h8 renting.

July 7, 2009 6:35 AM

All signs point to illegal activity on the part of my landlord, and paying the rent in cash certainly isn't helping the situation. What are our options (in DC?)

So, we finally found an apartment in a less-crimeridden (but still pretty crimeridden) part of town, and the rent ($2750 / 3 a month) has been requested in cash this month.

Also, a business card from a government investigator, with a note to our landlord to call him, arrived at the door. Along with several child support checks. And various other documents addressed to various people with the same last name but different first names as our landlord (he doesn't live in the area). He's tough to contact, but we're trying to forward these to him.

And he insists that we either pay the rent in cash or wire it to him - no checks, etc. The overwhelming conclusion is that he doesn't want to report his income via rent so that he doesn't have to pay a portion as child support, and this is certainly digging a deeper hole with his existing legal troubles.

This month's rent has been a fiasco, but it'll be sorted out by tonight. For future reference, though:

Do we have any right to request to pay rent in check, etc? It makes everyone nervous to carry the $900+ back to the apartment every month in cash.

If this jerk gets completely destroyed in the courts and can't keep the apartment, do we have renters rights in DC, or are we kicked out?

Thanks!

posted by tmcw to Work & Money (21 answers total)

You should insist on signed and dated receipts for each month's rent at the very least, that way you can prove that you've paid it.
I don't know DC rental law, but ask that your deposit be kept in some sort of escrow account to protect you if he has his assets seized.
posted by atrazine at 6:47 AM on July 7, 2009

Report him to an authority and find a new place to live. Lord only knows what the courts will do to this jerk if they catch him. Also Lord only knows what will happen to your apartment as well. Good luck.
posted by Mastercheddaar at 6:58 AM on July 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

Read the DC Office of the Tenant Advocate Tenant Survival Guide. In there you'll find information on how to protect your deposit, your rights as a tenant, including your rights should your landlord run into legal troubles, and near the end there's a list of legal services, both free and otherwise. You're probably going to need a lawyer.

Since you're able to afford north of $900/month in rent, you aren't terribly likely to qualify for free help, but hey, it's worth a shot.
posted by valkyryn at 7:01 AM on July 7, 2009

If it's not too late (leases signed, etc) please try and not live there. This is not going to be a good landlord. He's shady, trying to get out of paying some child support, which just sucks. He's hard to get ahold of - which is going to suck when your heater dies in January and he doesn't return your call for days. He'll do things half-ass - which is going to suck when something breaks and when he finally does get around to fixing it it's going to be a shitty job and the ceiling will totally leak all over your shit and he won't care. And you have no faith that he's not going to be in jail or otherwise MIA during the course of the lease.
Renting sucks but this situation is particularly sketchy,
posted by 8dot3 at 7:01 AM on July 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

(damn hit post)
Anyway renting sucks but these are paticularly dodgy circumstances. Find a better landlord.
posted by 8dot3 at 7:02 AM on July 7, 2009

WAPO DC Rental Guide

DC Housing Regulation Administration (HRA) Office of Rental Services
posted by Pollomacho at 7:09 AM on July 7, 2009

In NYC, the landlord can request but the tenant is not required to pay in cash--I didn't see that addressed in the Tenant Survival Guide listed above, but you could call the HRA and ask if you're required to abide by his request. I understand that in many localities a landlord can refuse to take a personal check but that's usually only AFTER a personal check has bounced. They can't do that preemptively.

If you do pay in cash, get a signed and dated receipt every single time. (But you say he doesn't live in the area--how are you getting him cash?!)
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 7:24 AM on July 7, 2009

Response by poster: @peanut - so far he has stopped by to pick up the rent. I'm going to demand a receipt tonight when I pay rent. Unfortunately it's too late to move out, and besides his shittiness, the place is actually decent (900 is low-middle rent for the Columbia Heights area of DC, from what I've seen. If someone knows how to pay a lot less than you'll see on CraigsList, let me know...)

Definitely ending the lease after a year, though.
posted by tmcw at 7:29 AM on July 7, 2009

"Also, a business card from a government investigator, with a note to our landlord to call him, arrived at the door. Along with several child support checks. And various other documents addressed to various people with the same last name but different first names as our landlord (he doesn't live in the area). He's tough to contact, but we're trying to forward these to him."

I wouldn't do this. Either toss them in a bin until he contacts you or, my preference, mark them incorrectly addressed - return to sender and drop them in a mailbox. Especially if they are playing fast and loose with government agencies returned mail will quickly get action and it's best to not get involved.

"And he insists that we either pay the rent in cash or wire it to him - no checks, etc. The overwhelming conclusion is that he doesn't want to report his income via rent so that he doesn't have to pay a portion as child support, and this is certainly digging a deeper hole with his existing legal troubles."

Unless you've got more to go on then you've expressed here I wouldn't jump to this conclusion. Just get a receipt every month and you'll be covered. You might want to see if he'd take a cashier's cheque instead of cash. No chance it'll bounce and it'll probably make you feel better carrying it rather than cash.
posted by Mitheral at 7:48 AM on July 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Are you certain he owns the building?
posted by Nelson at 8:32 AM on July 7, 2009 [8 favorites]

If I could favorite Nelson's comment 1200 times, I would.

Make sure, via city building registration, that he's the actual owner.
posted by jerseygirl at 8:44 AM on July 7, 2009

It would be worth checking your lease; but I would not be comfortable paying in cash, if only for the worry of the landlord claiming that he didn't receive it.
posted by craven_morhead at 9:27 AM on July 7, 2009

WHAT NELSON AND JERSEYGIRL SAID.

