Mold in rental apartment

Any help here much appreciated

-jerry

Did the broker know? Did he/she deceive you?

why would the broker be liable here? you paid him a one time fee to find you an apartment. make your landlord fix the problems with the apartment, that's their job, that's why you pay THEM a fee every month.

If you didn't notice the mold or roaches when you first viewed the apartment, how would the broker know? I've never heard of a building owner telling a broker the problems of a building. The broker is there for the owner to get a tenant. Unless the broker is the landord, I don't see where they enter into this.

Unless there was willing deception by the broker, which seems doubtful in this instance, this would be an issue between you and your landlord.

"i booked a vacation through a travel agent. unfortunately it rained the whole time i was away. do they have any liability for me having a crappy vacation"?

"i bought a puppy at a pet shop. she got pregnant after i had a year then died having the puppies. can i hold the pet store liable for selling me a promiscuous slut of a dog"?

I've always had the impression that if you asked a broker a point-blank question, that it was risky for them to lie. I have in the past asked, "do you know if the building has any pests?", for example. I've then listened carefully for the wording of their response, a la, "I've never heard of any problems," which isn't a categorical "no," and gives them some wiggle room. Occasionally I think I heard a broker say "absolutely not," which I think would put them in the position of being accusable of misleading you if it turned out the broker definitely knew of a problem. (Hard to prove, of course.)

On the other hand, I would be surprised if a broker is obligated to *volunteer* any negative information about the building that they know of. (Sometimes, though, if a building has a well-known but undetectable negative that could make someone back out at the last minute, I have had brokers proactively tell me about it, since they don't want to waste their time on a deal that likely won't close. For example, I think a broker once told me about noise from a nearby nightclub open only on weekends that I wouldn't otherwise have known about. I'm not very noise sensitive at all, so I went ahead and applied, and by having told me the broker knew it likely wouldn't come back to haunt him.)

The broker is not liable. Your landlord is.

The LL may be responsible to exterminate but the mold may be your fault. The broker has nothing to do with it and these problems don't necessarily predate your taking the apartment. No one can promise that you'll never see a roach or mold in any given place.

something on your mind jimbo?

> Turns out the apartment now has mold buildup in the bathroom and cockaroaches.

Have you considered maybe cleaning your apartment every now and then?

Mold in the bathroom could come from poor maintenance by the tenant, poor ventilation, poor installation or wrong materials used. So it's only 1 in 4 it's a tenant issue. Cockroaches could be from lack of hygiene of the tenant or his neighbors, poor job by the building staff or lack of maintenance by the landlord.
Roaches in the bathroom (as opposed to the kitchen) are pretty much always a building issue, not a tenant issue.
what's the point of being a douchebag to the op? Does it make you happy to kick someone when'he's down?

Anyway, for the OP: an e-mail to your broker to inform him/her of the situation and your unhappiness is fine if it makes you feel better, but your beef is with the landlord. It's her/his job to send exterminators and have proper materials installed. So many cheap people seal with silicone that's prone to mold, instead of doing a proper grouting job.

Issue discussed in these two threads:

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/4624-sue-landlord-my-landlord-has-not-inspected-or-maintained-bathtub-and-mold-has-formed

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/4619-secty-depsit-charge-tenant-for-re-caulking-tub-bc-mold

There's also discussion somewhere about columbiacounty having a window in his shower

>what's the point of being a douchebag to the op? Does it make you happy to kick someone when'he's down?

The point of being a "doucebag" to the OP is because the OP wants to go about life searching for people to blame. What in the world does the broker have to do with it - yet the OP wants to try to hold the broker responsible? Why not hold the City of New York responsible because it supplied the water?

Columbiacounty tried to hold a broker responsible because there was a window in a shower in an apartment that he visited. Oh the horror.

Hmmm, there was no evidence of mold or roaches when you moved in and now there is mold buildup and an infestation? Sounds like you have caused the problem and are deflecting blame. Be accountable for your own actions. Run down to the hardware store and get some heavy duty cleanser and roach killer.

While I believe liability is on the landlord and not the broker, a good broker will want to know because:

1) there is a chance that he/she can come by and be a hero, further cementing a relationship with you who might rent again/buy someday;

2) information that a building has disadvantages allows your broker to know the inventory better than the next guy/gal and is therefore a competitive advantage.

Drop your broker a note along the lines of "I'm suddenly having these problems, can you come by next week and take a look?"

ali r.
DG Neary Realty