My sister lives in an apartment in Newark DE. The landlord has not corrected any problems. Can she sue?
April 12th, 2011 | 
Author: When she moved in a list was given to the rental office of repairs that needed to be made. Now the list of problems has continued to grow. For starters – the balcony. She lives on the third floor and the railing is loose (if you lean on it you could possibly fall over). The ceiling on the balcony is unfinished and still has plastic hanging down from it. The roof leaks in several spots and the the ceiling has begun to fall down. Now to make matters worse a new tenant has moved in beneath her and the entire building now has roaches and we suspect there is also a rodent problem. The office has sent the exterminator out about 3-4 times with another visit due next week. The office has identified the new tenant as the problem but says they can do nothing about her. She contacted the attorney general early this year and that finally pushed them to come and fix the roof outside but the inside is not done. The other problems still remain and they will not let her out of her lease.
Posted in Landlord Tenant Law
I would look for info about the state specifically, but I did come across this. http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/business_commercial/business_operations/nolo/faq/064A33D0-2569-46D3-B74E3FD2CD54C4D9.html
In theory, she can sue, but would have to prove financial damages. Her big mistake was signing a lease without a written agreement when the repairs would be accomplished. If the list is long, why would you want to live there? It was smart of her to contact the attorney general (or any other government official) to put pressure on the landlord, and you may even want to call their property and casualty insurance company to tell them about the loose railing. I also suggest you get something in black and white where the apartment complex identifies the new tenant as the cause of the roach problem with their claim that nothing can be done! The bottom line is that there very well may be an existing out on the lease because as a tenant your sister is supposed to have quiet enjoyment of the property and if another tenant is actively preventing this, and the landlord hasn’t attended to the issue, they have breached the lease!
1.Write a certified letter to landlord, asking to fix the problems and if you have an accident you will retain an attorney. Make it for the record that you did discuss this prior to renting and you were promised it would be taken care of.
2. Tell the Landlord that you are going to get a few estimates on fixing the existing problems and that you will be reducing the cost of the repair work from the rents. You will get their ear pretty quick, remember to always send registered letters for your record. Its called building a file for the future.