[San Diego] - Landlord ignored written complaint in Jan. Feeling helpess
Location: San Diego County. I feel hopeless & like I'm being taken advantage of. We pay a pretty insane rent rate & can't get any help with issues around the house.
The issues (all reported in writing but never got a response)
- No heat for weeks: Furnace appears to be from 1953. Heard hissing when we tried to turn on the gas and shut it off immediately. HVAC tech inspected it and said it likely needs full replacement for safety reasons. House was 59°F in the mornings for about a month until it got repaired by a completely different HVAC company. Not sure what happened to the company who recommended it get replaced
- Active termite infestation in the structure. Landlord wants to wait to tent after we move out in October.
- Killing several spiders a day with black widow + slug infestation outside. House is not taken care of/unsealed. Slugs constantly coming into the house & they carry lungworm - parasite that can impact our dog. Constantly getting slugs stuck to us walking barefoot in the kitchen at night. They told us they'll give us a kit so we can spray outside ourselves.
- We did notice that they seem to be crawling through the baseboard of the kitchen island so we worry theres moisture. The baseboard is peeling and they told us that its our responsibility to fix.
- Dog got extremely sick with an insane vet bill & keeps getting diarrhea due to licking slugs off feet - we try to get them all but they're everywhere
- Two water leaks (shower and toilet) each took ~a month to repair and each resulted in $500+ water bills. Plumber confirmed the toilet was known to need replacement before we moved in but was skipped due to cost.
- Unpermitted bathroom renovations, per a maintenance worker - concerning given the plumbing issues.
- Misrepresentation at signing - agent told us the house had AC. It does not. We texted the night of move in confused saying we thought it had AC.
- Mandatory "renters benefit package" fee charged since move-in for services we've never used
- Other issues Dishwasher took six weeks to replace and was replaced with a significantly downgraded unit. Garage spring snapped trapping our vehicle - repair tech said he had previously recommended replacement and owners declined. Gas water heater installed in 2009 and past its reasonable service life.
Where we are: We sent a detailed written notice covering all of this back in January but now the termite/spider infestation has me at my wits end.
For any kind of maintenance request, the contact at the management company has asked us not to send it through the portal.. they've said that the owner is picky and wants to use their own contractors.
I genuinely feel like I'm being scammed with this rent... I don't know what to do. Everytime we send a complaint he tries to get us on the phone to talk it through and deflects the responsibility over to us. Exhausted but feel like we have no case/rights