The last straw: We’re moving
I mentioned in my goals for 2013 post that Jake and I wanted to move. In the last couple of weeks, however, there have been some extenuating circumstances that led us to start looking at rentals. Before I get to the circumstances surrounding our move, however, a little bit of background.
When Jake graduated from law school, he moved to our current city. Giddy on the high of an almost six-figure salary, he rented a large home with a pool in a suburb 45 minutes from downtown, where he worked. A year later, I finished my program and moved in with him. It took me about two months to get a job, and it turned out to be a really long commute. And although I plan on driving my car into the ground, I have a really low tolerance for commuting.
I couldn't stand driving an hour-and-a-half each way, on the freeway, during rush hour. Plus, the home was expensive. So we moved to a cute 2/2 condo that was only 3.5 miles from my job and cut our rent by about 30 percent. Almost right away, however, we started having problems.
The flood when we moved in
About two days after we moved in, I noticed that the carpet in the master closet was wet. At first I thought that Jake just went in the closet after his shower. But when I put my hand down, the carpet was drenched. Not only that, but the wall was damp as well. Our pipes had gone pop in the night!
Turns out, the laundry room was on the other side of the wall and the washing machine had been leaking into the wall ever since we moved in. And our new landlord didn't use a property manager. Or answer her phone. Or email.
We called a water remediation company on our own in the meantime. When we finally got a call back from the landlord with the home warranty information so we could contact a plumber, the remediation company also had an estimate for the job they were doing. It was about a thousand bucks.
The landlord made us kick the remediators out of the house without completing the job. Then she refused to pay for the work they had done already. The remediation company sent me to collections, since they had the address and I was the one home when they came by.
Jake agreed to represent me pro bono and sent a letter to the remediation company arguing that the bill was not my responsibility and requested that they bill our landlord instead. Our landlord's husband, who is also an attorney, also sent a letter on my behalf saying that the bill was not my responsibility. The collection calls stopped and we figured the hard part was behind us.
A plethora of problems
Sadly, the hard part was just beginning. Obviously, our landlord has never thought about renting from the tenant's point of view. Here's a sampling of other things that have gone wrong in the five years we have lived here:
The landlord stiffed the plumber the $50 deductible for the home warranty when the washing machine broke and we made a service call to have it fixed. He had to take her to small claims court.
Our storage unit leaked and all the banker's boxes and everything in them was ruined.
The a/c went out in August and wasn't properly repaired for two weeks. (Remember, where I live it's 110 degrees at that time of year.)
The roof needs to be replaced and every time it rains, every doorway in the house leaks. Profusely. We have a stack of beach towels on standby to put in every doorway since we have carpet.
Because of the roof problems, the paint in the master bedroom has started bubbling away from the ceiling. If you touch the ceiling in that room when it rains, an entire bucket's worth of water bursts onto your head (we learned that the hard way).
Our breaker box shorted out and almost started a fire in the middle of the night. We had to call the fire department, throw all the pets in the car, and sleep on the floor of our friend's house for two weeks until it was repaired.
Our kitchen faucet leaked, and there was standing water on our counters for almost six months until the faucet was replaced.
The heating element in our oven wore out and almost started a fire. We paid to have this fixed on our own after almost three weeks after the landlord finally told us the home warranty “wasn't an option.”
This is in addition to the fact that our condo is too small now that Jake works from home. We did convert our spare bedroom to an office. However, there are only two closets in our house and neither of them are large enough to store his records (he has to keep certain hard copy records for a minimum of five years, and they take up a lot of space). They're currently stacked in our dining room.
The last straw
As you can imagine, we're tired of a landlord who can't be trusted to make proper repairs in a timely manner. We'd pretty much decided to find a new place and give our notice. We were even kind of excited, since we started renting our current place right before the economy crashed and could now get a much bigger/nicer place for what we are currently paying. But what helped us finally decide was…
Coming home on Monday afternoon to find a Notice of Trustee's Sale taped to our front door. Our property is being auctioned off in December. Now (perhaps not shockingly) this is not the first time our condo has entered foreclosure. It happened about a year and a half ago and the landlord was able to refinance. This time, however, we don't care if she is able to refinance or not. We're finding another place and moving!
