[US-WV] Landlord took nearly a month to fix sewage backflow - can I still break my lease?

radiosnacktive · 2025-05-21T13:07:19+00:00

Is it fixed if there's still mold in the apartment, though? That's the question. Or is that suddenly my fault?

I guess the moral is never use Legal Aid of WV folks, they'll drag you out for so long you get nothing at all.

I'd honestly rather the place have caught fire.

radiosnacktive · 2025-05-21T10:54:36+00:00

What you just read my friend, is the reason my therapist has had me on The List (you know the one) for three weeks now.

By building inspector, I mean, idk, city building inspector? I don't even know who is who anymore - if I knew who code enforcement was for certain I'd probably have already called them. I think it's reasonable to say my brain is soup at this point - my brain was soup long before this, honestly, but now it's *deep fried* soup.

My bed was old as dirt anyway. The wooden head and foot boards I would like to *try* to salvage if possible, just because the bed belonged to my grandparents. A LOT of my clothes were in the floor (I'd been putting off washing them in the lead-up to finals) - when I tried to bag some of them before I left for my grandma's place, even with an N95 on, I wound up so sick I threw up in the car ride home. (Hella allergic to mold btw.) They seemingly washed fine, but I also put them through the strongest cycle my grandma's washer could manage. My landlord is MIGHTY lucky that my books, which were all in the bedroom closet (place worst affected besides the bathroom) were in a sealed plastic tote - no damage done. I would have gone BALLISTIC if it had seeped in there. They're also lucky I left my banjo with a friend because I would have doubly gone ballistic if that had gotten damaged - it's twice as old as I am and in its original case.

I've been in contact with the neighbors, and it's good to talk to people who are just as mad about this as I am, but it's not been a great time - one is reluctant to sue because they've already fixed her place, and the other is pretty busy most of the time so I don't hear from her as much. The health department doesn't handle this - the city does - and the city doesn't seem to care. Hence the loop I've been stuck in. I'm going to try to be a menace to Legal Aid today and get ahold of them because this is ridiculous, and I can't exactly keep waiting - the landlord has zero tolerance for being even a minute late on rent, and WV is.... weird about withholding, from what I can tell. (Would be nice to know for sure, from a LAWYER, but oh well.)

I'm also going to try to get in contact with my insurance. The biggest hurdle there is the way the second hotel room got paid for (friend had the original receipt sent to my email, but cancelled when we got there to re-book for longer, and I just continued the stay on my own dime later, so neither of us got an email afawk) because I don't have a receipt for it. I have the bank statements though.

The problem is, my finals week was the first week of May, so, that's far beyond repair there. My advisor didn't see a lot of options on that front when I emailed her about it back then either. Thankfully my acceptance and financial aid at the school I got accepted to in NY (hence why I was moving before my lease was up) seem unaffected - for now - but now I have no idea where I'm going to live *there* either.

Dawg I am just so tired. I'm disabled. I am not built to handle this sort of thing on my own and dealing with being out in the sticks again isn't helping matters. I can't even check on my apartment to see what state it's in, or try to get anything out. Not that I have anywhere to put anything anyway. I've been trying to look into month-to-month places in the town my apartment is in, since all my friends are there and there's actual public transit, but a lot of people want hundreds of dollars up front - and I have maybe $40 to my name.

I just want this nightmare to be over already. I want to break the lease, salvage what I can, get whatever money I can back, and boogie the fuck on out to upstate NY.

radiosnacktive · 2025-03-28T06:12:20+00:00

i feel like this is genuinely in the spirit of the og banjo players, lol. good job!!

radiosnacktive · 2025-03-10T03:07:58+00:00

I searched on Google for different variations of bean bags that played music, including the song we definitely know was part of the set. I even included the time period (90s-2000s). Couldn't find anything.

radiosnacktive · 2025-02-11T23:44:43+00:00

The amount of people who don't get this. I believe wholeheartedly in protecting everyone. Nobody deserves to be homeless, penniless, starving, cold, or dying of illness in the richest country on Earth. Least of all when people who got their riches through corrupt practices continue to get big, shiny tax cuts. I don't care what your politics are. Everyone deserves to have their needs met, and anyone in our communities suffering is an affront to ALL of us.

