Garbage Disposal Reviews

Sink Problems. Please help!?

It seems like the motor has burned out in the garbage disposal. Water wont go down unless i stick my hand down the disposal. It wont turn on and when I start the dishwasher, dirty water backs out into the sink. Do I need to replace the motor in the sink? What can I do to fix it before calling a professional to come out and fix it for me. Any ideas? What would it cost to repair the sink? Would it be expensive to replace parts or have someone fix if for me? Please help! Thanks!

This is in my new LEASE. Is this fair?

My new landlord put this in the new lease. Does this sound normal??
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REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE

The Landlord shall at his expense, except for the first $50 in cost, which the Tenant pays, keep and maintain the exterior walls, roof, electrical wiring, heating and air conditioning system, water heater, built-in appliances (except garbage disposal), and water lines in good condition and repair, except where damage has been caused by negligence or abuse of the Tenant, in which case Tenant shall repair same at his/her sole expense. The $50 to be paid by Tenant is for each repair and is not to be carried over to other repairs.
I HAVE NOT signed it yet.
She just sent it to me through email to look over it before we sign on Wed… this is the only part i’ve never seen in other leases i’ve signed
again, I HAVE NOT signed it yet!! lol
it’s a HOUSE .. the landlord is the owner of the house.. she wrote this up herself.

Sticky Rental Situation?

My husbands boss owns the house we rent, its company owned and was purchased as an investment FOR us to live in. They told us so we could eventually buy it, but we now realize that they knew we could never afford it with our pay. Our lease agreement states that we are responsible for “all reasonable repairs” (this is in california.) The LAW states that even if we agreed to ALL repairs the owner is still responsible to keep the house up to code which includes the furnace. Since we moved in we have purchased a new fridge, put up a new fence (neighbor bought materials since the woner refused to help in any way,) replaced an oven element and kitchen faucet, replace the garbage disposal, and done numerous smaller repairs such as replacing outlets and broken locks. None of this we did ourselves and almost all if it was this way when we moved in or happened in the first 60 days. To date the boss has paid a grand total of 100.00 to us towards repairs. Now the oven and outlets, sure they are ‘resonable’, but a 1500.00 fence job and a broken furnace are not. Its not that we don’t WANT to, we can’t afford it! In addition he is charging us 100.00 more than our high limit which we did agree to BEFORE moving in, but he’s also charging us for water, trash and sewer, something he told us about a week AFTER we moved in. The problem is that if we report him or make a stink about his refusal to fix the furnace my husband could lose his job and if he no longer works there they will charge us the rull mortgage amount of 2300.00 a month which is more than 2/3 of our GROSS income. We don’t have the money to move, heck we aren’t even going to have anything for our kids for Christmas because this house is costing us so much. We knew expenses would go up, but we also were under the understanding the the landlord would fix anything vital such as the freaking furnace that is shooting flames in the middle of winter! So we can’t move till we get a tax return and at that time we will also get new employment, but until then any action we take could put us on the streets. I know he would have to evict us, but we have a CLEAN rental record and have no deire to ruin it, nor can we afford the cost of getting into a new place. So my question is that because our lease says we are responsible for “all reasonable repairs” if we do eventually sue him do we have a leg to stand on? Or does that sentance in our lease screw us over? I do realize that legally he is wrong because he can’t fire my husband or kick us out if we complain about a houseing code violation, we could sue him. but meanwhile we would lose everything and we have nothing to fall back on, no savings. When we asked him to fix the heater his reply was “well if you can’t afford to fix it yourself maybe I should just find reters who can” and its become clear that the whole reason they put us in here was so we could fix it up for them so they could profit when they sell it. We were used. Yes we should have gotten it all in writing which I told my husband, but the idiot trusted his boss and now we are in a pickle. So please don’t tell me to sue him, we can’t withold rent because its taken directly from the paycheck. BUT if it comes down to a legal matter in court, do we have a leg to stand on? I know its confusing… but I don’t know what to do. Its a small town so I can’t say anything to anyone locally.
We are the ONLY tenants, its a house. The landlord is also my husbands boss. And I am in California (its in my first post too.) I do not have a copy of the lease agreement, it was handed to us 2 days before we moved and my mom packed up my desk area and I haven’t seen it since. I don’t recall ever signing anything, but even if I did it for sure said ‘all reasonable repairs” but nothing explaining what exactly is reasonable was spelled out. I asked my husband to get it in writing but he trusted his boss and never did. By law I know that no matter what our lease says he is responsible for fixing the heater, but our hands are tied. If he fires my husband and evicts us (even if its done illegally) we are still jobless and homeless while trying to fight him and he’s rich and can afford lawyers, we are poor and cannot. We also have 3 small children and its the middle of winter, we can’t be homeless.