5 comments total)

I assume you have seen this?

I broke a lease when I lived in Arlington over a decade ago (we had an opportunity to buy elsewhere), and it wasn't any big deal.
posted by JoanArkham at 9:36 AM on April 22

Rights and Responsibilities
Arlington County provides information, referrals, advice and mediation of disputes regarding the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords. When the landlord owns and rents out 5 units (condominiums, townhouses, or single family homes) or more, the requirements of the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (PDF Format) (VRLTA) apply to both the landlord and the tenants. For landlords renting 4 units or less, VRLTA does not apply and it is the lease that is most important. The Housing Information Center staff is available at 703-228-3765 from 8:00 am to 5:00pm or send us an email. Staff are bi-lingual in English-Spanish.

The Tenant Landlord Handbook (PDF Format)describes a variety of topics and is based on VRLTA.
posted by beelzbubba at 9:38 AM on April 22

Mine is a double post.
posted by beelzbubba at 9:39 AM on April 22

Also general advice in Landlord/tenant relations is to document everything. Do as much as you possibly can in the form of letters, preferably using registered mail. Keep copies of all the letters that you have sent. Even phone calls or personal visits should be documented with the time and date of the call and the name of the person you talked to.
posted by jefeweiss at 9:54 AM on April 22

For future reference, links to Landlord / Tenant laws in all 50 states.
posted by dersins at 11:39 AM on April 22