I've been squirreling money away in a goal-oriented savings account since my side gigs started taking off. We have the funds set aside for a security deposit, first and last month's rent, and movers. Plus, since we paid last month's rent when we moved into our current place, we won't need to pay rent here in December. Thank goodness for emergency funds!
This experience is part of what has soured us on renting. Do you have any post-Halloween rental horror stories you'd like to share?
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Wow, that sounds frustrating. Hope you’re able to get into a place where you have more control over your living situation. The old emergency fund strikes again! 🙂
It’s a bummer to go through that while everything is happening all at once. Hope you find a steady place without the havoc of unresponsive landlords and natural disasters.
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Hah, I *hate* broke landlords– they are THE WORST! Always rent from the prosperous. Question though– have you guys considered renting an office/workspace outside the house, for greater comfort/flexibility for both you and the law practice? Or a legal storage? (Not just any storage, but the “legal” kind– they had one near the courthouse in my previous city– it looked fortified!). All legitimate business expenses that needn’t count into your home budgets. And what about moving closer to your work so you can ditch the 2nd car? (I remember that from the other day). Anyway, best wishes with the move… Read more »
Eventually Jake would like to rent a space. However, at this point, if the company pays for it, then he will have to take a pay cut to offset it. So it ends up coming out of our budget either way. We certainly have things to sell/donate/trash when we move! A purge will be nice, it’s easy to accumulate Stuff when you’ve been in the same place for 5 years. I would be *shocked* if we were able to move closer. Since I work at a university, and we’re pretty close now at 3.5 miles, anything closer is either Fancy… Read more »
About 3 years ago I was looking at a small office in a nice building with a front-desk receptionist, internet included, a parking space and a keyed mailbox for $500 in a nice mixed-development neighborhood just walking distance from my house. No lease required. Yes, it was the peak of the recession and they had a vacancy, but for $500, seemed like a steal. The thing is I often work overnight/weird hours and I didn’t want to be walking to the office at 11pm and back home at 4am just because I woke up in the middle of the night… Read more »
Well, it’s ultimately up to Jake, of course, and what works best for him. He usually works from 2 p.m. until 3 or 4 a.m. (with breaks in between, natch). Like you, his peak work efficiency starts around 11 p.m. So if he did rent a place and worked the hours that come naturally to him, I would be home alone most of the time. He is fortunate to be able to conduct 80% of his business over email and telephone. The majority of his clients are international and he never meets them in person at all. Of the other… Read more »
Ah, I see, then yes, sounds like what you need is sufficient space at home. But maybe just look into legal document storage facilities to avoid the clutter you describe– plus security for his papers (when I read about melted bank boxes I shuddered). I like driving, but I hate traffic. Give me a winding mountain road and a stick shift car and it’s the greatest fun ever. But being stuck behind texters and rubberneckers in a traffic jam is sheer torture. Anyway, one thing to do instead of the commute could be to go for a run or something.… Read more »
I don’t understand why you didn’t move after the first problem that your landlord didn’t fix. Surely that would have invalidated the lease?
No kidding – she had me until “five years”.
In my pre-emergency fund days, I didn’t have the options that I do now! Lesson learned 😉
And, sometimes it is hard to tell if things will just “keep getting worse” or if you’ve made it through “the worst of it.” Especially with housing, you could easily end up with another bad landlord, or loud neighbors, or who knows what.
I went through something similar this year — except in my case health and safety were at risk. (and aren’t you glad you don’t own that condo?)
It’s going to be hassle for a few months, but trust me when I saw it will all be worth it. I didn’t realize how stressed about my living situation I had become until I moved somewhere with less drama.
