We recently had a small run-in with our landlord which I have no idea how to deal with. It all began with a pounding on our door at 9:30 at night asking man to come outside. I stay in because I'm not fond of this man and usually man takes care of interactions with landlord. However, a few minutes later I hear that the conversation isn't very friendly and I venture outside to see what all the rucous is. Landlord is screaming at man about his house getting egged and man not cleaning it off while landlord was gone on vacation. Um...okay. Unlike landlord we have full time jobs and lives outside of smoking cigarettes in the backyard and eviciting non paying tenants. So, landlord looks at me (me with straight face and arms crossed) and stares, eventually giving me the I hate you grimmace. Okay. Fine. He slams the door and returns to his side of the duplex. I discuss the happenstance iwth man who says he just needed someone to yell at and I was there. Man works in this type of situation daily and apparently handles it much better than I do. I tell him I'm going to go over and settle this. Bad Idea...maybe. I knock on landlords door and he answers with look of confusion. I say landlord, I apologize for not removing the eggs off your house while you were gone but you need to watch the way you talk to man. It is completely innappropriate and should not happen again. If you have problems with us as tenants we need to schedule a meeting and discuss the issues rationally. Apparently you can't say rational to the irrational. He begins yelling at me. "Why don't you guys just move out?" Um... because we love our house and we signed a year long lease. He says that we can move out if we want. Um. no. Anywyas, it proceeds like this until he starts yelling about all the other things he is upset about... which only one has something to do with us... we got paint on his ladder... I offered to clean it or replace it... he changed the subject. Obviously looking for something to upset about. It has been one day since this happened and luckily we weren't forced into any confrontations yesterday. I wrote him this letter that will be delivered if we don't recieve an apology or an explaination in the next week or so.
Dave,
1. Umbrella
2. Paint on step ladder
3. Mowing the lawn
4. Washer and Dryer
5. Egged house
This letter is in response to the accusations made by our landlord, Dave Teeter, on 10.30.06. I have created a list of the things that you indicated were bothering you about M & K as tenants at Bleep.
Since the day we moved in you have been very free with sharing the use of your things, especially those which are in our shared backyard (pool, grill, picnic table). We have used these items on occasion and for that we are thankful. At one point M went out into the backyard and the umbrella on the picnic table had blown over. When he attempted to rectify it he found that it had been broken. He promptly informed you that the wind had broken your umbrella and at the time you never questioned the circumstances. Last night, three months later, you decided that we had intentionally broken the umbrella which is not the case as it was clearly broken due to being older and being exposed to the elements.
When we first moved in we used your step ladder to paint our bedroom. We returned it promptly in July and now you are angry that there is paint on it. Last night I apologized for that and we will clean your step ladder or we will replace it.
When we were signing the lease you verbally requested that we mow the lawn and scoop the snow on the driveway, using your equipment, whenever you were away or asked us to. Over the summer the occasion never arouse that we needed to mow the yard and when you were on vacation your shed was locked so we would have been unable to mow even if we wanted to.
Last month the washer we were currently using broke mid-cycle so we switched out the washers (we had 2 in our basement) and M informed you that the washer had broken. You responded by calling over a maintenance worker and when he plugged the washer back in, it began to work as though nothing had happened. You paid the bill and for that we are thankful because our lease states that the washer and dryer were not guaranteed.
While you were gone on vacation, you asked M to pick up your mail (of which there wasn’t any) and watch out for your place. Your house was egged at some point while you were away and we did not clean it up, for which we are sorry. We were very busy ourselves during this time and we should have been better neighbors and cleaned up the eggs for you. In reply to the accusation that we were responsible for egging your house due to the appearance of eggs only on your house and garage, we are under the impression that the most likely culprits are the people you recently evicted from your other rental properties. We have not, to this point, had any problem with you as a landlord and we do not act impulsively and immaturely when we are upset.
Last night you asked us to move out and I’m uncertain if this was due to your apparent anger at the time or if you were serious. We signed a year long lease and we have paid our rent on time, taken care of our house, and we have not broken any of the terms defined on the lease. We intend to stay for the remainder of our lease and hopefully our verbal agreement allowing us to stay on a month to month basis until K finishes school still stands.
Due to recent events we’re going to be unable to mow the law but we will scoop our driveway using our own shovels over the winter. Things break, normal wear and tear happens, and we can’t afford to be responsible for your possessions and especially the maintenance of your lawn mowers or snow blower.
We hope that this can all be put in the past and we can continue having a quiet and peaceful living situation.
Thanks,
M & K
What to do...oh what to do.
Labels: landlord
posted by Passionate Woman @ 10:25 AM
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