The Internet is FINALLY working in our home.
What a CRAZY first week in our new house it's been.
I have A MILLION posts that I have started and will be finishing up the rest of the week about the home, the move and Hunter turning NINE months.
Tonight, however is a venting post.
Really, I am about to VENT MAJOR so if you don't care to listen, stop now.
(another post will be up tomorrow for you to enjoy)
Basically it comes down to having the WORST experience with our previous apartment.
Let me start by saying we really didn't have many problems until recently.
We felt so blessed to be in such a BEAUTIFUL apartment in a great neighborhood.
We paid a great price and we really loved our first little place together and know it was MUCH nicer than 99% of basement apartments.
HOWEVER... there were a few things I was SO fed up with that finding a home could not have come at a better time (for sanity reasons, I am sure it saved Kevin big bucks in therapy).
-The yard was NOT kept up. It always looked so trashy. Kevin sent a text message once saying he would mow it and they could take $50 off rent... someone came down and mowed, stopped half way and then the lawn mower sat in the middle of the half mowed grass for two weeks!
-We could NOT control our heat. The landlords had the thermostat covered and locked so only they could control it. Not OK when it's FREEZING cold, especially with a new baby. We would ask for it to be turned up and the answer was to close the vents in all rooms except the bedrooms. So then of course ALL of the other rooms were freezing! It didn't help that the door wasn't sealed/fit properly leaving a huge open area that caused a terrible draft.
(My dad even put painters tape over it when he stayed for a night because it was letting in so much cold air)
-THEY WERE SO LOUD. Kevin has slept with ear plugs our ENTIRE marriage. Mainly because of the noise. The one bedroom wasn't too terrible and I don't think we ever had to talk to them.. this last year and a half however, AWFUL!
Basically it got louder because it went from 3 people to 7 (that's a good story) living upstairs including a new baby.
No matter how quiet they "tried" to be I had to send a message at least once a week telling them to be quiet. The worst was late at night or during Hunter's nap.
Now, I know some of you may be thinking quiet during naps?! I am not that way. I vacuum and go about my day when Hunter is napping just fine. The problem I have is when you are vacuuming and stomping around like giant elephants on your hardwood floor right above my sons crib!
Finally (and I promise my venting rage is almost over), the last straw that has really made my BLOOD BOIL is the moving out experience we had this last week.
Now for those of you who don't know, our lease was month to month because we knew we wanted to buy a home this year. Wasn't a problem for the first few months and then I started to sense it was getting weird. I told Kevin I felt they wanted us out. He reminded me we were on a month to month contract and they could kick us out any time. Still I had a feeling. We came home from a lovely Christmas in Sacramento to a note taped to our door informing us our rent was being raised $100!
Kevin and I both felt the new renting price was more reason to get into a home sooner.
That weekend we found our home.
We put in an offer back on January 6th or 7th, it was excepted and our home was already underway of being built. We were thrilled.
On March 1st we took our 30 day notice to the landlords.
Turns out they had a Termination of Lease letter prepared for us.
We would have been homeless on March 31st if we hadn't felt inspired to find a home that weekend.
(Seriously I was in tears when I saw that letter. Tears as I was reassured we were buying a home at the right time, in the right neighborhood and for the right reason.
PROOF EVERYTHING happens for a reason).
So this "checking out" process has been a joke.
We planned to get some of our deposit back (minus carpet cleaning) and leave on good terms.
No big deal.
WRONG (and in all fairness we were warned by previous renters)
The landlords are moving some of their children into the basement apartment (that's why they wanted us out) and are a little more than anxious to get them in there.
They asked us if they could go in and do a checkout; list what we needed to fix, paint and clean.
We gave them permission to do so.
They didn't tell us however that they were having the carpets cleaned that day (BREACH OF CONTRACT)
They also had some RIDICULOUS fix it items on their lists.
A broken cabinet that I told him over a month ago he needed to fix
(which had already broken once and he repaired it no problem)
A hole in a door that was there BEFORE we moved in (it was painted over to prove it) and they wanted us to replace the ENTIRE door.
So when it came down to it, after carpet cleanings, we would have only gotten back $276 of our $500 deposit. Yes, that is still a lot of money however, we both had a feeling that even if we cleaned it immaculate and fixed things they would still find something wrong and would charge us.
For $276 folks... fix it yourself, clean it yourself and paint it!
Grr..
I honestly wish you could feel my rage right now.
Taken advantage of BIG TIME.
