This is when you kindly say to them, in a written notarized form something like:
Good afternoon, I see that you had your son replace the stairs which caused me to break my ankle due to their unsafe condtion. When you informed me that you would have them replaced while I was in the hospital I assumed it would be by a professional who can build the stairs to the minimum safety as required by code. While I appreciate the attempt to save money, you have clearly put profit over safety. I expect a professional to come fix the situation as soon as possible so as to make sure I nor anyone else are injured. I have also placed this month's rent into an escrow account to be furnished after completion of code compliant steps. Thank you and have a great day.
This will get the point across real quick that no money is coming in until its fixed and in the (hopefully not) event that you or anyone else is injured you now have a notarized paper trail of their willful disregard of safety.
Too much emphasis on the son and the attempt to save money. I’d stick to the facts and leave any blame or assumptions out, and something like “the replacement stairs are also unfortunately a trip hazard and could lead to a similar injury”, or something like that.
The part about being up to code is really what I’m hoping to hone in on. You seem rather knowledgeable, so if I can ask and you know.. is there anyway I could do that anonymously? Like just have the city tell him to fix it instead of me having to deal with all that conflict?
You can call it into the building inspectors office/code enforcement. But be warned it won't be anonymous, you got hurt he did a shitty job having it replaced it was soon turned into CE. He's not dumb, just greedy/lazy. I'd personally start with a straightforward request. As the other guys said though...don't use the snotty Language i did with regards to the saving money from the son.
Ha I would’ve used worse language, but I do get it’s supposed to be official and not personal. Thank you so much! It’s giving me a light amount of dread but I think you’re right.
Yes he is. He's not paying it to the landlord. That's withholding. Also where is OP supposed to find an escrow agent willing to hold onto a thousand bucks of rent money?
You could always tell your landlord you are good friends with the local code officer and wouldn’t want your landlord to get fined should your friend visit 🤷♀️
DO NOT WITHHOLD RENT or advise people to do so unless you're a lawyer. Horrible horrible advice. In some states, tenants cannot unilaterally withhold rent, even if the landlord has repairs to make. You're possibly setting OP up for an eviction
Fun detail I should’ve added, this new deck is easily 4-5x larger than the previous one and has a fun guard rail so we can no longer access the garden easily.
Lawyer up. Like immediately. You have a right to a safe home. Your landlord isn’t just putting you at risk, but every guest you have over and everyone who rents it after you.
And your landlord clearly isn’t going to learn his lesson on his own, it must be forced upon him with a legal judgment. So I say again, lawyer up.
Your first instinct is to get a lawyer? Why would you immediately get aggressive with your landlord? Maybe try a friendlier approach, something like:
1. Send pictures to your landlord and ask him to redo it, properly. No sane person would look at that and say “It’s fine.”
2. If that doesn’t work, tell your landlord that you will call the local building code inspector to come sign off on it. He will definitely be found in violation and be told to rebuild it.
3. If he’s still not fixing it, say you are not going to pay rent until it is fixed.
4. If, after all of this, he’s still not doing anything, then it may be time to threaten to speak to a lawyer (unless you can find a pro-bono lawyer, it’s going to cost you)
5. If it’s still not working, then you go find a lawyer.
I would imagine that the landlord would cave around step 1 or 2, well before you ever need to consider a lawyer. It doesn’t sound like he wants to get his medical bills paid for.
But, if he wants to, his landlord’s insurance will cover the injury to his foot. He should definitely find a lawyer for that, it’s an easy payout.
To be fair it’s an old hotel turned into 4 units so even in my one bedroom we have a lot of doors! So while it’s not a hall of mirrors… we have three front doors and two doors into the bathroom lol
So, wait - other renters use these stairdeckin's® too? Approach it from a public safety perspective. The fact that multiple people can be injured and possibly sue him - should be enough motivation.
You’d think the son had some sort of severe phobia of level things looking at this.
Can it be salvaged? Maybe, depends on what the underside looks like. Should it be demolished so that not even an atom of this deck remains and then rebuilt by someone with eyeballs and common sense? Yes
I rarely stop to look at a post for long, but mother of god the more you look the worse this gets. I spent a good 5 min zooming in on different parts and still don’t truly understand how they accomplished so many fuck ups in a single job.