Obvs, this is someone who doesn't care about his responsibilities to others, the law, or the courts - and you should expect to be treated accordingly by this guy if you have a maintenance issue and when it comes time to return your deposit.

Your landlord has money issues. He most likely will do a poor job of responding when something breaks. He won't have the funds to pay for a repair even if he is available to you. He will make excuses to drag out any repair process. Should you stay on in this apartment, be prepared to get things fixed yourself and then submit to him the receipt along with the repair amount deducted from your cash rent. It is also possible he has used your deposit money to pay off a debt or something. I would be really surprised to find out he had the money properly on account somewhere accruing interest.

I think the real estate term for taking deposit monies and using them for other purposes is commingling of funds? Anyway, you should also be concerned that if his assets are seized, where does that leave your deposit if it is actually on account somewhere?

Lastly, I'm sure you feel awful knowing the rent money you pay every month is (probably) somehow involved in a child support case. Sad.

Go, in person, to your rent stabilization office/housing authority. Explain your situation to a caseworker. They can advise you on how best to leave this apartment. I wouldn't alert my landlord that I was suspicious of him until I had a plan.

FWIIW, I probably would not try to stay on for "free" in the apartment in an attempt to save enough money for a new place and/or until the money on deposit equaled the rent owed - even at the end of the lease term. Because this guy sounds super shady, I think it not worth the risk.

I'm sure finances are a big issue for you, which is why I suggest professional guidance. You want to leave this situation cleanly and as legally "whole" as possible. The less drama, the better.

Oh yeah! Get a PO Box that your landlord doesn't know about - have all your mail (bank, etc.) sent there. This way, if you have to leave the apartment suddenly, your private information and correspondence are kept secure and you won't have a feeling like you left anything important behind.
posted by jbenben at 9:36 AM on July 7, 2009

900 is low-middle rent for the Columbia Heights area of DC, from what I've seen. If someone knows how to pay a lot less than you'll see on CraigsList, let me know

I would start by looking somewhere other than Columbia Heights or any other neighborhood that could be described as "hip." Try heading east.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:45 AM on July 7, 2009

Response by poster: @Pollomacho: the area directly east of us features about six times the already-high shooting rate. Maybe farther east the trend reverses? North it gets more violent as well, and south it gets more expensive...

I'm going to check the building ownership (although finding that online is proving fruitless), and going to pay this month's rent today, since there just isn't another option.

This is a really, really, really, bad day and situation.
posted by tmcw at 1:53 PM on July 7, 2009

I'm sorry for your trouble and for any extra doubt I've raised. It's clear there's something squirrely going on with your landlord, the question is just how squirrely and how difficult it could be for you personally.

I think your best bet is to consult with a local renters advocacy group. A quick web search turned up TENAC, no idea who they are but I bet they can at least point you in the right direction. Lots of other possible contacts listed here and here.

If you do want to research building ownership, property tax records are a good place to start.
posted by Nelson at 2:22 PM on July 7, 2009

Response by poster: Okay, phew, he does indeed own the property, and it's worth $609k, which might partially explain the high rent. I'll probably update after passing off the rent / my soul tonight.
posted by tmcw at 2:28 PM on July 7, 2009

I don't understand why you say "all signs point to illegal activity by the landlord."

A card from a government investigator --- could be anything. Perhaps your landlord witnessed something. Perhaps the investigator is following up on a lead that will amount to nothing. You can't assume, because an investigator left a card, that your landlord is involved in something illegal.

Several child support checks --- not sure what you mean by that, since you seem to say that your landlord is supposed to be paying child support. Why, then, would several child support checks arrive? Anyway, child support enforcement officials are very good at ferreting out income, and if he owns a building woth $609K, full of tenants, trust me, he's not fooling anyone. So I doubt he is even trying to fool anyone.

Requiring rent in cash --- you say the apartment is comparatively cheap, and located in a crime-ridden neighborhood. It makes sense for him not to accept checks, since checks of lower income people often bounce. I would be interested to find out if he accepts money orders. But even if he refuses to accept money orders, that's not crazy, since money orders these days are frequently forged.

So, do you have any other bases for thinking he's involved in illegal activity? The stuff you have listed simply doesn't add up to a suspicion of illegal activity.
posted by jayder at 4:32 PM on July 7, 2009

DC laws have some of the best protections around for tenants. Check out the sites/ organizations already provided.

Keep in mind that if you do end up contacting the housing practice authorities- if you reveal your location and the space does not have proper permits to be a rental property- and this is true for many of the DC rowhouses that are group houses- you could set the wheels in motion for losing the roof over your head. So be discerning about who you speak with and what you share.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 9:00 PM on July 7, 2009

@Pollomacho: the area directly east of us features about six times the already-high shooting rate. Maybe farther east the trend reverses? North it gets more violent as well, and south it gets more expensive...

Yes. I am assuming you are in Columbia Heights (based on some above comments and the crime trends you speak of), heading east from there you get to Petworth and the Howard University areas parts of which are, sadly, high crime areas. Heading East from there you reach the other half of the district, the "sinister" and "dark" half - Brookland, Michigan Park, Woodridge, Riggs Park, etc... all Red and Green line accessable, all comparably affordable, all with lower crime rates.

But please don't tell anyone that it's nice up here or they'll move here and spoil it for us.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:33 AM on July 8, 2009

Where, oh where, has the lost art of bargaining gone? Of course you've asked for a substantial discount in exchange for paying in cash?
posted by dinger at 9:51 AM on July 9, 2009