I don’t get it… is this a joke? Has she rented before? This stuff sounds pretty much standard. Some of it should have been resolved before she moved in (like whether there’s grass in the yard or whether the lease allows cats). Some of it is just maintenance issues that the landlord really has no choice about fixing (like leaky plumbing and no smoke alarms) — a letter from a lawyer or maybe even a chat with the housing inspector should resolve that if the landlord is refusing to move on it. The rest of it is pretty much just how most people live. Paint on the porch? Missing chandelier crystals? Door doesn’t close right? Sorry, that doesn’t make it uninhabitable. The crew who painted my current place before I moved in seem to have just set off a paint-filled bomb in the middle of the house. They painted the stone fireplace, they painted the lightbulbs in the light fixtures, they even painted over dishes the last tenants left in cupboards. Eh. It’s not my investment they’re devaluing. The rent’s right and I like the neighborhood, so I stay.
As a life-longer renter, I’ve seen lived in a lot of rental units, and while some are nicer than others, they all have the kind of cosmetic issues you list (and no, none of them have been section 8 or public housing of any kind). Unless you’re paying $3000/mo in rent or something, that’s just life. (I’m told owner-occupied homes aren’t always perfect either, but having been priced out forever, I wouldn’t know first-hand.)
Of course, that said, she’s got a month-to-month lease, so if it bugs her every time she comes home, she should just move. As a tenant, you need to remember that you’re the customer. If you don’t like how your landlord handles things, take your business elsewhere. And she should also remember to take a couple of those crystals with her when she leaves…
