Just out of curiosity, Diane, where’s the house located? SLC, I guess, but where in town?
When I was renting in downtown Salt Lake I spent some time dealing with slumlords. I can just about gaurantee that renters get screwed much more often than landlords, which is why renter protection laws exist.
I think I still have some of the info I dug up, I’ll try to find it, although it’s several years out of date. Alsoi, most towns in the valley (and the county as well) have renter advocate groups that also work with honest landlords.
I think there’s a pretty even scale. It just seems that good landlords get stuck with terrible tenants, and good tenants get stuck with awful landlords. Obviously, that’s all we hear about, because nobody has reason to talk about how great their landlord/renters are…after all, if there’s nothing to complain about, why bring it up?
Having been both a renter and a “landlord”, I can definitely say that I am happy to be a homeowner, and I want nothing to do with the rental market ever again.
“Wednesday the 15th - Chris made one of her rare good points today.” Guanolad
I’ve never been a landlord and after this story, I know I never will! We’ve all had our share of good and bad landlords, but of course the best way to go is to cut out the middleman entirely - BUY! In today’s lending market, most folks can find a mortgage payment that isn’t much more (sometimes LESS)than they’re spending for rent, and what you get in exchange is beyond value (EQUITY!).
Currently, I’m paying $100 a month more for my (condo) mortgage than I did on my rent - for that $100 I’m getting more than twice the space in a MUCH newer, nicer building, double the bedrooms, double the bathrooms, my OWN washer/dryer, fireplace, security, TWO decks, the freedom to have pets, freedom to paint/decorate ANY way I want, and (I can’t stress this enough) EQUITY!!!
Diane, I’m sorry to say I don’t think there’s any way to salvage your brother’s situation except for him to learn some very important lessons … and NOT repeat them. Best of luck to you all, anyway!
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.” I Spy Ty.
I believe the poster in question was talking about renting a room… ie, being roommates with…sharing living space, etc. I can certainly say that I wouldn’t want to be a roommate with a racist!
[quite]
I can certainly say that I wouldn’t want to be a roommate with a racist!
[/quote]
Purely hypothetically speaking, would it matter to you if the racist (your prospective roommate) a) belongs to the same race as you and hates other races, b) belongs to a different race than you and hates your race, c) belongs to a different race, is indifferent to your race, but hates some other race?
Would you agree to be roommates with a religious person who thought his/her religion is in some way superior to other religions?
Would you have a problem being roommates with someone who’s obviously prejudiced against racists?
Would you feel the same way about ageists, ableists, and/or lookists?
I know that your question was pointed at me, but I’m going to answer it anyway.
I would not live with prospective roommates A and C. My experience with racists has been such that I’m inclined to believe that I’d be dooming myself to listening to constant racist bullshit, with no breaks. No talking about anything else, no way to enlighten them as they have no desire to be enlightened.
Prospective roommate B wouldn’t live with me. If they hate my race, why would they want to live with me?
I am prejudiced against racists. I will grant that they’re not all KKK members or Neo-Nazis as they’re portrayed on television, and I can accept that they have a right to their beliefs, skewed though they may be. In a work setting, I would get along with them on a purely superficial level, just to keep peace at work. I would not live with a racist…home is obviously a very private, personal place. A racist should no more have to share his home with a person who doesn’t accept their racism than I should have to share my home with a racist who doesn’t accept my anti-racism.
Ageists/Ableists/Lookists…same thing. I wouldn’t want to live with a judgemental person, and I’m sure that they wouldn’t want my “can’t we all just get along” attitude around all the time, either.
I would only ever room with friends, and my friends feel the same way I do about all the important things.
“Wednesday the 15th - Chris made one of her rare good points today.” Guanolad
Alright. How about a good tenant story. After having quite a few tenants (all but one or two) who I have had to clean up/repair after (not to mention the “Use the security as last month’s rent.” “I can’t do that.” “Well, too, bad, I don’t have rent money” bullshit) I have a tenant who is not only really pleasant, as is his whole family, but likes to repair anything that needs fixing in his apartment himself. He also told me that if I need anything done, he’ld be happy to do it for me, I’d just have to buy the supplies. (I don’t do that. I would feel like I’m taking advantage and wouldn’t want to ask him to do anything. We work out what he’ll take off his rent for his labor.) I once told him that if my daughter wanted that apartment and he was still living there, I would tell her she’s out of luck! I mean, I love my daughter, but where am I going to get another tenant like this!
Alright. How about a good tenant story. After having quite a few tenants (all but one or two) who I have had to clean up/repair after (not to mention the “Use the security as last month’s rent.” “I can’t do that.” “Well, too, bad, I don’t have rent money” bullshit) I have a tenant who is not only really pleasant, as is his whole family, but likes to repair anything that needs fixing in his apartment himself. He also told me that if I need anything done, he’ld be happy to do it for me, I’d just have to buy the supplies. (I don’t do that. I would feel like I’m taking advantage and wouldn’t want to ask him to do anything. We work out what he’ll take off his rent for his labor.) I once told him that if my daughter wanted that apartment and he was still living there, I would tell her she’s out of luck! I mean, I love my daughter, but where am I going to get another tenant like this!
Sorry about the double post. I tried to hit stop and got a blank screen. Apparently, when you tell it to repost it sends the reply through a second time.
Personally, I’d rather room with a cross-burning klansman (who’d hate me for being Jewish) than with a politically correct a*hole or a fundie who’d try to convert me.
HOLY SHIT. I am sorry but that is as intelligent an answer as I can get out of my open mouth right now - I can’t believe that this could happen.
Something is failing…
Diane: Been a landlord, done that. Never had an experience as bad as you brothers! Wow! And people wonder why some landlords can be jerks! After an experience like that it just takes the fun out of renting.
I had my worse experience with some lesbians. We took pity on them and rented to them (a bad motivation, I know longer rent to ANYONE who trys to make me feel guilty for their circumstance, EVER!). They were evicted but passed the keys to some of their other lesbian friends who “squatted” and when the whole group was finally got rid of by the police they came back, broke in, and destroyed the place, ripping all the plumbling apart in the basement and setting a trap for me using electrical wires in a puddle of water that would fry me when I turned on the lights.
Yeah, people can be real a**holes at times.
Sheesh!
Unfortunately, our society is not set up to deal effectively with sociopathic, petty criminals like this woman, Traci. While generally there are adaquate criminal and civil laws on the books which punish this type of behavior (i.e., petty theft and fraud), the reality is that we don’t allocate sufficent resources to the criminal justice system to enforce and punish. As a result vermin like Traci fall between the cracks in the system and from there feed off the honest, decent an law abiding.
People who play by the rules are at a real disadvantage. To add insult to injury after getting victimized by low-life ner-do-wells like Traci, they thereafter encounter what feels like an apathetic law enforcement response, which makes feel like they’ve been ripped off TWICE…
I wish there was some simple solution for this type of injustice? If there is I sure don’t know what it is.
