Imagine living in an apartment, and one day there’s a sewage leak. Gross, right? What would you do if your landlord told you NOT to call an inspector because you’re actually living in an illegal apartment?

Would you still call?

In this story, one family is living in an illegal apartment that they didn’t know was illegal until the sewage leak started. Now, they’re heading to court, and the oldest child is wondering what she should or should not say.

Let’s read the whole story.

WIBTA If I out my landlord in court tomorrow?

I (22f) live with my mom and siblings (53f, 16f, 11m).

To keep this short, we have lived in an illegal basement apt. for 18 years.

I was told by LL (landlord) that it met govt. requirements and only found out it was illegal after he begged us not to call an inspector for a sewage leak he refused to fix in November.

But they really needed to call the inspector.

At first we were afraid to, but a housing program was coming through and we’d had enough, so after swimming in sewage for a month we called the inspector.

He was not happy, because he was getting fined every day starting mid-Feb for having an illegal place (We had a fire escape, so they didn’t have to emergency evacuate us).

We continue to clean 20 gallons of sewage from our living room everyday, and no we can’t fix it, because we have to tear down walls to find the guilty pipe.

He still hasn’t fixed it.

The landlord is horrible!

All the events in the past four/five months is half-blackmail from him to get us to move out without facing court fines.

We had roach and mice infestations caused by our neighbors that, both times, he refused to do anything about.

His dad stole our Christmas packages and dug my gift out of the garbage in front of me, LL himself refused to call a plumber UNTIL he was worried about the foundation and then forced me to come home from school because I didn’t want him in the house alone with a random plumber, they yell at my mom on the phone but not me because I’m making most of the legal decisions here and was paying the rent, etc, etc…

The drama continues!

We barely make noise, and one slightly loud movie night my LL came down in the middle of the night and banged on my window to tell me to turn it off, completely skipping the options of calling me or even trying the door.

I didn’t have pants on.

LL’s wife curses at us over the phone while we have no idea what she even has to do with this. They told me to drop college and get a job the second time I ever missed rent, when I already had a job.

I’ve had enough of their hostility.

They have secured another place to live.

We have court tomorrow and they said they were taking us for non-payment of rent, which is true because the inspector himself said to stop paying.

However, he does not want us to mention that it is illegal because he’s going to face A LOT in fines, likely 6 digits.

I’m sick of being considerate when they think it’s okay to have a family of four living in THEIR sewage and harassing them in the meantime.

The housing program is going through, and we are in no danger of being homeless anymore, which was 99% of our concerns.

WIBTA if I tell the court about my LL evicting us because he’s getting fined and the place is illegal?

She needs to be 1000% honest with the court. Their living conditions were horrible, and the landlord deserves every fine they can throw at him.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this situation.

The landlord can only blame himself.

This is a good point and a great suggestion.

Hopefully, he gets everything he deserves in court!

She definitely shouldn’t lie for him.

It’s time to make the landlord pay!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.