Cape Karen
Well, I did it and I'm in the house I found online. It's a perfect fit for me - nice big sunny rooms on a dead-end street, with only one nearby neighbor and lots of quiet! Of course, there had to be a "catch." And I quickly discovered it. I have a totally "whacked-out" landlady!
One of the first things I did upon arriving was to buy a dryer. When I went to hook it up, I found that the dryer vent was nothing more than an old, beat-up, narrow metal tube stuck through the wall to the outdoors, with a hole in the wall around it stuffed with paper towels. (Not quite up to code!) When I called to ask how I could hook up the dryer to that apparatus, I was told that it wasn't a landlord's responsibilty to install my dryer and if I wasn't happy with the house I could just move out and go live elsewhere!
Okay... Hello! Nice to meet you, too. Welcome to Iowa!
And that was my introduction to my lovely landlady. I have since found out, from my sweet young neighbors next door, that she is truly "the landlady from Hell." She evidently tells everyone who reports any maintenance issues, in their 200 year-old properties, to "just get out." The poor kids next door have been living with a broken stove all year, because he finally "lost it" and ended up in a screaming match with her on the phone one day. . . so their stove remains broken.
There are laws against such "retaliation" and maintenance neglect, so I sent him to Legal Aid to get help. (They have to fix the stove, by law, like it or not....) As far as my dryer - I had someone come out and re-vent the whole thing, as best as possible, and he also put a big board over the gaping hole in the wall. Yes. I could have called the City and had these landlords cited for a code violation, but I held off - because I do want to stay here for at least one year.
I was hesitant to become a renter - owning is so much nicer - but I thought I'd at least give it a try. I really didn't expect to have any problems because I'm the "ideal tenant" - but I've been proven wrong. This landlady would give Mother Theresa a hard time! She's obviously a very unhappy and dysfunctional woman. I've since had some water leak issues, and so I've been told to "get out" four times now... so far! Legal Aid has been very helpful, and if we have to, we will take this woman to court, eventually, just to show her that tenants have rights, too - but I'm avoiding the 'hassle' at this point.
I love the house, I really love quiet location, I love this sweet city and I love living near my daughter - but, unfortunately, there had to be this damn fly in the ointment.
So much for renting!
Posted by Karen at September 4, 2008 11:50 AM