Landlord Blames The Girl

[LillFilly]

I recalled this from a little while back. My BF and I were helping a male friend of ours move into a room he was renting. I don't recall seeing the homeowner, but apparently he saw me! A short time after we helped our friend move he moved out of that house. One of the reasons was the landlord was a D**k. A few days after moving in, the house had some plumbing problems and was backing-up. The landlord confronted our friend and told him that the problem MUST BE that "Your girlfriend must have flushed a maxi pad down the toilet! If the plumber finds anything like that in the system YOU'RE going to be paying for it!" His excuse when our friend denied it was something along the lines of women are dumb and don't know any better! Funny thing, I didn't even use their bathroom. In any case, what the plumber ACTUALLY found was that tree roots had started growing into the pipes, but the landlord still tried to get our friend to chip-in for costs! Uh, no. And I believe he told the landlord off before he moved too!

[blas]

Oh dear, sounds like the maintenance guys for the property management company I rent from. They've never said anything along the lines of sexist, but my two neighbors and I are always hesitant to even call for anything, because we get blamed for it. And at last spring's inspection, I got reamed for having light bulbs that were burnt out. This was because I didn't actively cook at the time, and that light had always been out. I was told that I need to call ANYTIME something like that happens. Well, FFS, when it burnt out again, they told me to replace it myself!

My neighbor on the one side, his fridge stopped working and he had to wait 3 days for another one, because one day, they wanted him to make sure it didn't work, the next day, well ok fine, we'll order it, but you must have done something to break it, and the third day, they installed a new one and told him that it must be because he had the temp settings too cold and not to do that.

[PepperElf]

women are dumb and don't know any better!

I seriously suggest posting that at www.apartmentratings.com and at the local apartment review pages as well.

That way other renters have a heads up that he'll try to blame stuff on you, and that he may treat women like shit... (which can be discrimination, a big no-no for renting)

[Bright_Star]

Oh dear, sounds like the maintenance guys for the property management company I rent from. They've never said anything along the lines of sexist, but my two neighbors and I are always hesitant to even call for anything, because we get blamed for it. And at last spring's inspection, I got reamed for having light bulbs that were burnt out. This was because I didn't actively cook at the time, and that light had always been out. I was told that I need to call ANYTIME something like that happens. Well, FFS, when it burnt out again, they told me to replace it myself!

My neighbor on the one side, his fridge stopped working and he had to wait 3 days for another one, because one day, they wanted him to make sure it didn't work, the next day, well ok fine, we'll order it, but you must have done something to break it, and the third day, they installed a new one and told him that it must be because he had the temp settings too cold and not to do that.

Why would you call someone to have light bulbs replaced? Anybody can do that themselves! What kind of power play crap is that??

[Willis]

I remember I asked the landlord for a new A/C unit in my apartment. They kept doing stupid work orders and the maintenance guys would come by, take out the filter and rinse it out outside. They'd look at me like I was an idiot the whole time. I didn't know that's what it took, if I did I would've done it myself. I started doing that and it still blew warm air instead of cold. I realized my first thought was right. That A/C unit was a piece of shit.

After a while I couldn't take it anymore because it was too damn hot. I went back to management and asked for a new unit. They kept saying they'd do a work order and I refused. They asked me what I wanted to do and I said I just told you, I need a new unit, mine doesn't work. I told them I'd been here for a couple years too long already and they finally relented. Maintenance came by. First thing one of them did was check the filter to try and make me seem like and idiot. I told him don't even I already cleaned it. I said "it's hot in here isn't it?" He was like yea. Thought so lazy asses. They brought in a brand new A/C and the thing is awesome. Funny thing to this whole story? Management's A/C works perfect and has always blown cold air as long as I've been here. Their shit is always up to date and working order. Most of the people's A/C units look like they're from the early 80's.

[Captain Trips]

I had to sue my landlady 14 years ago over this. Our drains backed up, called her to call a plumber, and her boyfriend/manipulator got on the phone, yelled at me, and said "YOU caused it! How could WE know what YOU shoved down the drains?!" But they did send a plumber, and I agreed that, if they find it was our fault, we would pay. (That's only fair, right?)

