Who deals with complaints about landlords in La.?

August 13, 2010 7:37 AM

I want to make a complaint about my slum..er, landlord. How do I go about doing that in the state of Louisiana?

I live in an old apartment. The builiding consists of twelve units. Directly across the parking lot is another apartment building owned by the same people. My problem is that it looks like a complete and total garbage dump. If anybodies appliances go out, they take them out of the apartment and put them on the side of the buildings. There is also beer cans, cigarette butts, and other garbage lying about, sometimes food. It's really gross and even though it's not a fancy place, It depresses the hell out of me to see that crap everyday. I can't afford to move right now, and I've complained about the trash before and nothing has been done. In fact, it's even worse. Who handles complaints of this nature?

posted by anonymous to Law & Government (7 answers total)

You should be able to go to the city and complain there, but this does not constitute someone as being a slumlord. In fact, it is not necessarily the landlord's responsibility to clean up after their tenants. Don't throw terms like slumlord around.

You know if the aesthetics bother you, you could always go over and work on cleaning it up yourself. In fact, instead of complaining about it, taking a big outside trashcan over and starting to throw stuff away might be the best way to start a trend.
posted by TheBones at 7:46 AM on August 13, 2010

Appliance disposal is the responsibility of the landlord and abandoned appliances outside can be havens for mosquitoes & other hazards. These are not your responsibility.

Your best bet is to call the city.
posted by batmonkey at 7:59 AM on August 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Call your city. It's a code enforcement issue involving solid waste disposal and maybe the health department. If you are in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, you can even dial 311 and they'll either take the complaint themselves or forward you to the right place. If you are elsewhere, it might be a parish function rather than a city (in other states, these issues sometimes devolve to the county - I don't know for sure how it works in Louisiana when cities aren't capable of handling things.)
posted by SMPA at 8:11 AM on August 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mod note: From the OP:

Thebones: I was joking about "slumlord" Geeze.

I have picked up the garbage myself before. Picking up the garbage of other people gets old really fast, rather than starting a trend it feels like a slap in the face to pick their crap up and the next day -ta-da! A new pile of beer cans!!

posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:35 AM on August 13, 2010

I understand, humor doesn't translate very well on the internet. It is kind of crazy, but this showed up on Lifehacker this morning.

As far as the big stuff, the city, or the landlord, has to take care of that stuff.
posted by TheBones at 12:06 PM on August 13, 2010

you might try talking to the landlord & telling him/her that you're concerned about the mess because it might not be the most sanitary way of dealing with trash. if that doesn't work, call the environmental health department. if there's food & such tossed about, it's going to attract rats & other rodents, which carry disease. if it's really a mess, they'll talk to the landlord for you, and undoubtedly get much better results.
posted by msconduct at 3:39 PM on August 13, 2010

I'm going to take a wild guess that you live in New Orleans. And your landlord is probably HR Properties or RiverLake. You're pretty much f*cked because landlords get away with anything here!

I'd maybe try calling 311 or go to the City's website and lodge a complaint there. They are pretty good about following up.
posted by radioamy at 5:00 PM on August 13, 2010