Life is Hard Sometimes

Yes... life IS hard sometimes... but that shouldn't be your landlord's response when you tell him the whole building hasn't had hot water all day.

"Well I can't really do anything about it, I'd have to call a plumber." Um... yeah, and?

Six apartments (totaling roughly twelve people and one infant) and a minimum of three businesses downstairs (one even being a plumber) and it's too bad if none of us can take showers or do the dishes or laundry. It took him about three hours after finding out about the problem (which was after several hours of his phone going straight to voice mail and then getting pissed at us for calling him and complaining) and he finally went to go look at the water heater. This was after already telling us and another tenant to just go ahead and try it again in an hour even though he hadn't done anything. A simple breaker switch in the basement was the problem but screw us for complaining about it, right?

A couple of weeks ago the washing machine broke and he angrily blamed a tenant for it and demanded that the least the tenant could do was bail the water out of the washer so someone could come look at it. First of all, there is a drain. A repair guy is going to know how to use that drain so one of us isn't sitting down there with a coffee cup bailing water off the stairs into the parking lot. Second, the tenant did not break it. It's a twenty year old washer and the switch on the door broke, something that had nothing to do with overloading it like he blindly accused.

These are the wonderful things that keep happening since our rent went up. These issues have come up before but at least weren't met with hostility from the landlord. Uncaring yes, he typically doesn't see a problem when there is one, but usually doesn't go to the extent of getting pissed over it. For example, our fridge. During the summer I have to defrost it weekly or it just stops being cold and everything goes bad. The landlord does not see this as a problem that needs to be addressed ("oh, okay... and?" would probably sum up his concern) which is why I have kept up this routine for roughly four years.

I'll give the man a little leeway, he has cancer, has for quite a while now and the battle does not seem to be going all too well. However, he said (probably three quarters of a year ago now) that he was bringing in a management company to take over the apartments. This was supposed to be the reason for the increased rent and why the hubby and I were relieved of our duties as managers here. None of that has happened. The maintenance has gone to shit around here. The bucket ash tray on the deck is over flowing. The laundry room, hallway and stairs only get swept once every couple of months. The parking lot is littered with cigarettes. I can go on. As far as a manager? Like someone else we could have called about the lack of hot water? The hubby told the landlord that he would have called someone else if he knew who else to call and the landlord said he was "working on it," a phrase that seems like a step back from his earlier declaration.

I think at some point he has to be considered a slumlord. I've been checking with tenants rights a lot recently and according to some of the big-wig websites, this place doesn't even meet the qualifications to be habitable. The mold around the improperly installed windows alone gives each and every one of us the right to move the hell out with way less then the typical thirty day notice. Mold would be considered a health risk, which I am pretty sure means we are only required to give twenty four hours notice. Do you suppose he realizes this? He's had inspectors in all the apartments (though obviously not for the purpose of fixing anything) who have pointed out even more problems then we can see and know about and I am sure have passed on the information.

So? He's dealt with mold, no hot water, and the like before, why can't we?

I'll tell you why, because he's the landlord. He's the person who is by law required to fix these things. According to the tenants rights website, he is supposed to maintain the condition of the apartment and all common areas as it was when we moved in. The windows weren't moldy when we moved in. The bathroom ceiling wasn't falling down when we moved in. The drywall wasn't separating from the lathe and plaster in the living room, when we moved in. We didn't have issues with the hot water when we moved in. We didn't have issues with the washer and dryer and refrigerator when we moved in. We didn't have issues with parking when we moved in. We didn't have the tripping hazard of uneven and loose tiles right outside our front door when we moved in. We didn't have neighbors who were scamming the landlord for half price rent so they could snort coke off the kitchen counter when we moved in.

Yeah.

How do we remedy the situation? Move. That is what it all comes down to, even on the tenant's rights website. We have the right to move. Believe me, we're trying. All we need is an apartment within our price range and an application approval and we are gone. I wish it was as easy as it is to say.

So yeah: Life is hard sometimes. Great motto.