I'm in Massachusetts.
We rent from my husband's parents. I'm well aware now what a mistake this was. I'm not here for advice on that. We are actively house hunting but our area is extremely overpriced. We are looking at moving elsewhere.
We've been tenants here once for almost two years in the early 2000's prior to marriage. I moved and then boyfriend followed in large part because of the lack of repairs being done. My in-laws had said from the beginning that they'd be remodeling but dragged ass on it. Our tub seal cracked and it was the last straw. We moved away, moved in with my mom to save for a few months and got our own place.
Circumstances and life led us back up here. After a ridiculously false remodel timeline (6 months meant nearly 2 years), we moved in.
My brother in law lives on the same property on the first floor.
When the remodel was occurring, they added a dishwasher. The appliances were decent and we were thankful to have them.
Three years ago, our oven stopped working. We asked for a week to have it fixed. A friend heard about this and sent us a toaster oven. Fortunately it was the summer and we could grill a bit. My mother in law got hosed on a new oven even though I tried to help and she insisted because we price matched, they sent us bad one. She refused the delivery twice due to damage and nearly three weeks later we had a working oven.
I warned her over the winter that the refrigerator and the dishwasher were beginning to show signs of needing replacement soon. She got angry and said that she'd only replace them if she got rent for six consecutive months from both floors. This means my brother in law hasn't been paying rent. I fail to see how his lack of payment should have a thing to do with replacing appliances in our place outside of her having to cover the $300 of the mortgage left after our rent. The mortgage is $1100 and we are each supposed to pay $800 a month which is a bargain in our area.
She also stated that they should last longer and implied that we did something wrong. They are name brand but relatively low end models and the refrigerator is nearly fifteen years old while the dishwasher is a decade old.
Over the last month and a half, the dishwasher stopped working reliably. It's pretty much a crap shoot if it will work or not. I notified her via text as well as verbally. On a day she let herself in*, my husband showed her the noise it makes and what it is doing. She acted horrified and said she'd have someone (she used a name) come and take a look at it. She made a joke about how if it needs replacing that maybe she'd get a deal on two as my brother in law's is broken as well.
*I am aware she cannot legally do this. We have since installed a Door Guardian.
I looked up the laws with regard to this and found the following:
410.351: Owner's Installation and Maintenance Responsibilities
The owner shall install or cause to be installed, in accordance with accepted plumbing, gasfitting and electrical wiring standards, and shall maintain free from leaks, obstructions or other defects, the following:
(A) all facilities and equipment which the owner is or may be required to provide including, but not limited to, all sinks, washbasins, bathtubs, showers, toilets, waterheating facilities, gas pipes, heating equipment, water pipes, owner installed stoves and ovens, catch basins, drains, vents and other similar supplied fixtures; the connections to water, sewer and gas lines; the subsurface sewage disposal system, if any; all electrical fixtures, outlets and wiring, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms, and all heating and ventilating equipment and appurtenances thereto; and
(B) all owner-installed optional equipment, including but not limited to, refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washing machines and dryers, garbage grinders, and submetering devices designed to measure the usage of electricity, gas or water.
What are our options? We've asked multiple times and she's claimed poverty or just ignores us. We are low contact with her and she's not allowed to watch our kids so I have the feeling that she's trying to get us to contact her more about this in order to have more of a relationship.
In the past , she dragged ass on figuring out what was wrong with our wired smoke detectors for three years. We got normal stand alone ones in the interim. She got us a cheap CO2 detector that incessantly beeped even with new batteries so I got a new one and threw it away. That annoyed her but I could not care less as my family's safety comes before her feelings.
At this point I'm considering replacing the dishwasher and deducting it from rent but I don't want to let them off the hook for the repair. They definitely have the money, perhaps not liquid, to fix this.
Submitted May 22, 2016 at 08:42AM by stephyt http://ift.tt/1XITg8a legaladvice
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