Landlords

[Sparko]

Of Kafka's stories I think "In The Penal Colony" was my favorite.

There is a nice reference to "The Metamorphosis" in an old Gang of Four "love song" with an anthrax metaphor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsEympD_h8E

Partial to the Hunger Artist, myself.

[ousdahl]

So the landlord asked us to service his hot tub for him. Sure, no prob. He said to write an invoice and send it with the rent check. Okey dok.

Beav goes to the local hot tub joints and asks how much their services run. $200 for a full “drain and fill,” where they come out to clean the whole thing and change the water and filters and chemicals and everything. Ok, but that seems steep for the landlord. Let’s give him a half donut discount.

But it turns out, the landlord didn’t think half the market rate was a good enough deal for us to give him. Now he’s pissed.

So who’s the asshole?









(Quick, someone say of course I’m the asshole!)

[jfish26]

I’m not following. Your landlord asked you to coordinate service on a hot tub at the property you rent from him, you spent money, and now the landlord won’t pay?

[jhawks99]

I think the landloard wanted Q to do the work for like 20 bucks, but who knows. I think he did the ole wake and bake again.

[TDub]

don't say yes to landlords maintenance requests. That's his job to coordinate. Act like an adult and handle your business, this isn't difficult stuff.

Also why would you perform a service at half market rate when you don't know what you're doing? If you do the repairs and damage the system you're taking on responsibility that is way over $100.

[Shirley]

don't say yes to landlords maintenance requests. That's his job to coordinate. Act like an adult and handle your business, this isn't difficult stuff.

Also why would you perform a service at half market rate when you don't know what you're doing? If you do the repairs and damage the system you're taking on responsibility that is way over $100.

Damn, harsh.

I assume you've let the landlord know the deal you gave him, half-off what it would have cost him?

If not, I'd start there.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

So the landlord asked us to service his hot tub for him. Sure, no prob. He said to write an invoice and send it with the rent check. Okey dok.

Beav goes to the local hot tub joints and asks how much their services run. $200 for a full “drain and fill,” where they come out to clean the whole thing and change the water and filters and chemicals and everything. Ok, but that seems steep for the landlord. Let’s give him a half donut discount.

But it turns out, the landlord didn’t think half the market rate was a good enough deal for us to give him. Now he’s pissed.

So who’s the asshole?









(Quick, someone say of course I’m the asshole!)

3+ questions.....

1. What exactly did he mean by "service"?
2. He wanted you to be out your own money to do it for him? Fuck that.
3. If your landlord is pissed at you for that - it's probably time for you find a new landlord. What would happen if you broke the lease early? Would he bother to sue you for the missed payments?

If I were you I would service the landlord's wife.
Either a) He breaks your bones and/or kills you, b) He thanks you, c) He kicks you out of the apartment and then you find somewhere else to live, d) You can demand (or at least ask him for) a discount on rent for servicing his wife.
Only one of those seems like a bad result to me.

[TDub]

don't say yes to landlords maintenance requests. That's his job to coordinate. Act like an adult and handle your business, this isn't difficult stuff.

Also why would you perform a service at half market rate when you don't know what you're doing? If you do the repairs and damage the system you're taking on responsibility that is way over $100.

Damn, harsh.

I assume you've let the landlord know the deal you gave him, half-off what it would have cost him?

If not, I'd start there.

not really that harsh. Its pretty sound advice.

I could be harsher.

[Overlander]

He asks you to get it done, with no parameters.

You would be dumb to take on that responsibility.

You also should not be surprised that he wants you to discount what he wouldn't have the balls to negotiate himself.

[ousdahl]

Question for property owners:

If you have, say, a hearing problem or a plumbing problem or some problem for which you need a service tech to come check it out, what’s the experience with the scheduling of that service?

Our heater has been acting funny for weeks, and our landlord insists he’s called 2 different companies about it, but haven’t heard back.

Now, he sends a text that the heater guy can come but only if me or beav can meet him at the house in the next 30 minutes, even tho we’re both at work, you know, cuz it’s a weekday, and that’s what working-age adults do.

And for every sort of maintenance or service or property management anything, it’s always been this way - some last-minute drop everything and accommodate sort of chaos.

So is it more likely the high-maintenance one is the heater guys, or the landlord?

Or, trick question, the high maintenance one must be me.

