This story should be filed under despicable behavior. All tenants beware when you rent a house in Virginia because there is no protection if your landlord only has a single property to rent and, therefore, you don’t fall under the landlord/tenant rules. For eight years my son lived in a townhouse in Old Town. Lazy landlord did not take the time to sign a renewal lease, so basically renewal was just a verbal agreement for the lapsed rental contract. Then came a torrential rain. Epic, biblical in nature and that street was flooded. The basement also flooded. More than a week goes by before the landlord investigates. How did the water get in? No one really knows at first. New windows had been put in with no covering of the window well, or maybe from the low water table and ground water oozing up and basement has no sump pump, maybe from a hairline crack in the gutter.
Contractors finally are called. Carpet is lifted. Uh-oh, there are original floor tiles from before 1981. Tiles that might contain asbestos. Tiles that had been exposed in the laundry room and had become fibrous sloughing off debris. Debris that my son had been sweeping up for eight years. Tiles are removed in the manner for asbestos removal but NOT tested. My son was not notified that perhaps he should leave the premises and he had to ask the landlord for a safe place to stay. This rehab grew to a giant remodel that took most of the summer. As my son remained displaced, landlord decides to force my son into signing a renewal contract which this time the landlord signs. In this contract are words that give responsibility to the tenant for keeping gutters clean. My son signs. Just a few days later he gets a notice to quit because now the landlord is saying that he owes rent. That the agreement that my son having to find temporary accommodations is no longer being accepted in lieu of rent. My son moves out before the date on the notice because workers were given the key and could enter at any time. He asked for his deposit back. He asked for moving costs because he had just signed a renewal and had not saved up for a move. He asked to be given the differential between the rent of his contaminated place and the new one.
The landlord responded by taking him to court and now stating that the hairline crack in the gutter caused the flood in the basement. The signed contract states that tenant is responsible for keeping gutters clean. Landlord gets workers to change their assessment of gutters being clean (my son has an email from the landlord saying the gutter looked fine) to in court saying the gutters was so dirty a tree was growing in it. The landlord’s case claims my son’s neglect of the gutters caused the flood. The judge would not hear my son’s defense and decided to assign a judgment against my son, the tenant, for $28,000.
WHAT??? Possible asbestos exposure is never addressed. Requirement to test for asbestos and the landlord’s not testing for it, is never addressed. Landlord, who obviously had no homeowner’s insurance, got a court to pin on my son, a tenant, the total remodeling of his basement. A remodel of his asset.
Who is this landlord? He is the Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission which has on its site all the risks of asbestos contained in materials manufactured before 1981. He never checked for asbestos in his rental property. Never checked to see if it was becoming fibrous and never tested the tiles to have a definitive answer as to my son’s exposure. Testing is a requirement right on the CPSC’s website. If you’re curious look it up. You can see what this landlord looks like. A person who should not be admired. A person who should be ashamed.
