Slumlords in Florida

I live in Florida and recently went through a very traumatic forceful eviction. It wasn't because I dont pay but because I refused to put up with the conditions I had to live in for 6 years. People tell you to fight back and standup for yourself but at what cost? Everything I have ever worked for? It is so unfair how the system is. This SCUM bag has been getting away with this for decades and I intend to stop him. IF you looked up slumlord this mans picture would be next to it. I had mold, sealed windows, two non working ac units IN FLORIDA! A very illegal and HIGHLY unsafe electrical panel. I got zapped all the time. I had no heat, ever. I had roaches and ants in everything and in my appliances. I had to toss food because they would fall into my food when I cooked. It was just horrible. SIX YEARS!!! I am a neat freak and it was impossible to get rid of the bugs without the landlord doing pest control to which he refused, told me I Was just dirty which anyone who knows me INCLUDING his daughter knows that is not true. Then another time he told me to deal with it because I live in Florida and we have roaches. Um no I have lived here my whole live and I have never had these issues! Speaking of his daughter, she too lives in one of his dump properties and has NO hot water because he wont give her a hot water heater. His own daughter! I could write a book on my experiences and what he has done to me. He took everything I have ever worked for and my cats and my beloved Mustang. I am so not ok with what he has done to me. I have a lawyer thanks to my very amazing boyfriend who is paying for it. My boyfriend is just as upset as I am because he has seen what I dealt with.

The biggest concern right now are my beloved pets. My 3 fur babies. 2 are inside and one, my baby Little Richard, got out of my car and took off. He is hiding as he has been seen but my issue is the sheriff didnt do their job!!!! They never called animal control which is PROCEDURE and animal control has 24 hours to get them with me but they never called and now they can't get involved and they are VERY upset as well because the officers didnt follow procedure! I have filed a complaint with the sheriff and that will be the next thing we address with the lawyer. Animal control asked if they knew pets where there and I told her MOST DEFINITELY as they saw my boy run from my car because I had a meltdown when he got away. I told them two were inside hiding and I couldn't find them. They TOLD me animal control would be called and they would contact me to go into the house to get them with animal control and that they would set a trap for my boy outside but they never called. They put my pets at risk and if anything happens to my boy outside I will never be the same. My one cat got hurt recently because of the front window, someone TOOK IT OUT! I emailed my landlord and he did nothing. The piece of glass was sitting next to the ac unit. I put it in the window but it had to be rigged like everything else and my cats got out as a result of this window and one got hurt pretty bad on the glass, she got a massive gash in her leg. I was so upset. My cats have been my therapy the last year. They were unexpected. A stray cat had kittens in my closet and we kept them and they have been great for us, my son and I, esp with living in that place we did.I make a very good wage, got a $5 raise at my new job and even with making $22/hr it isn't enough where I Live as you need to make $35 to afford and qualify for the rental prices here and NO I will NOT buy in todays OVERPRICED market.


Florida is a horrible state, there are no rights for anyone but shady criminals who get protected like my landlord. It is a right to EVERYTHING state meaning people can get away with so much that in other states would never fly! My lawyer said the laws in Florida allow slumlords and he knows it and uses it to his advantage. She is 100% on my side too. She wants to change laws as do I and I am beyond angry at this point with all I have found out. I work in insurance and it bothers me that people like him are allowed to let homes get to the conditions he does and then let people live in it!! Since he has no mortgage nobody is requiring he have insurance which would make sure the home was to code. The home is NOT to code and violates every code there is! I never knew any of this when I moved in or I never would have. I learned A LOT working in insurance due to inspection reports and learning about codes. The more I learned the more angry I got.


There need to be laws in place to prevent people like this. He is a HORRIBLE human being. I know I am not the only person in this state who has to live under such horrible conditions or be homeless. It is so unfair and messed up. This man treats his own family this way. He takes advantage of people 100%. I however have found a law in Florida where if you can prove neglect you can seize the property from the landlord and we plan on seizing ALL of his properties under his law. I can more than prove neglect on all three properties. I have pulled permits and property cards and he has NEVER updated one thing on either home which all you have to do is look at it and you would see! His idea of fixing things is duct tape and caulk. I kid you not I had TREES growing on my roof which you can seen the pics. The ceiling in my room has a huge long crack and the ceiling is falling in and he did NOTHING! It was so bad and I had to stay as I had nowhere else to go due to cost o living where I am. It is 3 times what I paid and while I make a decent wage it's not enough here as where I live is the 10th most expensive area for rising rental costs in the country! Oh and dont say just leave, it costs MONEY to leave and I am a single parent on one income (I do not get any assistance do dont even go there. I do it on my own and I am damn proud of that) I do not have the money to move or relocate or I would not have stayed in a crap hole for 6 years!



