I recently moved into a house with 3 roommates.

-----exposition--------

We looked at the place and signed the lease through the Preiss Co., but they were only realtors in this case - they aren't our property manager - this is a lawyer who very clearly runs like 30 or 40 properties on his own. He was just avoiding the listing/contract part.

He has been quick on some complaints (A/C unit was broken, replaced the next day), but not quick on addressing some others (back door is still broken, vent in bathroom makes LOUD noises like it is fucked) ... but, I think he's like any landlord... good enough if you get in touch with him, and won't come poking around.
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BUT, when we toured the house we were shown a "Coach House" - an unfinished 2-story storage shed in the backyard - that could actually be big enough to be a 1-Bedroom loft apartment. It even has a killer 2nd floor patio. I could see myself kicking it on there every weekend, looking down at the yard and the road, reading in the sun with music boppin.

The day we signed the lease, the realtor "just happened to remember" that we would not have access to this house because, in her words, an inspector "came and condemned it or something." She made it sound like it was a liability type thing. As in, don't go in there and if you do and a beam falls on your head, you signed this shit so it isn't our/his fault.

Fine. We needed to get a lease and it wasn't exactly a dealbreaker, we have plenty of space.

Now, FF 5 weeks. He is renting the place as an art studio to a lady who lives a block over, who won't park in our driveway or anything, but "will probably be around most nights and some weekends" in there, painting and shit. She is totally nice and awesome, but I feel like we kinda got punked. He never even mentioned it to us ... she did, the day before she moved in, to ask if we'd be in the driveway. I mean, it won't be a big deal .. really. Just seems a little

Any recourse for this, other than whining on the internet?

7/31/2008 4:03:36 PM

was there anything in the paperwork you signed that stated the structure was condemned? or any mention of it at all for that matter?

without that, you're likely SOL.

7/31/2008 4:09:13 PM

Unless your lease says explicitly that you have use of the structure, you have no reasonable expectation of use.

7/31/2008 4:14:50 PM

Quote :

"As in, don't go in there and if you do and a beam falls on your head, you signed this shit so it isn't our/his fault."

signed what shit? something that says don't go in there?

7/31/2008 4:14:55 PM

it sounds to me like the realtor made the mistake of showing you the "Coach House" on the assumption that the landlord planned to rent it along with the house. She probably spoke to the landlord and he said no way, so she made up the "condemed or something" excuse rather than admit that she made a mistake in showing it to you in the first place.

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 4:17 PM. Reason : a]

7/31/2008 4:16:33 PM

Yeah, sorry, our lease included "tenants will not have access to the coach house."

That's fine, we just expected it to sit there, empty and bug-inflested, ya know?

It is frustrating to not have the 100% privacy of our fenced-in backyard knowing that some lady will be using the thing back there, when that was NEVER mentioned.

7/31/2008 4:40:03 PM

if its a big enough deal to you, you can find out for sure if it was ever condemned. if it was, and it was never repaired/reinspected, you can get the owner for renting out a condemned house to the lady. let's just say raleigh frowns on that.

or, if it was never condemned, you could take the Preiss co. to task for showing it to you in the first place. but since you signed something that said you didn't have access to it, it'd be pretty tough to claim a 'bait & switch' type of scenario. mostly you'd just be bitching at them.

7/31/2008 4:54:50 PM

^ like i said, the agent told him it was condemned not the landlord. honestly, the worst that will happen if it isn't true is the agent will catch hell for it. and since she is obviously already a liar, she would just deny ever saying it in the first place.

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 5:51 PM. Reason : a]

7/31/2008 5:50:36 PM

every time i see your username post i think you're mike alston.

7/31/2008 8:51:41 PM

I'm Mike Alston's older brother, dawg

7/31/2008 9:13:02 PM