What was it? Tree roots. From plants HER gardener planted BEFORE we moved in!

She still kept the cost of the plumber from our deposit. When I called her, she said, "if you think I owe it to you, THEN SUE ME!"

I sued. (Small claims.)
I won.




Here in California, the civil code says that the landlord "must maintain the residence in a tenantable condition." This means working drains, of course. Of course, she knew nothing of California's landlord laws, or when we looked at the house to begin with she wouldn't have said, "I won't rent to gays - I will NOT have someone die of AIDS in MY house." (It used to be her and her husband's residence, but when he died she put it up for rent. I once caught her almost entering the house unannounced, and here it's a 48 hour notification before a landlord can set foot on the property.)

Eh, she's better off wherever she is now -- I'll bet it's rather hot.

[Kogarashi]

My last singles apartment had a bit of a problem with a "blame the tenants" maintenance staff. The apartments were furnished (college student residences), and furnished as cheaply as possible. If something broke, the first question the maintenance guy would ask was "were you jumping on it?" Our crappy ancient couch had one of its legs crack and snap the wooden frame due to age. Sure enough, "were you jumping on it?" The crappy molded plastic chair with metal legs that I used at my computer collapsed underneath me one evening while I was sitting still on it (solder/welding holding the leg framework together just split). Guess what? Yep. "Were you jumping on it?" O.o

The shower stall floor at that place was stained dark grey and could not be cleaned no matter how much it was scrubbed with CLR and a heavy-bristled brush. Each apartment inspection, the property management lady would look in there, tell me it wasn't clean enough (the bathroom was my task out of my three roommates and I), and give me a day to clean it again. Then she'd come back, tell me it still wasn't clean enough, and decide to "show me how it's done" by taking our brush and CLR and tackle it. Then she'd see how it was stained and not coming up, and go, "Oh," and mark it off (with no apologies or anything). And sure enough, the very next month we'd go through the same thing. Didn't matter if I told her we'd done this before, surely this time it would come off.

And then there was our last inspection before we moved out. I borrowed the office's tenant-use vaccuum cleaner to do the floors. I noticed the cord was a bit frayed right around the plug, but the management lady (same one) said it was fine. I plugged it in the socket in the first room and felt a little zap in my fingers. Ooookaaaaay.... Did the floors there, then went upstairs. Plugged it in the next socket, and BOOM! Brief flash, cord and plug part ways, leaving the plug in the outlet. I wasn't about to touch that thing again, so I told maintenance, and they came to take out the plug and ask if I'd been yanking on the cord instead of the plug to unplug it (because obviously it's my fault the 30+-year-old vaccuum with the previously frayed cord only broke because I yanked on it).

I've never been more glad to quit an apartment complex. Didn't help that management liked to drag their heels getting things fixed. Worst was when we had a leak in the hallway near the mailboxes. Some workers had been doing something to the building's roof there, left it half-done overnight and uncovered despite a rain forecast, and then were surprised when it actually rained and started to leak down through the apartments there and into the hallway. It dripped into oversized trash bins for over a month before it was fixed, not because the tenants asked management to get it fixed (which we did), but because the tenants wrote to the local newspapers, who then came and did a story about the month-long leaky roof and other issues with the complex.

We also had a brief problem with the mailman. My roommates and I were in the very last unit in the building, and therefore the last mailbox in the row. The unit across the hall from us (second-to-last) had been empty for a few months by this point. My roommates and I noticed that some of our mail wasn't being delivered, including an important package two roommates needed for some freelance translation work they were doing. After a while, I (in possession of the mail key at the time) noticed our mailbox wasn't opening anymore because it was stuck, and it looked like it was because the mailbox for the empty unit next to ours was full of junkmail. I told management, they came up with a key, and opened the neighboring box with much difficulty due to paper stuck in the latch. Not only was there a crapton of junk mail in there that shouldn't have been (either the mailman was informed that the unit was empty and wasn't supposed to deliver the junk, or management was supposed to empty the box regularly and didn't), but there was also our missing mail, including a badly mangled softcover book my roommates needed for their translation job. Grr....

