Fed up

I am done, done, done with landlords. I’m never taking on a tenancy again.

I will live with other people if it means not dealing with bullshit like this.

Our run of good luck is up. Not that I  thought this would be simple, don’t get me wrong! No matter how many times T assured me moving out would be fine and how the LL wouldn’t make things a hassle, I knew it would be. He needs to trust my instincts!!

So this week has brought the worst weather all year. Storm warnings were issued and although Auckland never really gets the worst of anything, we still got hit hard by wind, rain, thunder and lightning. I’m talking torrential downpours, beating down on my laundry line and leaving me out of clean underwear for days.

Anyhow, the roof at the old house finally gave way and sprung a leak, soaking the carpet in the living room. It’s been a long time coming. In June the ceiling started bubbling up, which we mentioned to him. I even took a photo of the bubbling paint, so we can prove it. Back then, he said not to worry and that some of the roof tiles had been replaced. Whether they did or not, or whether they did a crap job, something went wrong this last week, and the house is now about as far from watertight as you can get.

This prompted the LL  to send me a shitty text, saying one of us must have cracked the tiles while up on the roof. Can you say RIDICULOUS? Why on earth would anyone be up on the roof? Certainly not to remove the aerial, like he suggested – it came with the house, and that’s where it’s going to stay. And, what’s more, it’s OBVIOUSLY STILL THERE. And how much of a coincidence is it that the roof caved in the exact spot where the paint began bubbling months ago, where the tiles were allegedly replaced?

Roof aside, the whole house is incredibly damp and always had had a problem with damp. Every time I’ve been back since we moved, my sinuses flare up and my nose starts running (or dripping, sometimes). Not surprisingly really; breathing in mould spores can’t be good for anyone. That place is turning into a health hazard.

T walked the LL around, and did all the talking, explaining that we’d warned him about the ceiling months ago and that we had done nothing to cause damage to the roof (something he’s refusing to admit. He’s going to get a builder’s opinion, which I am more than confident will reflect the truth – that there’s four months of water damage in the ceiling, if not more.)

I’m just irritated because this is the last thing I need. I do not need the stress!  Sounds like this is going to drag out forever and who knows when we’ll get our bond money back. Thankfully, T is happy to deal with this. I hate conflict, and he’s much more confident and knowledgable in matters like these. He says the LL was pretty quiet, unusually, and simply walked around the house looking mopey because he knows the house is falling apart. Our old room? So damp you can see the outline of the rafters coming through, the ceiling is getting soft, and did I mention how I could see my breath in front of me in there during winter?
As if that’s not enough, heinous flatmate only turned up at the last hour this morning to clean. Then asked if he would be getting some bond back. Hello, you never actually paid any! This is partly my fault. When we first moved in, our other two flatmates shifted in two weeks before we did and paid the full rent for the house (ie, double). So I wasn’t too strict about chasing up bond in addition to that; I was just grateful they were willing to cover for us. When the heinous flatmate started “paying off” his bond, he was so far behind on bills, I put every payment towards bills. There was never any money left over to go towards a bond. Not, of course, that he keeps track of anything enough to know this.

Kudos to you if you’ve read this far! /end rant

New house

Okay, dear readers, much has been going on! Let’s try to recap.

I got the death flu.

We moved.

And I haven’t had the internet.

Moving has been a miracle – nothing short of a dream. I’m honestly amazed.

Basically, our (nonheinous) flatmate went ahead and secured a new house. It was sitting vacant, but the LL offered half price rent for our notice period to help us through – what a star of a guy. He may be young, but he has way more money than our old LL, thankfully. Right now we’re all moved in, but are still paying rent on the old place… unless new tenants move in early. There are possibilities, but the LL is being incredibly delusional and trying to up the rent to $420 (despite the increasing damp problems and safety issues from the state house hoodlums). We still need to move a few things, CLEAN, and sort out T’s old car – he needs to take a few more parts off to send off to an Invercargill buyer, then he has someone keen to take the rest of the car off his hands. Meanwhile, I am hoping to square up heinous flatmate’s outstanding bills ($300 plus).

I am just so deliriously happy to live in a dryer, warmer and safer place.

This place is still overpriced even after a rent reduction, but it was through a private LL (very rare) so no letting fee. He didn’t even run a credit check – our flatmate REALLY lucked out this time! There’s no way he would have passed even a basic property manager’s screening. Frankly, it’s unbelievable he got this place (and I’m quite annoyed considering  it took FOUR MONTHS for me just to get our last place), but the LL liked him and didn’t want a repeat of his last tenant debacle (large family from the Islands, illegal overstayers, brought over tons of their extended family and crowded the house…till Immigration showed up). We’re paying pretty much the same rent, for a smaller but INSULATED room, an alarm, dishwasher, covered parking, and Smart Vent system.

