Renter's Insurance and Columbia County Slumlords" We Don't Care; We Don't Have too.

found on the internet:"In January, the toilet in my apartment backed up and so did the washing machine at the same time. It flooded my apartment, and as soon as I realized that the water was still pouring out of the toilet, I called the landlady who sent a man over right away to stop the leak. However, it took about 2 days to completely stop the leak, and the carpet was soaked, as well as my furniture. Now, the toilet had backed up before and I they looked to see if I had put disposable diapers (even though I am 63, have not had a baby in my home in over 40 years) or sanitary napkins (menopause for 20 years don't use them anymore). It was actually their fault. They had not kept up with the maintenance issues. In Februray all tenants were told that we had to have renter's insurance. I was told where I was to get it and I was assured that the landlady or apartment manager was not receiving anything from the insurance company, so went off on my own and I found it

cheaper somewhere else and the only thing I have in my landlady's name is liability in case of water or fire damage. I am on a very tight budget and the reason I did not carry it was because I could not afford it. But I had to have it. I told my maintenance guy numerous times that if they did some spot checks and a little bit of preventive maintenance, they would not have all these charges at once--my apartment flooded then the lady's apartment next door flooded, etc. It used to be cheaper to live in an apartment; now it's not. Now if I have a problem with my dishwasher, they want me to pay half the cost of replacing it. I told them to jump up my rear end--I could wash dishes by hand. So I did until a friend of mine who can do anything looked at it and he replaced a little part that cost about $10 and now I have a working dishwasher again. I deducted $5.00 from my rent and told the landlady that I had the dishwasher repaired and I was charging them for one half the cost of repairing it. Most of the time if the maintenance guys would just check air conditioner units outside for grass clippings and other things that get into the systems they can prevent maintenance costs."