I need help- mice problem- BAD LANDLORD HELP PLEAAAASEEE

[serendipity]

My fiancee and I are renting an apartment in new jersey outside of manhattan and paying $1300/month to live in a two family house, of which the bottom floor is ours. Our landlord is a really horrible woman. She comes to our house constantly to "check up" on her apartments. She's screamed at us before for parking on our driveway (which she asked us not to) to put groceries in our house. In the last week we've caught three mice. Today we got glue traps and within 20 minutes of putting them out we've already caught another. What are the terms of breaking a lease? We have saved two mice. If she refuses to ring an exterminator by tomorrow is this terms for breaking lease? PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!!!

 

[rer1972]

Completely read through your lease again. It depends on what terms you agreed to. If she isn't providing a safe & healthy environment she would likely have a certain amount of time to correct it before she is in default.
This site info on a Tenant's Rights In NJ Manual.
http://www.lsnjlaw.org/english/placeilive/irentmyhome/tenantsrights/index.cfm
I used to own rentals, and I wouldn't want mice in there because of the possible litigation resulting from possible health issues.

Lotsa Luck

 

[serendipity]

thanks so much for your post. It was extremely helpful, I've been reading the link and my lease and I'm sure we'll figure something out!

 

[julsmom]

I wish I had advice but I do want to say Good Luck and I am sure everything will be okay.

 

[robinb]

My "Disney Tip" is to buy a cat .

 

[we3disneygo]

we had awful landlord's also.....they would come at 8am and want something out of the attic? gee we had to move a bed to get to the attic and dh would be in bed asleep and then they decided to have surprise inspections? so we bought a house. do you have a code dept. in your town? that's where I'd start, keep calling we have a deadbeat landlord program in our town, hit her where it hurts. tell her you'll call the local paper, and news! good luck.

 

[julsmom]

My "Disney Tip" is to buy a cat .

I really like this idea!

 

[tmt martins]

My "Disney Tip" is to buy a cat .

But then you have to take care of the cat

A few Snakes work much better and you can just let them be.

Just bring up a virus caused by Mouse urine and droppings call the Huntra Viruse pr something like that look it up.

The EPA shut a place we do business in because of this .It will get her attention real fast.

Good luck we have them every once in a while here as well just keep glue traps in the drop ceiling but it beats the RATS that are in the business behind us.

 

[serendipity]

My "Disney Tip" is to buy a cat .

haha. I'm allergic to cats so that's not an option for me. However, we do have a miniture dachshund who takes pride in hunting nothing larger then the average bug....she does seem very proud with herself for that though!

 

[rer1972]

haha. I'm allergic to cats so that's not an option for me. However, we do have a miniture dachshund who takes pride in hunting nothing larger then the average bug....she does seem very proud with herself for that though!

OT-I have a min-dach (and a runt at that) who takes down possums. She freaked me out one day I was sitting on the patio and she dragged a freshly caught one right to me. Those things freak me out more than mice or rats. Although more than one rat or mouse is bad; very bad.

 

[seashoreCM]

Many states forbid landlords to violate your privacy by wanting to come in on short notice when there is no emergency. Having to fetch something from the attic on the way to the airport and Disney is not an emergency. You don't have to hurry up with your shower to go down and unlatch the inside-only lock you installed.

But if you have an outstanding trouble call such as for real Mickeys, the landlord is not obligated to make or be punctual for an appointment.

Most states require that a landlord do extermination on request even if that is not specified in the lease.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Plantlady]

Definately get ahold of your local tenant and landlord act. In Kansas, the landlord has to give you notice before coming for a visit. They also have to provide you with a "safe" environment to live in.

We had many years of bad luck with landlords, and are thrilled to finally own a home.

However, about the mice, most likely, if you catch them, you will reach a point where they are gone. We had mice in our house, the first winter we lived here, and I set out traps, caught many, many mice, and we haven't had a problem since. I also went to the trouble of containing their food sources in mouse proof containers (dog food, cat food, bird food, ect).

 

[MinnieGirl33]

we do have a miniture dachshund who takes pride in hunting nothing larger then the average bug....she does seem very proud with herself for that though!

Our mini-doxies are only 5 months old but love to "play" with crickets (I don't like things that jump at me!)

I guess I should consider myself lucky they're not bringing me bigger "presents".

As for the mice, not to freak you out further but... if you have multiples, you might want to look around to make sure they haven't built a nest anywhere (cardboard boxes in the crawlspace/basement, piles of newspaper, etc)

Good luck!

 

[katied]

Not sure if this is already resolved, but we had problems years ago in our apartment with the heat - the landlord provided it, and our apartment would not heat above about 50 degrees. We call the country officials who regulate this. The first time, they came out to inspect and the landload got a warning. The second time we called was Christmas Eve, so they had to come inspect again, and the landload was fined. After this, we got a letter from our landlord offering us the option of breaking our lease whenever we wanted, just let them know. Since we were in the process of houseshopping, we broke the lease as soon as we closed (in Feb). (We learned after that they had to rework the heating system before they could lease that apartment again, which cost them a substantial amount of money).

So - if the mice violates any regulations for landlords, report them each and every time, and the landlord may well let you out of the lease just to stop the fines.

 

[shellyfive]

not to freak you out or anything.......but if you have already caught 3, you probably have more.....they reproduce fast!!!We moved to the country of NJ last year and we are still trying to get rid of field mice in our attached garage---we tried humane traps....not working....and in the meantime they ate through all our cardboard storage boxes, my picture boxes, sweaters in those shrinkable bags etc. You don't even need much of a food source to sustain them.......and they can do quite a bit of damage in a short time------we have been using snap traps------i don't feel the glue traps are as humane....and one day i found a mouse still alive stuck to one freaking out trying to get his legs out.......UGH......at the least the snap ones make them go fast.....UGH.....i really don't want to kill any of them, we have a mouse pet in the house, and of course the links to mickey but they did eat through an archive storage box and ruined some of my baby pictures----after that it took on a war rating!!!!!! i found that putting the snap trap in a half closed pop-tart empty box works well, they like to go into things....then you can just throw the whole thing out. Good luck to you on your quest.