Bad things: Still up to an hour’s commute, but there is more choice in buses here. Still my name on the Telecom account and bill, but not power or rent. Still have to deal with wrestling/fighting flatmates, but I’m slowly getting to where I want to be….

And with heinous flatmate gone – oh my gosh, the relief! No more rubbish and recycling sitting in the kitchen, no more toilet rolls disappearing and never being replaced, no more mud and dirt all over the floors, no more cutlery disappearing or breaking, no more piles of dirty dishes, no more cordless phone disappearing and going flat, no more crumbs and spills all over the kitchen, no more lids being left off margarine containers….the list goes on.

Up in the air

Let’s set the scene. It’s Friday night. I feel like a limp dishrag and quite frankly like a hamster on a wheel.

Thankfully, LL is cool with switching over onto a periodic tenancy. He’s all “I may have to put the house on the market by December”.

(Pray to god we are OUT of here by then. I’ve decided moving before semester ends is silly – for one, I am stressed enough with the workload, and helping BF through his coursework as well, without adding on househunting and moving. I barely have time to eat, shower, crap or clean the kitchen. Yet of course, I have ten minutes here and there to write rambling blog posts…And two, who knows where I’ll be in two months? And three – it’s gonna cost me $200 in early termination for my Telecom package. You’d think they’d reduce the fee over time, but it’s all the same – break in the first 12 months and they sting you 200).

He also wants to raise the rent – how much? “You guys have a chat, decide what you think and come back to me.”

How about nothing, seeing as this place is coming apart at the edges and we already pay at the high end of the scale? But he’s all “I paid $450k for the house almost two years ago.” Bloody dreaming property investors.

Not a convo I’m looking forward to on the 27th.

Just to add to my list of niggling worries…

…BF’s family is having troubles.

His mother is looking to move sometime soon, to somewhere smaller and cheaper.

BF, understandably, wants to help her out, as he was telling me.

Thankfully he had the sense to add “But I know we have our own troubles to worry about.”

Yeah, you’re telling me! Not that I like to whine (well, I guess this blog bears the brunt of my gripes). But it’s tough enough getting by as a student on a student income, without having to essentially support a second person on said income. And sometimes I feel BF doesn’t appreciate that enough. I mean, we think of all our money as “our money”, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. But he’s the happy-go-lucky kind anyway. I’m a born stressor.

Anyway. Our helping could come in the form of moving in with her (she’s apparently found a few nice places, with sleepout/separate downstairs flat, etc). She only has her and BF’s youngest brother now, and I guess BF’s oldest brother also will be living there. If we lived with them, it would ease the pressure of rent and bills, and she knows we would always pay on time.

Qualms? Well, sooo many: the place itself, and housekeeping (previously they’ve lived in rather dumpy, messy places, although I don’t know how much of that to attribute to the fact that there would have been five kids in and out, not to mention their friends); BF’s oldest brother (not someone I’d actually want to reside with); the likely frequency of BF’s sister and kids coming to stay during her and her partner’s domestics; being close to the bus; being close to campus for BF next year; flexibility of moving, because presumably that would leave his mum in quite a fix. Sigh.

See, my plan was for us to take our time looking for our next place. (Plus, not many people are keen to take in couples, especially if they’re both studying). I wanted to live in Mt Eden/Epsom, or maybe 3 Kings/Greenlane/Royal Oak. Reason: better, more frequent buses, and reduced travel time to the city. Have I mentioned how sick I am of spending 10 hours a week commuting? Doesn’t even count the time spent walking to/from the bus stop, and waiting for the bus. Those specific areas: because if he goes into teaching he will have classes at the Mt Eden Rd campus. It’s best if we live close to it, so if the car craps out he can still get there without too much fuss. BF seemed to understand and agree with that.

But not today. He’s all gung ho about helping out his mum (which is totally fair enough). I reiterated how important it is for both of us to be able to get to uni/work WITHOUT relying on a car. His answer? “Oh, but you can’t keep living life in fear of something that MIGHT happen”. Well, like I explained, it’s perfectly sensible to live somewhere where I can cut down on travel time, and ensure that our old car breaking down wouldn’t strand us. And frankly, I am sick of West Auckland. Plus, he just doesn’t want to move away from his friends and family. He’s that kind of person. Me, I don’t care. I want to live somewhere decent, closer to town, and in an environment where he can do the best he can to prepare for starting uni next year. I’m not sure living with his mum would achieve that. She has to stay in this area because of BF’s brother’s school. And she currently has no car herself…so, see where I’m going? But I don’t want to come off as the cold hard bitch here.