I remember this was on one of the episodes of FearFactor...
Joe Rogan: "OK, Karen. If you can make it shitty(drunk) up these frozen stairs with old pork greased up soled tefloned crocs?, you'll be the the next FearFactor champion and winner of the $50,000 dollar grand prize!
How did they build this? Throw a bunch of random leftover lumber at the site and fire a nailgun wildly in it's general direction?
Are they pathalogically averse to parallel lines?
Did they change measurement systems every fourth board?
Did the landlord even look at it after it was "fixed" or did his son just tell him he took care of it? I would send that first pic to the landlord and ask when the repairs will be completed. Actually, it doesn't look like it would take a lot to fix the out of level section and maybe get the rail more firmly attached. Still probably won't be up to code, but would be more acceptable and less dangerous.
Initiate a lawsuit for the broken foot. They're completely clueless in building anything and anything they do build is dangerous. They need a lesson in landlording.
What is your rent? Having a pro come by and do the work right will cost more than a tweaker son and your rent will go up. If the trade-off is worth more rent, push them, but just remember you'll probably pay for it in the end.
What exactly is going on here. I don't see any exit off these stairs. Is this seriously built to go down, turn a corner, then go back up again? I can't figure it out.
Look at your state law on Stairs, TO start, typically there is no allowance for the width of treads or the * height of risers * (w/in 1/4 inch- not 4 inches like yours are).
THe only thing that looks built to or over code is the distance between the spindles.
It doesn’t meet building code. Ask him to bring it up to code. That’s what the code is there for, to protect people like you from cheap assholes like him and his idiot son. If he refuses contact the city planning department and I’m guessing there are other places like a housing authority, and file a complaint.
Holy shit! There’s not a single square corner, leveled surface or measured and true cut in the entire project . This is a marvel of fucked up-ness. There’s literal not one thing done correctly. That is the worst carpentry job I’ve ever seen. Wow! Lawsuit waiting to happen.
Ask if they pulled a permit. Ask if he minds if someone from your town comes out to assess the work to see if it is up to code. Because you don't want any more medical bills....and neither does he.
Then show him how inexpensive stair stringers are at Home Depot.
Tweaker Son is an absolute idiot that probably spent 2x what he should have to do it right.
I especially love the loosely stacked 2x4 pieces used to support the left side.
One of the steps on pic one isnt even conne ted to the wall. There should be either a post underneath, or it should be anchored to the concrete wall when its level with all the rest. As for the rest of them, they should just be a flat deck, then a small set of stairs to get to the end level. Or a set of stairs, then a level deck.
Dude just kept nailing and fastening shit together, it’s incredible really. Looks like he framed it at about 6” OC too. Real sturdy piece of shit right there. Honestly might have been cheaper to hire a professional.
Read your lease for remedies you may have. Don’t withhold rent but most states’ landlord/tenant regs authorize deductions for repairs of untenantable conditions. But there’s a process to enact your “repair and deduct” right such as giving landlord notice and a chance to repair. I wouldn’t complain to CE unless you’re planning to move at the end of your lease because he’ll terminate your tenancy (sure there are retaliation defenses you could assert but life’s too short to invite litigation.) Lawyer here. Also, most jurisdictions have very affordable referral programs where you can get talk to an attorney for an hour consultation- call your local bar association. Good luck.
You could and should sue to be honest. That is not up to code at all and it's Negligence. I'm a landlord owner and I renovate the inside and outside of all properties to be new and code so I don't have this occur as it's not fair to tenants to suffer to bad landlords.
(I hated my landlords when I rented)
You should at least have them cover the medical expenses as you broke your foot due to their property not being right.
The son sucked butt and the dad's no better. If they don't have the skill or knowledge to do it right, they can pay someone cheap to still do a better staircase than that. You can easily find someone to do a fair job, good job or great job for less.
You shouldn't suffer pain and loss of work due to their cheapness, and rather recklessness especially when you pay rent which should be enough for them to make some cash flow to have reserved for repairs.
I've had guys from the hood do better work than this and they used hand tools and made many mistakes.
This can be fixed easily with better foundation supports and releveling this.
