From the Forum – My landlord is a hoarder, so we’re dealing with roaches

Photo by PoPville flickr user Lauren Parnell Marino

My landlord is a hoarder, so we’re dealing with roaches:

“Wondering if anyone has experience with something like this. My BF and I have been renting the first floor of a duplex on capitol hill since Sept. The landlady owns the house but lives in a different part of town. She’s only been renting the whole place out for a couple of years.

I love everything about the place except for the roaches. Big mofos. She is an admitted hoarder and all of her belongings are stored in the basement. It is roach breeding heaven, and they make it up to our apt despite efforts to keep our place clean and unattractive to roaches. The previous tenant in the apartment said that she saw them all the time but never said anything to the landlady. (She didn’t want to make a stink about it because she was getting a good deal.) Our upstairs neighbors see them less frequently but don’t really care. We share the basement to do laundry.

I reported them to the landlady and she acted as if this was the first she’d ever seen or heard of them. An exterminator came and we haven’t seen them in our apt since, although they are more dormant in winter months. Now I’m seeing them in the basement again, and speculate that anything we do, including exterminators, will be like a bandaid on a gunshot wound until she empties or cleans the basement.

I love the apt and don’t want to move…Do i have any recourse as a tenant to get her to do something about the condition of the basement? ”

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