Sighting! In my own house!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I find the fact that the guy cut the chain and then insisted on standing there to be absolutley suspicious. Think about it...he KNEW you were home. He knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. How else would the chain get fastened unless someone was home? You can't secure a chain lock from the outside.

[Broomjockey]

The finally arrive at 200 and I'm so pissed and angry I can't even speak...Not like they could understand though considering they were immigrants.

I fail to see what their status as immigrants has to do with the story. Remember, unless it helps to set the story, references like that should be left out.

[tollbaby]

Up here, it's a law (well, in Ontario and Quebec it is anyway, I think it's provincial) that they have to notify you IN WRITING 24 hours before entering your apartment. I can't imagine having a maintenance person enter uninvited.

[blas]

Tollbaby, it's the law around here, supposedly. There are some slumlords though and really, really suspicious landlords who have been known to not abide by it, though.

One of my coworkers and her boyfriend broke their lease and moved out a week after she came home from work one morning at 7:30 am and the landlord was IN THE LIVING ROOM checking out all their pictures and stuff!

My biggest complaint at my old apartment was tenants were NEVER notified if there was to be maintenance being done. All the siding around the windows was to be done in a two-three day span, and the guy just pulled up one day, parking across 3 parking spots, and pounded and pounded until 5 pm and I didn't sleep either day, while my neighbor's kids screamed in terror all day.

[mariamousie1]

You probably would have gotten away with it if you beat the crap out of him. How do you know he wasn't a burglar/rapist/murderer? Who just walks into someone's house?

[Primer]

WOW, all this makes me feel a lot better about the apartment I lived in for 5 years. It was not in the best part of town (not even close!), but I did always get written notice ahead of time if maintenance/pest control was to come in for any scheduled work. They did not charge me for the carpet in the living room that had to be replaced after I left-- my desk chair wore a hole in it. Whenever I requested something to be done, it was, and within a reasonable amount of time (not that I requested much). I even got back almost all of my deposit!

The only thing they tried to give me a hard time about was the front porch light was burned out when I first moved in, and I asked them to change it. I had already tried, but cold not reach it well enough to get a good enough grip on the screws to remove the cover. When I got home from work, I had a new fixture! Apparently the old fixture had been painted shut, and even maintenance could not open it without destroying it!

[FenigDurak]

Holee Kau, NA! Please update us on your reaming. I'm looking forward to it!

The maintenance guys for my 2nd apartment weren't so bad. They were all contracted out.
The guy for my last apartment though was something of a pest. My disposal stopped working after I moved in. He came in while I was gone (which was fine) to fix it, but left grease all over the sink, counters and floor. Tracked mud onto the NEW carpet that HE had just installed 2 weeks prior, and then left me without a kitchen sink for 2 days waiting on a part.
The best part is the cigarette butt he extinguised in a glass and left on the counter. I dont' smoke and I certainly didn't leave any glasses out. He had to look for one, and fill it before putting out the cigarette he was smoking in my nice clean apartment.

[Jack7957]

I was able to break my lease several months early due to the management company not following the lease rules. Here's a cut-n-paste from the letter I sent them....

Per my phone conversation on August 17th, 2004 with Julie at your office, I will be vacating my apartment on August 31st. My reasons for leaving are as follows:

The water leak that soaked the carpet in the above apartment on December 10, 2003. Per the Apartment Rules and Regulations policy that I received with my lease when moving in during November of 2001, repairs were not made in a reasonable amount of time. As paragraph 10 of the lease agreement states, the landlord has 30 days to decide whether to repair and damage due to accidents. While I was given within the 30 days that the carpet would be replaced, it was not within a reasonable amount of time as required in the same paragraph.

The landlord has also failed to follow the rules under paragraph 3, “Access”, where upon entry by a representative to do maintenance, the representative will leave a card explaining the purpose behind the entry when the tenant is not there, and who the representative was. In addition, during the water leak, the representative used some sort of vacuum to suck up the water and plaster out of the carpet, then dumped the contents into the tub located in the bathroom of the apartment, where I had to then clean the tub before being able to use it.