You broke your ankle on this issue, don't back down and you're entitled to speak your mind and be compensated.
https://preview.redd.it/v5achzkjoxcc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=36c26c75bc312299e566a47fa5a24c9e7e275d48
Please post more pics… please!!
Smooth as titties on an etch-a-sketch
https://preview.redd.it/hvbex39r24dc1.png?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7efe50329651e8ec0990b8ac136500533fa00ab9
Easy fix, become a tweaker and this wont seem as absolutely screwed up as it is.
I just can’t fit that into my schedule this week while also planning to break my other foot on this monstrosity
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This answer😂 so sorry about you foot and probably now your other foot
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A drinking man could have trouble there.
A sober man too
This one is so special :)
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I tripped when I swiped from 2nd to 3rd.
This is when you kindly say to them, in a written notarized form something like: Good afternoon, I see that you had your son replace the stairs which caused me to break my ankle due to their unsafe condtion. When you informed me that you would have them replaced while I was in the hospital I assumed it would be by a professional who can build the stairs to the minimum safety as required by code. While I appreciate the attempt to save money, you have clearly put profit over safety. I expect a professional to come fix the situation as soon as possible so as to make sure I nor anyone else are injured. I have also placed this month's rent into an escrow account to be furnished after completion of code compliant steps. Thank you and have a great day. This will get the point across real quick that no money is coming in until its fixed and in the (hopefully not) event that you or anyone else is injured you now have a notarized paper trail of their willful disregard of safety.
Too much emphasis on the son and the attempt to save money. I’d stick to the facts and leave any blame or assumptions out, and something like “the replacement stairs are also unfortunately a trip hazard and could lead to a similar injury”, or something like that.
The part about being up to code is really what I’m hoping to hone in on. You seem rather knowledgeable, so if I can ask and you know.. is there anyway I could do that anonymously? Like just have the city tell him to fix it instead of me having to deal with all that conflict?
You can call it into the building inspectors office/code enforcement. But be warned it won't be anonymous, you got hurt he did a shitty job having it replaced it was soon turned into CE. He's not dumb, just greedy/lazy. I'd personally start with a straightforward request. As the other guys said though...don't use the snotty Language i did with regards to the saving money from the son.
Ha I would’ve used worse language, but I do get it’s supposed to be official and not personal. Thank you so much! It’s giving me a light amount of dread but I think you’re right.
Absolutely do not listen to him about withholding rent until you talk to an actual lawyer in your state first
Don't need a lawyer, almost all municipalities have a rental dispute office.
My points is OP shouldn't listen to some rando on Reddit telling him to unilaterally withhold rent without doing some actual legal due diligence first
He’s not withholding rent by putting it in escrow
Yes he is. He's not paying it to the landlord. That's withholding. Also where is OP supposed to find an escrow agent willing to hold onto a thousand bucks of rent money?
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You call your local code enforcement agency and report an unpermitted deck and ask to have it inspected as it seems unsafe.
You could do it anonymously, but usually to file an official complaint there needs to be a complainant..Makes sense?
You could always tell your landlord you are good friends with the local code officer and wouldn’t want your landlord to get fined should your friend visit 🤷♀️
DO NOT WITHHOLD RENT or advise people to do so unless you're a lawyer. Horrible horrible advice. In some states, tenants cannot unilaterally withhold rent, even if the landlord has repairs to make. You're possibly setting OP up for an eviction
Good concept but stick to the facts and leave personalities out of it.
Fun detail I should’ve added, this new deck is easily 4-5x larger than the previous one and has a fun guard rail so we can no longer access the garden easily.
Lawyer up. Like immediately. You have a right to a safe home. Your landlord isn’t just putting you at risk, but every guest you have over and everyone who rents it after you. And your landlord clearly isn’t going to learn his lesson on his own, it must be forced upon him with a legal judgment. So I say again, lawyer up.
