Last year, I moved into a house that Dave had rented a month previous to our ‘big move’ to America. It is owned by friends of his, he said, so it should be cool.
Everything was fine for the first month or so. Then it all started to go to shit.
Firstly, The Plumbing Problem.
See, this is an old house. Built in 1841. It has since been retrofitted for electricity and running water. In June of last year, we had 27 people here for a DopeFest. We’ve got a great big yard, and a firepit, and we all had a great time. However, the toilet became clogged. Okay, no problem, Dave’s a pretty handy guy. All of his ministrations failed, and we called the landlady.
She as much as told us that my son must have dropped something into the pipes for it to be clogged like that. She said she’d get a plumber out here, and she did - five days later. Until that time, we were to use the toilet in the upstairs apartment, which was not rented at the time.
Next, was The Heating Problem. As I said, the house has been retrofitted for electricity and plumbing, but not central heat. We have electrical baseboard heaters as our sole source of heating. It got pretty chilly in here around December, and we came to realize that the heaters in the bathroom and kitchen were not working. Three heaters, and neither of them worked. Well, she groused and complained, but finally conceeded, and we had new heaters installed. Mind you, we had to buy them, and we deducted the cost from our rent the next month. The electrician that installed them later told Dave that he had not been paid for his work.
Next, The Leaking Problem. Seems that every time one of the people upstairs has a shower or bath, we have a deluge into our living room. Currently, there are ceiling tiles ripped out, and the gaping hole is covered with a black plastic garbage bag, with a hole poked in it for drainage. Below this, we have a five gallon bucket. Inside of the hole is nasty, and I made the landlord cover it before I would let them leave after ripping it open. I have allergies, and Og only knows what is lurking in the ceiling of this old, old house.
The Neighbour Problem. Well. The people who live upstairs are noisy and messy and quite unpleasant to cohabitate with. They have screaming fights, they have shit all over the porch - which they have been asked to remove - they have used our yard as a storage for friend’s car which they were hiding from a repo man. They sing Karaoke, loudly, badly, and often. Their apartment (so Dave says) is unfit for human habitation, and they have two little children. I will not live with cockroaches, and the landlady has made them clean it. No roaches yet - but landlady bitched and complained about having to say anything.
Now, we are dealing with The Refrigerator Problem. Our fridge crapped out last summer, right around the time of our wedding. They had a repairman come out, and everything was fine - until now. Sunday, June 8, I went into the freezer and noticed that the ice trays had more water than ice. I looked into the ice cream and saw a puddle. It turned out that the fridge had crapped out yet again. We called the landlady, and she made room in her freezer for our frozen goods. The things that needed to be refrigerated ended up going into the tiny bar fridge that Dave has had since his college days. No problem, she said, we’ll have someone look at it.
The repairman came on Wednesday, and told us it would cost more to repair than to replace with a used fridge. She assured us right then that she would go pick up a fridge the next day. She called the next morning for dimensions, and later that day told Dave that it was bought and would be delivered either Friday or Saturday.
Saturday, we returned from RibFest at DaveW0071’s, and saw that there was no fridge. Hmm, we thought, this isn’t right. Dave called and left a message for her, and she didn’t call back. The next day, she called and told me that she had to go buy the fridge that day. Wait a minute - she just told Dave that it was bought? Anyway, off she went.
Monday, no fridge.
Tuesday, no fridge.
Wednesday, no fridge, and I’m pissed off. Dave called the appropriate authority and asked what our rights are in this situation. He asked said authority to not call her, as they live right next door to us and are nasty when they want to be. He called anyway.
Dave called up to the landlady and got an earful. I was sitting across the room and could hear just about word for word what was said.
Along with her ranting, she also said that she was ‘sending us notice’. Well, call me stupid, but where I come from, that is a retaliatory eviction, and it is illegal.
I’m afraid she really doesn’t realize who she is dealing with.
And, I will have a fridge tomorrow. No, really. She said so.
