My mother lives in an apartment building for about 10 years. When she first moved in, the apartment was trashed because the previous tenants left on bad terms with the landlord. My mother cleaned up the whole apartment herself (landlord did nothing) Nothing in the apartment was new except for new paint and minor fixes here and there. About 2 years ago, my mother put in a request to get new kitchen cabinets because the ones that she had were very old and were beginning to break. Also, the bathroom was old as well. The tub must've been there for YEARS. Mother asked the landlord how long has the cabinets been there, turns out since the 70's! The landlord agreed to have the whole kitchen and bathroom replaced with new cabinets and fixtures. He told my mom that she has to pay half. He put in new kitchen cabinets, new tiles for the floor and fresh paint. The bathroom: New tub, new sink/cabinet, new toilet, sheetrock and new tiles. Total cost was about 13 grand. Of course my mother did not have the half to pay at once so he broke it down to where she pays $200 a month with her rent. He made her sign a contract that she is not allowed to move out until all that is paid for. When my mother told me about all this, I was pissed! I don't think it would be my mothers responsibility to pay for some new things in the apartment such as cabinets and bathroom if they were that old and he was supposed to have all the replaced from his pocket! I confronted him and told him that I am looking for a place for my mother and she is going to move out. He gave me an attitude and told me that she signed the contract. I said well even if she didn't get all those new things for the apartment, you would've installed new ones for a new tenant when you put the apartment up in the ad, but you probably would've raised the price up a bit. The landlord raises the rent every September and I'm just furious to how CHEAP this landlord is. Is this legal what he did? I feel so bad for my mom I wish I lived closer to her. I'm in VA and she is in NJ. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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My mother is not naive. You know what it is?...it's people that are always money hungry and love to screw every innocent victim that's in their path.