And I’ll second the point about emergency funds! It made my situation less stressful too!
Well, given our water issues, we are pretty certain there is mold in our walls/ceiling. So moving is a health consideration as well!
Glad you escaped the drama, hopefully we get a happy ending sooner rather than later!
I’m sorry that you’ve had to endure this!
But, it sounds like a move might be a good thing. Hopefully you can find a reasonably priced place that doesn’t have all of these problems! =)
Sounds like it be really good for the both of you to put this place behind you.
Maybe a good reason to buy a place…
Very nice of your husband to represent you pro bono.
Are you planning on being a long term renter or are you considering buying? I read about your rental problems and as a home owner I am on the hook for all of those repairs. Sometimes renting and sending the repair bills to someone else looks pretty good.
Haha, Jane, I was wondering if anyone would notice my joke about my husband agreeing to represent me! We would like to buy, but we really need another year to be in that position. And even if we were ready to buy right now, the fact that we have to be out of our current place by the end of the year doesn’t give us much time to find the right place. We have decided that when we do buy we want a freestanding house. The scary thing about sharing walls is that you can end up on the hook… Read more »
This just makes me really thankful for my landlord, and awesome property manager.
Thanks for the indirect reminder to go online and write a wonderful review for our awesome property managers. We look forward to owning a house someday, but in the meantime I sure do enjoy my within-24-hours maintenance response time!
My last landlords did most of everything themselves but they were amazing. Real people, honest, generous, fantastic– almost like an extra set of parents in that they were for us a role model of growing old together.
My landlord’s terrific too, so much so that a former tenant came back to our building when the opportunity presented itself. They left because they started a family, and I’m sure they would have stayed if a larger unit had opened up while they were still here.
Goodness! It sucks to have a landlord who doesn’t know how to take care of his tenants. We recently rented from a landlord who uses a property management company because I was afraid of having to deal with that. Hopefully you can get into a better situation!
Out of curiosity, are you renting directly from the landlord or are they going through a property management company? I am on the other side of things- as a landlord with an out-of-state rental property, it’s pretty necessary to utilize a property management (PM) company. The PM is constantly failing to respond to tenant requests, which makes me look bad. Or they’ll tell the tenants “the landlord said they don’t want to pay for that” when I’ve said no such thing. It’s a constant struggle to decide whether I should dump them and search long-distance for another PM, or deal… Read more »
We deal directly with the landlord. She won’t use a PM because of the cost. She also cancelled our homeowner’s warranty because of the cost.
Personally I’d replace them on the assumption that if they are lying to the tenants, they might be lying to me too.
I’m curious how you found that out about your PM company. I had to hire a PM co when I moved out-of-state, and I looked at reviews, etc. They said all the right stuff, but I had to hound them to put better photos on the internet (I gave them the photos!), and to advertise on Craigslist. So I don’t have a clue if they’re actually responding to tenants–never met the tenants. Like you, I want to have a responsive property management company, but I have no idea how to check if they really are.
That person gives landlords a bad name. Hope your situation improves quickly.
