Originally published at: https://techpost.io/escaping-san-francisco/
Visit GoFundMe There seems to be an unspoken Millennial tradition for tech bros writing a “Goodbye San Francisco” post upon leaving the city to announce that they no longer pay some of the highest rent in the World. These posts usually include a bunch of similar tropes and platitudes and express just how much they…
Hey bro sorry to hear this but the same happened to us. Fiancee dog and baby which seeing your baby getting sick and no one seem to care is a horrible thing. It cost me over all probably 30-40k in lost income dealing with it but we were able to get a lawyer and move. I blame alot of things for these kinds of failures but mainly I see it as shitty individuals who are broke them selves and are not prepared to house people. They will cash out but the lawsuits will hit them when they do and some day the city will regain a bit of sanity when the dust settles. Sue the pants off them and their insurance don’t let it all be in vain.
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Have you never heard of the San Francisco Rent Board?! You have massive tenant’s right. Your landlords are in some serious violation here. And how about an insurance advocate? These are FREE services.
Ugh I’m sorry you went through this with a baby. I couldn’t even imagine. It’s bad enough with us and our dog. I don’t understand the apathy from this situation from some people. This wasn’t our fault, and there was nothing we could do to prevent it. Landlord bought a foreclosed building from 1908 and didn’t bring it up to code and rented it without notifying the city. Didn’t tell us how old the building was, and didn’t make proper repairs.
I can’t go into all the details, but we’re pursuing this. Didn’t even get our rent money back during the month we were forced to move out.
Anyhow, I am sorry you went through this as well. I wouldn’t wish this hell on anyone. Hope you’re all feeling better now.
We contacted them. They told us to get out, and find a lawyer. Which is what we did.
Unfortunately there’s nothing else we could have done in this situation. The city is now aware of the situation and forced them into compliance. But it was too late for us, and I can only hope remediation took place properly and no one else gets sick in the future there.
What happened to us was highly illegal on many levels. The more we learn since we’ve been out the more complex and nuanced the situation gets. We will know more in January and I will do my best to update everyone as the situation unfolds. Unfortunately I even had to walk back a lot of this post and take out many of the details as we don’t want them to try and somehow use this GoFundMe against us in the future.
They even withheld our final months rent after they knew the place was uninhabitable. That money has been the difference between us getting into a new place and kept us homeless essentially (with family luckily). Basically paid rent for an entire month for an apartment we couldn’t use, and then had thousands in moving and disposal costs and tens of thousands+ of lost and damaged possessions. Not including all the out of pocket medical costs of trying to figure out what was wrong with us for years.
I work as both a Landlord AND tenant advocate. I usually start at the rent board for everything so I am dissapointed they suggestedva lawyer right off the bat. One of my clients has a tenant who has struck her in the face with a cell phone, threatened her with a hammer and she cannot be evicted. The tenant has rent control. And my client inherited a very bad lease situation. We finally ended up in Court after the rent board gave up trying to help the tenant, who refused and / or canceled all mediation attempts after the first one.
The laws are on the Tenants side. As a tenant I appreciate that. I find that most of my tenant clients are unaware of all they are entitled to, specifically: hazard-free living spaces, mandatory upkeep, protection from unfair rent increases and they can get sanctions and money from landlords that withold security deposits longer than 20 days (it may be even less time now). I am empathetic to your plight. I wish you had been served better by the City.
Whoever I spoke to said that was my best course of action.
In the cities defense, they didn’t even know the building was being rented. Once I finally called them and they became aware of the situation they did act but again it was too late. We didn’t realize we were supposed to be having yearly inspections, or what our rights were in the situation.
Unfortunately we just had to leave. We are still in process of getting the mold toxins out of our bodies.
Playing the devil’s advocate here. Have you thought about moving out or cleaning the mold with bleach when you when you first saw signs of it? How about opening windows and airing out the apartment? Mold is in the air everywhere you just have to know how to deal with it. I don’t think the landlord is at fault here.
I hope you are able to reach legal remedy. One of my clients was actually given the building because of her egregious treatment by her former landlord. It was cheaper than paying her the money the court awarded her. Plus, we love our attorney. He is amall but mighty!
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We had to move out. Watch the videos.
The windows were separating from the doors. Installed without a permit. Moisture came in through the improperly installed windows. Nothing we could do. 100% the landlords fault.
Of course we tried to clean it. It just kept coming back because the wood was rotting. Nothing we could do. Also bleach doesn’t break up mycotoxins and will just spread them around. You need to use other cleaners to break up the mold spores and toxins. Bleach only kills the mold. Ammonia works better.
They didn’t have yearly inspections from the city, and the city didn’t even know they were renting the place. So this is basically an illegal rental, that was not up to code, the city found 7 major health and structural violations, and they improperly installed windows is what lead to the water damage and mold. Again, nothing we could do, and absolutely the landlords fault.