Practical-Intern-347 t1_j52x29c wrote
That water thing sounds awful. The mouse part sounds, unfortunately, relatable. I had mice in my home (that I own, and is relatively 'nice') for YEARS before I was really able to get a handle on it. The issue was only resolved (incidentally) via a total gut renovation of my kitchen/dining/pantry area where there were a handful of inaccessible, mouse-chewed holes through wood. With that all blocked off, I finally stopped seeing evidence of mice in my kitchen (although can still occasionally hear them in the attic). I have a dry-stone foundation and so mice in the basement is going to be a forever situation.
That's all to say, mice are frustrating. It's frustrating for you as the resident and I'm sure its frustrating for your landlord as well. Good luck!
verifiedboomer t1_j52zkao wrote
Was going to say, buy a house and try to solve your own mouse problem. We buy snap traps in bulk, reuse them as much as possible, and are still using the jar of peanut butter I bought 3 years ago for bait. Average about one corpse a day.
[deleted] OP t1_j5556to wrote
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boskie22 t1_j55tc2u wrote
If we didn't have a pet, we would probably try poison at this point. I get that mice coming into houses is just something that happens, but my issue is that our landlord isn't taking enough action. They told the health inspector they have been doing lots of trapping and filling holes but they were totally exaggerating about their efforts. Placing 5 single traps and checking them twice in 5 months, and filling 3 out of the many many access points isn't really trying to make a dent in the problem. We ourselves regularly set and check traps and know it's not only something our landlord is responsible for, but when they keep telling us they will do it and that they don't want us removing certain panels to set traps in case the panels break, but they never come around to do it themselves, there's just no effort or follow through on their part and we have no choice but to remove certain panels to set and empty traps because there's always mice in those places.
I don't think our landlord is super wealthy but I know they're far from poor, they just don't want to spend any money on anything to do with the rental unit. They bought a fixer upper and just slapped some paint on the walls and made things look decent for our tour. They shocked the well before we moved in and told us to drink bottled water for the first week. That shocking didn't solve the e coli problem so they kept shocking it about 5 more times, and it still didn't solve the problem. Eventually they had to have a water sanitization system installed. Apparently they knew there were potential major issues with the water and septic but didn't take the time before renting it out to try to fix them.
[deleted] OP t1_j55wgew wrote
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boskie22 t1_j560kco wrote
I agree with you, and we don't want to continue fighting this. We just want to move. The problem is, apartments are going for like $2500 and we're disabled so we can't afford that, yet we don't qualify for most rental assistance either. We've been on waitlists for a year and we are actively searching for a new place, it's just not an easy market at all. If the landlord does renew our lease and it's still an affordable rent for us, and if we haven't found a better place which is likely, we would have to stay here until we are approved for a different place.
WantDastardlyBack t1_j555ajh wrote
The water thing can happen more easily if you think, especially if it's a dug well. We had one with the tight-fitting, heavy cement cap and small snakes would crawl up underneath and fall in. We put in filtration and had to take measures to drive out snakes from the yard.
boskie22 t1_j55poqs wrote
Glad you were able to get the mice more under control! If we were allowed to do more major fixes while renting this place, we would, but aren't allowed to and it probably wouldn't make much financial sense anyway.
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