What would you do...??

[beavereater]

I spent about an hour writing what I wanted advice about, but I figured a shorter story may suit everyones eyes a little better. Here's the deal...

I moved from the 6th to the 9th floor of the same apartment building. Before moving in, there was a broken water pipe. We waited 2 weeks for them to fix it. Then, we moved in. We noticed right away that there was a bug problem...in Japanese they call the bug dani, they're like fleas. Usually, once a summer, we set off dani bombs, leave the house for an hour and for the rest of the summer no problem. We had set these bombs off for 3 days in a row, without even stopping them. Now if anyone has ever been bitten by one, it can be very itchy, and a bitch to deal with when you are working. They bit our legs, arms, feet, face...any place that wasn't protected by clothing really. ANYWAY, we wondered why. A week later, we find out the water pipe broke again. They needed a couple days to fix it, but it was Saturday and the plumbers wouldn't be here until Monday. By Monday, the kitchen was flooded, and our hot carpet (Like an electric blanket, but a carpet) was ruined. The bugs were out in full force.

We explained to the manager that we believed it had to do with the water pipe breaking and the bugs coming up from the floors and stuff. The manager shrugged it off as dumb complaint and said we should put out sofa and futon on the balcony, which would kill the bugs. BUT I knew that wasnt the where they were coming from.

Anyway, the bites where getting bad. My girl went to the hospital for a fever caused by the bites. I was getting bit cuts from all the scratching...and so on.

Basically, the manager was a dick!! He wanted the blame to fall onto us for being dirty or something. After the water was cleaned up, the floor started to grown a disgusting amount of mold, which I took pictures off and I will post one. In the end we got that months rent free for all this shit, and other stuff I am just not gonna bother to mention, that we put up with.



Now we are into our next month...but the bugs are still here, and nothing has been done about it. My girl and I get new bites EVERY day. I call the managers, wait days for an answer on what to do, and it's just "Try this or try that" FINALLY, rent day comes and I DONT wanna pay rent. I call, and explain that the problem has persisted. The manager calls back DAYS later and says "The owner is asking that you pay for half the rent. Please remember that the owner allowed for your girlfriends mother to move in.(Thats another story) and that it was out of the kindness of his heart." #Violins start playing and my heart breaks# WTF out of the kindness of his heart...he's getting MONEY FROM ME!!!

Anyway, I contacted a lawyer and have an appointment. So far, all contact that I have had with the actual OWNER has been good. Only with the managers does there ever seem to be a problem. I wanna live there, but not with the bugs. SO...what do you think I should do.

1. Pay half, and see what comes of getting a professional exterminator.
2. Pay nothing UNTIL they get a pro exterminator.
3. Its my fault and I have to deal with it.

According to the law here (Which differs on whether its a private or public company...I don't know which one it is) I have some rights under these circumstances. If I go ahead and take legal action, living there will be difficult, and I will have more problems I am sure.

Moving here is a bitch, because of something called key money. Thats where you pay the owner of the building a "cash present" which is usually in the 1000 or dollars...and you don't get it back. I don't wanna do that again. What to do...for now...drink

[fmctm1sw]

Who's your landlord? Leona Helmsley?

[fmctm1sw]

Wow. Maybe the humidity is doing that. Do you have any kind of air conditioning in your house? What about a dehumidifier?

[tweedledee]

The mold spores are bad for your health, Bleach will kill off the mold, and spray with insecticide to keep the bugs down.
Tell him you're sorry about Hiroshima.
Good luck.

[beavereater]

Wow. Maybe the humidity is doing that. Do you have any kind of air conditioning in your house? What about a dehumidifier?

Yeah...but airconditioning sucks juice. I pay out the ass if I put it on. I cleaned pretty good, used bleach...but I am still getting all these bug problems.

[stiltman]

Call a professional bug killer, and send the bill to the owner

[Doramius]

Try this. You sound like you have your attorney ready, so you can offer a quick settle to where you live in the building and the owner must find you decent place either in a different room of equal or greater accomodations for the same price or find another place for you (also of equal or greater accomodations for same or lesser price). In the meantime they must hire a full professional bug exterminator at their cost. The 'cash present' or non-refundable deposit must be paid by the landlord and not to come from you as they are the ones imposing a health hazard, and whatever else more, towards you. This should fall in the lines with any laws you are coming up against and the lawyers would agree. It doesn't sound like you had any problems in your previous residence of the same building. They should have no previous problem history and can do nothing against you as you would have consumer reliability FROM THEM. It's like them sticking their own foot in their mouth if they try to fight against you.

[beavereater]

Try this. You sound like you have your attorney ready, so you can offer a quick settle to where you live in the building and the owner must find you decent place either in a different room of equal or greater accomodations for the same price or find another place for you (also of equal or greater accomodations for same or lesser price). In the meantime they must hire a full professional bug exterminator at their cost. The 'cash present' or non-refundable deposit must be paid by the landlord and not to come from you as they are the ones imposing a health hazard, and whatever else more, towards you. This should fall in the lines with any laws you are coming up against and the lawyers would agree. It doesn't sound like you had any problems in your previous residence of the same building. They should have no previous problem history and can do nothing against you as you would have consumer reliability FROM THEM. It's like them sticking their own foot in their mouth if they try to fight against you.

Sounds like a good idea. And I think thats what I will try, thanks!! The only problem is that this is Japan, and I am a Canadian. As much as I hate to admit it, this counrty still has some problems with fairness in the laws. If I were back home, there wouldn't be any of these problems. Anyway, I got word back from managment that we could pay just half rent this month. Still, I will go up and talk to the owner face to face. We'll see what happens then.

[Doramius]

Half rent is okay, and I would suggest paying it so they have nothing against you for being a poor tenant. They may not be as fair, but they still have certain protocall and laws to which they must abide or you can have members from the US embassy prosecute them. They don't want that, especially if you've truly done nothing wrong.