Ok, I am not going to explain all my 'rent records' in Bermuda but this is pretty ugly, this is the third idiots that I have with the label of 'landlord' ...
Now, I got an house, crazy expensive, that was rented as 'most beautiful and up to date cottage in Bermuda' ... unfortunately after 3 months we have huge problems like mould all over, water tank broken and more and more ....
We send a weekly e-mail to them and every time they send somebody to check the house, but at the end, nobody is doing his job.
By the local (non-sense) law,can I leave the house or should I complete the 2 years contract?
I mean, if you give me an house that after 3 months is crappy and I pay for an Executive cottage, I think that the contract is not valid anymore, right?
I hate this fuc.... behaviour that every landlord has here. No matter what, they are always right and as soon as you pay your rent one day later you are wrong but they can leave the house falling a part.
Any expenrience on that?

Yeah, there are a lot of problem landlords.  I had mixed experiences.  Two of my landlords were great.  Responsive, quick to refund the deposit, all the right things.  The other three were the horror stories - mostly scam artists trying to get every dollar they could out of me. 

BangMaster, most lease agreements are not worth the paper they are printed on.  Contract law has some particularities that catch people out a lot of the time, but it always comes down the the individual document.  I'd be happy to have a look and let you know if there are any glaring points in the lease.  If you want to scan it and send it to info@bermudasucks.com, I'll give you my opinion.  I'm not a lawyer, but I've studied the law of contract and tort and the basics are pretty simple.

I'd challenge the lawyers reading (I see your IP addresses, I know which firms are lurking) to weigh in with some advice.  Of course, that would mean helping out an expat, so I won't hold my breath...   

G'day, all…

Courtesy Conyers Dill & Pearman…

SIGNING A RESIDENTIAL LEASE:
WHAT SHOULD A TENANT LOOK OUT FOR?

Cynthia Millett – February 2010

http://tinyurl.com/ybdce2x

Ciao…

B+...

Submitted via the comments feature:

Am sorry to read about the scumbag LLs out there.  Unfortunately, many LLs are titillated by the rent money and forget that being a LL actually can be a job, more than just collecting the rent checks. (If I were a tenant here looking for a new place, one question I’d certainly ask is how long the LL has been doing the property management – and maybe get a reference from the current/prior tenant.)

Sounded like the writer (I forget who) had emailed his/her landlord and the landlord responded only by sending someone in who didn’t fix the problem.  At least there seems to have been some intent by the LL to fix the problem – or acknowledging that there’s a problem in the first place.

Just want to pass on what I’d do…and I write this with a lot of legal contract/lease and negotiating experience in internationally and a fair amount in Bermuda (and I’m not afraid of litigation).  Obviously, this will depend on the situation.

There’s the notion of “right to cure” in some leases.  Even if it's not in the tenant's lease, I’d suggest the following (and if representing a landlord, I really don’t like to see this, but here goes)…

Presume there’s a notice provision in the Lease, so would suggest the writer spell out in writing pursuant to that paragraph that the problem continues (hand deliver the letter to the landlord and have the LL sign a sheet acknowledging receipt & date or otherwise just get something that proves tenant delivered what he/she wrote to the LL).  Should the problem continue for another X days, tenant will hire those contractors necessary to rectify the problem and deduct the cost (at least out-of-pocket costs rather than the cost of the tenant’s time as well) by setoff from the rent.  The Lease may stipulate there be no setoffs or counterclaims of the rent, so the tenant might risk the Lease being terminated or being sued, neither of which might be justified/win in Court given the problem hasn’t been fixed.  LL may not want to terminate the Lease in this market anyway.

Another avenue – perhaps more palatable - is to write the LL telling him/her that the tenant will be paying the rent to a lawyer to hold in escrow with the funds to be paid to the LL once the problem is fixed. That way tenant is paying the rent and LL has an incentive to have the problem fixed fast.  It makes it much more difficult for LL to successfully sue/evict tenant for non-payment.

Of course, this all could have been avoided if LL had better relations with tenant and fixed the problem.

Thanks for passing this on.  Good luck to the tenant.