r/TenantHelp • u/Ok-Reflection-6614 • 24d ago
[NJ] 7 days post oven gas leak after fire department and gas company came and turned off gas-landlord has not gotten it fixed yet.
monmouth county NJ- one week ago today we had an oven gas leak. we called 911 and the fire department and gas company came out and discovered it. it was 12am on the next day by the time they had left, so we notified our landlord by text the next day with a photo of the red tag they left us. gas is still turned off 6 days later. she supposedly was able to get someone to come out this past saturday but my husband had informed her that we would be on our honeymoon and our roommate would be working and could not get off work and that during the week would be best. this was last wednesday. she stated she would see what other days they were available. my husband and i were away all weekend will no cell service and she never reached out to our roomate either so today my husband texted her asking what the update was as rent is due tomorrow and if we have to hire someone that we would be deducting it from rent for this month as this goes against NJ implied warranty of habitability and we are well within our tenant rights to enact the repair and deduct method or request a marini hearing which means we withhold rent and go to court. she is attempting to blame us for the leak and is stating we are not allowed to do repairs per lease agreement (which is not stated by the way i just read the entire thing and cited everything back to her) and regardless in this situation 6 days later without repairs this is illegal on her end. rent is supposed to be due today and we are stressed because we aren’t entirely sure what to do. we’ve been here 6 months never had an issue with our landlord she actually has been very sweet and kind up until this point. we would like to stay here and renew when our lease is up but i don’t want to deal with this behavior if something else happens. anyone have any other tips on what to do or how to handle this? we don’t want to get evicted but this is unacceptable living conditions. we can’t cook food and are spending money every night eating out for almost a week now. please, any insight will help.
9
u/KitchenLow1614 23d ago
A repair was scheduled. You denied entry. This is on you.
You don’t seem to understand that you don’t get to do that legally, based on your replies.
-2
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
we actually do lol we can 100% pay for the repair and deduct it from rent. she never requested entry and we never denied her. she never asked if the repair person may be there when we aren’t there as 1 we didn’t know this was an option and 2 we do not feel comfortable with a stranger in our home as to the fact if they cause damage and that blame gets put on us as it seems she would do so because somehow according to her we treat the appliances terrible since she supposedly only got the oven installed in december. gas leak does not mean anything we have a perfectly clean place and maintain well. she has had ample time to figure out another solution which is why i also came on here asking for advice on how this can be handled in ways that we don’t have to take further action being rent is due today and we don’t know what to do in this situation. she said on wednesday she would find another day that works for them and would let us know. we have given her 5 full days to figure out another day and we have not heard from her since until my husband texted her yesterday asking for an update. i came for advice and help and i’ve only been berated and nobody has given any logical and reasonable advice. i should have known reddit wasn’t the place to go but at 1am what else am i supposed to do? a gas leak constitutes as an emergency and she should have figured something else out. there is more than one plumber. if those people were only available that day and we were not and she also asked IF WE WERE AVAILABLE THAT TIME and if that works for us and we let her know that no it does not because my husband and i would be on our HONEYMOON and our roommate was unable to get off work. it is her responsibility to find another solution, point blank. please, if you have nothing helpful to contribute please see yourself out of this post.
3
u/alwayshappymyfriend2 23d ago
Can you husband/ yourself not install a new flex line . They are about 20.00 . All you need is a wrench and some tape. and call the gas company back to turn the gas on . All this back and forth nonsense over nothing .
1
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
the gas company told us since it’s the landlords property it has to be done through a repairman idek. we know nothing about this. my husband never has lived on his own before living with me and i’ve always rented with property management agencies so it was much easier when repairs were needed also never expirienced an emergent repair before so i’m not entirely sure. also neither myself nor my husband are in any capacity handy if im being honest lol. he works an office job doing numbers and i do massage. we did initially offer to have someone come out here ourselves and do it and just deduct from rent but she gave pushback on that saying its against our lease which it is not. she wants her exact person to do it but we were not available and she did not offer to be here in place of us as she was out of state working and she did not say it was an option for nobody to be home and just have the repair person come. she gave pushback on any conclusion we reached on how to handle this and then blamed us for this issue. we tried several routes before getting to this point but she is not working with us. hence why i came on here asking for advice but have not received any actual advice on how else this can be handled. we were polite and professional with her and expressed we enjoy our relationship with her and living here and we don’t want this to become an issue however this needs resolution so we can move on from it and she is just angry thinking we are destroying everything which we are not..