Why would you call someone to have light bulbs replaced? Anybody can do that themselves! What kind of power play crap is that??

Depends on the apartment, I'm sure.

My last singles apartment had light fixtures that were bolted shut, so if a bulb went out, we had to call maintenance to get it fixed.

Hubby's and my first married apartment, we were in charge of all light fixtures except the fluorescent bulb in the kitchen, which was a maintenance issue to keep inexperienced tenants from breaking the bulbs (which contain small amounts of mercury).

Our current apartment, the only lights in the place are the fluorescents in the bathroom and kitchen, and the regular bulb in the hallway, and we are asked by management to put in a maintenance request to have all three replaced if necessary. All other lighting is covered by tenant-owned lamps that plug into the outlets that are switch-controlled (one per non-lit room).

[Argus]

Why would you call someone to have light bulbs replaced? Anybody can do that themselves! What kind of power play crap is that??

Their fixture, their bulbs, their responsibility, their expense. Although in my case, I've established that I get antsy about anyone entering my apartment and that I can easily replace the bulbs myself, so each light bulb call I make results in a box of four bulbs hanging from my door when I get home from work. (And then my next three burnt-out bulbs get replaced with a speed that beats emergency calls, because I'm grabbing a spare from the cupboard rather than picking up the phone.)

[Primer]

Why would you call someone to have light bulbs replaced? Anybody can do that themselves! What kind of power play crap is that??

My last singles apartment had light fixtures that were bolted shut, so if a bulb went out, we had to call maintenance to get it fixed.

In '96, when I first moved out completely on my own, into my very own apartment, the outside light over the front door was burned out. It was a standard fixture, taking a standard bulb, so I climbed up on a chair and attempted to open the fixture. It was at an awkward position, and I had a difficult time reaching. In the long run, I was unsuccessful. I talked to the complex manager and explained the situation to them, and asked if they could please change the bulb for me.

When I got home from work the next day, I had a whole new fixture!

[LadyAndreca]

Heh. I'm not looking forward to having to get maintenance in here again. About a year after we moved in, three years ago now, the ceiling of our bathroom caved in, because of a leak in the pipes. Maintenance moves fast when it's an emergency, and they fixed the pipes and had a new ceiling up and painted by the next day. (Though, they had to shut off water to the entire building because our upstairs neighbors WOULD NOT understand "do not use any water while we repair this" and tried to continue taking a shower...then wash dishes...)

Well, last week, a large chunk of paint fell from the ceiling...

[Kogarashi]

Sounds like our current place, Andreca. A handful of months ago, we had to call maintenance because our bathroom ceiling started buckling and dripping into our apartment whenever we heard the water in our upstairs neighbors' bathroom going. Maintenance was slow as molasses actually responding (until we mentioned possible ceiling collapse), but when they did show they discovered that the upstairs bathroom had leaky wall and floor tiles, as well as leaky places around the faucet heads and the shower knob, and despite the neighbors' best efforts, water would get in the miniscule cracks and pool in the space between their floor and our ceiling. It had been doing it for years (long before either of our families moved in), and was finally going. We actually had bowls in the bathroom to catch the falling water.

Well, they tore out the ceiling on ours, looked around and couldn't find a leak, and put in the new sheetrock panel. They said they'd send the painters over when they could.

Sure enough, I noticed water dripping around the sheetrock panel. I called it in again, different guys came and pulled the panel, and this time they went upstairs and splashed water around until they found the leaky spots. They caulked those up, had us wait about three or four weeks with the hole in our ceiling, then had to be called again because they'd forgotten they hadn't actually finished the job yet. (Seriously. I called to tell them we still had a hole in our ceiling, and the person on the phone said, "Oh, this says they patched it up already because there wasn't a leak." I had to point out that it started leaking again after the patch job, and was pulled again.)

Since there were no leaks in that month between gaping hole and most recent call, they felt they could patch and paint it this time and it seems to be pretty good so far.

