Family involved in water dispute with landlord

EAST HAMPTON, Conn. (WTNH) -- An East Hampton family says they've had no water for over a week now, and they've had to drive almost 30 miles a day to find a public faucet to use to get water.

They say they their landlord won't help.

The police department knows about the landlord. The building department knows about the landlord. And the health department knows about the landlord.

After a day of driving throughout the southeastern part of the state, News 8 finally caught up with the landlord, Lena Ruitto. The tenants say she is the problem. Ruitto says she wants her tenants evicted because they're destroying her property.

"My sister was using it one night to brush her teeth and it fell off the wall," said Katie Hall.

This really is not the main problem facing the Hall family at their rented home in East Hampton.

"My brother woke up at like 2 a.m. and there was no water," said Hall. "He went to go get a drink and he couldn't because the water wasn't working."

The family has been filling up jugs of water for more than a week after the pump died. They claim their landlord is nowhere to be found.

"We tried to get ahold of my landlord, and she refuses to fix the problem," Hall said.

The building department has a big file on Ruitto, filled with violations. The Health Department tells News 8 they can't find her. News 8 tracked her house down in Old Saybrook, only to catch up with her and her maintenance man, back in East Hampton.

"Lena, were you aware that they were without water for 8 days," asked News 8's Jamie Muro.

"No, I wasn't," she replied. "I just found out yesterday...a girl came this morning to tell me to go down and do it."

"No one ever called you for 8 days," questioned Muro. "Because your tenants said they've been calling you for 8 days to get the water turned back on."

"I didn't see her, I didn't see them, no," she replied.

"The motor died, and someone broke into her other house, stole her phone and her machine," said Dan Cyr, "so we've been out of contact for quite a while."

"Today they told us you're barely passing code with this particular property, there's a lot of problems. That's what East Hampton told me," said Muro.

"I believe it, but it's not because of the house," said Cyr.

Ruitto says the Halls have been troubled tenants, damaging and stealing property. The Halls say they are tired of living in deplorable conditions.

"She's a slumlord," Hall said. "That's the easiest way to put it."

"She told you directly 'I will not fix this pump,'" asked Muro.

"Yes," Hall said.