sovay | Comrades, you must have been smoking a lot

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Comrades, you must have been smoking a lot

So this is what we discovered about our apartment on Friday. (

derspatchel pointed out it was the Ides of March. Did I look like Caesar? I don't think so.) We had had some problems with the landlord and the condition of the apartment even when we were moving in, but nothing of this magnitude. It is awful. We are waiting on the city inspector next week and then we will make decisions, but does anyone have relevant suggestions in the meantime? I want to fight for this home if it is worth fighting for, but I am not prepared to owe my soul to National Grid in order to make up for our landlord being either a chiseler, a cheapskate, or a fool. (And if he is none of these things, then I don't know why we don't have a single window in a newly renovated apartment that latches securely and also keeps out the cold. The temperature is dropping to 21°F tonight.)

In the meantime, because I will not consider this apartment a transitory thing—because as long as I am here, whether that's six weeks or six months, it is home—I picked up my futon mattress from Dream On this afternoon with the aid of

audioboy's van and then lugged it up the stairs and into my room with the aid of Rob's lower back. Wrestling the mattress cover onto it cost me the skin of three knuckles and a lot of splinters from the plywood I am using as part of my bedframe (never again), but it is now a real bed, not an air mattress, and I will sleep on it and under five blankets tonight. I had lunch with Rob at SoundBites in Ball Square before we walked our separate ways home, which is a thing I like very much about living on this street; we rejoined in the evening for Ninotchka at the Brattle Theatre. I'd last seen the movie in high school: it was even better this time. Garbo is not just beautiful, she's a beautiful comedienne, voice, timing, deadpan, eyebrows. This time, I could notice that while the romance requires her to warm from her humorless Soviet functionality, it does not require her to wilt into Melvyn Douglas' arms like a fainting flower of Western womanhood—the second-act blackmail, in fact, depends on just that strength of commitment to her work rather than her romantic vulnerability. The script's politics also interest me: Wilder and Lubitsch evidently view the Soviet way of life as both alien and faintly ridiculous, but their sympathies are equally clearly not with the émigré Grand Duchess Swana, whose bright-smiling elegance never turns a hair as she tells the peasant-born Ninotchka, "You're quite right about the Cossacks. We made a great mistake when we let them use their whips. They had such reliable guns." (I like, though, that this is not the sort of movie in which women are never friends; Ninotchka's interactions with her cellist roommate back in the Soviet Union tell the viewer that. Most of their conversation even passes the Bechdel test, being concerned, before it turns to Anna's fiancé, with rehearsals, weird housemates, and underwear.) I love Felix Bressart; I love Sig Ruman. I don't know Alexander Granach so well, but HOLY CRAP HE WAS KNOCK IN NOSFERATU THE MAN IS A CHAMELEON I AM KEEPING AN EYE OUT FOR HIM. But most of all I love Greta Garbo, laughing in the café, letting go forlornly of a censored letter, taking Douglas' face between her hands to kiss him. "Chemically, we're already quite sympathetic."

This is where my brain runs out for the night. Doppel-Abbie is resting on my pillows. I am going to take a shower. We'll figure more things out tomorrow.

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I haven't been following this. These are new windows that were replacements? Newly installed?

These are new windows that were replacements? Newly installed?