Some friends across the courtyard from us had an even more version. The summer they moved in, the upstairs apartment was vacating, but the downstairs tenants wanted to switch to the upstairs apartment so as not to have people thumping around on their ceiling anymore. So they moved up, and our friends moved into the downstairs apartment instead. About a year later or so, FriendWife noticed leaking in her bathroom ceiling and called maintenance. After coming and investigating, the maintenance guys said that the tile floor in the upstairs apartment was degrading, but they weren't sure why, but that was causing the leakage. FriendWife then showed them her bathroom floor and asked if it looked like that.

Yep. The tenants who had moved upstairs were very bad about keeping bath/shower water inside the tub, and had been degrading the bathroom floor by spilling big puddles all over it and not cleaning them up. There was leak damage visible in the basement under our friends' apartment, and those tenants were repeating the job in the upstairs apartment. I believe both floors have been fixed since then, and the upstairs tenants given a reminder lecture about keeping the water in the tub area so as not to cause damaging leaks.

[telecom_goddess]

I had a similar situation with my last apartment building. I was on the top floor, and had neighbors below me. Well SOMETHING was leaking in our bathroom, not sure even now what or where....but we had to deal with our whole tub surround being torn out, the toilet being torn out, and not having use of our bathroom all day one day and for about 2 days when they put a new tub surround in and were letting the seal/caulk stuff dry. They removed the faucets and handles and refused to put them back in until they decided it was dry enough cause they didn't trust us. When it continued to leak after that we had the lower wall behind our toilet torn out for god knows how long. And they put duct tape on the shower curtain, taping it TO THE WALL cause they didn't think we knew how to keep water in the tub.

I moved out of there soon after so I don't know if the leak ever got completely fixed or not. This is the same place where the knob on the pipe leading from the toilet to the pipes BLEW OFF and sprayed high pressure water for about 20 minutes, flooding the place, till the water supply could be gotten to underground and turned off. By the fire department cause it was Easter and the office was closed and their emergency people were like "we'll take a message" FUCK your message this is URGENT. Yeah we flooded out the downstairs neighbors that day and I felt horrible about it.

That place was messed up as far as plumbing goes.

[Pagan]

The landlord confronted our friend and told him that the problem MUST BE that "Your girlfriend must have flushed a maxi pad down the toilet! If the plumber finds anything like that in the system YOU'RE going to be paying for it!" His excuse when our friend denied it was something along the lines of women are dumb and don't know any better!

I got something along those lines just after I moved into my place. There was something wrong in the tank on the toilet and it wasn't flushing properly. Took about 4 tries to finally get it fixed. The jackass maintenance guys at the time kept snaking it, convinced it was plugged. Even left a note not to flush q-tips. There was no evidence I was doing that (which I don't think would have plugged it anyway). They jumped to that conclusion because I had a container of them sitting on the shelf above the toilet. I finally left a note on the toilet seat telling them to look in the tank. (I can diagnose problems, but don't necessarily know how to fix them.)

Heh. I'm not looking forward to having to get maintenance in here again. About a year after we moved in, three years ago now, the ceiling of our bathroom caved in, because of a leak in the pipes.

Well, last week, a large chunk of paint fell from the ceiling...

I've got a "non-existent" leak in the ceiling over my bar. It was leaking several years ago, got fixed and it was fine until around Christmas. There was a hole and a water stain. I told the office that it was intermittent and didn't seem to have any pattern. Well, maintenance guy looks at it, not dripping at the time, says "there's no leak". Ok, fine, I'll keep an eye on it. Starts dripping off and on again. Another work order, still says there's no leak. Meanwhile, hole and water stain are getting bigger. Que 3rd WO. They patch the hole and paint over it, still saying there's no leak. It was fine for about a month annnnnn guess what? Yep, dripping again and hole developing....but there's no leak.

I'm pretty sure it's nothing to do with my pipes as it will have been/be dripping whe I get home from work (having been gone 9 hours) or when I get up in the morning (again, about 8/9 hours).

[Mr Hero]

Some people claim there's a woman to blame.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Some people claim there's a woman to blame.

But I know... it's all somebody's fault.