Bad Apartment Situation - Moved in and no appliances worked. It's been two weeks since our lease started and nothing has been done. legaladvice

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I moved into a really nice apartment in south Texas. We searched for hours for a place that had a dishwasher, washer, and dryer in unit. We specifically wanted these appliances and it took us 5 hours of driving around and calling people to find the right place.

We met with the realtor and signed our lease. This is where the trouble started. It turns out that the duplex we're living in is currently for sale. We signed our lease on July 22nd and the realtor gave us the keys to the place on the 25th. He told me that since there were repairs that still needed to be done, broken ceiling fan in one room and a busted door frame in the master bedroom, that he would let us live there free of charge a few days and that our lease wouldn't actually start until the 1st of August. OK, sure.

On our move-in day, I get a text from the realtor telling me not to use the washer because the drainage hose is screwed up. I say OK and he promises that it will be fixed soon. The day we move in, I try to run a load of dirty dishes in our dishwasher. I went to the gas station after loading up the dishwasher and return home to water all over the floor in the kitchen. The dishwasher doesn't work.

After seeing that the other appliances didn't work, I tried the dryer. Sure enough, I press the start button and it makes a humming noise and starts to smell like hot wires. I'm pissed off and let the realtor know it. He says he'll contact the owners and get it taken care of. The dishwasher doesn't work.

Later that night, my fiancee and I are on the couch watching a movie and decide we want some popcorn. I put the popcorn in the microwave and press start. I go to the bathroom while it's cooking. I come back and the timer has gone off, but the popcorn has remained unpopped. The microwave doesn't work.

The refrigerator/freezer, the A/C, and the stove/oven are the only things working. I could have saved over $150/month and gotten a place without these amenities if that is what I was looking for.

I have contacted the realtor 10+ times easily over the last two weeks and he keeps telling me that he's going to contact "his guy" or that he's calling the owners or that he's going to call "Edna" or some other random name I don't know. He thought that he had renter's insurance on all of the appliances in the house, but he had me call the insurance company and they said that the only things covered were the microwave and the dishwasher. So, I put in a request to have them repaired. The repair guys get here and have to order a part for the microwave, so that's good. They couldn't fix the dishwasher, though, because a rat had apparently chewed through the drainage hose. This isn't covered, so I'm back to square one with the dishwasher.

The realtor told me to find people to repair the stuff, pay for it, and that he would deduct it from our first month of rent. I also asked him for a copy of my lease yesterday and he finally sent it to me. I had been asking for over two weeks for a copy of it. It hadn't been amended to show that our rent started on the 1st rather than the 22nd. I told him that I wanted an amended copy. He said "Don't worry about that right now, I know to pick up the rent on the 1st and the owners know about the free days". I insisted that I wanted a copy of it because I needed that in writing for when the new owner takes over.

I'm just angry and don't know what to do. The realtor seems like a nice guy and was nothing but nice to me and my fiancee in the process of getting this place, but now it seems like he's just ignoring us.

Any help y'all can provide is more than appreciated. Thanks!

Submitted August 14, 2015 at 12:33AM by last_nights_salad http://ift.tt/1fanRrX legaladvice