Woman needs help as ceiling caves in on Detroit home


A Highland Park woman is hoping for some help after the ceiling of her rental home caved in.

Tasha Jackson lives in a rental home on Orleans Street in Detroit on the Highland Park border. She says the ceiling of the kids bedroom fell on Tuesday while some of the six kids who live there were playing. Luckily no one was injured. 

And this is not the first ceiling to fall. Earlier this year, a ceiling fell in the other kids' bedroom. That's not the only thing that's wrong with this house.

"Going to fall in the floor in the bathroom, you might trip up the steps, the walls are falling in the bedroom, and there are nails sticking out of the wall," Jackson said.

And there are mice and squirrels. The two adults who live there are paying $600 a month in rent and they are behind.  

"I don't want to pay for something if there's damage to the home," said the other tenant, Shawndale Reese.

Now in fairness, the landlord, who is from Sweden, was notified of the problems by the management company. They did not want to go on camera, but he said that the landlord would fix them, especially the ceiling collapse in the kids room.  

If you don't think that your rental house is safe to live in, you still have to pay the rent. You must put it in an escrow account or a separate bank account and let the judge decide if you're right or wrong.

But in the meantime, it is the responsibility of the landlord to make sure that this house is safe, even if back rent is owed.