I wanted out of my roach-infested KC apartment. What I learned about renters’ options

I decided to move out of my apartment the day I woke up and found a nickel-sized cockroach crawling next to my toothbrush.

For almost eight months, I had been living in the newly renovated, 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom unit near Linwood Avenue and Main Street in midtown. I had known about the cockroaches since my second week there, first spotting a little critter in the bathroom, then one in the bedroom big enough to pay rent. I tried working on the problem with the property management company, OneCity KC but nothing seemed to work.

This latest unwanted visitor being the last straw, I decided it was time to break my lease with four months left. But I soon learned it is not easy — or simple. For me, it was just the start of a long, sometimes difficult process in which I had to navigate the clauses in my lease, negotiate with the landlord and learn about everything from city ordinances, rental assistance programs and state law.

Along the way, I sought help and advice from housing advocates and city inspectors before finally making a decision about how much I was willing to pay to get out and move into an apartment where I could be more comfortable.

As The Star has reported, renters across the Kansas City area are experiencing their own housing troubles. Some went days without heat, others without water. Tenants in an apartment complex east of Arrowhead Stadium were dealing with roaches, mold, sewage and major leaks and are now suing their landlord.

To help others who may consider breaking a lease on a rental home, I am sharing my personal experience along with additional research and reporting on what to expect and how to get help. All reporting was conducted after my own situation was fully resolved, so what I learned as a journalist did not change how things worked out for me.

To break or not to break a lease

A lease is a type of contract, and it typically includes the tenant’s agreement to pay rent for a given period of time.

According to Ann O’Connell, an attorney and writer at NOLO, an online legal encyclopedia specializing in landlord-tenant and real estate law, a tenant in Missouri can break a rental agreement under a few circumstances:

• If a person is starting active military duty

• If the rental unit is unsafe or violates Missouri health or safety codes

• If the landlord is harassing the tenant or violating the tenant’s privacy rights

Even if a tenant meets one of those criteria, they may need to go through court to officially assert that right.

“Research has shown me that Missouri is really pretty tough on tenants when it comes to getting out of a lease,” O’Connell said.

In my case, it would cost me.

Breaking a lease often comes with consequences such as a penalty fee owed by the tenant or a requirement to find a new, qualified tenant.

Those terms are typically spelled out by the landlord in the lease agreement.

My lease with OneCity KC would require me to pay $2,000 in fees plus my security deposit to break it. OneCity KC is a property management company that manages properties across the metro, including downtown, midtown, the River Market and Shawnee.

It was a hefty price tag to move out. I thought I could negotiate further to get them to reduce the fee even more, considering the pest problem in the apartment.

After some negotiation, they agreed to reduce the fee to around $1,000.

Stressed by pests

Roaches can pose a health risk, and like any pest, it’s important to get them under control.

The first maintenance man who came by my apartment insisted that the bugs in my unit were harmless “waterbugs.” I learned by comparing my photos to Google search results that they were actually oriental cockroaches.

Oriental cockroaches can trigger allergies, carry pathogens like E. Coli and in some cases they bite, according to Orkin, a national pest control company.

I insisted that the management company spray my unit at least once a month.

Management claimed that it sprayed the apartment building monthly but only sprayed individual units as needed. My neighbors informed me that this had not been happening routinely since OneCity KC took over the property in 2021.

I only received one notification of a routine spray in my time living there. Otherwise, it was my maintenance requests that prompted them to come through a few more times, some with follow up visits.

In an email, OneCity KC said they sent out a pest expert to my unit seven times in total and claimed that they didn’t find any evidence of pests during any of the visits.

“All our pest control and extermination are completed by a third-party professional pest control company hired to inspect and do a preventive service quarterly. In your case we hired them out 5 additional times, in each case they stated they could not find an issue which was noted by them,” a OneCity KC spokesperson said in an email.

In my time living there, OneCity KC had provided me with roach traps when I told them about the bugs, and I had emailed management photos of the roaches I caught in those traps.

The right to a ‘warrant of habitability’

After deciding that I wanted to find a new apartment, I reached out for help.

When I reached out to KC Tenants, a local renters rights group, I received an automated text message with links to the city’s Tenants’ Right to Counsel program, The Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom, Legal Aid of Western Missouri and the Self-Help Law Clinic.

Someone from the organization also followed up with a phone call, and I got to chat through my options, which included signing up for the KC Tenants Union or getting help organizing the tenants in my own building. I chose not to organize with my neighbors, but tenants across Kansas City have found success by banding together to get their landlord to make changes.

The Heartland Center directed me to their Tenant Problem Solver portal, which is an online resource to help tenants sort through problems with landlords.

