Sounds like you need a lawyer, and pronto. In my area there's a "Tenant's Legal Center". They charged me $90 (in advance) but they're real experts and straightened my problem out with a single phone call. If there isn't a tenant's legal center, there are certainly lawyers who specialize in representing renters. The internet is a great source for this. For example, I just used google to find lawyers in Abilene, typing in "find a lawyer Abilene Texas". Secondly, the fact that you haven't been stung yet suggests fairly strongly that these bees are not africanized, so it would indeed be a shame to kill them if you can find a bee-removal service. Our local TV station has a link on their website for a local company that relocates bees--too far away for you (I'm in San Diego) but if you call your local TV station, they may be able to help you. Or better yet, use Google. I just typed in "beekeepers Abilene Texas" and found lots of entries--not a single one in Abilene, but maybe some of the other cities listed are close enough that they'd come out for an extra fee. For example, there's one in Dallas: Aaron Bee Company (972) 980-0923. Why not give them a call and ask if they'll come out. Or you could just browse through the listings at this URL: http://www.yellowbook.com/Category/beekeepers/Texas/Abilene/ Hope this helps.

OK, well two weeks late on rent is not horrible. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. But I wouldn't get comfortable with it either. If you can come up with the full rent plus late fee, it's far better to get things juggled around so that you're back on track & rent is always on time again. And saving yourself that late fee, depending on how much it is, would pay part or all of a phone or water bill, buy a tank of gas, etc. Those late fees add up so you're actually paying higher rent. It probably sounds like goofy advice, but if push comes to shove, pay a smaller bill late one month (but only one month) so you can get back on track. Like the phone or water bill. They won't shut your water or phone off if only one month late. Keep a roof over your heads first, let all else come second. Then when back on track it would put you in a better negotiating position. As for the trash recepticles. There's 4 cans and 1 recycling bin. The LL said it's everyone's job to take it down to the curb and up again. The more I read the less I like about this situation and here's why (and it's just my impression, please don't take it as gospel). First, you've got a genuinely disruptive situation with a neighbor upstairs and your LL tosses out threat of eviction if you two don't quit quibbling. It's just not cool to threaten to yank someone out of their house unless there are genuine, serious lease infractions that can be proved in court. I don't know for sure because I'm not there and don't see/know all the facts, but it almost sounds like bullying on his part. Get on track with your rent, continue to abide by your lease, and don't let yourself be bullied. You have rights here as well. If he says it's "everyone's" responsibility to take care of the trash - perfect. So we can also interpret that your LL never said, or wrote down, that your father is responsible for taking other unit's trash to the curb. So tell Dad to knock if off. I know it sounds trite, but this girl is running all over you guys and she knows it. Stand up for yourselves! Get together with unit #3 that also complained if you can, let them know you're taking out your garbage and nothing more. Ask if they will take out theirs, and let that girl in #2 deal with consequences of not managing her own mess. Honestly, it just comes across like your LL treating you all like kids on a playground. Yes, everyone needs to get along. But it goes a lot deeper than that. We're not talking about play time and everyone gets to go home when it's over. We're talking about the place that you eat and sleep and call home, and you've got a right to some peace and quiet. And you are not your neighbor's slave and do not have to do garbage detail for them. As for damages, We've done none nor Violated our lease.. ... Damages Done to this apt we're being fixed but then stopped. this was 3yrs ago, and he stated this summer he'd be around alot to do the repairs, but it has yet to happen. Can you be very specific about that? I get that you haven't done any damage, but what kinds of repairs are you talking about? I copied this from your first post above: As for the repair problems, The windows need to be replaced badly he's saying he'll do it but it's been 4 yrs now and nothing. The kitchen cabinets are dead and need fixing or replacing. not getting done. Bedroom door is coming apart. The bathroom tile needs to be replaced. I think it also might have mold behind the wall. I mean hell this apt has been falling apart befor we even moved in. What precisely is wrong with the windows? Old, leak, broken? What does "dead" kitchen cabinets mean? Teasing you here for a little levity, but I just don't get "dead" cabinets. ;D Bedroom door coming apart: is it split, coming off the hinges? What exactly is wrong with bathroom tile? Cracked? Allowing leaks for mold? Just plain ugly? Do you feel safe linking to photos? If you can be much more specific about exactly what kinds of issues these are, especially when you are talking about going to Board of Health, it would help. (Tho it sounds like a Code or Town Building inspector issue more than Board of Health, but without specifics it's hard to say.) I understand the economy is bad right now but he has two other places "Apparently" and he claims not to have the money. Is this possible?...This question is for you moonshadow. Is it possible not to have enough money even though, he claims to have this place and two others? Well, sure, about anything is possible. Depends on what he's doing with the $. He's human. He could be irresponsible, could have a problem and is gambling it all away. (I heard from an applicant once that they lost the house they were in because owner gambled her own + rent money away, so rental house + her own home were repossessed because she failed to pay mortgage and taxes.) Or he could be responsible and he's gotten walloped by the system. Maybe he's got properties financed and mortgage hit balloon period and payments went sky high. Or (as happened in our County) the way property taxes were assessed underwent major restructuring. Some areas of the County property taxes quadrupled. It was like a punch in the gut for everyone who owned any kind of real estate because of stupidity and local gov't saying "oops, our bad". A lot of people lost their own homes over it, and this was several years back when economy was booming. We have several properties and the taxes went so high instead of paying 2 installments per year I was paying 4, and that went on for 3 years. Still, I made sure I budgeted so I had enough to pay taxes, insurance and repairs expenses plus extra if something big happened like a roof replacement, but during that time none of it went in our pockets. There just wasn't any left. (Plus, like every LL in the County, I had to raise rents to cover that tax mess or we would have gone belly up. So renters were impacted in my area as well. Everyone suffered.) I guess what I'm saying is anything is possible. But a responsible LL will budget his $, make sure there is enough for expenses/repairs, and charge rents accordingly to cover all that. It's no secret how many properties your LL owns (it will be on record with your County and is public info, accessible online at your County's site or via Assessor or Recorder's office.) But please don't assume that if he owns multiple properties he's rolling in dough. I can assure you, I get that a lot and it just ain't necessarily so. Still, it matters with respect to the laws and what is required of him to keep your home safe and habitable, so that's what we'll stay focused on. ;-) So if you can elaborate on conditions you're living in, that would help.