It’s just hard to make plans at this stage when we don’t know exactly what will be happening next year. BF could be studying at the Epsom campus on the other side of Auckland, or at the city campus. I could be working in town, or maybe at a small community paper. Ya know? Not to mention our lease goes until August. Oh please, kill me now.

All I want for Christmas

is hot running water.

And at this rate I’ll be lucky to get it by then!

Plumber came today, spoke to BF and informed him there’s a leak under the house, and the mains needs to be moved up to the roof. But first someone needs to come with sonic equipment to detect the leak’s location, then fix it.

Oddly enough, LL hasn’t been spotted much this week….

Oh, and he then told him to not call him again as he wants nothing to do with this job, it’s just that “horrible”.

WHOOPEE!

Think LL is finally realising that buying a rental property was not the answer to his problem, but far from it.

I doubt he has the cash to fix this, and I feel sorry for him, but that’s part of your undertaking when you become a LL. You need cash reserves for situations like this.

Not to mention the lack of insulation, the damp and mould in our room, the windows that don’t quite close…

Like I said, three more months.

Finally got around to going to DTR to claim my $60 refund.

Wonder how long before it gets processed? I plan to use it to get another three months’ of contact lenses.

Now hopefully I’ll never have to set foot in there again!

I feel like I haven’t had any control of our money the last few weeks. I’ve been staving off the flu and some sort of stomach issue, and taking various medications has simply left me doped up and still unwell, and with BF not bringing any money in, it’s all very disorganised.

We got a letter form WINZ informing us that as he did not “respond to a request for information, your application has been declined”.

The letter was dated April 9. Over a week ago. And just three days after he actually went in for his first appointment.

And, I might add, we never received any “request for information”.

So now it’s over to calling the 0800 line and trying to get through to a human operator to find out what the HELL is going on.

BF hates waiting on phone lines, especially when he’s 15th in line or whatever. Social services are just so overloaded at the moment and they seriously are not coping at all.

I’m just trying to make his EF last as long as possible, because it’s not looking healthy.

And now we have to deal with having no hot water. Turns out it was the cylinder, and not anything to do with the LL’s family staying. Now they’re gone, nothing’s changed – it’s just a coincidence our water went around the time they arrived. Hopefully that also explains why our electricity bills are so high! It’s summer for chrissake, and we’re using double what we did a year ago.

Hope his insurance get it sorted super fast. He’s been made redundant too. And the weather’s getting colder, and my cold isn’t going away…cold showers don’t help any. Up until last week I was managing to squeeze in roughly room temperature showers – ie, the water was MARGINALLY warmer than my body – but those golden times are OVER!

I just finished washing my hair for the first time in three days. I was forced to wash it in the basin (something I find damn near impossible, hidesouly uncomfortable, and messy), and this required me to boil two jugs of water.

Primitive, no?

Overload

LL assured me when he brought his mother/sister over that this was temporary and they would be finding a place of their own ASAP.

Doesn’t look like that’s happening. They’ve settled in, taken over the grounds, show no signs of moving. He reckons he’s going to do all this stuff to the house, get a second washing line, etc. (Except that he, you know, lost his job).

Rubbish is piling up. Cans and bottles and boxes are piling up. The grounds look like a rubbish tip. Our rubbish and recycling bin are just big enough to serve the four of us – it sure as hell can’t handle the output from an extra THREE people. You can’t put all the extra out cause the collectors won’t take it. They only take what fits in the bin. I am sure as hell not paying for a skip or to go to the recycling plant.

This place is NOT big enough for seven people.

Six months to go….

Landlord dramas

Got my driver’s licence in the mail today. I look….incredibly dorky. But it’s still a better photo than the one on my learner’s, and after four years it’s about time!

Anyway, what I wanted to write about today is our landlord. He’s driving us insane! Where to start? His excessive drinking. Which I wouldn’t care about, except he and his friends drink SO MUCH that our bins fill up within a day and because recycling is only collected every fortnight, we just can’t keep up. Bottles and cans fester for weeks. By the time the bins are emptied, and we go to fill it up with all the backlog, it’s full again. It’s DISGUSTING. There are boxes, papers, bottles, all sortsof recycling materials piled up in front of our house because our bin is full. There’s no end in sight. He would literally have to quit drinking for a month or two.