I haven't been talking about it much. A small number of people, mostly

rushthatspeaks,

derspatchel, and

russetblack, have been hearing about it over e-mail. The apartment is the second floor of a Victorian, entirely renovated starting in January or February, finishing on the third of March when the last appliance was installed. (We were handed keys on the twenty-eighth of February. We could not in fact move in the next day, when our lease started, because the plumbing was not yet fully working and the kitchen was missing a refrigerator. The internet took a further two or three days to sort out because first there were no cable jacks in the apartment and then there were no working cable jacks in the apartment. There is still some issue with the roof over the sunroom that needs to be resolved, although ironically now the sunroom is the warmest room in the apartment because its windows were not altered in the renovations.) We saw the place in the middle of the renovations, when the walls were still white and there were no doors anywhere and it was difficult, I now understand, to tell what in the apartment was on its way in and what was on its way out; what we loved about it was the light and the spaciousness and the second bedroom that we realized instantly would provide us with enough space to put our sizeable book collections on shelves, not just in storage. We were able to observe that the new hardwood floors were being laid soundly and skillfully; we assumed this would reflect the quality of the rest of the renovations. No. The windows were all supposed to be new. They are certainly not the original windows, and they may be new to the apartment, but someone definitely had them before us: cracking, warping, sun-yellowing are all in evidence. It was notable to me on the first night I slept here that my room was colder than the rest of the apartment, but I thought that was because it was a small room at the very back of the house, originally intended as some kind of office or storeroom; Adrian noticed two nights ago that her room also cooled sharply at night, but thought it was because of a draft from some window she couldn't close properly. What we discovered on Friday is that the windows are just not up to code. See the rest of Adrian's post. Meanwhile, I am typing at the lovely tiny spinet desk in my room with five blankets on my new bed, and it is bitter freezing in here.

Installing secondhand windows is classic cheap landlord thinking!

New windows are heinously expensive, I know from personal experience, and I do not see why anyone would pull functional original sashes out; they're actually pretty good and easy to maintain, apart from being single-paned with poor insulating performance. I could, however, imagine that being done after a disastrous damage situation (removing the windows and laying a new floor hints at fire or a very, very serious dry rot problem). Sounds like your landlord hired a crap contractor to install crap salvaged windows.

Do you have storm windows? Screens?

Two months is a rush job for renovation. The landlord was hotter to get it rented than to finish. Was the entire building remodeled? Are other tenants having problems? Talk to them.

For the cracks, I suggest stuffing rolled fabric such as towels in there but remove any accommodations you make before the place is inspected. If you don't have storms, wrap the fabric in heavy plastic first. Cutting up heavy trash bags for this is fine. Duct tape it to stop the plastic coming loose. Make it large enough to wedge in place securely without tape. That will stop your draft problem.

No, this is not code.

When I made the complaint Friday, the city told me they would send an inspector "in 1 to 5 business days." Do you know if there is any way to get Somerville to set a more specific appointment time? We would rather not sit by the door every minute of next week (though of course we will if we have to--this is our priority.)

Call and tell them you work and that you will happily meet them if they can tell you on the morning of the day of the inspection; offer mobile numbers, etc., or just "good anytime, please just call" numbers. They would I believe normally do this with the landlord admitting them. I think. You need to talk to a local. I am not local...

ETA: I bumped the post button before continuing, City office people can be really helpful and nice when prompted.

Edited 2013-03-17 18:13 (UTC)

I could, however, imagine that being done after a disastrous damage situation (removing the windows and laying a new floor hints at fire or a very, very serious dry rot problem).

We were told the previous tenants were students who had trashed the place so badly that at the point where the landlord found himself replacing all the floors and replastering all the walls, he gave up and started over from scratch. It is possible to conjecture as to the original layout of the apartment, but very little of even the floor plan remains. And the light is wonderful, and the weather when we were looking was warm, and Adrian has a master bedroom with a walk-in closet more than half the size of my room and it has six windows and none of them are insulated enough to keep the apartment at a temperature where she can sleep in her room at night.

Screens?

Not in all the windows.

I suggest stuffing rolled fabric such as towels in there but remove any accommodations you make before the place is inspected.

Oh, yes. We have discussed this. We want the inspector to see the problem.

and I do not see why anyone would pull functional original sashes out

I definitely agree with you; but my experience is that that does not stop people from pulling them out.

I definitely agree with you; but my experience is that that does not stop people from pulling them out.

I wish we could have seen the original condition of the apartment, even if it was as bad as the landlord has been telling us. The walls were changed and the floors half pulled up by the time we saw it.

They did a gut remodel on this?

My spider sense is tingling. Start gossiping around the building and the neighborhood. Find out what it was like.

(And how long has he owned it? The "students trashed it" story could be true and in that case your neighbors may well know about them. If it is not true, you need to know how it got trashed.)

ogod, yeah: double-check re: bedbugs.

You should be able to find out whether permits were pulled for the work. It would be good to know that. In our city, window replacement does not require an inspection but does require a permit.

