Last weekend we moved into our new place - it's not the awesome 5 bedroom house we'd hoped to get (the insane man wanted $1850 a month for it!) - this is a $1000/month 3 bedroom place with a lovely front porch and back patio perfect for grilling. The house is great overall, but it's been a bit...roughly used. The landlord (because he's not charging a lot of money for the place) is reluctant to make any upgrades - he keeps chiming in with the phrase "rented as is." We've had to explain to him that "as is" does not mean that the light fixture and doorknob in the second bedroom are not supposed to work. Or that the locks don't need to be fixed (we didn't have keys the first 4 days we lived here). So, after he kept saying that he was "trying diligently" to get a locksmith to come out (which meant he wasn't doing a f*cking thing) - we called someone yesterday and got him out that afternoon to change out all the locks and enable us to secure ourselves and our belongings. We informed the landlord that we'd be deducting that price from the rent and he seemed very chipper.
So, this is the species of landlord we have here. I'm familiar with this species (the "you just arrange and pay for it up front and take it off next month's rent" type of guy), but this particular guy was masquerading as the "conscientious take care of everything" type of landlord, so we were fooled for a while. We've decided to paint a couple of the rooms ourselves (and the color we want) because he didn't repaint (and probably hasn't for years) because he rented the place "as is". We're not informing him and I doubt seriously that he'll care.
The thing is that the guys who lived here before were PIGS. I mean, dear god. The filth was insane. So, I've been a crazed lunatic with the contact paper and feel like I need to periodically dip things in Clorox. But, it's only for a year and the upsides of the house (much more room; price; lovely floors; dishwasher) more than make up for the small inconveniences (many of the windows are very bad; paint peeling off the exterior of the house; etc.). We'll definitely be able to save up for a hefty down payment by next year and can get our very own place...
So, that's about it - I need to finish the Egg and jettison it back to the press by the end of next week. TD's brother comes to visit (and help paint) on Monday and then in early June we go back to the previous Dutchmanlandia to pack up the rest of TD's things and move him completely down here. True co-habitation will ensue...
3 comments:
Hmm, a bait-and-switch landlord (not in terms of his actual property -- clearly he was upfront about the "as is" part -- but in terms of his "diligence" ...) Sorry you have to deal with him. But I guess the upside is getting to do whatever you want to the house without having to worry that he'll have a hissy fit? (I've heard stories about those landlords too.)
What paint colors have you chosen???
Hurrah for co-habitation!
And if the landlord really is okay with you all taking care of things yourselves and then deducting the expense from the rent, that's obviously not as good as a landlord who will do things himself, but it's not terrible, since you can actually get things closer to the way you want them.
Hooray for more room! Woohoo!
Post a Comment