Henrico woman battles landlord after SUV slams into her apartment unit
HENRICO, VA (WWBT) - A Henrico family, whose home was plowed into over the weekend by a suspected reckless driver, is now speaking out.
Dominique McNeil, her fiancé and two children are living out of a hotel due to repairs being made to their West End apartment. Even worse, the family claims if they want to move into another unit at their current complex, their rent will increase by nearly 40 percent.
"We hear a loud crash. Then we hear another loud boom," McNeil said, describing what happened when a car slammed into the home as two children sat on the couch with their parents.
Two days later, her unit at the Legacy at Mayland Apartments is all boarded up. She asked her landlord to move into another unit with the same number of bedrooms.
"They said it's going to go up to $1244," McNeil said.
A monthly increase of more than $300.
"A lease between a landlord and a tenant is for a particular period of time, and it's for these premises and only these premises," said Marty Wegbreit with the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society.
He says while this may sound unfair to the tenant, it's legal.
"The landlord has no obligation under Virginia law to provide any alternate housing. It would be nice if the landlord would undertake that obligation, but there is no such obligation under Virginia law," he added.
So if this happened to you, what are your options? Wegbreit says If repairs are able to be made to the unit, a tenant can stay and continue paying the amount in their lease. If repairs can't be made...
"Either the landlord or the tenant can end that lease by giving the other party 14 days written notice," Wegbreit said.
In this case, McNeil says repairs are underway, but she's worried.
"No one really know when these repairs are going to be done," she said.
NBC12 went to visit the leasing office and was referred to a corporate office in Colorado. That office has not yet responded.
"Do the right thing. I could see if I damaged the house personally, but I didn't," McNeil said.
She says her landlord offered to let her out of her lease, but she says the landlord would keep her security deposit.
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