You should be able to find out whether permits were pulled for the work. It would be good to know that.

That is on our list already. We are somewhat skeptical the landlord or the contractors even filed for a permit—

derspatchel and

ratatosk had months of work done on the house they live in last summer before it was discovered the landlord had never obtained a permit and a stop-work order was slapped on their front door. It's still there.

>See the rest of Adrian's post

That would be my post to the Davis Square LJ.
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/3130381.html#comments
I haven't posted about it on my personal LJ.

I can't tell you how sorry I am that your new home has gone Bulgakov on you. At least there's a cat, of sorts. I hope you can work something out; emerge unscathed, triumphant even.

Keep your spirits up, if you can.

Nine

At least there's a cat, of sorts.

Yes. And an unusually soft and cuddly reptile, shown above.
Thanks for the good wishes.

Awww.

And yikes--how are you keeping them warm enough?

Take courage.

Nine

Well, Dracomir is largely composed of quilt. And Doppel-Abbie seems to be made of blanket. The apartment as a whole is using anger as an auxiliary heating source--we've got plenty.

I want to re-see Ninotchka--the exchange about the cossacks is the whole of what i remember about it!

That's terrible about the apartment. My impression is that most landlords are pretty terrible (not all, but most). When we first moved to B-town, the house we lived in was a rental, with an absentee landlord. That guy turned out to be quite a villain; I shudder to remember it. But he did at least have an agent who saw to it that repairs got done in a timely way. Fingers crossed that you can bring pressure to bear to get the windows fixed *soon*.

I want to re-see Ninotchka--the exchange about the cossacks is the whole of what i remember about it!

We even saw a newly restored print. It was wonderful. But I think it will stand up even to library copies or Netflix streaming.

Fingers crossed that you can bring pressure to bear to get the windows fixed *soon*.

From internet research and referral it looks as though the law is on our side, because as tenants we are promised a habitable environment and an apartment that doesn't stay warm at this latitude is not that (it's not even a matter of money: if we crank the heat up, it still all bleeds out), but we still need some official record stating "Yes! These windows are not up to code!" before we can do anything about it.

Thank you.

There are things you can do yourself, starting with heavy plastic and duct tape -- I've done that in rental houses in Britain where we regularly got frost on the inside of the panes. But I think protesting to the landlord comes first, because having windows that seal just isn't optional.

When I called the landlord on Friday, he said, "Oh? You mean the window in the living room and the one in the kitchen? The contractor told me about them, and I was going to send him over to look at them in a few weeks." I was deeply troubled by the fact that he had known about the problem for so long and did not consider it urgent. Even if he only knew about problems with 2 windows and not the other 14.

While it is unfortunately not a long-term solution, have some sloths reenacting the Ides of March: http://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseamarshall/the-story-of-the-ides-of-marchas-told-by-sloths-9e8l

While it is unfortunately not a long-term solution, have some sloths reenacting the Ides of March

Look how surprised I am that this even exists.

(I'm very impressed by "No Way, I Got This.")

I am, for my part, particularly fond of the seer-sloth on the swing.

I say again, feh and sympathy and feh.

And also, I think these will be more effective than duct tape, and you can get them at any hardware store:

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/WindowInsulatorKits/Products/

As long as DoppelAbby doesn't go after them, which seems unlikely. :)

As long as DoppelAbby doesn't go after them, which seems unlikely.

He is well-behaved in that regard.

The problem is that we don't want to do anything permanent or even difficult to take down until the city inspector gets here, because we need them to see the extent of the problem: we do not want in any way to imply that it is something a little ingenuity and a handful of dollars at the hardware store can take care of, because really it's not. This is not within normal variation for an old house. This is a matter of major construction and it is not our responsibility as tenants to cover for a fuck-up that big. Maybe after the inspector comes, while we're waiting for whatever the next step is and need not to freeze in the meantime, so thank you for the pointer. But I don't think it's an option until then.

I'm sorry to hear about the windows, and I'm also angry on your behalf. I hope he fixes things properly and quickly.

my apologies if you've already tried this...

i live with old, terrible windows. if you close them at the bottom they open at the top...like yours.

if i push up on the top window while pulling down on the bottom window i am able to latch them, and then the latch holds them mostly in place. at first it was awkward and a two person job, but then i got used to it.

it doesn't change the fact that our windows are still old and somewhat drafty, but at least they CLOSE all the way. & lock.

