Portland, OR dust cleaning and landlord issue
April 17, 2018 12:55 PM Subscribe
I’m having a peculiar issue with my landlord in regard to getting a room cleaned, and I don’t really know where to turn to get it done. Details inside.
I know that nobody here is my lawyer, I’m not exactly asking for legal advice.
My girlfriend and I and two other people are renting a house. We haven’t had any issues up until this month, when our newest roommate (who is a friend of mine) signed the lease and moved in. He immediately began having allergic reactions in his room that have made it uninhabitable for him. His room is at the top story of the house and has a doorway into the attic. It is a legal room, not a space that we threw somebody into to live. The room has a lot of dust built up in it, and I mean very obvious amounts of dust on the hardwood floor, even after it was cleaned from the previous roommate. The attic area also has an extremely large amount of dust in it. He told the landlord about this immediately (within two days of moving in, so on or about the 3rd and 4th of April). The landlord has taken a very long time to help with this and he hasn’t been able to live in the room. She has agreed to refund his rent for the month, but has strongly suggested that he move out. I am not entirely sure why. In the mean time, she has been extremely slow to get a professional cleaning service to go into the room and attic to clean out all the dust, as well as the vents in the house, and to take a look for any other potential issues. This is a 100+ year old house. Now, as of this morning, almost at the end of the month, she has told us to go and find a cleaning service and that she’ll pay for it.
What do I even look for in order to get this cleaned? Everything I search for appears to be for “maid” services, when we need somebody to clean up dust in his room and in the attic space and to take a look at the vents. What exactly are we suppose to be looking for? We know we need a licensed, bonded company, but everything I’ve looked up seems to be for offices or bedrooms and nothing that seems heavy duty like an attic. The amount of dust is very significant.
I’m almost confused about the legality of this and am looking into legal advice from the tenants alliance and other avenues, because this seems like a fairly simple thing that should have been fixed, and yet our landlord has waited until the last moment to do it and then has dumped the responsibility on us. We’re afraid of our roommate moving out, saddling us with the responsibility of finding a new one, AND still needing to get the room cleaned. It’s making me question whether there is something more significant happening that she is trying to cover up, especially since she seems so adamant of him moving out even though he passed the background checks and paid all the money on time, and it seems extra fishy that she won’t just hire somebody herself and has instead passed that onto us.
Mostly I’m looking for a cleaning service that handles dust in a bedroom and an attic, and would look at ventilation as well, but the other stuff has me a bit worried.
I know that nobody here is my lawyer, I’m not exactly asking for legal advice.
My girlfriend and I and two other people are renting a house. We haven’t had any issues up until this month, when our newest roommate (who is a friend of mine) signed the lease and moved in. He immediately began having allergic reactions in his room that have made it uninhabitable for him. His room is at the top story of the house and has a doorway into the attic. It is a legal room, not a space that we threw somebody into to live. The room has a lot of dust built up in it, and I mean very obvious amounts of dust on the hardwood floor, even after it was cleaned from the previous roommate. The attic area also has an extremely large amount of dust in it. He told the landlord about this immediately (within two days of moving in, so on or about the 3rd and 4th of April). The landlord has taken a very long time to help with this and he hasn’t been able to live in the room. She has agreed to refund his rent for the month, but has strongly suggested that he move out. I am not entirely sure why. In the mean time, she has been extremely slow to get a professional cleaning service to go into the room and attic to clean out all the dust, as well as the vents in the house, and to take a look for any other potential issues. This is a 100+ year old house. Now, as of this morning, almost at the end of the month, she has told us to go and find a cleaning service and that she’ll pay for it.
What do I even look for in order to get this cleaned? Everything I search for appears to be for “maid” services, when we need somebody to clean up dust in his room and in the attic space and to take a look at the vents. What exactly are we suppose to be looking for? We know we need a licensed, bonded company, but everything I’ve looked up seems to be for offices or bedrooms and nothing that seems heavy duty like an attic. The amount of dust is very significant.
I’m almost confused about the legality of this and am looking into legal advice from the tenants alliance and other avenues, because this seems like a fairly simple thing that should have been fixed, and yet our landlord has waited until the last moment to do it and then has dumped the responsibility on us. We’re afraid of our roommate moving out, saddling us with the responsibility of finding a new one, AND still needing to get the room cleaned. It’s making me question whether there is something more significant happening that she is trying to cover up, especially since she seems so adamant of him moving out even though he passed the background checks and paid all the money on time, and it seems extra fishy that she won’t just hire somebody herself and has instead passed that onto us.
Mostly I’m looking for a cleaning service that handles dust in a bedroom and an attic, and would look at ventilation as well, but the other stuff has me a bit worried.
Best answer: HVAC services. The Best 10 Heating & Air Conditioning/HVAC in Portland, OR. [NOT that Yelp is a great resource; I just wanted you to see that "request a quote" option for many of them.]
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:18 PM on April 17, 2018
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:18 PM on April 17, 2018
Best answer: HVAC services and then a merry maid type service who will clean the actual room.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 1:26 PM on April 17, 2018
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 1:26 PM on April 17, 2018
Response by poster: HVAC/air duct places will clean an attic space? The attic space is fairly large, big enough for a 6'4" person to walk around in and have a desk and other things in there. It's advertised as part of the room.
posted by gucci mane at 1:38 PM on April 17, 2018
posted by gucci mane at 1:38 PM on April 17, 2018
Best answer: You’re going to need two separate services - one to blow out the ventilation system, and then a cleaning service to clean up the dust.
posted by bq at 1:41 PM on April 17, 2018
posted by bq at 1:41 PM on April 17, 2018
Best answer: I’m pretty sure you’re going to need two different professionals, an HVAC cleaning company for the ducts and a room cleaning company for the room.
posted by Weeping_angel at 1:42 PM on April 17, 2018
posted by Weeping_angel at 1:42 PM on April 17, 2018
Best answer: Do the HVAC guys first.
posted by Weeping_angel at 1:42 PM on April 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Weeping_angel at 1:42 PM on April 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I believe the room cleaning and the vent/duct cleaning are two separate jobs, but you can mention the amount of dust in the attic itself (or take pictures to send) when speaking to the companies. By the by, for your over-100-year-old rental, did your landlord give you the mandatory lead paint disclosure info and EPA booklet?
