I have contacted Reitz Rentals several times due to the circumstances my children and I have been forced to live with over the past few months. He ignores the messages we leave, and we are forced to block our number and continue calling him until he answers or we corner him when he comes to collect the rent. Our complaints are not handled in a professional matter and the situations are never remedied.

We started having problems with his other tenants (other side of duplex). After several attemps to resolve this conflict on my own. I notified my landlord, that the 18 year old son and his guests were found on many occassions stalking my back windows, trying to run my children over with their bikes and vehicles, fighting, banging, loud music all hours of the day and night, riding their bikes on my deck, blocking the common enterance to our steps and our basement door with vehicles, bicycles, and gangs of teenage kids, kids bouncing basketballs all hours of the day and night against the walls of my home.

I asked Rick Rietz to please speak with them and tell them to be considerate of my family and to have them stay off my property, which they have no rights or needs to be on. He agreed that they have no business on my side of the duplex. The situation was never resolved and only got worse.

On July 5, 2005 the mother was incarsarated. It was very obvious by the events that start taking place that day and the weeks to follow. Gangs of kids walking, riding bicycles, and driving recklessly up and down the street, teenage kids going in and out all hours of the day and night, loud out of control parties till 4 am nightly, underage drinking and drug use, banging and playing ball on my walls, violent threats to myself, my children and my property, verbal abuse and harassment, almost daily and evening visits by the DuBois Police Department, soda bottles, beer cans, cigarette butts, pizza boxes and other trash articles scattered throughout the property and the street, Kids again blocking my enterances and stalking my homes windows and doors, urine and garbage in my childrens pool, suspicious mechanical problems with my vehicle, and a recently filled propane tank stolen off my gas grill on my back deck.

Their rental property is not only in health violation of city code, due to the unsanitary conditions of rotted food, garbage, magets, bugs and filth, but it has caused my home to be as well. For the past few weeks I have had to live with a gagging odor of rotted garbage, and have been faced with hundreds maybe thousands of dirty disease breeding flies in my home, that I have had to destroy one by one with no help from my landlord.
(My home is kept very clean, and all the doors and windows were closed due to the air conditioning and my crazy disfunctional neighbors.)

When I did happen to catch Rick Reitz and told him about my problem, his response was, 'Everyone has them'. Maybe everyone had a fly or two, I had hundreds swarming my children and me, as several hundred more covered my windows. When I demanded an exterminator, he told me that he already spoke to his, and they were unable to come out for a few weeks. Thats ridiculious, who has to wait 2-3 weeks to get rid of a pest problem, I've called exterminators in the middle of the night, and they came right over!

The neighbor and his friends continue to terrorize and harass my small children and myself. We are afraid of what will happen next. These kids are violent, destructive and completely out of control! We don't have a moments peace, and we are unable to enjoy our life or our home due to these circumstances. I am afraid to leave my home because some of these kids have been convicted of burglery. I leave my tv's and lights on 24 hrs a day which has added tremendously to my increased electric bill.

I have to park my car across town since I am afraid to park my car in my own driveway, due to the threats these neighbors have made on myself, kids and my vehicle. Just the other day this kid went through my yard and tore down my clotheslines. I am forced to sleep on my couch, in my clothes with a baseball bat with chairs barracading my doors. We are forced to live in the dark, due to the fact that we are unable to open our blinds, windows or doors due to the thieving Peeping Toms next door.

I wrote Rick Reitz a letter and have a signed copy explaining the problems and asking to mutual agreement of termination of our lease. He doesn't respond!

This is no way to live, and no way for me to raise my children, I want out of my lease. I have called the police numerous times with complaints, I've called the housing authority, the Dept. of Health, Badlandlord Hotlines, HUD Hotlines, the Attorney Generals office. All I get is a big run around, while this slumlord continues to get rich on his tenants and tax payers dollars!

There is no way I will survive another 10 months here! I am a single Mother, on a limited income. I just received Section 8 (HUD)after being on the waiting list for 2 years while I struggled to make ends meat. When I called my local HUD office to report my problem, I was told that unless my landlord lets me out of my lease, I'm stuck here in this nightmare!

I find it completely ironic, that this same HUD office threw these same tenants who are giving me all these problems out of the DuBois Housing Projects only a few months ago, because of the same behavior. Now they are the ones telling me that I am forced to live next to them!

As for Rick Reitz, he knew they were thrown out of the projects and could care less about the safety of my family. With 27 or more slum units, his only concern is money money money!

As for the property itself, it's a dump! The electical box is from the turn of the century (old fuses), electrical outlets old and outdated 1/2 don't work, exposed electrical wire sticking out of light fixture, kitchen faucet leaks, the painted toilet seat is falling off, the make shift shower is hanging by a shoestring, the basement ceiling leaks and is falling down, light fixture gets wet, mold and mildew, door locks not secure, toliet and shower in basement non working, Living Room windows are non functional, Austin Powers wallpaper, nasty shag carpets, ripped wire mesh screens, cracked broken sidewalks, piles of construction debris piled up by the shed, huge rocks in driveway that cause you to trip, broken steps, loose weak porch steps, slippery painted steps, mice, spiders, ants and flies.

His rental logo is a yellow smiley face with 'For Rent' 371-HOME. I say... 'TURN YOUR SMILE UPSIDE DOWN WITH REITZ RENTALS 371- SLUM'

Vanessa
DuBois, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.