I had also notified the landlord in April that I wanted the garage door repaired on the unit that I am renting. During the winter, water leaked underneath the concrete, and then froze, causing the concrete to expand up, leaving me unable to fully close the door. The landlord has failed to give me notice of their decision within the 30 days required under the lease agreement.

Under paragraph 6 of the rules, “Parking”, non-functioning vehicles are not to be kept in the parking lot longer than 10 days. There are times that it looks like a junk yard in the parking lots. Currently there is a black Jeep Cherokee with a flat tire, no plates, and no registration sticker, that has been in the lot longer than 10 days, with no visible notice attached to the vehicle to notify the owner that it will be removed per the rules agreement.

[Imogene]

I knocked!

"Did you? I wonder..."

Or...
"I know, I heard you, Simon."

Take your pick.

[donruss]

I am currently selling my house right now. Realtor called one morning to request an appointment to show the home between 2-3pm. I told him that my roommate goes to work at 3pm and that he should be done getting ready by 2:30 so 2:30-3pm will be OK, but not before then. I leave roommate a message on voicemail. What happens? People show up at 2:15 and Realtor walks in on him while in the shower.

HE IS MEGA-PISSED!!!

People were on other side of house when Realtor walked in on him. Did the group walk outside for a few minutes like normal people in this situation would? Of course not, they proceed to go look at the rest of the house while he is standing in shower naked and work clothes are in other room. Needless to say I got a very angry call from him while at work.

Seriously people, when I say 2:30-3pm, I MEAN FROM 2:30-3PM!!! HOW FRIGGIN' DIFFICULT IS THAT??? If they had kept to the time I indicated, this would have been no issue at all. Keep in mind that this is by appointment only on showing the house.

[Reyneth]

I think it has to do with assuming if no one answered, no one is home. *shrugs* I understand that they usually have lots to do and can't sit around waiting on me, but I do think the guy should have gotten the heck out of there immediately once asked, instead of giving stupid answers for too darn long.

My complex has a good policy for such situations. When you put in the request, you can check off a box saying it's ok for the person to come in if you don't answer the door. I think I've even said "can come in after 10:00AM if I don't answer." If you don't check the box, you know that people won't come in without your knowledge, but you also indicate that you know that if you aren't there, you go to the bottom of the list.

Emergencies exempted, of course.

[blas]

Ok guys, it's one of those moments where I changed my mind again!

I got back from my Christmas shopping on Friday afternoon, and I saw the familiar maintenance guys' vehicle. I said hello to him and we bullshitted a bit, then I went inside and put my stuff away. Minutes later my doorbell rang. He asked if he could come in and make sure I had properly put my air conditioning sleeve on top of my unit this winter. I showed him that it never moved because I'd never even gotten an air conditioner this last summer.

He then said "Well good thing you're home, I've been going through everyone's apartments making sure that their sleeves are properly attached."

I realized at that moment that when we were bullshitting before, he had came out of my neighbor's apartment with an old sleeve in his hand. He was just letting himself into everyone's apartments! Now, yes, it was just for a routine check, yes, legally the apartments don't belong to us, but how creepy is that?!

Thank gord I was home!

[Rapscallion]

Was he old?

Rapscallion

[blas]

What the hell does that matter?! What the hell does that even have to do with what I just wrote?

It's creepy that someone is going in and out of apartments without notice or permission....he had the master keys and was just letting himself in. I was home, so he didn't do it to me or anyone else who was home. I was just stating that I'd changed my mind because BEFORE, I'd never experienced the landlords or this guy ever doing something like this.

[Rapscallion]

What the hell does that matter?! What the hell does that even have to do with what I just wrote?

We're older! We're scary in ways even we don't realise. Oh, every birthday, it's like a switch gets flicked in my head and I descend deeper into a pit of immoral licentiousness.

Rapscallion