I hate renting...

Dear JPM Real Estate,

I'm writing in response to your notice dated 1/23/08 regarding a rental rate increase to be effective 2/1/08. As I hope you are aware, Oregon state law requires a minimum of 30 days notice for any rental rate increase. As such I am including a check in the amount of $850, our current rate, for February rent. As per Oregon law, notices will not be honored unless filed properly. Please re-file any notice you deem fit and allow for 30 days from the time of re-filing.
Furthermore, I feel that the rate increase is unjustified in the unit's current condition. Firstly, let me give you some detail on our history with JPM. We signed our initial lease in January of 2006 with one of your employees named Melissa. Apparently Melissa's employment was terminated shortly thereafter and our paperwork was "lost". Save Melissa, JPM was unaware of our inhabitance until our February rent check arrived. At that point Maria contacted us and spent several weeks searching for our "lost" paperwork to no avail. Despite our providing copies of the original lease, Maria required we sign a new lease in March, backdated to January 3rd, or face eviction.
In your notice you site "increase cost of utilities" as one reason for the rental rate increase. At this time we pay ALL utilities, rendering this point moot. Furthermore, water, sewer, garbage service and garbage container were the responsibility of JPM in our initial lease. The new backdated lease put all utilities into our responsibility. Maria would not budge on this point and claimed that utilities were never paid by JPM at Mayjohn Court Towne Homes. We later learned our neighbor's utilities were paid by JPM.
Your notice also states increased "property expenses" as reason for the increase. I am curious as to what these property expenses are. If they are HOA fees I highly suggest you investigate the Mayjohn Court Towne Homes HOA. In the 2+ years that we have lived here the only service they have provided is a once a month mowing of the half-dead lawn. They are, however, very quick to tow any vehicle parking in the extremely faded, undistinguishable "yellow zone", resulting in a late night $285 visit to the tow yard for my mother-in-law. Despite the towing the street always seems to be clogged with vehicles. The street is unkempt. The signs are an eyesore (except for the pristine towing signs!). The buildings are dingy. The mailbox is in a sad state of disrepair. The fencing between units in the rear is falling apart and is dangerous. The police frequent our street on a weekly basis, if not daily in the summertime, to deal with several residents near the end of the street. Many residents do not abide by the 10 p.m. noise curfew, especially in the summer. There are also several heavy smokers in the near vicinity who enjoy "sharing" their habit by smoking in the back and side yards within feet of our open windows. One resident even had someone living in a tent in the backyard for a few months that frequently enjoyed rather pungent cigars.
If the "property expenses" are in regards to maintenance I have several requests to make. When signing with Melissa, there were several points discussed in regards to items that would be fixed after our inhabitance. Melissa told us that a painting/resurfacing of the kitchen/bath/laundry cabinets was already "in the works" as was a repair of the warped and marred countertops in the kitchen. This has not happened. We were told the bathtub would be resurfaced. This was finally completed in August of 2007 and is already beginning to crack and peel. We were told a power washing of the dingy exterior was already scheduled. It has yet to happen. There are a few windows with blown seals. These were to be resealed. The only maintenance item completed as promised was to deal with the mold on the garage wall caused by a leaky water heater. This was done by painting over the mold with an anti mold paint. The water heater burst in summer of 07 and was replaced with one that was up to code (the former was not). The wall remains only treated with paint. The rear outdoor faucet did not function at the time of inhabitance and was to be repaired. It was finally repaired in summer of 07. All these items were raised again with Maria, who said she would look into it. None were addressed until Devina Baker took over our account.
In light of the rate increase I would also like to formally request the repair of some issues that have come to light after living in the unit for a time. The refrigerator is dying. It has been "repaired" several times in the past few months by blowing dust out of the compressor. It's temperature fluctuates significantly, it leaks water and we often hear hissing noises from it, as if water were dripping onto something hot. The door seals are also in disrepair.
Several wall outlets are loose internally, causing plugs to slowly slide out, creating a moderate risk for our small children. Some items will not work when plugged into some outlets due to the looseness.
The fireplace tile damage that is noted on our move in report is worsening.
The clothes dryer tube under the house was clogged some time back. The repairman cleared the clog, but punctured a hole in it in the process. He claimed this was acceptable. I informed JPM verbally, but would like this notification to be in writing as there could be potential damage due to moisture seeping in under the structure.
Lastly, I would like to point out our rental rate history. Our initial lease rate was $790/mo. In February of 2007 our rate increased to $850/mo on a month-to-month basis. We asked to sign a new lease, but were told by Maria that new leases were not being offered at the time. Now you are proposing a further increase to $920/mo. This would constitute a total rate increase of 16.4% in just over one year. I personally find this highly unreasonable, especially considering the points outlined in this letter.
In closing I would like to sympathize with Devina Baker for inheriting this mess from Melissa and Maria. She has been nothing but prompt, professional and friendly in helping us work through maintenance issues as they arise from time to time. Had we been working with her from the beginning I'm positive we wouldn't be in this situation.
I hope that we can find amicably beneficial solutions to the problems outlined above and agree on a reasonable rental rate for the property.

Sincerely,
Kyle and Rebecca Bake