Winsted housing dispute settled

August 2, 2017 – Republican American

Lawsuit against landlords has been withdrawn

WINSTED – A local housing dispute has been settled.

Elizabeth Morin talks about a water leak inside her rented home at 832 Main St. in Winsted in June. She and her family have settled a dispute with the landlords. Republican-American Archive

Elizabeth Morin and her fiancé, Wilfredo Nelson, agreed Tuesday to withdraw their lawsuit against their landlords, Cheryll L. Leppert and her husband, Bruce Aldrich, after reaching an agreement with a mediator. Morin and Nelson had filed their complaint last month at Bantam Superior Court in Litchfield, claiming the landlords had failed to adequately maintain their home at 832 Main St.

At Tuesday’s hearing with mediation specialist Elizabeth Casey, the landlords agreed to pay back $600 of the $1,800 security deposit, plus $390 for garbage pickup and miscellaneous invoices for repairs paid by the tenants. Aldrich said he and Leppert did not know the state requires property owners to dispose of the garbage when a municipality does not provide streetside pickup.

Aldrich also said he and Leppert agreed not to charge the Nelsons rent for the first five days of August. Morin said her family is moving out on Saturday to another house on Finn Street.
The court is reimbursing the Nelsons $900 for their July rent. They paid the court because they wanted the state to enforce the landlords’ responsibilities. Morin, who recently was nominated by the Republican Party to run for the Board of Selectmen this fall, listed nine reasons for her complaint:

1. No functioning kitchen since June 2.
2. Collapsed dining room ceiling, exposure to mold and leaking water.
3. Broken interior main staircase and attic staircase.
4. Rotting wood (flooring, sub floors, support beams) throughout structure.
5. Upstairs bathroom pipes leaking into dining room below.
6. Not structurally sound front sidewalk, perimeter wall at front yard, foundation.
7. Failure to remove garbage from premises and yard.
8. After suggesting they move because they were unsatisfied with the landlords’ action, instead of sending appropriate paperwork to terminate the lease, the landlords emailed an eviction notice.
9. The landlords attempted to file criminal charges, claiming the tenants had damaged the home as opposed to their own negligence.

Police officer Scott Twombly found no cause for a criminal complaint and refused to sign off for a warrant on the landlords’ behalf. Police Chief William T. Fitzgerald confirmed this, saying the office found no criminal intent and considered the issue to be a civil matter. Leppert said the kitchen was in “perfect condition before (the Nelsons) moved in (in October) and they trashed it.”

Morin said there was a “rotting” smell and water leaking in the kitchen. She said she found black mold when she lifted one of the loose floor tiles. Morin said she and her fiancé tried to get rid of the mold, but they kept finding more of it and eventually had to seal the kitchen with tarp and industrial tape because everyone in the family was getting sick. They had to move the refrigerator into the dining room and could only cook with a microwave. She washed dirty plates, pots and pans in the upstairs bath tub.

Leppert said the regional sanitarian and town inspectors were unable to detect the source of the smell, but found no mold issues. “She did not give us a chance to fix (the smell) before she ripped everything up,” Leppert said. Leppert said the Nelsons removed the cabinets and counter tops, and broke every light cover in the ceiling, as well as all the faucets but one, and then reported the damage to the town as housing code violations. “She wanted a new kitchen and that’s how she felt she was going to get it,” Leppert said. “She wanted a new bathroom and light fixtures, and that’s how she felt she was going to get it. She had no right to destroy my property.”

Morin said she made repeated requests for repairs where the landlords either did not respond or failed to complete work. She said it was Aldrich who took the counter tops off and left them outside in the rain for five days. As for the work she and her fiance did, she said, “We never did anything until we were given the absolute OK.” Morin said once they started work, the landlords, who live in Virginia, stopped communicating with them.

Leppert said out of the nine months the Nelson family lived there, Morin paid the rent on time just twice. She said she tried to work with them about their payments, and when Morin asked if she could break the lease, she “flipped out” when Leppert sent her a notice to vacate and called the town about violations. “It was complete retaliation,” Leppert said.

Morin said she was never behind on rent, except one time when Leppert mistakenly told her she owed for May when she actually owed for April.