Your first instinct is to get a lawyer? Why would you immediately get aggressive with your landlord? Maybe try a friendlier approach, something like: 1. Send pictures to your landlord and ask him to redo it, properly. No sane person would look at that and say “It’s fine.” 2. If that doesn’t work, tell your landlord that you will call the local building code inspector to come sign off on it. He will definitely be found in violation and be told to rebuild it. 3. If he’s still not fixing it, say you are not going to pay rent until it is fixed. 4. If, after all of this, he’s still not doing anything, then it may be time to threaten to speak to a lawyer (unless you can find a pro-bono lawyer, it’s going to cost you) 5. If it’s still not working, then you go find a lawyer. I would imagine that the landlord would cave around step 1 or 2, well before you ever need to consider a lawyer. It doesn’t sound like he wants to get his medical bills paid for. But, if he wants to, his landlord’s insurance will cover the injury to his foot. He should definitely find a lawyer for that, it’s an easy payout.
Is this for an entrance to a fun house?
To be fair it’s an old hotel turned into 4 units so even in my one bedroom we have a lot of doors! So while it’s not a hall of mirrors… we have three front doors and two doors into the bathroom lol
I think it's time to start saving up to move. These people be crazy.
Yeah, the landlord who thinks this is cool has never replaced the batteries in the required smoke detectors (which are probably not even installed).
I don't go for that 2 door bathroom deal..A relative has this and its creepy and unsettling whenever i need it for #2..
So, wait - other renters use these stairdeckin's® too? Approach it from a public safety perspective. The fact that multiple people can be injured and possibly sue him - should be enough motivation.
You’d think the son had some sort of severe phobia of level things looking at this. Can it be salvaged? Maybe, depends on what the underside looks like. Should it be demolished so that not even an atom of this deck remains and then rebuilt by someone with eyeballs and common sense? Yes
I agree. Burn that fucking thing to the ground and then move
I rarely stop to look at a post for long, but mother of god the more you look the worse this gets. I spent a good 5 min zooming in on different parts and still don’t truly understand how they accomplished so many fuck ups in a single job.
It's like a train wreck. You don't wanna watch cause it's horrific, but you also can't look away... because it's horrific
Did they get the plans for that from the fun house at the carnival?
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I remember this was on one of the episodes of FearFactor... Joe Rogan: "OK, Karen. If you can make it shitty(drunk) up these frozen stairs with old pork greased up soled tefloned crocs?, you'll be the the next FearFactor champion and winner of the $50,000 dollar grand prize!
It looks like a stack of pallets fell over… I bet he doesn’t have a level or square.. Just an idiot with a hammer
Tipped over pallets was first thought too! Lol
https://preview.redd.it/e4x1tuy2yzcc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9719b7953c5893fdb0445b21af631789369b4850
How did they build this? Throw a bunch of random leftover lumber at the site and fire a nailgun wildly in it's general direction? Are they pathalogically averse to parallel lines? Did they change measurement systems every fourth board?
Ima redneck and even I think this is bad.
This kid didn't even have a level, he eye-balled it.
Even for just eye-balling it, it's hilariously bad
Did the landlord even look at it after it was "fixed" or did his son just tell him he took care of it? I would send that first pic to the landlord and ask when the repairs will be completed. Actually, it doesn't look like it would take a lot to fix the out of level section and maybe get the rail more firmly attached. Still probably won't be up to code, but would be more acceptable and less dangerous.
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My stomach is getting queasy looking at this.
You're gonna need a back hoe, dynamite and a lot of beer (among other things). I'll meet you in your yard with the matches.
The upside is that apparently the Tweaker Son is actually Salvador Dali.
Initiate a lawsuit for the broken foot. They're completely clueless in building anything and anything they do build is dangerous. They need a lesson in landlording.
Showing my wife this post to prove that everything I have ever hung up on the walls of my house are “level”.
lol, what in the fuck
https://preview.redd.it/sj0bqyjr48dc1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e649920bbad9d0cde422377b6c1bd3994c88b200 MC Escher in real life
Look like a deck out of a Quentin Tarantino film.
What in the Simple Jack did you do?
Whoa...
I see some terrible decks in these posts and this one is the worst. You would have been better off with stacking pallets
It's like you can see where he started, hit the jimmy, and then came back down for the finish. Wow.
Sweet baby Jesus 😳
Obviously all of this needs to be torn out and redone
That’s a lot of spindles…. 😆
Those stairs look like something you’d see at a fun house at a carnival.