He’s becoming insanely nosy, whiney and bossy. That, and he never does anything he says he will (mow the lawn – he now has a lawnmower; fix our windows that don’t shut properly, change blown lights).

He still hasn’t got our water meter checked out. I gave him printouts from the council site showing what to do and the form for refunds of leaks. I’m sure we have a leak – I’ve done overnight checks two or three times and everytime there has been movement while we sleep. He maintains that our bills are in line with our household. I don’t think he gets how little we use – one of our flatmates is never here, we don’t have a washing machine, and (slightly gross) not everyone has a shower every single day.

The other day, apparently he came around in a grump, told one of our friends to shut up (he was telling a story about someone who cut him off on the road), and then last week came around complaining about guests “talking in high pitched voices”. WTF? Seriously. We don’t have parties. We’re fairly quiet I’d say for a bunch of 20yearolds. Whatever happened to privacy? I get that it’s his house. But we don’t pay to have a parental figure yell at us for stupid things like that. We’re paying his mortgage.

It wasn’t so bad, because all of last year he was rarely here. (Thankfully. Our dodgy agent didn’t even inform us that he lived in the back flat.) Now he’s here fulltime, WITH his mother and sister who are moving here and haven’t found a place yet. He promised they wouldn’t be here long; it’s a temporary thing. Yeah. We’ll see. Ever since, it’s been unbearable, his – and their – constant presence. There’s NEVER any hot water – at its hottest, it’s comfortably, mildly warm – not scalding as it should be. They’ve taken over the backyard – we have a full section which is really why our rent is so high. But now we can’t enjoy it because they’ve taken it over, dumping their junk everywhere, plus their flat opens out onto it and we would feel strange about hanging out there. And this week, a cage of DUCKS appeared out back. Poor things scurry around in a pack, huddled in the safety of the herd. He reckons he’s going to sell the creatures.

Our house needs a ton of work. He’s been laid off as far as I know. Hence always being around, not having had the windows fixed, etc. BF says he told him “I thought once I had a house, I had it made, and I’d be set for life.” Nuh uh. He wants to landscape around the place, tidy it up, and ‘get a loan’ for it. I assume he means borrowing against his equity (which surely can’t be much? He bought start of last year before the huge crash).

Sigh. Okay, end rant.

Live alone, or with others?

In order to be prepared, I figured it’s time to start thinking about our future living situation.

I’m not going to head up a flat again. So that leaves moving into an established house, or setting up on our own again.

I am leaning towards the former, but of course there are pitfalls. I think I’m a decent flatty. I’m clean and fairly quiet although I do have my antisocial spells. BF on the other hand can alienate some people – whereas I can’t help but be courteous to others in general, even if I dislike them, he won’t do that; he’s too honest. He gets dirty from work which might annoy flatmates, and is not as tidy as me – although it’s hard to tell to what extent, considering how we live at the moment (but I think I can guess how much of the mess around here is caused by him).

Cons of living with others:
Can be kicked out at their whim
Cooking times can be awkward
Cleaning can always be an issue even in the smoothest running households
Risk of having psycho flatmates
Issues with having friends over
Issues with their friends
Conflicting morning routines
Paying for others’ power/internet guzzling
Limited fridge space

Cons of living by ourselves:
Can be isolated (although I’m pretty introverted)
More expensive ?
Expensive bond, totally responsible for condition of house
Less space (although less to clean)
Nobody wants to rent to a couple of 20 year olds, esp. with one of them still studying, no matter how good of a job they may have.

Lazy Sunday

Well I’ve had a fairly productive day – managed to paint my nails (right thumb eluded me, I had to do it three times over), wash all my makeup brushes, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen cabinets and went to the Laundromat. Since our washer died a few weeks ago we’ve been making weekly trips to our friendly local Laundromat. For $2.50 our washing is beautifully done and never starchy…I don’t think we’ll bother replacing the machine! Not least because as time goes on the less I want to invest in this household. Over half of our bowls have disappeared. We have about three left from closer to 8 or 9. So it’s a struggle when I want cereal or noodles, to find something to house my meal in.

When I have money to burn furnishing my dream house, I’m off to Howard’s Storage World to spend up a storm! Retro fifties spice tins and rubbish bins, steel shoe racks, spice racks, holders and organisers of all sorts, hangers and shelves. Yeah, I never thought I had such a hidden homebody…but being in the store the other day was like nirvana. I don’t want a HOUSE AND GARDEN home, but I would like it to be nice and clean and pretty and organised. Gah, I want a house of my own, and I want it now!