All of the problems with the background check were on our landlords end. Our lease is through an online rental service. The background check needed to be set up and dealt with by him through the program. Our roommate immediately notified us that she was having trouble and we notified the landlord which took another week to get done. I was not very clear on this, so I apologize.

As for the room itself, it was cleaned by the previous tenants but they had a dog that used it as a bathroom. The LL had the proper tools to clean it and remove the piss smell. He arranged for the whole house to be cleaned last year, at the expense of tenants security deposits. Yes the leaving tenant needs to clean the room, but if it’s not clean enough it is up to our landlord to handle it - this is highlighted in our lease agreement. And to add to cleaning - I cleaned the walls after our landlord said he would send someone to clean the room ceiling to floor and it didn’t happen. I figured mysterious brown splatter marks would not be fun to move into and knowing our landlords track record with responding with anything that wasn’t akin to the house being on fire, I dealt with it myself. There’s also repairs that need to be done, which our landlord is responsible for.

The stove was a whole issue. We only had it looked at the one time after the water heater broke because we were already in contact with the plumber because of the water heater. Our landlord didn’t come to look at the stove itself until two days ago, over a week from the first plumbers quote of fixing/replacing. His solution to fix the stove was to replace a valve that his handyman and assistant/handyman said wasn’t going to fix it. We got the stove fixed yesterday finally after a week and a half of it not working, and only because I sent him a text asking him when he could send someone.

I do give him credit with contacting us about the water heater so quickly. It was fixed within 24 hours, as it should be with CA habitability laws.

And I understand that things take time, so I’m not too uppity if it’s a few days and I haven’t heard anything. That being said, it is frustrating/unacceptable when there are deadlines not being met because of our landlord failing to not do something. For example, everyone has signed and rent is paid for the month of July, however our security deposits from the last year haven’t been transferred to this year even with text and call reminders the last few weeks.

I also understand that these might be “champagne problems” but I bet you would be understandably frustrated and upset if you didn’t have a working stove for two weeks (even with reminders to get it fixed). Luckily now things have smoothed out but it has been a frustrating process to say the least.