February 16, 2002

Dear Mr. Perrone, (Director of Codes Enforcement for the Borough of West Chester)

We the current residents of [house number omitted] South Walnut Street are writing to inform you that seven of us reside at this address. They are the following women: (There are seven names with social security numbers, plus a note that says four are listed on the lease and three are not.) In addition to the women listed above, [name omitted] (SS# unknown) resided at [the house] until mid-December of 2001.

After speaking with you we are fully aware of the borough codes being violated and would like to fully cooperate with your department. On our behalf we would like to inform you that our landlord, [name omitted] has known since the day we signed our lease that eight women (college students) would be residing in his residence. Below are accounts of the many times [the landlord] has made it apparent that he knows how many women live at [house number] S. Walnut Street.

The day we signed the lease

On this day, the four women who would be signing the lease met [the landlord] in front of Papa John's restaurant. We went over the lease in complete detail. [The landlord] had us sign a piece of paper stating that we would have no more than the four women who signed the lease residing at [house number]. Then, [the landlord] proceeded to say that it was simply for legal reasons and that he understood there would be more than four of us. He realized that four college students could not afford the $2500 a month rent, plus utilities that he was asking. We believe we even told him that there would be eight women. He said that was fine, but didn't want to know any more about the girls not listed on the lease.

House parties

The first time [the landlord] came over was after speaking with [one of the tenants] on the telephone. He was invited to stop by one day and meet everyone. He arrived approximately around 7:30p.m. He spent the rest of the evening with the eight women listed above and two of his friends playing drinking games in the basement.

On another occasion, [the landlord] came over with a case of beer to pick up the rent check. He stated that it was a lot better way for him to receive his check. For two consecutive months, [the landlord] would come to [house number] and pick up his rent check, while bringing his residents a case of beer.

A third occasion that explicitly shows [the landlord's] knowledge of the amount of women living at his residence is the occasion when he spent the night. He was having an intimate relationship with [one of the women], and spent the night in her room with her. As shown above, [this tenant] was not one of the women who signed his lease.

Once the house began falling apart (as can be shown in Borough records after our inspection) [the landlord] changed a lot. This may be due to the fact that we called him repeatedly trying to get things fixed, (ex. The upstairs bathroom shower that was not functional for over a month) or due to the fact that [the tenant] stopped seeing him. Whatever the cause, he would not get any of the things that were broken in our house fixed. He began to use the fact that we had more women than allowed living at [house number] as leverage. In fact on one occasion all of our parents called [the landlord] to ask that he please fix the house up because they did not feel safe with their daughters living there. At this point, there was no fire alarm system at all. (The system currently installed was not installed until the day before our first Borough inspection.) After the phone calls from our parents [the landlord] became irate. He demanded that we allow him to come over to the residence immediately with his friend to look at all of the problems we had been complaining about for a month. He was screaming on the phone with [two of the tenants]. He also told off [the father of one of the tenants] when he attempted to speak with him about the problems. Due to their fear of [the landlord] in his current mind-set [the parents of one of the tenants] arrived at [house number] that evening in order to be there with the girls when [the landlord] arrived. [The landlord] also spoke with them that evening. Enclosed is a general running record of the events that occurred that night. It was suggested to the girls that they keep this record due to the volatility of the situation. In the record highlighted are the important parts that will show how [the landlord] knew eight women resided in the house.

The night before the first Borough visit

[The landlord] called us a week prior to the Borough coming to inspect to give us a heads up. He said that the Borough might show up at any time and we had to make sure that it looked like only four women lived in the house. We moved some furniture to a storage room on the second floor. The two front rooms in the house still contained dressers, televisions, and little else. The back bedroom on the third floor was moved around so that the two twin beds were pushed together. A large comforter was thrown over both beds to make it look as though it was just one big bed.

We confirmed a time and day with the Borough and informed [the landlord] when the inspection would take place. He arrived the night before to make sure that we had moved the house around and it looked how he wanted it to look. (As though only 4 girls lived here.) All of us said that the house was as good as it was going to get and sat around and did not lift a finger. In fact, we all were in our own rooms doing homework, watching television, etc. [The landlord] came and let [one of the tenants] know about an hour later that he had moved some "stuff" to the garage and put everything else in the closet of the storage room on the second floor to ensure that the Borough did not grow suspicious of the amount of women residing here. Some of the things that were moved to the garage were bed frames, mattresses, and box springs. He suggested that he could even move them to his house for the week, but no one wanted him to do that because we were uncertain about when we would get them back. He even went as far as to move half of the living room furniture into the two front rooms to make it look as though they were also living areas. He promised to return after the inspection and return the house to the way it looked before he came over. Of course, he did not return to help us move anything that he had removed from the house.

Second Borough inspection

We received a phone call from [the landlord] about a week before the Borough's second inspection stating that he would be out of town for a month. Then a few days before the Borough came [the landlord] called and said that he wanted to come over in 45 minutes to take a look at some things that were wrong with the house. We disagreed, letting him know that a weekend night was not an appropriate time for him to stop by without 24 hours notice, especially since he had an entire month to fix the things that were found wrong with the house during the first Borough inspection. He had not even attempted during that time period to contact us about doing repairs. We were also confused since we thought he was out of town.

[The landlord] would not take no for an answer and called back. He informed us that if we didn't let him in when he arrived he would be calling the Borough and telling them that nothing could get fixed because we wouldn't let him in the house to make repairs. Of course, this is untrue since that was the first time he even attempted to make any repairs. He would also let them know that more than four girls were living here. We called him back and told him that it would be all right for him to come over since we didn't want any more trouble. He responded with a message saying that his father would call and come over later in the week, not that night after all.

On numerous other occasions [the landlord] would show up late at night with many (sometimes as many as 6 or 7) of his friends and demand to be let into parties that we were having. He would tell us that it was his house and we had to let him in. Then, he and his friends would get entirely too rowdy. One time [one of the tenants] got up to go to the bathroom late at night (after being asleep) and knocked on the bathroom door. It was not fully closed and it opened only for her to find many of [the landlord's] friends crowded in there. It is unsure what they were doing, but drug use was suspected.

It was also that night that his friends were found writing profanities on the living room wall in red permanent marker. The following day [one of the tenants] called [the landlord] to inform him of what his friends did so that he would not blame the residents. He denied it and stated that the money would be taken out of their security deposit.

On another occasion, [one of the tenants] was awoken to loud, drunk sounding voices walking up the front stairs. She walked to the railing and looked over only to find [the landlord] and four or five of his friends. There was no party going on, in fact everyone was asleep. [The landlord] and his friends complained and said that we should get up and drink with them. After [the tenant] repeatedly said no and became quite angry it became apparent to them that they should leave. As they were walking out the door, [the landlord] was heard saying something along the lines of "Oh no, they are going to be pissed." Which was followed by one of his friends responding with something like, "Just say you walked into the wrong house and thought you were somewhere else." This was received with a laugh from [the landlord] .

We would just like to say that we are fully willing to cooperate in any manner that you see necessary. Please feel free to call if you have any questions regarding the content of this letter. We appreciate your help in dealing with this situation and hope that it gets resolved quickly.

Sincerely,