Real Estate /
Landlord in Poland - tenant laws, statue of limitation [26]
Well, it does help me - because I know now my rights. He has no right to do ANY of the things he is doing, and the laws says that I can enforce the law myself, and there is no need for any court or anything. And if I do this within the law, he has no right to go to the Police, or sue me. He might, but that will cost him money, and he is off to a bad start - considering what *he wants is outside of the law to begin with.
The law is clear: he is NOT allowed to benefit in ANY way from our bills to the water/gas/electricity. And since these bills are in his name, I am 99% sure he has put them as expenses and is waiting to get his VAT& other stuff back from the Polish tax office. He is profiteering from the law, abusing the law - abusing his rights as a landlord, and abusing us as his tenants.
He has no right to terminate our contract, unless he moves back in the house, and finds us a new place to live in, to the standards of the house *now, at the same price, and has to pay for our moving costs. Considering that we initially moved into a sh*thole, and we have invested money in this house (in the idea we can stay here for at least 2 years) - he would have to find us a place at a much higher standard than this rent - which will be impossible for him.
Also - he has NO right whatsoever to keep our bills in his name, and prevent us from transferring them into our name by not signing on our new contracts with the water/gas/electricity. If he does so, we can go to the Police, and the Police can sign these papers for us. And besides - as I said, he is getting money back from the Polish state (YOUR money, as law abiding tax payers) from OUR bills. Again - highly against the law.
Also - in his last email, he has threatened us. He has made a very wide in range threat towards us, therefore we can not (as stated in the law) enjoy the premises peacefully, within our rights. So we are going to the Police and reporting him for that as well.
Also - he has not only not fixed the control panel of the heating for 3.5 winter months, but the control panel was broken in the first place, and he had lied to us about it functioning properly when we moved into the house. Therefore - we can claim from him a % of our gas bills that were overly high due to his abusive "negligence". Not to mention he has clearly profited from these high gas bills we had - so he has broken his responsibilities as a landlord, and has profited from the laws.
Also - he has told us he will charge us for his lawn mower that was stolen during the summer, even though he is the only house (in the fenced in private property) who does not have his own fence defining clearly his garden, and therefore it was easy for anyone to come in the garden and take the stuff. He did make a point to us, when we moved in, that this was a safe neighborhood. And then his sh*tty lawn mower was stolen, together with a brand new: hose, sprinkle device, and extension cord that were ours. We, of course, filed a police report, with exact date of the breaking in, and receipts of our stolen stuff. He - however, did not even bother to go to the Police and confirm *his lawn mower being stolen. And now he wants to charge us for it....................
Also - he has lied to us about a street electricity bill, saying for 10 months the bill (of one bulb) was 250 PLN, when in fact the bill for the whole year was 50 PLN.
Also - he has been notified about some tiles on the roof falling, and he has 2 more days from his 2 week period to fix this, otherwise we have the right to fix the problem ourselves and charge him for this, by paying less rent. Not to mention that tiles falling from the roof are reckless endangerment to us, the mailman, delivery companies, the neighbors, and especially children here.
Not to mention that we can indeed report him to the tax office for his tax fraud with the rent AND his claiming *our bills as his expenses.
I can make him cry myself, plus the tax office. Man, is it good to be informed, or what?
About my Q about the statue of limitation: we have actually initially moved in this house because of our previous landlady: she had to agree to break her bathroom wall in order to fix a broken pipe between her wall/floor and the ceiling of the store below. So due to this, we had to live there for a few days without a properly attached toilet. However, she wanted to fix the bathroom with the same tiles, but because the tiles that she had chosen for the bathroom were stopped from production in 2005, it was difficult to find them in 2012. Not to mention all of them were behind the toilet either way, so honestly - she could have chosen something neutral. So she was supposedly looking for these tiles for about a month, without any results. So we got upset with this, and told her - but she was very rude and disrespectful, so we (at the time, without knowing our rights) chose to move from that place. Not only because of her, and her attitude, but also because of her unwillingness to fix the problem in the near future.
So we wanted to terminate the contract immediately, but she said that would be a loss to her, and a bunch of other cr*p, so we just left. We have lost the deposit+ its interest, half of a rent, plus money from having paid full rent without being able to use fully and properly the apartment. I am not yet sure if we were the ones who were obliged to pay the maintenance of the building or if that was actually her responsibility - I will have to look into this.
So this happened in March 15 2012 (that is when we left that apartment). It has been a year already, so I was wondering where we can find the statue of limitation for this kind of abuse on her part.
Thank you so much for your replies! :)
We, of course, have ALL of this on paper (emails) and bank transfers.
