The house I rent is going to hell, and the landlord is M.I.A. What to do?

• Landlord Fiasco Filter: landlord dug up entire yard to replace pipe, then disappeared for two months, leaving the entire yard a giant pile of dirt which has now turned to mud. And it's getting worse. He is unreachable. What to do? So much special snowflake after the jump. YANAL/YANML: Long, long story, see the end for a tl;dr. And thank you all in advance. This is in Portland, Oregon. The Background My SO, myself and one other person rent a house. There was another housemate living in the basement apartment until last June, when, due to poor initial construction, the water drain pipe, which was simply emptying the rain water from the gutters straight into the ground, caused water to flood the basement apartment, destroying the carpet and a portion of the wall. As there was already a mold problem in the basement that the landlord refused to do anything about, the housemate in the basement simply moved out. After the basement renter moved out, the landlord started working on fixing it. He hired some workers to come to the house and dig up most of the yard, removing pieces of foundation in the process and leaving mounds and mounds of dirt all over the front yard, the driveway and the backyard. The drain was replaced and then the landlord and his hired help all disappeared. The basement was never fixed to rent out again, and has since been unoccupied. All the tools, stacks of cement blocks, garbage, etc. have all been left laying around the yard and the driveway. This was two months ago, and because this is Portland, the rain has turned all of the large dirt mounds he left into mud slides. His truck full of trash has also been sitting in front of our house for this entire period of time (~2 months). Over the weekend, to make matters worse, because installing the pipe had required him to dig out around the fence that surrounds our backyard, and because of the rain and wind, the fence gave way, fell over, and is now leaning against the side of our house. It should be noted that this unfinished project is only one of the many things that really need to be fixed - the steps out the back door are so rotten and dilapidated that it's only a matter of time before they collapse under someone. These things I've been cool with letting slide. But the situation outside is getting pretty crazy. Our landlord is, for all intents and purposes, unreachable. Despite many calls to him and messages left by all housemates, no calls have been returned. It should also be mentioned that shortly after we moved into the house, we realized that the landlord was not really financially solvent, and that he was in any number of mortgage assistance programs, was receiving many letters a day from collection and state agencies, etc. Several times we have had foreclosure notices on the door, only to later be told that 'something had been worked out.' The most recent foreclosure notice said the house was going up for public auction at the end of January. We're all assuming that, as in the past, 'something will be worked out' and the landlord will keep the house. But who knows? (It's also incredibly strange that the landlord, who is having mortgage problems, has left a basement apartment unfixed and un-rented for now nearly half a year). Last month when we paid our rent, which we deposit into his bank account at the bank, apparently (my housemate made the drop) a manager had to be called as there were issues with his account and the teller didn't know if she could even accept the checks. I'm assuming his assets are frozen or his income is being garnished by the state or something of that sort. We signed a lease when we first moved in, which expired in July. When the landlord was at the house installing a new pipe, we asked repeatedly to sign a new lease, which he said was happy to do, but we never heard from him again regarding the lease. So I guess we are now, by default, on a month-to-month lease. Why not just walk away? Well, we like the house, the neighborhood, and we like our housemate. Moving is a pain, and we don't really want to. We just want things fixed, and for our landlord to respond in a timely manner to our concerns. We pay rent, after all. Questions: 1) What is the next step here? Since he isn't responding to any of us, I'm tempted to simply leave him a message saying that I will be withholding rent until he contacts us and establishes a plan for making the house habitable and taking care of the necessary repairs. 2) Our other option would be to simply do the repairs ourselves and bill our landlord, perhaps in the form of rent-reduction, acceptable under Oregon Tenant Rights: If a landlord refuses to provide certain kinds of services, and if you did not cause the problem, you may correct the problem if you first give written notice to the landlord. In the written notice, be sure to define the problem and give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to make the repairs. In some circumstances, you may then deduct the cost of the repairs from your rent, after submitting the receipts to the landlord. The law limits the time you have to wait, the kinds of problems you are allowed to fix, and the amount of money you are allowed to spend. I know landlords are often difficult to deal with, and I'm pretty easy going generally about repairs getting done, etc. But it's been two months without a word and without so much as a sign of intention to do anything. Advice? Thank you so much everyone. Anon because I have Portland friends on MetaFilter. I will be actively watching this thread and will follow-up with Jessamyn if there are questions. tl;dr Landlord abandoned construction on house halfway through and has become unreachable. Do I continue to pay my rent? Thanks again!

• Answer:

  so you know this landlord is in deep trouble. and you know the house is somewhere in a foreclosure process. you also know it has been put up for auction. also his account has been frozen at least once. you really must like this house a lot because you are pinning an awful lot of hope on some sheriff not suddenly standing on your doorstep with an eviction notice. just because you pay rent doesn't mean that can't happen to you if the house actually gets foreclosed upon. consider your deposit already lost and plan accordingly when it comes to your last months' rent. I would seriously consider taking all these red flags into account and starting to look at other places. other landlords have cute houses, too. write your landlord a letter if you like in which you indicate that you are concerned about the above and that at this point he needs to prove to you that the house is not in danger of being foreclosed upon. I am sure you can check on that with the city as well (someone else may know more about that). just don't sit still and bet everything will work out without you dealing with this situation. that would be asking for trouble.