& drafty isn't as big a deal here...i live in the south.

i hope you get things resolved, and soon!

if i push up on the top window while pulling down on the bottom window i am able to latch them, and then the latch holds them mostly in place. at first it was awkward and a two person job, but then i got used to it.

That was the first thing we tried on Friday. Even with the sashes pulled in opposite directions, most of the windows still won't latch. It was one of the ways we knew something was really wrong. I appreciate your double-checking we'd tried, though!

i hope you get things resolved, and soon!

Thank you.

Mass 940 CMR 3.17
(1) Conditions and Maintenance of a Dwelling Unit. It shall be an unfair or deceptive act or practice for an owner to:
(a) Rent a dwelling unit which, at the inception of the tenancy
1. contains a condition which amounts to a violation of law which may endanger or materially impair the health, safety, or well-being of the occupant; or
2. is unfit for human habitation

...which you'd probably already figured out. And it *isn't* clear to non-lawyerly me what legal recourse that entitles you to, but I figure it's nice to know the chapter and verse on the code.

And it *isn't* clear to non-lawyerly me what legal recourse that entitles you to, but I figure it's nice to know the chapter and verse on the code.

It's hard data. It's useful to us. Thank you.

You should talk to a housing lawyer or nonprofit agency rep, but this sounds like an escrow-triggering event. If the place is not habitable, it is not habitable.

It also sounds like you should not finish unpacking. Get hold of that agent, tell him this is likely not going to work, and ask what he can do for you. Seriously. This landlord is shit. You are only going to get extra shit from him after you cost him money by making him fix the windows. I know you like the place, but it's not sounding good.

The gut job just does not attract me as a tenant. (Also, if they replaced walls, you seriously want to know about where the wallboard was from these days.) I'm a worst-case-scenario thinker and so my mind is going straight to "meth fumes or mold from a grow house," but that's me, catastrophizing, and also it's more common in the burbs than where you are. But those are things to keep in mind: a gut remodel is not something you do for no reason.

If the place is not habitable, it is not habitable.

No matter what, we need the City of Somerville to rule it's not habitable. We can go through the state sanitary code ourselves and determine that all but three windows in this apartment (the three that were not replaced during the renovations) fail several times over to comply with the minimum standards of fitness for human habitation, as we did last night, and we can take the temperature in every room in the house and see for ourselves that it's well below the prescribed temperature requirements in the same chapter, but I don't think we can do anything legally without the building inspector agreeing with us in writing that I should not be able to stand on a chair in

adrian_turtle's room and slip my hand down behind the top of the frame until I run out of wall and my fingers meet outside air. Then we have leverage and options. Right now, we just have a very cold apartment.

C&Ped from the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs, here:

Duty to Provide Habitable Premises

You must provide habitable apartments and common areas for the entire tenancy in accordance with the minimum standards of the State Sanitary Code which seeks to protect the health, safety, and well-being of your tenants and the general public.

Heat: Landlords must provide a heating system for each apartment or one system that services all apartments in good working order. The landlord must pay for the fuel to provide heat and hot water and electricity unless the written rental agreement states that the tenant must pay for these. The heating season runs from September 16 through June 14th, during which every room must be heated to between 68˚F and not more than 78˚F between 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., and at least 64˚F at all other hours.

[Sounds like you've agreed to pay the heat, but that doesn't change the code definition of "habitable" as able to maintain that level of heat. Skipping ahead.]

Tenants' rights

Rent Withholding

If you fail to maintain the premises during the entire tenancy, in habitable condition, your tenants may rightfully withhold part of the rent from the date you have notice of breach of the Warranty of Habitability, if:

They complained to you of defects or problems or the Board of Health cited the apartment or building for Code violations;
The tenant was not in arrears in rent before you knew of the conditions complained of;
You do not show that the complained of conditions were caused by the tenant or occupant;

[and goes on to say that also if it's uninhabitable, you can pay to make the repairs yourself and deduct it from your own rent, and the landlord can't say boo about it. You could withhold paying a full four months rent and they couldn't retaliate (evict you, refuse to renew a lease, etc.)]

