ST. JOHNS, Mich. (WLNS) — Imagine living in a house with no running water for more than a month. That’s been the reality for one woman in a St. Johns rental home.
Justina Cowan had bought a plot of land just a few thousand feet from where she currently rents, with the hope of eventually building her dream home. But ever since moving into the rental in December, she said, it’s been a nightmare.
“This has financially ruined me,” Cowan said. “I think I would have been smarter than this, but the way that everything was supposed to go, it was the perfect plan.”
Cowan said she knew the situation had been too good to be true once she started moving things around. Her landlord wasn’t too happy at that point, she said.
“He was angry because there was two 20-foot rolls of carpet in here and they went from one wall, up the steps, and I kept tripping over them,” Cowan said. “And when I would step over them, I would step on the tag strips because he wouldn’t put the carpet down, either.
“And so, I put them out on the deck and he got mad about it,” Cowan continued. “He came here and said, ‘This isn’t gonna work.’ and I said, ‘Are you gonna turn my water on?’ and he said, ‘No, I’m not turning your water on.’”