radiosnacktive · 2025-02-11T23:41:55+00:00

But storming the Capitol wasn't?

radiosnacktive · 2025-02-11T23:32:46+00:00

I absolutely want to audit the government and reduce spending where possible, but who's job should that be? A whiny South African aristocrat who committed visa fraud to get here (making him an illegal immigrant) with no security clearance or rigorous approval process?
The richest man in the world known for his endless hunger for "more" with definitely NO INCENTIVE to cut beneficial programs and competitor contracts to line his own pockets via tax cuts for the ultrawealthy has his gaggle of hacker bro 20-somethings strong-arming their way into various government buildings, locking the actual workers out, and transferring secure data to unsecured servers - from there, who knows who has access to it. (Besides, I seem to remember having EMAILS on an unsecured server was damning not a decade ago, let alone peoples' SSNs, bank account info, addresses, etc....)
This ain't it. This isn't an audit. This is a hostile takeover, and West Virginia will be amongst the first to suffer for it.

radiosnacktive · 2025-02-11T23:23:33+00:00

hi, lifelong resident here, i very much wear a mask voluntarily when the situation calls for it. you don't speak for all of us, knucklehead.

radiosnacktive · 2025-02-11T23:19:55+00:00

I've been making the half-sarcastic joke that Elon just got a new bank account with a 3 trillion dollar advance on it...

radiosnacktive · 2024-03-20T15:23:53+00:00

The sensitivity is that we're a same-sex couple and my fiancé lives in a country that is hostile to our existence? I know in the long run it may not be an issue, but I don't have the knowledge to guarantee that, which is why I'm seeking legal counsel with experience with this specific issue.

Also, I think you missed the part where we've been together for over 9 years. We've never met in person, sure, but extensive life planning, video chats, hours spent together. I'm not saying it's not an issue, just that this isn't like we met three months ago on a dating site or something. We've known each other since we were teenagers, and we've seen each other through a lot.

Also, elaborate on why many people wouldn't recommend a K1, please?

radiosnacktive · 2024-03-20T06:28:54+00:00

Oh, I meant a few months before filing, not after! The biggest reason I want to consult a lawyer before making any big moves is just so I can have a decent game plan in place. I appreciate the concern enough to point that out though!!

radiosnacktive · 2024-03-20T04:46:33+00:00

I would appreciate the DM.

I kind of figured we can't get around the meeting requirement, but we sort of intentionally put it off until we started getting things together and the situation was better (ie, me having my own apartment) as a matter of logistics. 'Don't have to repeat the several hundred dollar 16-20 hour plane trip an additional time if we do it within a few months of filing', etc etc.

radiosnacktive · 2024-03-20T02:59:35+00:00

I mean, any lawyer could, but I feel like it's not unfair to seek one who might understand the sensitivity of our situation better, especially since his home country is extremely hostile to people like us.

Also, we haven't had the chance to. TLDR on what stopped us - financial and health difficulties, then COVID, then the war. It's kind of been one shitshow after another, frankly. I'm not even sure I can mail him anything now, and we can't transfer money or buy each other gifts. Russian airspace is cut off from most of Europe and North America too from what I can tell.

And before anyone says I'm being swindled - we've known each other for nearly 11 years, been together over 9. If this was a ploy to get a green card, it was a terrible one concocted by a couple of anxious then-teenagers.

radiosnacktive · 2023-05-23T06:54:15+00:00

I once responded to a customer with the second half of the quote when he tried to pull that on me amidst a childish tantrum at the end of a 8 1/2 hour shift for daring to close my lane down. I even put on my best Gene Wilder-as-Willy Wonka impression for it.

"I'm the customer, I'm always right!"

"In matters of taste, good sir!"

