Boston Housing Authority - cockroaches in apartment

Submitted by Naive_Ad_6317 t3_zlxbqp in boston

Does anyone have any info about trying to get out of a lease due to cockroaches being found in their apartment. It's been over a month since we started finding them (it is not due to us, our apartment is clean almost to an OCD level now especially) and my management company is not helping us. My gf is terrified and can't sleep and its really affecting her mental health, she went to stay in a hotel on her own dime and then with her parents in NY on weekends and has been couch surfing as she truly cannot handle being at home. They gave us traps to set out but even now after weeks we continue to find them. They finally (after us bothering the shit out of them) said they would get a guy to come by a fumigate the place. He has no call no showed the last 3 days and I'm at my wits end. It would cost us $7000 to break our lease, which I cannot afford. Can BHA help us? Are there ways to get out of our lease due to these issues legally? Can they be forced to put us up in a hotel? My mom is single and can't afford to loan us the money to break the lease and she says to stop paying our rent but I don't want to be in any legal trouble. Can someone please help offer some advice to what is legal here?

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needlestuck t1_j08hl74 wrote

Call your leasing agent. You won't be in trouble. Your landlord is responsible for addressing pests in the unit. Don't break your lease, breaking a lease can cancel out your voucher/subsidy. If you can't get ahold of your BHA leasing agent, call the city inspector. They can lean on BHA.

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needlestuck t1_j08pi7f wrote

OP, I see your response but can't respond to it. If it's not a vouchered unit through BHA, BHA cannot help you. Read your lease about the responsibilities of the landlord and call the city.

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Naive_Ad_6317 OP t1_j08oz8i wrote

I didn't get my apartment through BHA, I just wasn't sure if they were a possibility to help get my landlord to take action. I live in a big residential building (and have for 2.5 years with no real issues) with many units so I'm just dealing with the management office who quite frankly doesn't give a fuck. And have gotten aggressive about us following up on their lack of action but I'm losing my mind and feel so stuck but don't know how to get out of this place with all these roaches without paying money that I truly don't have. But it can't be legal to just make people live in these conditions and continue paying rent when they haven't fixed the issue. Or am I living in dreamland?

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QueenOfBrews t1_j08q493 wrote

I’m confused, do you live in a BHA property or no?

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Naive_Ad_6317 OP t1_j08rvhd wrote

nope so sorry, tried to change the title but I can't. I just should've put Boston housing, I wasn't aware BHA had specific properties as opposed to being a general housing authority that regulated all housing within Boston. I just did research and I understand my mistake here

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Theanswer4242 t1_j0d5fgz wrote

I work for BHA. If you have a section 8 voucher through us, contact your leasing officer.

If you're not connected to BHA, contact the Boston Inspectional Services Department. They'll send a city inspector to determine whether your apartment is up to code. Your landlord will get in a lot of trouble if they retaliate against you for calling them, especially if they find violations.

https://www.boston.gov/departments/inspectional-services

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kjmdr t1_j092acx wrote

Do you know where they're entering the unit? Any chance you have water baseboard heaters with holes in the wall where the pipes go? Cockroaches can live in walls for a long time without food -- like a long, long time.

When this happened to me, I got to the point of filling all of the holes in the apartment. I can't advise that you do that given what's probably in your lease, but if you were to do something like that, Great Stuff expanding foam might be one way to fill holes

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hce692 t1_j0aggwf wrote

It’s much much cheaper to call an exterminator on your own than it is to move or break a lease

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nattarbox t1_j08hmzw wrote

Problem with this stuff is that the landlord "sending out a guy" to do something counts as proactive work by the landlord, even though it will do nothing to solve the problem. They can just repeat that every couple months and are off the hook for liability.

If the infestation is bad enough that BHA would actually see roaches and evidence of roaches at any given time when they swung in to check, then you might be able to get somewhere, but you'd probably have already moved out on your own accord if it was that bad.

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Naive_Ad_6317 OP t1_j08p8cp wrote

If I could afford to move out on my own accord I definitely would because this is making my life horrible and driving gf to the point of needing to go to the hospital with anxiety and being unable to sleep for fear of the bugs. Am I basically screwed? I don't have anywhere to go, can't afford to break my lease, and the management company is as you said sending a guy out but doing fuck all. Do you have any advice?

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jojenns t1_j096doy wrote

Call city of boston ISD and request an inspection. They will document and cite the landlord if theres evidence. Bear in mind here though that even if isd compels the landlord to produce an ipm plan if other tenants are feeding the beasts treatments wont work well. Living in multi family apartment buildings even the best ones will have bugs and rodent infestations occasionally.

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-Odi-Et-Amo- t1_j093zdf wrote

Since you mentioned BHA and a landlord, I’ll assume you have a voucher issues through them? I don’t necessarily know the protocol for infestations but absolutely reporting it to the housing authority is where I would start.

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peltinghouseswsnails t1_j0ais8e wrote

Inspectional Services and reach out to your city councilor on twitter

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Itburns138 t1_j08fmpg wrote

> trying to get out of a lease

...good luck

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Treekiller t1_j08w53l wrote

You need to get a new gf. It sucks to be out half the rent, but her behavior is not acceptable.

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Naive_Ad_6317 OP t1_j08x5ge wrote

Already have the ring to propose and she has a diagnosed issue with anxiety from medical professionals but thanks for your insight!

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