Here is the forest over taking the whole place

These are the ac units he deemed acceptable. The one with the stone holding it, that was my walk way in front and he took the bricks and used it to prop the ac up, which left a huge dirt hole where they use to be so when it rained I had a huge mud puddle.

When I moved in the kitchen was not even a kitchen. The counters were rusted and peeling up as it was the original kitchen stuff from the 50s! The hot water heater had a BOARD on top with cinder blocks holding it and to him THAT Was the counter! My friend who was a general contractor saw the kitchen and put in a new one for me. DO you think that landlord ever said thank you or offered anything off my rent? NOPE!

This is just a fraction of the crap I dealt with. My mental health was shot to hell here. I fixed a lot of things myself but I was fed up putting my money into someone else's property. It became impossible to get people to work on things for me because everything was so rigged it was a paint to correct and very expensive. I am so angry and I will not stop until laws are changed so people like this can't exist in our society ESP in this state.

a reply to: mblahnikluver
good luck.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

That place can be easily fixed.....with a bulldozer.

Seriously, that should be declared a health hazard and condemned.

Thanks. I am determined to change things here. It has gone on long enough and people like this slumlord have been around far too long and need to be stopped.

a reply to: DAVID64

Yes!!

I worked in banking when I moved in. It was only until I got into insurance that I realized how unsafe this place was and ALL the codes it violated, which is every single one of them.

I will take of his properties when i am done with him. I will rehab two and bulldoze one as it is beyond repair. My neighbor has opossums getting in under the house and into the main home by chewing through the floors. The outside of the home has been chewed up all around the bottom by critters and she has had to put big rocks and board around it to try and keep them out. It is absolutely terrible!

Go viral, show this pictures all over the internet, show the names of the crocks their faces all, this will not go unnoticed, call for anybody that are having issues like you. Hopefully many will join, then a big law sue.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

So far, I don't think that I've ever seen anywhere that has gotten the balance right between the rights of tenants and landlords.

Where I live it's the complete opposite. You need to jump through a million hoops to evict a tenant even if they default on their rent and wreck the place, and if someone receives almost any form of government support they're classed as having protected status under anti discrimination legislation so refusing to rent to them can be considered a breach of their human rights

That is what I plan on doing. I had already posted about him locally and even to the local news he writes for. He was recognized at the library I lived at as a kid and it makes me sick because they do not know what kind of person he really is. It needs to stop. He is one of many in this state and I am not the only one victimized by people like him.

a reply to: AaarghZombies

WOW where do you live? It is not like that here at all.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

I am a neat freak

Well that's a good thing.

A stray cat had kittens in my closet

Oh, you were kidding about that first part.

Most of what you're talking about isn't required by Florida housing. The condition of landscaping is almost certainly your responsibility unless it was listed in the lease. There are lots of other glaring problems here.

This just doesn't add up. This adverse possession thing you're trying is a real scummy thing to be bragging about and it's very popular with squatters. It's along the same lines as sovereign citizens and if you start pulling this you'll quickly find nobody will rent to you again. You'll be moving town to town to stay ahead of your reputation and crying about how you can't catch a break. Trouble is adverse possession requires years of you actually doing the maintenance. You don't get adverse possession for complaining about it, you have to actually fix and maintain it. You clearly have not been doing that or the exterior would not look like it did in the pictures.

Perhaps your boyfriend could have sprung for a deposit instead of shelling out money to attempt to engage in legal theft. Of course nobody seriously making this into a court case is going to post all this on a forum because any inconsistencies could then be used as evidence of fraud on your part. Adverse possession rarely happens because it requires work and years of litigation. We still have the right to property and you need cause to take it.

If you have damages file a lawsuit. If not maybe stop bragging about using the power of state for your personal vendettas and as a ticket to free stuff. This is welfare queen behavior. If you work for a living why would you debase yourself like this?

originally posted by: mblahnikluver

This is a pretty awful situation and I'm sorry that you've had to experience it. I've had my share of landlords over the years. Some were great, others were not. I've read through the entire post before posting and I've kind of rearranged some of your statements so my response is a bit more cohesive. This may come off as callous in some spots, but that is not my intention.

I live in Florida and recently went through a very traumatic forceful eviction. It wasn't because I dont pay but because I refused to put up with the conditions I had to live in for 6 years... I make a very good wage, got a $5 raise at my new job and even with making $22/hr it isn't enough where I Live as you need to make $35 to afford and qualify for the rental prices here and NO I will NOT buy in todays OVERPRICED market.

Who was forcing you to live there for six years? The market in Florida has always been high, yes, however it didn't hit the current over-the-top prices for homes we have now until within the last three years.

