problem with landlord/owner - in a rental
OK, I'll try not to make this long and drawn out.... here is the situation...
We (GF, friend and myself) found a house to rent earlier this year. It was appealing to us, because they did not require a deposit, or a pet deposit, and it was a grand a month for a 4 bed/2 bath/1 car garage. Having no deposit, i knew there would be some things wrong with it, and after moving in i fixed a bunch of things.
Prior to moving in, we had verbally talked about replacing the carpet with tile instead of used carpet, like they told us he wanted to do. The owner smoked, and even since the old carpet was ripped out, the stench is still in the house, although not as bad. I told the landlord that I might be willing to help pay for the materials to install the tile, but things have come up every month and left me shorter than i needed to be.
In the 3 months we have lived here the plumber has been here 3 times fixing different stuff. The last time we had a problem, one of our outside spigots sprung a leak and was flooding the basement, and we shut the water off. I called the landlord, he called owner, owner says call this company (i guess he had a deal with them). this particular company cant do it, and now its after hours, and the other places will be charging an emergency after hours fee, so owner says it will have to wait. I get a bit pissed off about this because we have been better tenants anyone could have hoped for in a rent house, as I keep the yard cleaned and mowed, i have excavated 2 trailer loads of trash from the property and taken it to the dump, something that we were supposed to be reimbursed for but havent seen anything. ANYways, it was at this point when i decided that rather than raise the value of a home that the owner could care less about, i would let them install carpet in the house, since we have been without for 3 months, just walking on the mudstained plywood floors. So last month when i paid my rent, I told the guy i didnt want the tile, and i wanted the carpet cuz i wasnt willing to "invest" for a person that didnt give a shit if their tenants had water or not. He said ok, and i havent heard anything from him. My GF went and dropped the rent check off to him tonight and asked aboutt he carpet and was told that we wouldnt be getting carpet, that we "had our chance" and was going to have to live with what we have.
What are my courses of action?
