If it comes to vengeance/revenge, buy a pony keg, leave it in the living room, with signs in the windows, "Kegger, here, now!", or "Free BEER!!".

Instant condemnation.

Well, I wouldn't do that without leaving unlocked the $200 worth of marine-grade front door combination deadbolt that Katkeeper bought and had installed.

If I remember correctly you were renting on a monthly basis rather than a long term lease. Even though the house became what we consider uninhabitable, through no fault of your own, you notified them on the first but didn't vacate until the fifteenth. Is this their basis for keeping your security deposit, or are they just used to dealing with college kids who move away and can't fight it?

Right, that's the basis. The lease was over; but even when it wasn't, they weren't upholding their end of it by providing livable conditions. During the last 14 months of my time there, I could have stopped paying rent at any time on the basis of the roof leak.

But not so much stopped, as put it into an escrow account that they would eventually, possibly, recover if they proved there had been repairs. Which would then gotten weird because, as it proved out, they never had any intention of making repairs. I kind of figured that would be where it would lead, if they had no money and I stopped giving them any. I don't know where the laws go, at that point.

At some point it would have forced me to get out of Dodge and I didn't have the money to do that either.

In view of the circumstances (i.e. mid-month departure secondary to uninhabitable premises), it would be reasonable to call the property manager and ask why you're not getting half the security deposit back. The door for questions was left open. It comes at no cost to you and you may gain insight into how they may respond to your proposed retaliation from the tone of the conversation.

No drainage from the bathroom at Cottage of Prussia! :greenface

Why does this keep happening to me

First round of plumbers is vexed by weird hookup and now they need to go in via the roof!

It turns out no sewage system can endure my foul output

at least now the landlord is responsive and apologetic

Your shit froze

The roof? What the hell are your pipes doing in the roof of a one-story home?

If the air vents are blocked, there is a vacuum effect that will prevent drainage.

Exactly, quite often houses , especially if they're on a slab, have no access big enough to get a snake or auger through without pulling the toilet. But the vent through the roof is a clean shot into the system and usually full sized.

UT, do you have a garbage disposal, or putting food down the sink, or using blue toilet paper?

No garbage disposal, and actually the line from the kitchen is clear. They ran two different lines for this house because it's old and built before the modern world came around. If only I could pee into the kitchen sink

I can't offer the same expertise and advice that other Dwellars can, but you have my sympathy.
I have the same issue with shoes, and no third party involved. My foot-stank is so corrosive it actually eats shoes. Add that to the tissue thin skin which makes breaking in new shoes a chafing horror, and my new-acquired ability to bleed like a stuck pig... Came home with my boots full of blood AGAIN on Monday after meeting an old friend. And I wear those boots on a weekly basis.

Sometimes life seems to be on a shitty loop.
No offense intended (as unlike me, I'm sure your sewage problems are simply coincidental).

We've got a bad sewer line at work so Imma sit home...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/216CmVtl2fL.jpg

http://www.charbase.com/images/glyph/10133

http://spencers.scene7.com/is/image/...-a?$Thumbnail$

It started when masons installed a new concrete stairway with a landing that contained a plastic drain. An already cracked plastic pipe fell into the pipe. Part of that plastic eventually lodged deep down in the sewer line. With shit, food, and tissue paper, it formed a restriction; then a dam.

They tried a power snake from many directions including the roof. No solution. Then a fiber optic camera. It identified the blockage. They tried a high pressure water jet. That cleaned the plastic enough that a fiber optic camera could identify the plastic.

Next came a jack hammer to rip up the concrete floor to install a new sewer pipe. That was $2500 just for the plumber alone. Actually a bargain.

Now think about what you have flushed down there. And who pays for the plumber.