Q: I live in a basement dwelling that the landlord doesn't have a permit to rent.
Our land lord doesn't have a permit to lease. There is a lock between the dwelling and the rest of the house. we have put in service request have have not been completed. When put in request we have been accused of smoking pot in the house. we have asked for 24 hour notices to be given upon entering, she will give them then not show up then say they are still valid. There is no date or time frame given. Our land lord has opened our mail on several occasions, to where I had had gotten upset and asked Why does our mail keep getting opened? She says i was hostile but i just wanted it to stop after the previous 2 times she had done it. There is a lot more to the story. Do i have a case in court to sue?
A:
Most of your ability to sue is based on the lease. If a landlord refuses to give you what they promised in the lease, it is unlikely you will get a court to force them to improve things. If an apartment is unlicensed, or has serious basic problems like leaking roof, no water, etc, the state may just stop the landlord from renting it out.
A tenant is usually left with terminating a contract early and then suing for any expenses of having to move. It's usually difficult to win unless the contract is extremely clear about what the landlord must do.
You have described an extremely nosy landlord, and it would make sense to leave and go rent somewhere with better services.
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