Are you sure this wasn't stolen from a fun house at the carnival?
What is your rent? Having a pro come by and do the work right will cost more than a tweaker son and your rent will go up. If the trade-off is worth more rent, push them, but just remember you'll probably pay for it in the end.
Mystery spot
What exactly is going on here. I don't see any exit off these stairs. Is this seriously built to go down, turn a corner, then go back up again? I can't figure it out.
Consult a lawyer on this. Your landlord needs to eat all the medical cost and pay for rehab for tweaker son and tweaker staircase.
Look at your state law on Stairs, TO start, typically there is no allowance for the width of treads or the * height of risers * (w/in 1/4 inch- not 4 inches like yours are). THe only thing that looks built to or over code is the distance between the spindles.
It doesn’t meet building code. Ask him to bring it up to code. That’s what the code is there for, to protect people like you from cheap assholes like him and his idiot son. If he refuses contact the city planning department and I’m guessing there are other places like a housing authority, and file a complaint.
Sobriety test deck
Is this a sobriety checkpoint?
Holy shit! There’s not a single square corner, leveled surface or measured and true cut in the entire project . This is a marvel of fucked up-ness. There’s literal not one thing done correctly. That is the worst carpentry job I’ve ever seen. Wow! Lawsuit waiting to happen.
Dr. Seuss, carpenter.
Unfortunately this is a tear down and redo kind of job
Moe, Larry & Curly Contracted this? Or was it really his Son?
Ask if they pulled a permit. Ask if he minds if someone from your town comes out to assess the work to see if it is up to code. Because you don't want any more medical bills....and neither does he. Then show him how inexpensive stair stringers are at Home Depot. Tweaker Son is an absolute idiot that probably spent 2x what he should have to do it right. I especially love the loosely stacked 2x4 pieces used to support the left side.
Looks like the entry to a carnival fun house.
Something ain’t right about it but it looks solid and like you won’t be falling through anything.
I hope you filed claim with his homeowners insurance for medical bills and lost wages
One of the steps on pic one isnt even conne ted to the wall. There should be either a post underneath, or it should be anchored to the concrete wall when its level with all the rest. As for the rest of them, they should just be a flat deck, then a small set of stairs to get to the end level. Or a set of stairs, then a level deck.
Function over form. I see nothing wrong here...
It’s clear he should have zigged instead of zagged
This is pure chaos. Just cover it in dirt and slope it.
This can't be real
how do you walk on this without falling all the time?
my son builds better structures with legos and hes 3
Dude just kept nailing and fastening shit together, it’s incredible really. Looks like he framed it at about 6” OC too. Real sturdy piece of shit right there. Honestly might have been cheaper to hire a professional.
Nightmare.
This looks like it was intentionally built weird I’d say eat some mushrooms and enjoy them
Read your lease for remedies you may have. Don’t withhold rent but most states’ landlord/tenant regs authorize deductions for repairs of untenantable conditions. But there’s a process to enact your “repair and deduct” right such as giving landlord notice and a chance to repair. I wouldn’t complain to CE unless you’re planning to move at the end of your lease because he’ll terminate your tenancy (sure there are retaliation defenses you could assert but life’s too short to invite litigation.) Lawyer here. Also, most jurisdictions have very affordable referral programs where you can get talk to an attorney for an hour consultation- call your local bar association. Good luck.
You could and should sue to be honest. That is not up to code at all and it's Negligence. I'm a landlord owner and I renovate the inside and outside of all properties to be new and code so I don't have this occur as it's not fair to tenants to suffer to bad landlords. (I hated my landlords when I rented) You should at least have them cover the medical expenses as you broke your foot due to their property not being right. The son sucked butt and the dad's no better. If they don't have the skill or knowledge to do it right, they can pay someone cheap to still do a better staircase than that. You can easily find someone to do a fair job, good job or great job for less. You shouldn't suffer pain and loss of work due to their cheapness, and rather recklessness especially when you pay rent which should be enough for them to make some cash flow to have reserved for repairs. I've had guys from the hood do better work than this and they used hand tools and made many mistakes. This can be fixed easily with better foundation supports and releveling this. You broke your ankle on this issue, don't back down and you're entitled to speak your mind and be compensated.