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:42 PM on April 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:42 PM on April 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: After the cleaning, you could also ask the landlord to spring for a HEPA air filter for the room ($50-500 depending how fancy, Wirecutter loves this $200 one).
There may be a constant dust problem if there's something like flaky insulation in the attic, and if so, it's a health risk.
If the air purifier vibrates the floor and annoys the downstairs roommate, put it on a few layers of high density foam (like the modular square kind used on the floor kids' playrooms).
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:59 PM on April 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
There may be a constant dust problem if there's something like flaky insulation in the attic, and if so, it's a health risk.
If the air purifier vibrates the floor and annoys the downstairs roommate, put it on a few layers of high density foam (like the modular square kind used on the floor kids' playrooms).
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:59 PM on April 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you everybody for the resources, I will definitely be calling Willard Power Vac for the HVAC services, and then looking into the HEPA vacuuming/filter.
Iris Gambol, she did have us sign the lead paint disclosure as well as give us the booklet.
The thing about this roommate is that he works as an arborist and his childhood home is only a few blocks away from our house, which is why the sudden allergic reactions he’s been having seem so surprising to him (and all of us). He hasn’t had these issues before and even his sister has said it’s weird for him to suddenly have these issues.
posted by gucci mane at 2:19 PM on April 17, 2018
Iris Gambol, she did have us sign the lead paint disclosure as well as give us the booklet.
The thing about this roommate is that he works as an arborist and his childhood home is only a few blocks away from our house, which is why the sudden allergic reactions he’s been having seem so surprising to him (and all of us). He hasn’t had these issues before and even his sister has said it’s weird for him to suddenly have these issues.
posted by gucci mane at 2:19 PM on April 17, 2018
Best answer: You have excellent advice on the cleaning front, I wanted to address the landlord front. I have both been a tenant and a landlord in 100 year old houses. They just aren't sealed in the same way as modern houses and they can sometimes be dusty. My most successful landlord/tenant relationships have been when we didn't need anything from each other.
Is that kinda terrible when you are a tenant? It can be. I had so many tenants who were content with however it came, that when someone started asking for things like duct cleaning, I would have absolutely asked if they just wanted out of the lease. I can see how that is off putting, but when folks ask for expensive accommodation right off the bat, you don't know how deep that rabbit hole is going to go financially. All my leases included that the tenant accept the property as-is. In my area anyway, "allergies" weren't the same as toxins like mold, so it could be that your landlord thinks she is doing you a favor by offering to pay for the cleaning as you all already accepted tenancy and moved in (apparently for months now) and all of sudden there is a problem with a new tenant.
I hope you can see from the landlord's point of view, how this all might be concerning. Its one of those situations where I don't think anyone is in the wrong. I would take her up on her offer to pay for additional cleaning and probably let the affected roommate shoulder the burden of calling and scheduling and such.
posted by stormygrey at 4:22 PM on April 17, 2018 [6 favorites]
Is that kinda terrible when you are a tenant? It can be. I had so many tenants who were content with however it came, that when someone started asking for things like duct cleaning, I would have absolutely asked if they just wanted out of the lease. I can see how that is off putting, but when folks ask for expensive accommodation right off the bat, you don't know how deep that rabbit hole is going to go financially. All my leases included that the tenant accept the property as-is. In my area anyway, "allergies" weren't the same as toxins like mold, so it could be that your landlord thinks she is doing you a favor by offering to pay for the cleaning as you all already accepted tenancy and moved in (apparently for months now) and all of sudden there is a problem with a new tenant.
I hope you can see from the landlord's point of view, how this all might be concerning. Its one of those situations where I don't think anyone is in the wrong. I would take her up on her offer to pay for additional cleaning and probably let the affected roommate shoulder the burden of calling and scheduling and such.
posted by stormygrey at 4:22 PM on April 17, 2018 [6 favorites]
Best answer: To respond to your follow-up about your roommate being an arborist, it's absolutely possible to be allergic to dust mites and be irritated by dust inhalation and not be allergic to pollens. I am off-the-charts allergic to dust mites and that's it. I can roll around in the grass and have the windows open 24/7 and it doesn't bother me. (FWIW, an air purifier is hugely helpful for me.)
posted by radioamy at 4:49 PM on April 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by radioamy at 4:49 PM on April 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: @stormygrey: It's only slightly concerning because my girlfriend has lived in the house for almost 2 years, and nobody has had a problem. I've lived here for 8 months and everything has been swell, it's only been in this recent moment that she started acting a little weird about anything.
Today she said she'd only pay up to $100 and nothing more for any cleaning that needs to be done, so I guess we're going to have to figure all this out on our own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by gucci mane at 7:12 PM on April 17, 2018
Today she said she'd only pay up to $100 and nothing more for any cleaning that needs to be done, so I guess we're going to have to figure all this out on our own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by gucci mane at 7:12 PM on April 17, 2018
If you’re worried about him moving out and you guys being down a rent-payer, have you considered trying to switch rooms between him and someone else? Even temporarily, because then you’d also find out if he got better out of the attic, and if someone else also reacted to the dust there.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 12:12 AM on April 18, 2018
posted by the agents of KAOS at 12:12 AM on April 18, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bq at 1:02 PM on April 17, 2018