Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Oregon

I live in an apartment that has been undergoing construction on its plumbing for the last 9 weeks. It was supposed to take 4 weeks. They had to take out my bathroom, but provided me a bathroom in another apartment. My roommate and I could have moved to the other apartment, but it was only 1 bedroom rather than 2. Because of the delays, we received one free month of rent. Last morning they turned off our water in the kitchen and it has not come back on. This morning we were told it won't come on for another week. We were not informed about this at all. The property manager came after we complained, but stormed out with no resolution. We feel that some laws have been violated. What can we do about this?


Asked on 11/18/09, 1:56 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Meek Daniel W. Meek

You can stop paying the rent. Then the landlord will try to evict you, using a court action known as unlawful detainer. You can defend against that lawsuit by claiming that the premises were uninhabitable due to the problems you describe. Even if you win, unless you have a lease with a specific term, however, the landlord can simply refuse to continue to rent to you. So you will probably get to stay in the apartment for another 45 days or so and then will need to find another place to live, unless you have a specific term in a lease (like for 2 years or whatever).

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Answered on 11/24/09, 2:45 am


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