No Toilet, No Rent: Sacramento Family Not Paying While Bathroom Is A Gaping Hole In The Floor
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — It's no home-sweet-home for an Arden family of nine who doesn't have a working toilet or shower, among other issues.
Gene Paiz's family has lived in the home for nine years, and he says they've never missed a rent payment. But now he refuses to pay up, until he says his landlord fixes up his home.
A leaky pipe is just the start.
"This is the toilet apparently on the front porch," he said.
Paiz took CBS13 on an eye-opening tour of his home. He warned us the bathroom was a mess, but seeing it in person was a bit of a shock.
No toilet.
No shower.
No floor.
He says his landlord sent maintenance over to fix pipes that kept backing up, but clearly the job hasn't been done.
In the meantime, the six children and three adults who live in the home can't shower or use the only bathroom in the house.
It comes at a difficult time for Paiz. His mom lived in the home for nine years. He moved in two years ago to take care of her, after she was diagnosed with brain cancer.
In her final days, Paiz says she had to bathe in a shower that kept backing up. She passed away on Nov. 10.
"She'd have to sit down and put her feet in dirty water, and he just didn't care. They still don't care," he said.
Paiz claims his landlord is now threatening to evict him after he withheld rent until the toilet and shower are fixed.
And that leaky pipe? On the other side of the wall, Paiz says there is mold in a bedroom, and he won't let his kids sleep in there anymore.
"You can see the whole wall's swollen, it smells like mold," he said.
CBS13 wanted both sides of the story, so we tried contacting his landlord and his landlord's father. Neither picked up.
Paiz says he just wants the problems fixed.
"My nieces grew up in this house and for them to threaten to kick us out and not give us what's right is just wrong," he said.
Paiz says there was some work done on Friday, but it's not clear when the job will be done. In the meantime, he says his landlord is paying for a room at a Motel 6 where they can shower and use the bathroom. But it only has one bed, so the family of nine can't stay there full time.