Landlord/Tenant Complaint...advice please?

Since April of 2006 I've been having issues with my apartment complex. There was a leak in my son's bedroom, squirrels living in my ceiling, and a part of the over hang over my front door is falling down. I did things like call the office, leave messages, write letters, nothing was ever done about those things. In October of 2006 my son's father left me and my son, so we had him taken off the lease, and I was now responsible for the whole apartment on my own. All of my 2007 rent payments were paid (some late, some not, I was adjusting). In January 2008 I learned from a friend that I could withhold rent if repairs were not being made on my apartment, so I began doing that, I sent them letter stating why (but I did not send them certified, I just walked them over, I didn't know about the certified thing till it was too late) I gave them a partial payment in Feb, Mar, & April. Now THEY are taking me to court for the rent I held. Do I stand a chance at winning in court?

FYI: I live in Philadelphia, PA

I saved a copy of everything I've ever given them for myself.

L & I has been to my apartment/town home and verified that there are violations.

You needed to go to court and obtain a court order before you withheld rent. You essentially not only appointed yourself as judge and jury, you determinied the fine on your own.

Ignorance is not a legal excuse.

You stand no change of winning this in court. None, you will likely need to pay the landlords attorney too.

However, if the violations are documented, and by that I mean that the error was documented, not that you called and complained. Everyone gets a claim number, it does not mean anything by itself. It is like a police report, a report of what you said, but no legal determination.

Any.....the landlord will likely be awarded his past due rent, plus late fees and legal expenses, but he will also receive a court order to fix the roof over hang. Nothing about a leak in 06, nothing about squrrels, but he has to fix the roof situation.

Philly allows you to withhold rent if certain legal procedures are followed. First, you must have permission from the courts and second, rent must be placed in a court supervised escrow account. So unless you followed these procedures, you will not win in court.

First of all you should read, if you signed a contract when you moved in, what the contract says they're resposible for because they might bring that into court. Then check what your rights are as a tenant in PA (because they vary from state to state). Also, take pics. of what has been damaged; if you have pics. from when you moved in take them to show the difference from then to now. Take copies of cancelled checks to show that you DID pay and also your copies of the letters you wrote them. Lastly, cross your fingers and hope for the best. =)

Good luck.

Usually when you withhold rent you have to actually prove that you had the money set aside for them. You can't just not pay it. You have to take the money and put in aside for safe keeping. Almost like writing a check to yourself and not cashing it. In most cases, I think the county sheriff has a system set up for this where you give them the rent money and they hold it. This is so you are still making good on your lease by paying, even though the landloard isn't getting anything out of it. Also, I think that they notify the landlord of the hold on the rent. It's just a way to prove that you are good on your half of the lease.

You might have a chance in claims court. It probably depends on the judge you get and how detailed you've been in documenting everything through the whole process. If you can prove that everyone involved was notified and given proper due time to correct problems, then you will have a case. I'd definitely talk to a lawyer in you area for a bit of advice before the case is heard in court.

Withholding rent is illegal. You have to pay every month. What you actually should have done is take the complaints up with your local housing department. Here in RI, there are programs for this where you pay the rent, but it's paid to