Q: What are the legal remedies for a NEW tenant when bedroom carpet reeks of urine and room has been unhabitable 30+ days?
What are my legal remedies for the following situation:
Upon move in, I noticed that one bedroom in my rental three bedroom townhome reeked of urine. Renter's Warehouse hired a cleaner to resolve the issue. The cleaner used a blacklight and there were many, many large urine stains. The cleaner applied a pet treatment to no avail. Cleaner and carpet company recommended replacement of the carpet and pad and treating/sealing the subfloor. The room is unhabitable because the smell is so bad. The smell is also permeating throughout the house. Landlord is dragging feet on replacement. It has been 30 days and still no approval from owner to replace the carpet and Renter's Warehouse are mostly non-responsive.
Can I withhold rent? Is there a certain notice template that I can download? What are my other remedies? I don't want to move because moving is too costly and time consuming.
A:
This is unfortunately not an uncommon issue.
Simply withholding rent is not a good idea and will likely get you evicted.
Google the Colo Warranty of Habitability. The Colo Legislature just this year significantly strengthened tenants rights WRT Warranty of Habitability.
This is a fairly technical process, to perfect your Warranty of Habitability defense, so I recommend that you contact and attorney to discuss your the process before moving forward on your own.
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