Certainly the gas leak we reported was beyond the owner's control, but the level of resistance and argument we received from the owner was appalling. I texted the owner at 9:41PM saying that there was a strong gas smell downstairs and outside around the house. This is the moment that any reasonable homeowner would immediately call the city to come inspect. Instead, what followed was the owner deflecting, arguing, and trying to talk us out of what we smelled until *finally* at 10:08PM, almost half an hour later, they called the city due ONLY to my refusal to back down. Instead of acting instantly on our behalf and on behalf of her home, the owner tried to tell us it wasn't gas and we must be mistaken. She said:
1.We don't use gas in the house, only electric
2.Correction, we do use gas but only on the first floor
3. The upstairs furnace makes an odor
4. The upstairs furnace is gas but we had a biannual inspection last week.
5. It's just something pressing on the water heater
6.There is typically a smell in the laundry room but it's not gas. It's the pilot light but it's ok because it's vented to outside.
7. The downstairs can smell because of the original wood flooring.
8. Maybe it's raccoons
9. Maybe it's cats
10. We have had renters all winter and ourselves and never had a gas odor yet.
I had to argue for a half hour with this woman to just keep my family (and her house!) safe. I hate to think about what would happen if it was someone with less experience in owning a home, or who would have been convinced that the smell was ok and normal by this woman. There was a MAJOR gas leak and the city immediately sent out a crew to replace their gas meter which went into the early morning. Even as the crew was replacing the unit, she asked for photos, and kept texting me asking about the nature of the repair (was it our meter, not the neighbors? Is it broken on our side or the city's? Did the breakage occur from forcing or natural corrosion? - all questions for the repair crew, not your renters!) I had to ask her to contact the crew because how would I know those things? She finally contacted the crew and they filled her in. She then proceeded to circle things in the photos and send them back to me asking, is this a cigarette butt? and what's this metal tag? She said she would compensate us for "all of this". I could have lost my family due to no carbon monoxide alarms and her refusal to act on our behalf. WE COULD HAVE DIED!!!