[TDub]

the high maintenance one is for sure you....

but, resort town in the mountains in January?

yea, HVAC techs are hard to schedule.

everybody is busy, there aren't enough tradesmen, and particularly this time of year trying to get a tech out when it isn't a complete emergency is very difficult.

[TDub]

they finish jobs early, have time to squeeze a service call in and call their list to see who can be there when they are there. the person that can be there gets the service in that time slot. It's infill work between other schedule work or emergency work. If the person can't be there to let them in they arent wasting their time going over there.

SOP for service calls, especially for winter.

[DeletedUser]

Being an adult isn't nearly as hard as you make it look, Ousdahl.

[TDub]

Being an adult isn't nearly as hard as you make it look, Ousdahl.

agent of change!















now can someone change the air filter on my furnace?





and why can't it happen right this second when its most convenient for me? ahhhhh

[japhy]

Question for property owners:

If you have, say, a hearing problem or a plumbing problem or some problem for which you need a service tech to come check it out, what’s the experience with the scheduling of that service?

Our heater has been acting funny for weeks, and our landlord insists he’s called 2 different companies about it, but haven’t heard back.

Now, he sends a text that the heater guy can come but only if me or beav can meet him at the house in the next 30 minutes, even tho we’re both at work, you know, cuz it’s a weekday, and that’s what working-age adults do.

And for every sort of maintenance or service or property management anything, it’s always been this way - some last-minute drop everything and accommodate sort of chaos.

So is it more likely the high-maintenance one is the heater guys, or the landlord?

Or, trick question, the high maintenance one must be me.

Easy answer. You don't respond to the text until after you get off work. "Couldn't be there, was busy at work".

As a remote property owner, you can ask the basement dwellers if they have time to meet the repair/maintenance people, but you know it's not always possible. And that's not the tenant's problem. Getting someone in a remote mountain town to work on your place is a crap shoot. So you put a lockbox on the back door and tell the maintenance person where it is and the combination. In the Empire we have a wifi enabled lock that we can open from KC to let people in and it notifies us when they leave so we can lock the door behind them. And there is Victor the Knife's liquor store across the street, the cashier has a key to our front door in the cash register.

Your landlord needs to get their shit together about how to own remote property. There are lots of ways to take care of this issue. Basement dwellers move on, our wifi lock and the liquor store are forever.

We got a new basement dweller in the Springs house. He seems to be responsible and the common areas are clean when we are in town. He works as a bud trimmer at night. One of the perks of the job is he gets free buds, more than he can smoke in a week. At Christmas we got about 3.5 grams of ice cream cookies hybrid strain. He said he just couldn't use it all, and we should take it while it's fresh. I think this one is a keeper.

We don't ask much of Adrian. He shovels the sidewalks when it snows. He texts us if there is a leak or something isn't working. Our thermostat is wifi connected so when the power goes out or the furnace stops, we know right away. That info is important during the winter.

It's a symbiotic relationship. He gets about 750 sf all to himself for $550/month, utilities included. He has a fully furnished bedroom, private bath and his own living room. He gets to use the living/dining/kitchen upstairs any time as common areas. He can let friends stay in the second bedroom in the basement when they visit. Off street parking, enclosed backyard with deck and he is in the center of the city near Uintah and Union. For a single person wanting to start saving money for their future plans and have some independence, it's a pretty good deal. The rent covers the monthly utilities/taxes and insurance, we could easily get twice that much but as carpetbaggers we like to give something back to the locals. Even if only half of the "locals" in Colorado these days are migrants from somewhere else in the US.

[Sparko]

Property owners often have to take some time off for home maintenance inconveniences. You want it fixed, you meet the tech. Or reschedule. But a heater in Colorado is pretty serious stuff

[pdub]

Often when japhy starts spinning stories I think of this movie.

[ousdahl]

so sitting here minding my own bidness, kinda buzzed off what's left of the Cold Smoke, Europe '72 on the stereo, when guess who randomly lets himself in.

He mentions they rented the upstairs out on airbnb for most of spring break...oh, and by the way, on the short term rental contract he listed me and beaver's contact info as the property managers in case y'all tourists have any trouble with the hot tub.

[DeletedUser]

The lie detector determined "that is a lie".

[Overlander]

https://youtu.be/bg13hyfm2Ik?si=7YsPe1oZ2BxjfXw6