WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A woman called Contact 5 after she received the keys for her new apartment and allegedly found roaches, filth, mold and cracks in the ceiling. She is trying to get out of her lease and get her $2,300 deposit back.
"This is where I thought I was gonna be temporarily for the next two years," Adela Mateo told Contact 5.
Mateo thought she had found her new home.
"This is why people go through a lot of stress," Mateo said.
When she opened the door for the first time, Mateo said she was greeted by a swarm of cockroaches, filth, cracks in the ceiling and molded baseboards.
She gave Contact 5 videos that she shot on March 1 when she got the keys.
"I'm a mother. My son has allergies. He has a skin condition," Mateo said.
Mateo said that's the main reason why she called her landlord that same day wanting out of the lease and wanting her $2,300 deposit back.
"She says, 'I'm not giving your money back,'" Mateo said. "How is this making sense to her that this is OK?"
Mateo then sent her landlord a letter on March 2. She cited Florida's landlord-tenant law, which requires landlords to exterminate bug infestations and provide clean, safe common areas.
In her letter, Mateo calls the problem an "extreme roach/vermon issue, including areas in the walls, baseboards, all cupboards, inside the refrigerator and in the stove."
Contact 5 spoke with Michael Schiff, a Delray Beach consumer protection attorney, about the case.
He is not affiliated with the case but gave some perspective.
"If the landlord materially fails to comply with his responsibilities, within seven days after delivery of a written notice from the tenant identifying the problem and indicating her intention to leave and terminate the lease, then the tenant may break the lease," Schiff said.
When Contact 5 spoke with Mateo's landlord over the phone Monday, she claimed the apartment has now been exterminated, refused to comment on Mateo's deposit and then hung up.
That same day, Contact 5 also sent her a follow up email but has not heard back.
While the law does not require Mateo's landlord to pay back the deposit, Schiff thinks she may have a case.
"I feel she's entitled to the whole thing because she never took occupancy and this was a problem, I suspect, the landlord knows about it," Schiff said. "It shouldn't have to go to court but, unfortunately, because of today, it probably will."
Mateo told Contact 5 she is hoping it doesn't come to that. So for now, she is staying with family because money is tight.
"This is just not OK," Mateo said. "I'm a single mom. I wonder how people are doing it right now. Some people are homeless. This is (how) people become homeless and sleep in their car because money was taken."