You need to get a copy of your state Landlord & Tenant laws. In most states the proper procedure is to serve a "7 Day Notice With Cure" and outline the nature of the offence. A 7 day notice "with cure" allows the tenant a maximum of 7 day to correct the problem. If they don't take the appropriate action within the 7 days you must then serve a "Seven Day Notice Without Cure" which in a sense is a seven day notice that your are proceeding with eviction procedure. At the end of that 7 day period you must serve a "3 Day notice to Quit" which is a polite way of telling them to be out in 3 days. Once all of that is done you may then file for an eviction with your housing court. If you fail to take those steps the housing courts will normally automatically deny your request for evicition. Once you file for eviction the court will issue the tenant a "Summons to appear" for a hearing and the court will determine whether an eviction is in order, or what corrective actions must be taken. Many tenants are well aware of the procedures and they know how to play the game, by example: Last year we had a tenant who moved in on September 15th paying a security deposit equal to one months rent and 1/2 months pro-rated rent for September. The lease says the rent is due and payable on the first day of the month but we allow up to five days grace period before imposing a late fee, therefore we had to wait the 5 days before serving the "7day notice with cure", followed by the "7 Day notice without cure" so now we have 5 days of grace, two 7 day periods which is now the 19th of October. We followed that with the required "3 day notice to quit" which brought us up to Oct 22. We filed for an eviction proceeding which cost $85 for the filing fee then we received a hearing date of Nov, 21. On November21 we went to court and the tenant showed up giving the judge a hard luck story about how she lost her job and couldn't afford to pay her rent or relocate. She then pleaded the mercy of the court, stating that she had a minor child and could be put out in the snow so the court granted a 30 day continuance with the instruction that she was to pay the outstanding rent directly to the court within the 30 days. We returned to the court on Dec.22 only to be told that the court could not evict a woman with a minor child between Nov 15 and March 15th so another court date was set for March 15th. On the first of March the tenant moved three miles away, which then put her exactly 100 yards across the state line and out of the courts jurisdiction. On the 15th of March the court then awarded us possession. I sent a crew in to clean and prep the apartment and they came back telling me they had bagged 35 large lawn & garden type leaf bags with trash, which had completely filled the dumpster requiring an additional dumpster pickup. On top of that, the walls were covered with pencil, pen & crayola marks throughout, so we would need a complete new paint job. The living room carpet had two large burns clear through the padding from an electric flat iron. To add insult to injury, each apartment has a separate municipal water meter, so when the new tenant went to have their water turned on we discovered the previous tenant had never paid a penny on the water bill and the landlord is responsible for paying the outstanding balance before they can turn the new service on.

You should probably post on the Remodelling forum. But I think $20K is in the ballpark, a little low though. I'd look for local workers for the demo and re-frame, and stay away from the "Home Builder" or GC section of the phone book. A high percentage of them just hire things out... which is your job in this, don't add their 15% to it. Then look for a staircase manufacturer to build the staircase for you, don't do site built. We used Southern Staircase, but I have no idea where you are. Only $12K for 3 sets of stairs, oak treads and risers, straight, no landings.