If there are a group of people with worse reputations than lawyers, it might be insurance salespeople.....and landlords. I personally haven't had too much issue with landlords (usually I'm dealing with apartment companies), but recently I've been dealing with an issue with my sister's former landlord and living vicariously through the nightmare that can be dealing with a bad landlord.
I HAVE dealt with a bad AirBnB "host" which gave me a good idea of what it's like out there in the real world: It was an apartment in Queens, where I need a place to stay for just a couple nights, and I booked a place with someone named "Laura." Laura immediately made my Spider-senses tingle when she mentioned I'd have to pay some sort of extra New York tax on top of what I'd already paid through AirBnB even before I had gotten to the listing. Then, when I came a little late to the AirBnb later at night than I had anticipated due to a delayed fight, Laura refused to let me in and threatened to cancel. However, when I called AirBnb to resolve the situation, they called her to give me "another chance" (like I'm sort of repeat offender committing crimes!) and she was gracious enough to give me another chance........to sleep on the couch of her living room with 2 other people in the room. It was worth than a hostel: this woman was staying in a basement apartment with her son in one bedroom and her occupying another, and she rented out the living room for 2/3 guests a night to share in this wonderful family environment. Borderline tenant lifestyle. While I was living there, she would conduct business on AirBnb in front of me, and make shady statements on the phone like "can I get the fee even if I cancel on the renter, even though this is their fault?" For me it was like watching fellow lambs get taken to the slaughter, but even more alarmingly Laura didn't think it was improper to have me in the room witnessing this take place. What really gave proof to MJ's admission that I have a "strong stomach" is that on a couple occasions a would-be renter would come in to the apartment, look around briefly at the accomodations, and just leave, never to come back. I was the poor schmuck that stayed. Finally, mercifully on the day I left that place, I wrote a semi-harsh review on AirBnb something like "pros and cons...." not a blistering hack job, but gave the realistic pros and cons of the place, Laura messaged me immediately after I published it cursing me out for what I thought was just telling the truth, and not in even a mean-spirited way. That was the last I heard from Laura, and the last time I used AirBnb.
(If I ever get famous enough to write a memoir, I will have a whole section devoted specifically to the summer of 2019 living in New York City from place to place........the depth of AirBnb and "alternate accomodations" is mindblowing).
The lesson from that long story is, there are just bad landlords out there. There's really no reasoning with them, no negotiating, no way to improve them/change them, they are unreasonable by nature, likely because they have to deal with some bad apple tenants that are as bad or worse than they are. So for us living in the land of civility and reasonableness, it's just best to end the relationship with those people as soon as possible; the longer you stay (like my sister did for 2 years! A running saga of ups-and-downs, mostly downs with this landlord) the longer you extend the misery and increase the chances of them screwing you over like charging you for repairs in common areas even though you didn't cause it and there are 5 other people living in the unit, stuff like that. And how do you know a bad landlord in the first place? I guess it's hard to tell, but calling them beforehand helps, or meeting them......maybe just get a Spidersense that something is off. I've certainly learned my lesson.
No comments:
Post a Comment