The problem solver was my first line of defense. After I provided some basic information about myself, like my name, address and contact information, the Tenant Problem Solver asked what type of problem I was having with my landlord and then directed me to a PDF on the “Warrant of Habitability.”

The warrant of habitability is implied in all rental agreements in Missouri and Kansas, even if it isn’t spelled out in writing. It means state law protects renters from any hazards that could contribute to illness or impact a renter’s ability to live safely in the unit.

It’s the premise that a group of Kansas City tenants are suing their landlord over.

“Missouri does recognize the implied warranty of habitability,” O’Connell told me. “What that means is that in a lease or rental agreement, even if it doesn’t state that the landlord has the responsibility to provide a pest-free, say, rental, it’s still implied in the contract that they have to do it.”

“Pests, like bed bugs, for instance, or rodents, things like that. Those are violations of the warranty of habitability,” she said.

Tenants who believe their unit is not habitable should talk to their landlord about what options there are to remedy the situation.

If that fails, those tenants can reach out to a lawyer or to the city’s inspection program, Healthy Homes.

I decided to try having a city inspection, hoping that would convince my landlord to let me out of my lease for free.

When to consider a city inspection

When the city inspector came to my apartment, she started taking pictures before she even got inside.

“Oh yeah this doesn’t look right,” my inspector said.

The cobwebs forming around the entrance’s light fixture were a signal to how well-kept the building was, she said.

Once inside, I pointed her to the cockroach traps in my kitchen. I explained that my management company was working with me to spray the apartment, but the roaches seemed to be getting worse.

After seeing the traps, the inspector confirmed that the roaches were a health hazard. She also asked a few questions including whether any new tenants had moved in and if there were any other kinds of pests in the apartment.

The whole inspection lasted about 15 minutes.

The Healthy Homes Rental Inspection Program was established by city ordinance in 2018 and is housed in the health department.

It sets minimum standards for rental properties, ensuring that renters have basic utilities and facilities, proper ventilation and heating, safety from fire and good sanitary maintenance. Healthy Homes can send an inspector to your home to check for any violations and can let your landlord know what repairs need to be made.

“The program is a complaint-based program,” said Naser Jouhari, the deputy director of the Kansas City Health Department. “So we have to receive a complaint from a tenant or a landlord on a property for us to investigate and inspect. We want to make sure that everyone is in a healthy and safe, livable space.”

In cases where the safety problem is life-threatening, Healthy Homes can help to relocate a tenant.

In those cases, the program can require the landlord to relocate the tenant to another location, either another apartment or a hotel, until the violation is fixed. If the landlord does not comply, the tenant will need to be relocated at cost of the landlord. The landlord will also not be able to rent the property without any corrective action.

In cases that are hazardous but not life-threatening, the program will work as a mediator of sorts between landlords and tenants.

Deciding to negotiate

In my case, the city inspector said she could request that my landlord spray the apartment again.

If I chose to escalate my case with Healthy Homes, my inspector would have sent a note to my property manager requesting them to spray the unit and include pictures of the roach traps.

The property manager would have five days to spray the unit up to three to five times.

Even though that could be helpful, I was afraid the landlord would retaliate against me — possibly by reconsidering their choice to reduce my lease-breaking fee.

The inspector suggested that I reach out to a tenant advocate provided by the city.

The city technically prohibits landlords from retaliating against tenants for making a complaint, participating in a tenants’ association or bargaining collectively.

In the end, I chose not to pursue that option, and the inspector didn’t contact my landlord.

If someone is dealing with a severe housing problem and cannot get their landlord to cooperate, seeking out a lawyer might be something to consider.

When to get legal help

Organizations like the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom and Legal Aid of Western Missouri can provide legal assistance to people who are having problems with their apartment or would like to break their lease.

For example, while living at Citadel Apartments, near 61st Street and The Paseo, Kansas City resident Khatib Williams was dealing with a bad cockroach infestation before he sought out legal help from The Heartland Center.

Williams won a settlement on the basis that the infestation violated his warrant of habitability.

“He was able to go to trial and win,” said Gina Chiala, executive director of the Heartland Center and the attorney who also assisted Williams on his case.

“He was able to assert that defense and win his case and actually walk away with damages.”

The Heartland Center is working on developing a new program called Safe Homes for All to help tenants proactively negotiate corrective action plans with landlords when there are health violations, instead of letting cases escalate to evictions.

The program is currently helping tenants at Stonegate Meadows Apartments, who have dealt with a range of issues including roaches, mold and leaks and are now suing their landlord over the apartment’s habitability.