Smells like renter’s angst

”
There’s a dead animal in the ceiling of my house and the
landlord who sprayed it doesn’t want to remove the animal. There’s
a stench that has caused me to move out of the house and seek
shelter elsewhere.
”
Smells like renter’s angst

“There’s a dead animal in the ceiling of my house and the landlord who sprayed it doesn’t want to remove the animal. There’s a stench that has caused me to move out of the house and seek shelter elsewhere.”

& Red Phone:

This situation indeed reeks. Common courtesy apparently is not the forte of this landlord, so Red Phone turned to Gilroy Code Enforcement Officer Scott Barron, who addressed the principle of habitability:

“The failure of landlords to maintain their “implied warranty of habitability” is something that Code Enforcement does address. ‘California Tenants Handbook’ says that a ‘rental unit must substantially comply with building and housing code standards that materially affect tenants’ health and safety.’

In addition, it also states ‘tenants are required by law to take reasonable care of their rental units, as well as common areas such as hallways and outside areas. Tenants must act to keep those areas clean and undamaged.’

As you can see, both landlords and tenants have responsibilities for maintaining a unit in a livable manner. As a result, I would request that a tenant in this situation call me direct, so that I can fully understand the situation referenced in their question only briefly.

Things such as ‘Have you seen this dead animal with your own eyes, or is this statement only based on an odor you observed causing you believe it must be there?’

Also, it’s not uncommon for a tenant to use (poisons such as) DeCon to control rodents. When they choose this method of extermination, it often results in odor problems.

If this were to be the case, I would say the tenant may also be responsible for solving the problem.

Generally just spraying for roaches or ants does not result in the death of large rodents or cats which would be necessary to produce such a noticeable odor.’

So there you go, good caller, a lot of unkowns you need to provide before a resolution can be had.

You can reach Barron in the Community Development division at the city of Gilroy (846-0440). In the meantime, count your blessings. It could be August.

Wary of use of race in articles

“Every time lately when they describe any kind of accident or crime, why is the Dispatch always saying ” … the Hispanic man, or Hispanic female …”

How come I never hear described another race, say white or Italian or Portuguese, I don’t see that in the paper.

Why don’t they describe those persons as “this white person committed this crime.” What is going on here.

It’s starting to tick me off. Can you check into this and find out what the heck is going on?”

& Red Phone:

This is a valid concern, good caller, one in which the Dispatch takes seriously. The Dispatch will include race when part of the full description provided by police.