rental house story, in progress no touchey touchey

SAN ANGELO, TX – Two sisters, six children and the house falling down around them. Doesn't sound like a very good sitcom, does it? In fact for one San Angelo family it is their waking nightmare. Heather Allen and Lashae Dominguez battle for their home, their children's well being and they are just like you and me.

Lashae Dominguez was moving to San Angelo from Monahans, Tx.  After some looking she found a rent house that could comfortably home her kids. Aug. 1, she discussed with the landlord who put the property up for rent, moving into the historic home on Preusser.  The home was built in 1903, and looking around when you are there it's hard to think that much has changed in the home since then. 

Most of the electrical doesn't work, and to get the few lights that work to function is an excersice beyond a monk's comprehension.  In one of the bathrooms there is a single wall light that "works." The light switch doesn't turn it off so you have to turn the lightbulb just right to get it to turn on.

Parts of the ceiling are falling down due to poor maintenance of the roof and rest of the building, at one time part of the cieling fell on a child while she was showering.  Most of the drains are so slow, if they drain at all, both bathrooms by common standard would be considered completely unusable. There is not a single smoke detector either - which is a requirement for rental residential homes. There are broken windows throughout the house, boarded up entry/exists, and worst the gas company cannot turn on the gas because the lines have leaks, so no heat for the entire family either. However the ladlord's response is to send her brother weeks later to partially or ineffectively "repair," to use the term broadly.

Originally Lashae was moving into the home with her children.  She and homeowner, Martha Alvarado, discussed the terms of rental for the property.  They discussed Lashae performing duties normal in preparing a rental property for new tenants such as painting the walls, working on the floor and other simple tasks that someone who is not certified or skilled in home renovation could complete in exchange for the deposit value asked for by Alvarado of $450.00.  Lashae worked on painting the walls, until Alvarado came and took the paint and ladder so the work could not even be copleted.  Lashae also tried to work on the flooring, but two issues faced her. One was the giant hole in the living room to the dining room area that she was not capable of being fixed by her.  She also hit a roadblock when she got o the downstairs hallway when she realized te floor was mushy.  Once she pulled up a small part of the flooring below was a bed of termites.  Lashae reached out to Alvarado who, like so many times in dealing with te unsuitable living conditions of the home said she would send her brother - who wouldn't arrive until weeks later.

A host of issues with the home faced Lashae.  Probably THE most devastating of all was when she called on the gas company to turn on service, because all the heat in the home is gas.  After the technician arrived to test the lines, turn on gas service and assist in lighting the pilot lights, she was told that gas service to the home could not be turned on because of the multiple leaks in the home.  Alvarado's reply was that she would not fix it.  Leaving a household without heat.  The pair Lashae and Heather reached out to the community through a Facebook post looking for electric heaters, despite the prohibitive cost of warming a two story home with small electric heaters meant to sit under a desk in an office.Still Alvarado, the homeower refuses to repair the gas lines in the home and the family of two adult single mothers and six or more children, depending on the addition of nieces, nephews and grandchildren who also frequently spend time in the home, must bunker together during cold nights wit te three small electric heaters they were blessed with from members of the community.

Despite their initial conversations, Alvardado went back on her word and rented out an additional building on the property - again that is not fit to be lived in by legal standards.  Although the utilities for the building are tied into the utilities of the home that Lashae and her family lived in, Alvarado has attempted to make Lashae cover the utility bill in total - including the use by renters who Alvarado should  have never rented to.  To clear out the building for new renters to move in, Alvarado instructed the additional tenants to move everything to the alleyway - where it stayed. Until Lashae received a code compliance warning.  Alvarado then told Lashae that she was responsible for taking care of the debris.  Lashae paid someone $180 to clear the debris and dump it.  There are still various detris, such as  an air conditioning unit, or banister parts on top of the storm shelter at the home that the landlord has left strewn over the partitioned yard that Lashae has limited access to but is responsible for the upkeep of.

Lashae and Heather reached out to media outlets, being told they needed to a laundry list of items and then call them back, because, frankly the story is messy, hard and in the end a he said - she said tale.  How do you package two hours worth of harrowing battles in less than a four month timeframe that is unpleasant to hear and detail? Who wants to deal with the fallout of a cluster of Facebook chitter chatter that will likely end up in the wake of their story being published? 

All in all, Alvarado, has a history past and current of being what many would term as a "slumlord," a.k.a. a landlord of slum property, especially one who profiteers, with no regard to her investment properties, tenants, safety or the law.  The totality of her bizarre behavior in regards to this family and home is too long to narrate and hope readers will read, but the above is the tip of te ice burg.

According to the Tom Green County appraisal district this is one of at least six homes under her name, many of which she rents.  Another one of her properties is being investigated by the fire marshal.

When we reached out to Martha Alvarado, after several attempts, she tried to argue that it was ok there were no smoke detectors in the home because of previous tenants, but when told that does not have anything to do with current tenants, she decided she did not want to comment and fired off a hand written letter to Lashae and Heather attempting to evict them instead.

Lashae and Heather are like so many San Angeloans living check to check trying desperately to do the best they can amid cancer battles and more challanges than most people face in a lifetime while raising their children by birth and adoption.  Martha is not the first, last or only slum lords taking advantage of a market that was down several years ago, investing in property and then renting tem out in unscrupulous methods attempting to take advantage of the lower class in San Angelo.