Agreed! As a landlord I’m actually embarrassed at how bad their experience was. We’ve postponed repairs on the house we live in (since we knew we could put up with inconvenience), but NEVER on our rental units. I’d recommend that Honey (and other renters) look up their rights as tenants in their community – you might be surprised at how many rights you do have. You don’t have to be a jerk about it, but knowledge of these will help you have a relationship where you don’t get taken advantage of by a cruddy landlord. I can’t imagine why Honey… Read more »
I would love a linkup to where I can find trustworthy information on renters rights. I live in New York state, and unfortunately there’s a plethora of information that applies only to New York City, and it’s very difficult to tell what applies here. We also have an out of state landlord and a property manager who lies about what’s supposed to have been done (and he lies to the landlord about us to discredit us when we inform him of what still hasn’t been done). We viewed the apartment and were told that it would be cleaned and that… Read more »
Wow, what a horror show! Defintely sounds like a landlord who really did NOT know what she was getting into!! And I feel bad for the other condo owners – a poorly maintained condo hurts the entire development. Have you been in your current community long enough to be able to know which apartments are well-maintained? Some larger complexes will have a dedicated maintenance staff that will not only take care of emergencies (in the middle of the night) but also, gasp!, do preventive maintenance! Other places may have a hands-on, responsible landlord. In my case I was lucky to… Read more »
I feel bad for anyone who owns a condo in our complex! A lot of the problems with our unit are obviously deferred maintenance, but they are just hands down the most poorly constructed places I have ever seen. Everywhere you look, walls are leaning at Tower of Pisa angles and stucco is peeling off to reveal rotting plywood beneath. What a nightmare.
All I could think as I was reading this was: “Why on earth did you live there for 5 years?”
I feel a lot more empowered now that my credit card debt has been paid off and I actually have money in my emergency fund! One of the big lessons here is the kind of stuff you have no choice but to put up with if your financial situation is precarious.
I sympathize with the maintenance issues. When we first got married, my wife was still a college student. We rented a tiny 450 square foot cottage behind a larger house because it was close to school and a short commute to work for me. It was almost immediately a nightmare – the couple we rented from had good intentions but were financially overwhelmed by three children and meager incomes from their jobs as public schoolteachers. They did not use a property management company and had repairs done by a personal friend who was doing the work on the side as… Read more »
Life is too short to commute and live in a crummy place! Good luck with your new condo!
Five years?! FIVE?
Why on earth would you stay in a place with a crap landlord for five years, particularly if you were making decent money?
Honey, good luck in finding a new apartment. I won’t say “better apartment” since nearly anything is going to be better than what you’ve endured. BTW, I second what you said about debt & lack of EF limiting your options. We personally had overall good fortune with responsive landlords who did not use property management companies – BUT what they ALL had in common was that the rental properties were paid off! In other words, none of our landlords desperately needed the rental income and all had the means to do any repairs promptly that were needed. It also meant… Read more »
I can completely understand not wanting to live in the student slums. Being in Boston I’ve seen what some of those places can be like!! However, if you can figure out where the *graduate* students live that could be a win win. Grad students tend to be quieter, but still need cheap rent.
Wow, you are tolerant. I would have moved out 4 1/2 years earlier. I hope you find a place to buy but you may have missed the low prices/low interest rates peak market. Good luck.
Good god that sounds horrible. I’m sure you’ll find something much nicer and closer to reduce your commute time. This should save you guys a ton on gas and vehicle expenses!
This reminds me of the cottage that my ex-husband and I moved into when we first got married. I won’t go into the gory details of what we went though but eventually an entire ceiling caved in one night during an El Nino storm (Bay Area in the early ’00). I definitely wont go without an emergency fund again!
There is no guarantee that a free standing house won’t have similar problems. Be very sure to get a thorough inspection, and while you are renting, do research on the home inspectors. They are not all equally good.
You may also want to have the soil checked; bentonite will swell and shrink and have to be removed because it destroys the foundation.
What a disaster. Sometimes the final straw is the push we need to say enough and move on. Blessing in disguise maybe?
That sounds like a nightmare! A home should be a place to retreat to where you feel comfortable, whether owned or rented.
I would feel safer renting in a complex with good ratings and run by a major management company.
Oh I hear you on this nightmare situation. Three years ago, I lived in an apartment in which the landlord decided that he hated me. He purposefully changed my locks, unauthorized my keycodes, rewired my phone intercom, and declined to accept two of my checks. One day, he was fixing the electricity in the building. He sent everyone notices but me of this work. Then, he turned off everyone’s gas but mine to do the repairs. Throughout that day, gas started seeping in to my tiny apartment. By the time I got home from work, the apartment was unlivable. If… Read more »
What a horrible experience for you! As far as talking to the next possible tenants, I’d’ve probably done it too!
