I moved in the unit in Sept. of 2006 and had to transfer my unit because of habitability issues. The bathroom plumbing was connected to the laundry room and the wash water was backing up in my bathtub. I had to take my son out of the bathtub on 3 seperate occasions and was moved after 2mos of complaining. Initially there was no charge for sewage, water, or trash. Two months into the initial lease, they wanted to implement this charge. I told them they had to give a 30 or 60 day notice before they could charge me. They did, and the charge was $23.00 per month, per unit. After the transfer of units they implemented a billing company and each unit started receiving their own bill, but we have not meters to gauge our individual unit use. We did not receive a notice of increase with the implemented billing company. I've never received a $23.00 bill. The very first bill was in excess of $40.00 with no usage on bill. To date, I have been laid off and having a hard time paying the bill. In March of this year, the owner took over $800.00 of my Sec8 rent and applied it to the 3rd party utility bill and in return served me with a 3day notice for non payment of rent. I informed Sec8 of the notices and ever since have been retaliatated against and harassed in several ways. I tried to make a payment arrangements before being informed that they were not allowed to take my rent and apply it to the utilities, the arrangements were not reasonable. They also wanted to charge me an attorney's fee for drafting the payment arrangement. I gave them $125.00 toward the $800.00 they said I owed as rent. I have disputed every notice and have also had Sec8 write on my behalf. The owner never responds to any of the inquiries or letters that have been written. The owner has called my telephone while I was out of state, lanlord has stopped me in the parking lot at 9pm, asking when I will have money. Personal property of mine has been destructed and vandalized. My plants have been overturned and pots missing. I have also been served with a 3day notice, stating I am in violation of the holding over clause. They are alleging my rent should have been $1025.00 instead of $925.00 and I am liable for $100.00 per month since March of 2009. I responded to that notice and informed them it was failure upon management/owner for not filing the proper paperwork at the appropriate time and it was a form of extortion to ask me to pay it. Sec8 has reviewed my lease and informed me that my utility charge is $23.00 per month, per my lease, meaning I have been overcharged since Aug of 2008. To date the monthly paper bill is appx. $80.00 per month. I rcvd another 3day notice Friday, October 15th, stating I am in violation of the same utility clause and should pay over $1208.00 in charges. There is no record of any payments I've made in the past year and a half and they refuse to allow me to review the bills that are sent to the billing company to be divided amongst the tenats. There is a clause in my lease stating that the bills are reviewable upon request. They have been requested orally and in writing. To date, we have not been given a reasonable way of calculating the charges on the bill. We were told it was in accord to how many people in the unit, in accord to the sq.footage of the unit, and then based on usage. Tenants have compared their bills and not one person has a consistent bill. Tenants with one person never pay the same amount and the amount varies month to month. The same with units with 2 individuals. We are also being charged for common area use. This is a nightmare......Please HELLPPPPPPPPPPPP
