Thursday, May 29, 2008

Renting

You all know that Mark and I have been looking for a place to buy. For over a year. We have put offers in on two places only to be told we are too poor to have them. We have looked at houses that I was sure were either going to collapse around us, were described as "nice site for new building", or smelled of death. We have looked at condos in which you had views of concrete, the freeway, or smelled of death.
Why have we been doing this? Giving up our weekends, evenings, and sanity to go look at the next property? We love our neighborhood. We adore and trust our neighbors. We have a big apartment (for LA).

We don't do this only for investment reasons. We do it because we cannot stand giving our landlord our money. I will not say that I have any emotion for the landlord at all. I don't consider him human, and therefor no emotions are necessary. Landlord feels no responsibility to make improvements on his building.

I never thought I would stoop so low as to publish bad words about someone. But, oh well, I have. Mark, I, and our neighbors love to gather and talk about landlord. We have all complained about the plumbing and hot water in the building for years. Josh, my downstairs neighbor has been taking cold showers for months. I told landlord about the complete lack of hot water in the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Two years ago. Nothing. I had a plumber come (we paid for him) to assess the situation. Plumber said you need new pipes and a new hot water heater. I passed this info along to landlord. Response? Nothing. Even when we moved in, landlord came by with a friend. Said no words to me as he walked around, talking to friend, and then left without a word.

Landlord's mother and father owned this building, and landlord and sister managed it. Until landlord had building transferred from widowed mom to himself, leaving mom penniless. Heard this right from said mom. I see no reason to disbelieve it.

Here is a copy of a recent letter Mark sent to landlord:


His response:


He has had one plumbing company here three months ago. Since then: Nothing.
My favorite part? "I hope you will cooperate..." Huh? What the hell is that supposed to mean? And no response to baby coming at all.

So sorry for the acid post today. I really needed to get this off my mind.

What landlord horror stories do you have? I would love to hear them!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently had a manager tell me that utilities were included. Of course it was my fault that I believed him. Isn't there a housing authority who could help you? It's against the law to refuse to fix apartments elsewhere. Maybe your husband could discuss this with the police, or is there too much danger of retaliation?

painterjoy said...

Thank you, anonymous! Yes, Mark is afraid of retaliation. We have been on a month to month basis, and can be kicked out on a dime. I have thought of making an anonymous tip to the housing authority.
LA is tough because apartments are in such demand, and landlords know this.
I wish Mark could tell you all what crap he heard when looking for apartments.

Kristin said...

fortunatly the only time I rented was when I lived in AZ for college, and my landlord was a freak, but she fufilled her duties as a landlord.

Your guy? Sounds like an ass through and through. Man, what a shit situation. It's totally NOT your responsibilty to fix your plumbing...but even if you wanted to, you couldn't because the whole damn place needs new pipes.

What a weasel.

Many goof thoughts and prayers being sent to you from Chicago for hot water and stress free living for when baby comes.

saffry said...

I'm so sorry. I wish I could send you our last landlord, he'd kick your landlord's ASS. And fix the pipes.

Anonymous said...

I like the anonymous tip idea. Are any of your neighbors thinking of doing that? Also, I thought this article on buying a house was interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/business/28leonhardt.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5087&em&en=53fb02c171fd7692&ex=1212465600