The shitty landlord.

There are some Landlords who are very concerned about their appartment buildings, who like it in a top shape and want to keep it for as long as they can. Unfortunetaly for me, my Landlord does not belong in that category.

He is the kind that THINKS he can fix stuff and renovate but in reality, he does a piss poor job in everything he attempts. He refuses to pay to get someone to fix anything because he can do it... When time allows it.

When I signed my lease for the appartment we had a few understandings:
1- The crack on the ceiling of the kitchen was to be patched. (Were talking 2 inches wide, 1.5 feet long crack...)
2- He was to install a small footing to prevent the floating floor from spacing out too much.
3- The kitchen floor was to be redone because the material in which it was, was detoriating.
4- He was to clean the only carpet of the appartment in the room. (We had originaly asked for it to be removed but he couldn't... there is a drain in the bed room that was not built properly and if he removes the carpet, the drain is exposed which means the whole room has to be redone... It also creates a bump in the room under the carpet. When you don't know it's there... You can knock out your little toe easily, it comes out the floor about an inch.)

This was in June 2004. He did change the floors of the kitchen. He installed big tiles of ceramic in the kitchen. Great, except for all the tiles he fucked up (broke in half cause he's clumsy) and instead of buying a new one, he put ciment in the crack and that results in a few ceramic tiles to actualy be a puzzle of 2-3 pieces of tile.

And that's all he did until I lost it back in June (2008) and I would like to note that my Landlord, was my upstairs neighboor until this July, he wasn't exactly far. Everyone has that shitty month where no matter what you do, you simply cannot come up with the rent on time. Usualy Landlords are pretty cool about it since it isn't on a regular basis. He was like that. I paid half the rent of February 2008 and told him i'd catch up the rest with small amount here and there. And I was paying him. One saturday morning in June 2008, 8:30AM my phone rings. It's Dan, my Landlord. He is rude, loud and screaming for his missing money saying he's been waiting... 4 months to receive the remaining balance. I lost it. I really snapped on the phone.

The first words to come out of my mouth were: ''What the fuck'', which sort of cut him off. It's fuckin' saturday 8:30 AM. You wake me up to scream at me? I carried on: ''Dan, you wanna talk about waiting? Take out my lease and read all the stuff you still haven't done. Do it Dan. I'm still waiting, 4 years later for my stopper for my floor which is all fucked up now. It has to be redone completely. I still have a 1.5 feet long by 2 inches wide crack in my kitchen which I have told you oh so many times about but you haven't done shit. I still have a leaking toilet, which I told you about a year ago. And I still have that hole you did in the small room in the ceiling not fixed. Wanna talk about waiting Dan? That's waiting for you.''

Here's the part I left out: I didn't rub it in his face that when I got in the appartment, June 2004, his wife had just come out of surgery to remove a cancerous part in her uterus. I didn't bug him, I understood. I waited 6 months before reminding him to which I was told: ''Oh yeah, soon''. Was I cool? I think so, maybe too much. They were things I could live with back then... Now I just can't stand it anymore.

So that morning, I woke up, signed him a check for the missing amount and went in my PJ bring it to him with the meanest look possible. He opened the door and he didn't even look me in the eyes. All he said was: ''Yeah sorry Chris... I think I may have been rude very early on...''. No shit Sherlock. He agreed to come check out the appartment and fix some stuff the next day. I was out that day so I told him he could come in and do whatever he had to do and we went over it again: The stopper for the floor but we have to redo the floor first, so wait for me so we can take off everything that's on the floor. Then the ceiling crack/hole in both rooms were to be patched and the toilet looked at.

Because he did not install the footing of the floating floor of the living room 3 years ago like it was originaly supposed to be, all the slats / floor slices / whatever you call it, all seperated from each other. Now the living room floor has spaces up to 2 inches wide seperated from each other. The day I was out, Sunday, he figured while i'm not there that he should just put the stopper and glue it solidely there. Thing is, he didn't fix the floating floor before. So now the floor is ''locked'' with all the spacing in between. Superficial? Maybe. It's just getting annoying to place my furniture in a way to ''hide'' as much as possible those cracks because if I don't, my floor looks like it was bombarded.

