Termites: what is a landlord's responsibility?

[LeftyMom]

18. You have a few options:

First you need to document the problem. Take pictures, get a pest control person to come in and give you a report in writing if you can. Then send your property management company a letter about the problem, cc the property owner, and send it certified mail so you can document that it was received. Include copies of the pictures and pest control report. Certified mail is landlord tenant relations for "fix this or we're going to court." It's the best dollar you can spend, in my experience.

Hopefully that gets the problem solved. If your landlord isn't a complete idiot it should, because letting termites eat their building is penny wise and pound foolish. If they're not jumping on termites I'd assume that they're facing money issues and likely to lose the building soon or are just idiots who shouldn't be in the business (unfortunately this describes a lot of landlords,) either way I'd get ready to move. The documentation above should be all you need to allow you to break your lease.

But if for some reason you want to stay you can do the procedure described above of putting your payments into escrow. I wouldn't, I think you'd be better off finding a property that's well cared for, but maybe there are extenuating circumstances like a really great location or a shortage of rental housing in your area that might be a factor.

There may be additional local rules, you should ask a local tenants' rights group for specific local advice.

Oh, and general advice on landlord tenant issues: Nolo press writes a really great guide for rental law. It's worth the $40 or so that it costs or your local library probably has it in the reference section. Looks like they also have a lot of information online now. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/renters-rights If it's anything like the landlord version it should have model letters, etc.