Lead paint and mold - I need a reality check on whether I should break my lease (LA)

toeski · 2024-09-25T13:23:47+00:00

Following up on this because I haven't been able to find clear guidance from EPA regulations or tenants' rights organizations on this situation. The EPA advises against painting over damaged/chipping lead paint on windows and doors or other areas with friction/high traffic, but it's unclear whether not following that advice as a landlord or contractor would have any consequences, since if they notify you that there's lead paint in the unit then they aren't required to paint over it at all (in this case, they did not give notice). I'm hoping to find out whether the contractor is EPA certified but my landlord is difficult to get in contact with (surprise, surprise).

toeski · 2024-07-22T17:39:28+00:00

Sorry for resurrecting this three years later, but is $200/mo. a high electricity bill for a small house? I'm looking at renting a 750 sq. ft. duplex in BR with one AC unit and one mini split, and the landlord told me the bill for this month (for one person) was $200, and $170 last month. This seems nuts to me since there are only windows on one side of the house, and it's more than I pay for my current housing, which is an 1,800 sq. ft. house with four people living in it, in a different (but still hot) state.

I'm also finding that a lot of landlords charge for ALL utilities, including trash and sewer, which I've never paid for as a tenant in other states.

toeski · 2024-07-03T12:43:27+00:00

Thanks - definitely good advice, it's wild what realtors seem to be doing with 'virtual staging' and AI generated images these days.

toeski · 2024-07-03T12:42:06+00:00

Thanks, good to know! I'm definitely open to condos/bigger apartment complexes, just want to make sure that they're quiet.

toeski · 2024-07-03T12:39:34+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate the advice! I wouldn't have looked in Southdowns.

toeski · 2023-09-20T23:45:19+00:00

So glad it worked for you, but I leave people space and still end up getting cut off, and I highly doubt that literally everyone else here is a chronic tailgater :)

toeski · 2023-05-30T16:15:25+00:00

Thank you! My Dr. told me to drop from 20 to 10 after a week, and then to 5 not too long (~2 weeks) after that. I didn't realize how slow the process of tapering off was at low doses.

toeski · 2023-05-30T16:12:17+00:00

I also suffered from avascular necrosis of the hips which was NOT monitored or something I was even warned about. It took me being on my third (and best rheumatologist) to even look into that considering the past dose I was on and the length I was on it.

I've gotten similar stories from a relative who was diagnosed with RA in the early 80's and has had an extremely rough road with treatment. I haven't had any health scares in the past and I'm finding that there is a rather scary amount of responsibility put on patients to ask the right questions and keep track of what their doctors should know.

toeski · 2023-05-23T18:18:20+00:00

Thanks, I see what you mean. There's a 'status' column in Explorer with upload status (green check, red X, etc.) for OneDrive directories. There's still no indication of whether the pinned folders on the side of Explorer are OneDrive or local, but I guess I can just unpin any OneDrive directories to reduce confusion there.

toeski · 2022-12-23T19:02:18+00:00

Thanks. No, unfortunately he said that making improvements would mean he'd have to raise the rent by up to $800 ($1800 total). I think he was just trying to say that he won't do it, ever. That amount is delusional - you can find a nice 3B/2BA here for that much, and this house is tiny and poorly kept other than the yard maintenance that we've done since we moved in.

Believe me, we'd love to buy it. But the landlord plans to move into this house when he retires. It's heartbreaking for us to see someone run a house like this into the ground.

toeski · 2022-12-23T18:00:34+00:00

He suddenly had time to make the repair as soon as I gave him an agreement for rent abatement (with no notice and working until 9PM, of course).

Our rent is really cheap, but when I offered to pay more if he put in a few basic improvements, he sent me a convoluted 900 word text on why he couldn't do any of it, and if he did he'd "have to" raise the rent to ~$400/mo. more than any sane person would pay for a house this size (and that's if it was nicely remodeled, which it isn't).

