Tenant - not landlord - in a fix after violations go unaddressed

THE FLOOR around Francina Waddell's bed is spongy from water damage that has so weakened the floorboards that Waddell wonders, only half-jokingly, how long until her mattress plummets into the basement.

Water damage in the bathroom ceiling sent chunks of plaster raining down. "I virtually have to sit on my toilet with an umbrella," the 48-year-old Germantown woman said.

Exposed wires snake out of an open junction box in a bedroom closet, and construction debris and other trash piles outside.

Two years ago, Waddell said, she first asked her landlord to fix the problems. In November, the damage unaddressed, she complained to the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Inspectors visited the dilapidated rowhouse on Coulter Street near Midvale Avenue in December, found nine code violations and ordered them fixed.

Seems like a case of the system working the way it should to protect a citizen from a slacker landlord, right?

But the system gives landlords a generously long time to fix code violations. It is not as patient with problem tenants.

So, while her landlord still hasn't made most of the city-ordered repairs, Waddell is on her way to eviction. Her landlord wants to chuck her for nonpayment of rent, money she has withheld until he fixes the repairs.

"All I want is what I pay for every month: a roof that don't leak, a floor that's not sinking, a kitchen that's not collapsing, walls that aren't cracking, a ceiling that's not fixed with Silly Putty," said Waddell, who's already moved her furniture into storage for fear that her landlord will claim it to cover back rent.

Joseph Sutherland, the landlord, said that he is "a very good landlord" who wants to fix the violations, but "she won't let nobody in her apartment to do nothing." Two unaddressed violations, however, target areas outside Waddell's apartment, including a clogged basement drain and exterior rubbish.

An eviction hearing is scheduled for March 7.

Tenant advocates say that Waddell's plight is far from unusual and that reform is overdue.

"L&I has a lot more to do than they have staffing to do it, but they need to have the resources and the power to respond more quickly," said Phil Lord, executive director of the Tenant Union Representative Network. "Otherwise, these laws are meaningless. It means nothing to have rights if a landlord can evict you before you can exercise them effectively."