What they’re saying:
TEXAS CITY, Texas – A Texas City woman says her rental home was infested with rats and an over-6-foot snake.
Surveillance video from Joanne Lorenzana shows what she says was a ‘giant snake’ and several rats.
Lorenzana says she moved into the rental home in June, with no air conditioning.Â
“They blamed it on the rats that they couldn’t fix the AC because they couldn’t fix an AC with rats in the attic,” Lorenzana said. “We had two months living there with no AC. And so they’re like, because of all these inconveniences, you guys can leave.”
“Then we started looking for a house to rent to move into quickly, and once we actually were able to find one, they were like ‘Oh, no, you had to give us a notice on the first or the last day of the month and it has to be 30 days notice of order for it to count and not penalize us.’ So then we had to pay them a whole extra month just so they would not penalize us.”
What you can do:
Lorenzana says she wants to leave the rental home in the past, but urges others to use the house as a learning experience.
“We were all kind of, you know, freaking out a little bit because nobody wants rats in there,” Lorenzana said.
Fox 26 spoke with Attorney Chris Tritico about what tenants who are planning to move into a rental property can do to prevent incident like Lorenzana’s.
“Before you sign a lease, inspect that home, walk through it, go up in the attic,” Tritico said. “Check these things out before you before you sign. If you’re not sure if the AC working, turn it on. Sit in the home for a couple hours and make sure that it’s cooling. If it’s winter time, turn the heater on. Make sure it’s heating. Make sure these things work before you sign the lease so that you know what you’re getting into. And if it’s not working, don’t sign the lease.”
The Source: Attorney Chris Tritico, and Joanne Lorenzana.