I honestly cannot believe how dishonest, hypocritical and unfair the landlords are being.
Sad that a fairly good experience ended so poorly.
The End.
I do apologize for my brief vent. I am not usually like this but my mama told me never to put up with dumb people taking advantage of you. I actually feel blessed I wasn't there when Kevin went to get this checkout list and spoke with them.
I would have had some VERY choice words.
My posts are usually so up beat and happy.
This was weird to write.
I'll be back to my normal Kyla tomorrow.
I promise.
Disclaimer: Our BREACHED lease did say that any conflicts or differences with the landlord/family should be discussed in private and not with neighbors or ward members as to not damage those relationships.
Has anyone else had problems with renting?
I can't be the only one!!
_________________
Goodnight Readers.
Hopefully my blood pressure goes down!
We had the most ridiculous landlord when we lived in Pocatello. I asked to be present at the walk through when we moved out and he said no, which is against the law in Idaho. So he got to charge us for a bunch of things that we weren't there to dispute. I've decide that it's just a right of passage. Those kinds of situations are given to us to help us appreciate the blessings of being homeowners. That way you won't ever take it for granted.
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar experience when we moved last year. It was a great basement apartment, and we really loved the landlords. We took great care of the place and expected to get back most of the deposit. When we did not get a check 2 months later, I texted them to see if it got lost in the mail and they said we were not getting a deposit back!! I inquired why and asked for an itemized list... they came back with things we knew needed to be fixed and had offered to fix (like holes in the wall from shelving) but they said to not worry about it. It made us so sick to our stomachs that it was ruining our Christmas. So we decided that we needed to let it go, and to send them a letter letting them know about the laws in Washington governing deposits and that legally they had to give us our money, or an itemized receipt within a month of moving out- and how awkward it was to approach them months later.
ReplyDeleteSorry this is SO long!
In the end they gave us $300 to keep the peace, because they really are good people- they just had a lot of pride in the apartment and did not know what reasonable "wear and tear" is. I know how it just makes you SICK!
I had terrible landlords when I was 18. I was pressured into moving into a house with a newlywed couple. It was a three story house with us in the basement and them on the top floor. Rent plus utilities was settled and when they got back from their honeymoon we were to sign the contract.
ReplyDeleteYeah, right.
All of the sudden they demanded we have the contract signed BEFORE they get home. When they arrived, they were so upset with us because we were already in the house and that "wasn't the plan". How did the housing company contact us then? How did they get our numbers to give us the keys?
The middle floor was, by BYU's standards, supposed to be a common area for us. They promptly locked us out of the middle floor.
We signed the contract, but by law, you have a maximum of 3 days to break most contracts. Keep that in mind, ladies! It saved us.
As soon as we served them with our notice to break the contract, they were "showing the apartment" starting at 6 am and "it had better be spotless" when the people come to see it. Yeah, right! Who comes to see an apartment at 6 am?!
Long story short, we got out of there fast. And then I got to meet two wonderful ladies, Jessica and Aubs! Hooray for happy endings!
Seriously, though. Keep the 3 days in mind. Some landlord's forget that detail and the claws and fangs come out as soon as the pen is to paper!
aw Kyla. That sounds awful. I feel like everyone has a shitty situation in every renting situation. I have always had bad problems, and I've rented in like 6 different places (yikes). My biggest problem is the prop mgmt companies being incompetent and not being easy to contact (my situation right now). I am glad you are out of there and you are your own landlord!
ReplyDeleteHahaha O the rant and raving of a little pampered princess and the exaggeration of one too just for the attention, omg we were going to be homeless even though we started looking for a house in January and was going to give them our 30day notice and got one from them also o no!!! Please you should have been in my first apartment when i was young it was in a town house complex and we were smack in the middle of 2 apartments and believe me I would taken the Noise of foot steps over having to hear people yelling and banging against the walls all hours of the day and night knocking picture frames off the walls and from the other places we had them near the walls trust me not nice walking down a set of stairs and stepping on broken glass from the picture frames and I'm sure they kept the temperature at a reasonable level ( unless you ran around with hardly anything on ) if it was me and I was renting out the place I would have put one of those nest thingies down there that can be remotely controlled, monitor and locked, anyways little Princess I had a really good laugh reading your little rant I'm going to go see if I can find any other slapstick material In some of your other postings hope to read more good stuff like this your generation needs to learn everything can't go/have your own way James T. Havoc
ReplyDelete