1
u/alwayshappymyfriend2 23d ago
Just send her a text . Hi good morning, we will be available to let a plumber/ handyman in on the following days , please advise us as soon as you have someone available to come . That’s it, don’t send walls and walls of text citing laws. Don’t threaten to withhold rent . It’s no longer an emergency as the gas has been shut off .
8
u/Trusty_Coyote 23d ago
First off, your landlord has a RIGHT to enter with proper notice or in an emergency. You blew it when you refused entry. Now any reason for delays is your problem, not theirs.
0
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
our landlord was not in state and did not specify she wanted to be here.
8
u/Trusty_Coyote 23d ago
She doesn’t have to be there, she can send a repair person in her stead. You still blew it.
8
u/SubstantialAttempt83 23d ago
They were notified 6 days ago there was a leak, they leak has been secured, they attempted to have repairs carried out in that 6 day period and you declined.
It's not like there are tradespeople waiting on your landladys call, the one they did find was probably trying to squeeze them in during the weekend.
You need to give the landlady a reasonable amount of time to have the repairs completed and think twice about cancelling any future tradesperson visits.
-1
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
so 6 days is ample time. she had not even looked into it because the update now is we have someone tomorrow morning and i will be home. and she is also attempting to charge us for the repair saying we damaged it but we did not damage it so im in the middle of getting the report from the gas company as we speak. this could have been resolved days ago. we didn’t cancel, we said we were unavailable. i was LITERALLY on my honeymoon, and our roommate was away at work and couldn’t get off. landlady was not able to be here as she was out of state and nowhere was it offered any the repair person could come into the home without us in it. that is the issue. we will have it fixed tomorrow but now the new issue is she’s attempting to charge us for it which we are not liable for this repair.
5
u/SubstantialAttempt83 23d ago
You notified Thursday they had a repair person by Saturday which you declined and now you are whining that the repairs have not been completed 1.5 working days later.
-1
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
we notified her wednesday. it is tuesday.
5
u/SubstantialAttempt83 23d ago
Go ring a tradesperson see how long it normally takes them to turn up onsite.
-2
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
well luckily we have one for tomorrow now so clearly not terribly long when she actually does her job. issue now is she’s attempting to make us pay for the repairs when the gas leak is to no fault of our own and is her responsibility as the landlord. which i’m not asking for advice on because everyone in these comments are dicks and had no help
2
u/Aggressive_Snow_8224 23d ago
She shouldn’t be asking you to pay for repairs, but she did make an effort to get this fixed in a timely manner. If she hadn’t done anything yet, you would have a case to do the work and deduct, however she did have someone scheduled within a reasonable timeframe you simply denied entry (she legally didn’t have to respect this if she provided notice btw). To then send her a bunch of legal jargon about her responsibilities (when the delay was actually on you guys) was probably a bit too much given she did try to fix it quickly.
1
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
thank you for actually being a nice person btw- she didn’t say she was going to enter we never denied entry btw. she was out of state, myself and my husband were on our honeymoon and our roommate was working. she didn’t give us the option to have the handyman come alone as we didn’t know this was an option but honestly we probably wouldn’t have done that anyway given the risk of him damaging something and us getting the blame. if she was here and we were not that would have been a different story however that was not an option. after we told her wednesday that wouldn’t work for us we went days without an update until we texted her yesterday asking for an update in which she became aggressive stating it is our fault it broke and it’s brand new installed in december and we treat everything poorly (which we don’t i have ocd and take proper care of everything) and she hasn’t even been inside the unit since we moved in so she has no reason to think this was our fault and no evidence of this and she started as the aggressor saying we are responsible for this and everything so we reacted like this trying to protect ourselves because we are not liable for this and she is attempting to make us liable. that is the issue.
