Seattle: Five-week campaign beats back predatory landlord

[cory777]

Infoshop
Friday, June 25 2010 @ 03:26 AM UTC

Contributed by: Anonymous

Maria and her family lived in a building that had water seeping into the walls, causing huge amounts of black mold to grow. Maria, who cleans houses for a living, kept wiping the mold away, but almost immediately it would grow back again. She reported the problem to the landlord, a company that owns several large properties in Seattle. Instead of dealing with the problem, the head of property management dismissed Maria's concerns and insulted her about her poor English. Maria's kids started getting sick and having to go to the hospital with respiratory problems.

Five-week campaign beats back predatory landlord in Seattle

Maria and her family lived in a building that had water seeping into the walls, causing huge amounts of black mold to grow. Maria, who cleans houses for a living, kept wiping the mold away, but almost immediately it would grow back again. She reported the problem to the landlord, a company that owns several large properties in Seattle. Instead of dealing with the problem, the head of property management dismissed Maria's concerns and insulted her about her poor English. Maria's kids started getting sick and having to go to the hospital with respiratory problems.

At this point, Maria decided they had to get out of that building. She gave notice to the company that they were moving. It was 15 days from the end of the month, instead of the customary 20 days notice, but the landlord gave no indication that it would be a problem if they went ahead and moved, so they did. A few weeks later, the company sent Maria a letter. It said that she owed them a full month's rent ($800) for the month after she had moved out, that they were keeping her entire deposit, and that they were charging her an additional $700 in mysterious fees. If she didn't pay them $1500, her credit and rental history could be ruined.

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100625032629388

[Sinistrous]

1. Note to self:

Don't EVER piss off Maria.

[depakid]

2. Now you see- that's what it's all about

[Hannah Bell]

3. what a great demonstration of the power of organization & solidarity.

hopefully there will be more.

[Yuugal]

4. K&R

Now that is how it is done!

[Bitwit1234]

5. My mother had passed away and we notified the rental agency

we moved her stuff out and cleaned the apartment. The rental agency notified us we owed the next months rent in full because we failed to give them 30 day's notice. How could she know she was going to die. They would not wave the fee. So we had to pay it. And then one week after we had cleaned the apartment and moved her stuff out they rented it to another person. And because she had carpeted the whole apartment they charged the next person extra for the carpet.

When you put carpet in you get regular price but if the apartment complex has carpet already they charged an extra 50 a month rent.

[conspirator]

6. Kick. A victory for the little guy. It's all about solidarity.

The real owners of the company weren't probably aware of this shit middle manager. I am happy he was at least demoted, at worst fired.

[ljm2002]

7. Solidarity!!! K&R!!! n/t