I had mold, sealed windows, two non working ac units IN FLORIDA! A very illegal and HIGHLY unsafe electrical panel. I got zapped all the time. I had no heat, ever. I had roaches and ants in everything and in my appliances.

What was the condition of the property before you moved in? Do you have pictures? If it were that awful six years ago, why would you have agreed to move in? Do you have statements from electricians citing the faulty electrical system? Florida law requires heat, but not air conditioning. Are the air conditioning units listed in the lease agreement? Can you prove that there is no heat? Florida law also requires that a landlord keep a property pest free, but at the same time that does require some due diligence of your own. Roach/ant traps are not expensive. A spray bottle of Home Defense is not an unreasonable expense either.

I have a lawyer thanks to my very amazing boyfriend who is paying for it... (I do not get any assistance do dont even go there. I do it on my own and I am damn proud of that) I do not have the money to move or relocate or I would not have stayed in a crap hole for 6 years!

Why not have your boyfriend pay for you to relocate instead of for a lawyer?

The home is NOT to code and violates every code there is! I never knew any of this when I moved in or I never would have.

Did you inspect the property before signing a lease? Not a full on home inspection, just a walk through? Did you talk to any of the current tenants before moving in? It seems like if it was as bad as it is now six years ago there would have been some red flags.

I however have found a law in Florida where if you can prove neglect you can seize the property from the landlord and we plan on seizing ALL of his properties under his law. I can more than prove neglect on all three properties.

If you're entering litigation it isn't the smartest thing to talk about it openly on the internet, even on a mostly anonymous internet forum.

Here is the forest over taking the whole place

I have never heard of a landlord for a single family home being responsible for yard maintenance. Why haven't you taken care of that yourself? Is it his responsibility per the lease agreement?

My friend who was a general contractor saw the kitchen and put in a new one for me. DO you think that landlord ever said thank you or offered anything off my rent? NOPE!

Did you have a contract with the landlord for payment or compensation for upgrades done to the property?

a reply to: mblahnikluver

couple things i have to ask, did you just move in without checking it out?
did you check it out and say something about the conditions to him first, and did he agree to fix it first before any thing was signed or money changed hands? cuase i got to say unless it just went to sh@@ in a short period of time all that looks to have been there when you moved in.

if you didn't do your own due diligence first, you can't blame anybody but yourself. i know rent is tuff, and places are hard to find, but if the place looked like that from the get go, you were just to much to blame for what you lived in as he was.
you decided to move in he didn't twist your arm and make you live there.

i've had to live in a couple of sh@@ holes during my lifetime, and have walked away from some that were far worse than the ones i lived in.

Im sorry for what you are going through, can´t you just move out from there? I remember few years back you were cooking and posted pictures what you made in here and i can´t find those now but didn´t see in those pictures such a disgusting mess as it is now. I remember you loved cooking very much.

Your tolerance is enormous when you put through 6 years of that kind of living situations. Florida is humid so mold gets fast inside without AC it is a health hazard and you can suffer because of that the rest of your life.

Human to Human I wish you well….however I don’t think people are going to be as sympathetic to your situation as you might think. There are pros and cons to renting from a private party as opposed to renting through a property management co./ apartment complex. You rented this place as is, why ? No deposit, No back-ground check, cheap rent, pets ?

If you want the protections of rules and regulations, you need to jump through the hoops of that process, lol and in many cases you’ll be charged for the privilege ! I agree with others that have suggested you cut your losses, save your boyfriend some money and find a place you’ll be happier. Good Luck ! 🍀

a reply to: mblahnikluver

I have dealt with enough stuff like this in the past also.. My advise? Find a better place, move on, forget the loser landlord, cut him away from your life.

I hope you will be in a better place in the near future.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

I'm sorry that you've had to live in those conditions. I hope you are able to catch your cat and all of you can find a better place to live.

MOVE

originally posted by: mblahnikluver
a reply to: AaarghZombies

WOW where do you live? It is not like that here at all.

It's a standard feature of socialism.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

May 18, 2022 - Florida landlord tenant law requires tenants to pay rent on time according to the terms of the lease. However, the tenant could choose to withhold rent if the landlord fails to fix problems such as mold growth on walls or a broken heating system.

After investing in Florida real estate, landlords are required by Florida landlord tenant laws to maintain livable conditions on all their rental properties. Pest control must be done, air conditioning must work properly, and the properties should adhere to health, building, and safety codes. Landlords are not allowed to switch off utilities in a home even if the renter has not paid the bills. Instead, failing to pay bills can be a reason to pursue eviction.

There are several other laws at the site he seems to have broken. Every state has landlord-tenant laws, and getting turned in is a nightmare for landlords.


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