I have yet to read the comments (will in a few minutes) but just wanted to say something. When you called the plumber/contractor/whoever to come out and fix problems with the unit, it was YOUR responsibility to be sure they got paid unless you make explicit arrangement before anyone does any work at all, including estimates. In many jurisdictions you would be able to withhold the amount of repair from your rent, but be sure to look into that with your city. I work with attorneys and HATE when I am told, “I am not paying your bill. Call my… Read more »
I hear you there about attorneys being slow to pay. They owe their vendors, whether or not or how quickly their clients pay them. I work in a law firm, and see this sort of thing more often than should ever happen. Sometimes the firm won’t pay the vendor’s bill until the client pays the firm’s bill. Which can be a problem if the client is slow about paying. Or the firm sends larger bills to the client for direct payment to the vendor. I once had to have a vendor reissue a bill because the client wouldn’t pay directly… Read more »
I rented a place in college that had several issues. One of the worst was the ants that would fall from the ceiling every time it rained. At the encouragement of my boyfriend, I read my states tenants rights, then wrote a letter to the landlord mentioning everything wrong with the unit that made it uninhabitable and asked to be released early from our lease, and they agreed! I woke up the last day to dirt falling on my face . They were replacing the roof before we vacated the apartment. Dirt fell the entire day as we moved the… Read more »
You must really hate moving – you’ve been over-paying for a deadbeat landlord in a unit unfit for human habitation? And they’re not a relative?? At least you know what to look for and ask before you sign a new lease! Moving is expensive but, as a landlord who fixes problems as soon as tenants report them (my property management company does anyways), and makes regular repairs and upgrades, I can only wish my good tenants would stay 5 years! Most of them save up and buy their own home once they decide they like the area. Hope you enjoy… Read more »
She mentioned that she didn’t have the money to move and that’s why they stayed so long. As a landlord, I, too, prefer to keep my good tenants happy, hoping that they’ll stay a long time.
Wow, I’m not sure I would have been able to put up with that for 5 years. I give you major props on that. I think I would have bailed after the first year.
So sorry to hear about the terrible landlord! I hope you have better luck in your new home. I have one question, did you guys have renters insurance? When I was looking at your list, I noticed a lot of things, (i.e.: sleeping at a friends house when the home was inhabitable) that would have been covered by a good insurance policy. Don’t rent a home without it! 😉
We do have renter’s insurance, it never occurred to me that they’d cover a hotel! Good to know.
Saturday night, a woman was sexually assaulted in the stairwell that’s 30 feet from my door, a stairwell that I was in myself after midnight that very night (dog had to go). The company refuses to provide basic security so we are organizing a tenant rebellion. I am hoping that we’ll do so much damage that they would prefer us gone over our rent. I HATE bad landlords, especially since I have been one!
Eep! That’s scary! Hope your rebellion goes well 😉
Wow! I’m so sorry to hear about such hassles. Being landlords for three places in DC, I’m always amazed when I hear about stories like this. As owners of rental units, we are extremely responsive and attentive to renters.
From our perspective it is all part of managing our investments. We are also happy when our renters are happy. So to hear we are the exception.
Good luck!
Miel
It is so sad to know that you have a landlord who can’t be trusted to make proper repairs in a timely manner. You paid the rent fee therefore I believe that it is just proper for the landlord to make some actions right away. Better get a new place so you won’t waste your time and money 🙂
I too find it hard to believe that Honey and husband spent 5 YEARS in a crappy rental with a crappy landlord!! The first year with that would have been more than enough for me to start looking for a new place to live, no matter what my financial situation…way too many stressors at what should be home!
