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.

We have considered getting a cat, but my partner is severely allergic. Might be worth looking into if we can manage the allergies.

Our landlord only has the one rental property.

We realize many Vermonters have to boil their water from time to time, but there are strict rental laws about tenants having a safe, potable water supply. Sometimes renters have to boil it when there's water boil notices, but legally they can't have to boil it for every time due to consistent unsafe water that is due to a problem with the water supply. For weeks we couldn't use the water for anything at all, even washing our hands or showering, because it was full of bleach when they kept just pouring bleach in the water supply to try to fix the issue.

We mentioned the mice to the health inspector due to the very fact that our landlord wasn't taking sufficient action to curb the mice. They told the health inspector they were doing lots of trapping and blocking holes, but in 5 months they set 5 single traps and filled 3 out of many many holes. That's it. We realize our landlord isn't solely responsible for trapping and filling holes, we ourselves set and empty traps daily and continue blocking holes regularly. Our landlord often tells us they are coming to check and reset traps but they never come, and they don't want us removing certain panels to set traps because they don't want the panels to break, but there's always tons of mice in those places so we have no choice but to do it ourselves.

The mice issue was among the issues we reported to the health inspector. The chimney and roof were leaking, with water pouring down a wall whenever it rained. Our landlord responded by simply placing a trash bag over the chinney. There was tons of mold resulting from the leak. Additionally, there were fire safety violations that the health inspector was very concerned about and made our landlord fix.

Thanks. Our landlord has made comments in front of us to the health inspector that they're not sure how long they're going to rent out the place. My landlord is also close with a family member, who told me that the landlord has been complaining about the situation and seems like they don't want to continue.

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.

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.