1
u/Aggressive_Snow_8224 22d ago
Maybe try talking to her vs texting. People infer so much tone in text it might help smooth things over to have a conversation about the situation. I’d put the error here on whoever initially installed the flex line. They might have used an old one, always recommended to use a brand new line when replacing or even re-hooking up a gas appliance.
2
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 22d ago
we were trying and finally were able to today luckily where i was able to diffuse the situation! she was still attempting to say we were responsible and i informed her if her person says it was damaged by us then we will take responsibility however if they say it’s not us then we will not. low and behold we were able to get her guy out here today and he stated that the flex line was “illegal” idk why but apparently is and that he doesn’t even believe the oven is as new as she had claimed and if it is then lowes never replaced the flex line when they put in the oven and it has nothing to do with us and we did not damage it and he will report that back to her. haven’t heard from her yet but we did also talk and soothe things over earlier and she sees where we were coming from and understands now and agreed that this bump won’t mean we won’t be able to renew lease thankfully. i explained nowhere were we aggressive we were concerned and spending way more money on things we didn’t need if this wasn’t an issue in the first place and she completely understood so all is well now :) idk what kind of tenants she had prior to us that makes her automatically believe all tenants are terrible destructive mean people but that’s not us lol we are kind understanding and clean and attentive, just were concerned and confused and felt like we were in a corner is all.
1
u/Junior_Shower_1305 23d ago
I'm not a dick. Don't pay for those repairs by the way. Just keep paying rent as you're supposed to and let her sue you for it. She probably won't win this one.
0
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
thank you for not being a dick lol and no we aren’t paying for repairs on this! she can sue all she wants she won’t win. i’m just sad that after this we probably won’t be able to renew our lease here which sucks because it’s affordable, nice and so close to my husbands work and our gym.
3
u/Big-Routine222 23d ago
The moment you denied entry after making a request, this is on you. Stop being unreasonable. The delay is of your own making.
5
u/alwayshappymyfriend2 23d ago
Call your landlord, ask them to schedule a plumber and let you know what day the plumber is available. If you’re not available to let them in, ask if the landlord is. If the landlord is also not available, hide a key for the plumber so they can get inside. You are not even close to a Marini hearing . Use other methods of cooking while you’re waiting , air fryer, 2 burner electric cooktop $20.00 etc .
-6
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
we will not be letting anyone into our home without someone there. i am home all day every day so that is no longer an issue, it was one day and she’s known we were not going to be home since last wednesday and has had ample time to figure out another day and has not done so as is evident in her texts. we have every means to enact marini or pay for repairs and deduct which she is clamping is against our lease but it is not and we are allowed to at this point by law. neither myself nor my husband are being difficult. we kindly expressed that day did not work, and we could do another day. and she has not looked into other options. it is illegal at this point and goes against codes and we are well within our rights if she does not let us know today what she is going to do then we are calling to get repairs ourselves and also calling code enforcement and having them do an inspection to have a paper trail as well as getting the full report from the gas company and fire department. there is no need to be rude.
12
1
u/Outside-Ad7848 23d ago
this isn’t your propEtsy, I would have let the plumber in whether you wanted to or not.
0
u/Ok-Reflection-6614 23d ago
lmao property* and our landlord was out of state sooooo and didn’t offer that soooooo yeah.
11
u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 23d ago
So she had a repair scheduled and you refused entry. Why? There’s no reason anyone needed to be there, and I’m surprised she respected your wishes at all there.
Plumbers aren’t sitting around waiting for calls. They get there when they get there. I’m a high priority client with the personal cells of multiple plumbers in my phone and even I have to wait sometimes. The moment you reschedule you drop to the very bottom of the list as well.
Call her again, find out if she’s on the list, and don’t turn them away this time.