I am sure you already are aware of this, but please make sure you know your state’s and city’s laws about return of security deposits. For example, in the mid-sized university city where I live, a landlord must return a security deposit in full within 21 days, or return a partial and explain why it is not the full amount. If LL does not, the tenant can sue in small claims court to get it back and it’s a slam-dunk for the tenant. (Yes, I used to practice LL/T law!)
While this sounds like a horrible rental situation for you guys, I think people should also read this as a warning to people who want to become landlords as well. Buying a home and immediately putting it up for rent is a good way to create a horrible tenant experience, and unhappy tenants are not going to stick with you. I’m sure that the landlord in this story didn’t expect the house to be a complete disaster and wasn’t prepared for the responsibility involved. That’s not an excuse for not dealing with things in a timely manner, or being rude… Read more »
I have a landlord horror story as well. I moved into our current townhouse (originally a 4 unit building converted to a 2 unit) in September 2011 with two roommates. When we rented we had also looked at the other half of the property owned by a separate owner but decided on this side because the landlord and his fiance are both professional property managers for a large buildings. It has turned out that we would have been better off avoiding them. It started as soon as we moved in, he was late showing up with the keys and the… Read more »
I think your landlord is related to my landlord, haha!
Many cities require rentals to be inspected. Check to see if that’s the case in your city, and make sure the landlord has a current inspection certificate. In theory the certificates are supposed to keep the home safe (no water leakage, fire hazards, etc)
My first apartment after college had major roof damage, so my unit (on the top floor) flooded like crazy when it rained. It was one of the most stressful things I’ve ever had to deal with. You and Jake seem super-human to me! I would have long since cracked under the stress you’ve put with for five years! Best of luck with a new property — here’s hoping it will be 200% better!
I’m sorry about your bad experience. It sounds like your landlord was overextended and has no business renting property. I have one rental house and use a management company. I make sure the property is maintained and have been making upgrades as necessary. The difference is I made sure I could handle the obligation before I took it on. The payoff is it’s always rented!
We rent right now, and our landlord is AWESOME. Unfortunately, the neighborhood is not. In fact, we live next door to a burglar. And it’s not hear-say that he’s a burglar. Shortly after he burgled another neighbor, a police officer who was investigating at his house spoke to my husband and informed him of the specifics. That being said, I suppose I should be glad that we’re renting the house next to the burglar, that’s much better than owning it! And we should be closing on our first house purchase this month! We can’t wait to get away from the… Read more »
Well, I have to applaud you for being able to even try and work with a landlord like that for as long as you did. I am about to make a serious move across country, and I certainly appreciated you sharing this story. BTW, I had a similar experience with my washing machine at my first apartment when I was in college too. Its leak was so bad that there would be about two inches of standing water in our kitchen. Needless to say that this wreaked havoc on our rug that ran right up to the kitchen. We had… Read more »
Have you considered renter’s insurance for your belongings? It’s only about $5-10/month to protect your things. It might have helped with the water damaged articles, boxes, etc. It only covers YOUR items, not the landlords.
I can SO relate! I only wish our landlord was being foreclosed on. We moved in to find mold in the kitchen cabinets and since then have had at least 20 repairs (in 2 months). The landlord always pays the bill (thank heaven) but we have basically been functioning as his agent to coordinate all of these repairs, taking time off from work to let the repair people in, etc. Total nightmare. So glad we only signed a one year lease!
I just have one main question – why would you stay 5 years with a landlord like that???
And I hope you have renter’s insurance!
We are moving ourselves because this place is lousy and getting worse, and the landlord is not stepping up.
I would never put up with such things for years, life is too short to live in a shoddy house.
Hope you guys find a great, safe, maintained place next.
As a tenant, I believe you have 90 days when you can stay in the place after its been auctioned. I also believe the bank has to pay for your move… My mom was in a situation like this (better place, but notice of auction), and we did a lot of googling. If the cost of moving is a lot, you might want to consider staying another month or two if you can get the bill paid. Also, if next month is your last month of your LL owning the place, why not have that month’s rent paid from your… Read more »