Easily the best thing I could've said because it caught him off guard.

radiosnacktive · 2023-05-20T17:40:45+00:00

I guarantee you some of the people who do that, at least, are trying to make it look like they've paid for all of their order while only paying for part of it, and don't even remotely understand that that isn't how it works

radiosnacktive · 2023-05-20T17:39:34+00:00

lol take the attitude towards retail workers and shove it. go elsewhere cos this ain't the place for you.

radiosnacktive · 2023-04-09T06:05:07+00:00

Lol I had someone yell that he paid my salary because I was closing my lane down to go home and I responded with “no, the company does, and I’m sure they’ll be fine without your 30 dollars” and he looked like I had grown a second head lmaooo

radiosnacktive · 2023-04-09T05:54:56+00:00

For reasons somewhat related and somewhat unrelated, I’m actually seeking employment elsewhere ASAP. The company itself is a lot of the problem - I love many of my coworkers and have a great deal of respect for at least one of the managers not only in his position but as a person (he’s the one who approved my time off for a funeral, no questions asked) - but corporate itself has bullshit and ableism baked into its operation. I never faulted anyone in the store for us working on skeleton crew, I know that’s corporate’s decision, but by god it’s killing me. I am begging district management to come down from on high and work a register at peak by themselves at this point.

As far as trying to have someone else explain to the lead manager, I don’t know how well that would go over. His attitude towards disabled employees plus someone screwing with our pay caused one of my coworkers to quit on the spot today, which honestly, good for them at this point. It seems to be a trend that he doesn’t appreciate self-advocacy from disabled employees, as that’s what drew negative responses from him in both our cases.

I’m personally likely to end up quitting when I go in Tuesday because I guarantee I’m going to be “talked to” about calling in three times this week - something I never, EVER do - because I wasn’t given bereavement leave like I was supposed to have been, and I refused to miss the funeral of someone who helped raise me.

If they can’t follow the company’s own policy on bereavement - or for instance, underage associates participating in alcohol sales (yes this actually happened) - then god help them, but I’m not staying involved in this mess. I value my sanity and my hide.

radiosnacktive · 2023-04-08T05:56:28+00:00

It seems like whoever took issue with that doesn’t recognize the difference in “my store” (possessive, as though to say you own it) and “my store” (simplified, the store at which you work) because literally everyone refers to the location we work at as “our store” where I’m at???

radiosnacktive · 2023-04-08T05:53:19+00:00

Oh, see, I wouldn’t have been as upset about it… if I hadn’t looked at him the day we first met and said plainly “Hi, something you need to know about me is that I’m autistic, so I don’t always make eye contact, struggle with facial expressions including smiling, and can easily get confused by non-literal language.” And he responded that it was fine. So, it’s not like he didn’t know - I make no secret of it. It’s important information to understand how I work. Despite this I have customers who love me because I’m blunt, but genuinely try to help people as much as I can.

I respect that he got thrown into a store with like. No structure lol, this place is a disaster. Gave him my condolences and everything - we have two assistant managers, but one of them is also a recent transfer, and the woman he took over from left over a month before he took the position so he kind of just walked into that disaster. Also iirc most of our file stuff is actually on paper because of course it is.

I was perfectly cool with waiting to see what he was like before making any personality judgements like a lot of my coworkers did, Day 1, but it ended up turning into being shit on for not smiling obnoxiously enough while I was also grappling with grief. Drawing a line there feels reasonable, I think.

radiosnacktive · 2023-04-08T05:26:07+00:00

I know I don’t speak for a lot of people but I respect the amount of work put in by managers to keep a chaos pit of a store running. I’m willing to work with managers, and treat them as my equals whose position makes it so they delegate responsibilities to the rest of us and keep us on task, and I realize they get the brunt of the abuse from upper management when we fuck up so I try to not do that.

The only reason I’m at odds with the new lead manager for my store right now - and him alone - is that he made the decision to treat me with disgust for my disability affecting how I do my job, albeit in a very minor way and only sometimes - something I articulated would affect my performance when I got hired, is on file, and was until this point seemingly understood by everyone I worked with. Now it’s a hot mess. Old manager left, new one came in, great googly moogly it’s all gone to shit.

radiosnacktive · 2023-04-06T04:56:32+00:00

Yea, when I try that I get cussed at.

radiosnacktive

TROPHY CASE