[and goes on to say that also if it's uninhabitable, you can pay to make the repairs yourself and deduct it from your own rent, and the landlord can't say boo about it. You could withhold paying a full four months rent and they couldn't retaliate (evict you, refuse to renew a lease, etc.)]

We are very definitely not paying April's rent until we get this situation sorted out.

Would locks on the windows solve the problem? We have locks on all of ours, though we're on the second floor, and in the colder months if I don't make sure that all of the windows are shut properly and locked, the tops will slip down because of the natural contraction of the wood that happens in cold, dryish weather.

We have locks on all of ours, though we're on the second floor, and in the colder months if I don't make sure that all of the windows are shut properly and locked, the tops will slip down because of the natural contraction of the wood that happens in cold, dryish weather.

When we talk about latching, that's what we mean: those locks that catch sideways where the upper and lower halves of the window meet. Most of our windows, the upper and lower halves do not meet to the degree that while there are locks on the windows, they don't actually lock; either the two parts of the lock aren't in contact or they don't align enough to catch, no matter how much effort is put into them. It is impossible to seal these windows against drafts or even normal thermodynamic exchange.

(If you mean something different, please explain?

derspatchel took photographs on Friday; I could post one if that would clarify.)

Ugh. Yeah... I mean the latch things.
I hope this can be resolved soon. It's too cold for this nonsense!

It's too cold for this nonsense!

Thank you. It really, really is.

That's pretty awful on the landlord's part.

I have nothing to offer but sympathy, but I offer that freely.

I have nothing to offer but sympathy, but I offer that freely.

It's appreciated. Thank you.

I'm so sorry to hear about the mess with the windows. I wish I had anything more useful to say than that you've my sympathy and I wish ye great good luck, mojo, and suchlike power in getting it all sorted with great speed.

I'm glad that Ninotchka pleased you.

I hope the window situation gets resolved immediately!

I hope the window situation gets resolved immediately!

Thank you.

adrian_turtle spoke to the Inspectional Services Division in person this morning; we should hear something as soon as an inspector is assigned to our case.

Your icon is appreciated.

Damn it. I hope things have improved for you since then.

Doppel-Abbie is adorable.

I hope things have improved for you since then.

Nothing has really changed, but we have a plan and I had a nice day, which I am seizing for all it's worth. In the meantime, it's Christmas tinsel snow out there. We can observe whether any of it comes in.

Doppel-Abbie is adorable.

I shall tell him so. Like all cats, he likes to know the precise degree to which he is appreciated.

This sounds awful.

I wish you a huge amount of good coincidence, reputable contracting, cheerful and competent inspectors, and repentant landlordship, but most of all I wish you a speedy renovation and warm extremities.

In the short term, I have two rather good space heaters in storage. Do you want to see if they can be sent your way? They are small, wheeled and not dangerous.

I wish you a huge amount of good coincidence, reputable contracting, cheerful and competent inspectors, and repentant landlordship, but most of all I wish you a speedy renovation and warm extremities.

Thank you. I have no idea what from this list we can reasonably expect, but I just called the City of Somerville back for the third time and this time got a person who was horrified when I described the situation and a building inspector whom I know—he stop-worked the shoddy balcony repair at

derspatchel and

ratatosk's in the fall—is supposed to call me tomorrow. This feels like much more of an accomplishment than waiting for a nebulous inspector to call me back.

Do you want to see if they can be sent your way? They are small, wheeled and not dangerous.

Hee. We actually have a space heater here, so I think we will be all right, but the offer is very much appreciated and I'll let you know if we change our minds!

In the meantime, Michael delivered your message last night at rehearsal; thank you.

*hugs*

This feels like much more of an accomplishment than waiting for a nebulous inspector to call me back.

That sounds excellent. I hope that the concern and horror stay keen and get your case seen to as soon as possible.

In the meantime, Michael delivered your message last night at rehearsal; thank you.

Michael is an excellent messenger. *hugs you*

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Comrades, you must have been smoking a lot

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