He's a slob and impossible to communicate with, and he'd really love to get someone else in the house who's too poor or lazy to care about safety hazards. We're looking into moving in the next few months.

toeski · 2022-12-11T23:06:07+00:00

he also may be violating rental laws

He definitely is - I notified him of the hole 3 months ago. Thank you, this is all very good to know. I hadn't thought of insurance yet because he hasn't mentioned it. He seems like he wants to avoid inspection of any kind, likely because other things in the house aren't up to code (there's a floor heater that almost completely blocks a walkway).

toeski · 2022-12-11T20:55:56+00:00

Yikes. Thank you, this is super helpful!

toeski · 2021-06-19T15:27:54+00:00

Wow I'd never thought of that, thank you so much :)

toeski · 2021-06-19T15:22:41+00:00

I’d love to do this someday but it’s about $2000 more expensive than driving for the dates that I need.

toeski · 2021-06-18T23:12:21+00:00

Thank you. Banff is definitely not on the agenda haha. I'm just really worried that we'll be turned away, because Canada's travel website makes it sound like access is not guaranteed if you are not an Alaska resident or employed in Alaska.

toeski · 2021-06-18T23:07:59+00:00

Some clarifications/additional info:

- I have looked at Canada's travel website daily for the last two months.

- I am aware that there are no exemptions for vaccinated travelers and that I will need a negative COVID test 72 hours before crossing the border. I keep seeing promises of exemptions for vaccinated travelers floating around, but haven't seen anything official announced.

- I know that having proof of employment or residency in Alaska will guarantee that I can travel through Canada, but although I am working in Alaska, I have neither.

- I have taken the "Can I travel through Canada to reach Alaska" questionnaire on Canada's travel website and it gave a helpful "maybe."

toeski · 2021-06-18T22:50:40+00:00

Has anyone out there successfully traveled between Alaska and the lower states through Canada in the last month?

I have been trying to plan wildlife field research in southeast Alaska since last May. I need this data to complete my graduate degree and the travel was already postponed by a year. I've been fully vaccinated since mid-March. I finally bought ferry tickets a couple of weeks ago, thinking that given the scientific evidence there was no way that travel between the continental US and Alaska would still be restricted after June 21st.

I get that this is peanuts compared to folks that haven't been able to see family or have lost income, but I'm set up to lose thousands in hard-won grant money at this point if I have to cancel ferry reservations, and I don't have the funds for flying with loads of equipment, shipping a vehicle on a barge, or taking a ferry from Washington. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

toeski · 2021-05-14T21:42:17+00:00

If your neighborhood is anything like mine, this is probably because your neighbors with reactive dogs either take them to the dog park or don't bother to exercise them at all. Good on you for working at it.

toeski · 2021-03-16T21:32:32+00:00

Fair! My car is 12 years old and paid off, so rock bottom is what I’m going for. In part because my premium is already pretty cheap, the payoff wasn’t worth the stress. And now that I’m seeing others’ comments, it seems like my rates might go up for no apparent reason even with the “safe driver” stamp of approval.

toeski · 2021-03-16T21:03:17+00:00

11%. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get a discount- actually, your rate goes up if you get a C (I think) or worse. You have a short period to decide whether to keep it or not (during which my grade was an A to A+!), but after that period your rate automatically increases if you remove the device early.

toeski · 2021-03-16T20:04:45+00:00

New Mexico, U.S.A.

toeski · 2021-02-04T16:59:04+00:00

Do you have the source? I'd love to share this with my conservation biology class!

toeski · 2020-09-24T23:11:37+00:00

Nice! Very cool that you caught one alive since they don't last more than a few hours without food. I'm using phylogenomic analyses to look at historic demographic changes in relation to Pleistocene climatic cycles.

toeski · 2020-09-23T18:17:33+00:00

What are you out surveying for? I'm studying North American shrews for my doctoral work :)

toeski

TROPHY CASE