I don't think I need to say I was pissed at how fuckin' dumb that was on his part especialy since, 24h ago I told him: Wait for me, we'll take off everything and fix it. So I got home and saw that first which did not amuse me. Next in line, he had the ceiling plastered. Good he worked on it... Like a high school student. (I'm no pro but I recognize a shitty job when I see one) He also did not clean shit, so I have plaster all over my floor, I have all his tool, non-gathered, lying around everywhere and 2 huge fans in my way. For the record, i'd like to point out that it stayed that way until the next saturday.

So the next saturday he sanded the extra plaster (there was a LOT, first sign of a piss poor job of plaster) and then repainted the ceiling. He was then ''tired'' and said he'd look at the toilet the next day. He also did not clean the mess he made with the sander. But he packed all his tools and got out. I cleaned up and waited for him the next day. He ''forgot'' *wink wink* that he had soccer all day with his son that day. And the weekend after was July 1st or around and he was moving in his new house.

So he moved out and then had shit to do in his house. So I called him about it in Sept... Nothing. Oct... Nothing. Nov... Nothing and I didn't even bother trying in Dec or January. Instead I told him I was leaving in July but let's carry on with the story shall we?

So were the 2nd week of July, my landlord moved out, I have new upstairs neighboor and a ''fresh'' new ceiling for my kitchen! Hooray right? Wrong. I come home one night and to my surprise, my kitchen floor is flooded. The ceiling has water bells in it, some busted and leaking and all i'm thinking is: Well, this is gonna take another 4 years to fix. Turns out, the lady on the 3rd floor thought it would be a good idea to start her washing machine with a heavy load and then go out for grocery shopping. The pipe for the washer busted and the flooding went through both floors below. Call the landlord, he tells me he is on his way and he knows...

Wanna know what he did? He took MY towels to wipe most of the mess, basically, what I had done before he got here... then asked if I could take out my fans to dry it as much as possible, there was nothing more he could do at 8:30PM.

I still have a busted ceiling in the kitchen not fixed. The small room, which we could call the baby room still has a huge hole in the ceiling. Funny story about that hole... It was in 2006... (Yup, 2 years ago, still not fixed.) He buys a new dishwasher and he asked his 7 year old son to ''tighten'' the washer that makes sure no water leaks. Now who in their right fuckin' mind asks a 7 year old who can't open the god damn pickle jar, to screw something ''tight'' to make sure there is no water issues. Well he trusted his son and went on to start his washer. Well it created a huge mess in my office, which almost costed 2000$ because all my computer equipment was there and the water leak was huge. I had to run, unplug everything, then start putting baskets under the leak to make it stop then get him. All he did was dry it up, punch the hole in the paint and it remained that way since.

So as you can see, water issues in that building are numerous and I happen to know the previous person who rented my appartment. He added more history to it, then factor in my many water issues (And take note that for 4 years, at least once a month I had to mop my kitchen floor dry because the crack leaked.) and you have one fucked up building on the inside.

The saddest part is, nothing is going to be done about it. I could be a dick, write to the office of appartment and register a complaint and the whole 9 yards. Except I don't. I know I should but at the point at i'm at, I know i'm leaving, i'm just thinking: ''Why''? I do have the complaint made with pictures to back it up. All he has to do is piss me off once until June / July and the files are being sent.

The other sad part is... He will probably not even fix half the shit that's wrong with my appartment and he will still be able to rent it to another sucker.

I'm gone in July, thankfuly but it's also a shame that I will never trust another landlord again. I will follow them until I get what I need. But also, I learned a lesson. I'm never taking an appartment that has ''stuff'' to do in it prior to my arrival. My next appartment will be ready to move in when I get it.

*End rant*