I am uber mad

[icekitty37]

I just moved into a new (old) apartment last Friday. Not even a week later and the plumbing goes to hell. I just had 2 inches of water cover the ENTIRE bathroom floor. Toilet water. It would not stop. I am so beyond disgusted, I think I want to move again. It got under the carpet and is now soaking into the bedroom floor.... :-\

Thank you for listening to my rant, I just want to scream.

[morea]

yuck. Have you been in touch with the landlord, and is he taking care of it?

I hope that things get sorted out for you quickly!

[Two-Toe Tom]

ugh, that sounds gross. sorry to hear that :(

[cornfed]

That sucks. You should be able to turn off the water behind the toilet close to the floor. That should at least prevent it from overflowing again.

[icekitty37]

Yeah I got the water off, but not in time. A guy came to plunge, as if that really helps when I'm like swimming already... *sigh* just what I wanted to deal with tonight....

[budafist]

That's gross. You should get the landlord onto it right away.

Can you get rent discounts for such an inconvenience?

[icekitty37]

doubt it. They just told me I moved in at the wrong time... Um, they told me when to and they knew for like 3 months that I was moving in. I'm very disappointed so far. Especially since on first glance there was still soap in the shower and a used razor in the drawer! Nasty....

[icekitty37]

I can't wait to get a HOUSE someday...

[Kool]

Wow, that really stinks. ;)

[urstwile]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Icekitty.

For what it's worth, you might want to check and see what your rights are. Is this a place that you're renting? Most cities have tenants rights associations, so that you can figure out what your options are in terms of complaining to the landlord and getting redress for things that weren't up to par when you moved in.

The fact that there was still soap in the shower and a used razor doesn't speak well to how well the place was prepared for your move.

What I'd also suggest you do is go through now, while you're still new to the place, and take pictures of some possible problem areas. If you paid a deposit, you can use these as proof that the place was sub-par when you moved in, just in case they try to screw you out of your deposit.

[frankster]

we had a landlord screw us out of a deposit back in the UK. The place was a hole when we moved in and even the carpet was mouldy in places. We cleaned it up and painted it and then got part of the deposit docked for "cleaning expenses" when we moved out, even though it was waaaaaaaay cleaner than when we moved in. I even cleaned on top of the high up kitchen cabinets as well as inside! That place was a shitter. The plumbing in the block of flats busted and the flat below us flooded, so they just switched the heating up to max and steamed all the water up through our flat. It was like living in a tropical rain forrest in November, so we couldn't keep the windows open because it was too cold outside, but it was too damp inside. Bleugh!

[Samakimoto Graphics]

*Pole* Icekitty...

[PrintDriver]

Moving into a house isn't always any better. Unless it's a new house. I've had to clean up 2 houses now that my sister bought before she could move in. The second time, I hired a service to do most of the heavy cleaning and a dumpster to put the worst of the rugs into, but it's always a week's worth of work to thoroughly go through and get rid of the nasties. And you still find surprises tucked away in weird places. And these two houses were really nice ones.

While looking, we saw some really nasty digs. One of them, I wouldn't let her go into as it hadn't been lived in for over a year and had been vandalized. Stink! Whew! Another had a hole in the roof that could only have been caused by a meteorite that went through 2 floors to the basement and the basement looked like a bomb had gone off, complete with a cracked toilet, shattered doors and some unidentifiable stuff all over the walls (alien blood maybe?). I will never forget the house we looked at that had an open creek running through the cellar. The previous owners had created a mote around the furnace. The water ran in through a pipe, down a split trough that surrounded the furnace, and out another pipe on the other side. I can't imagine that cellar in the spring here. :eek: Or the one where the owners had all the lawn sprinklers running when we went to view the house and when I asked what all the water was in the cellar they said, "Oh shit" and ran to shut off the sprinklers. That water wasn't from the sprinklers, trust me.:rolleyes:

I don't know how some people live in such yuck or why realtors thought we might be interested in these places.

So don't look so forward to buying a house. Lots of skeletons in even the best of them. Unless you build. Be sure you have a buyer's agent working for you rather than the seller. And get all the inspections done. Even the ones not required by the bank but recommended. If you can't afford the inspectors, you really can't afford what will need to be fixed that you didn't catch pre-puchase.

[morea]

Moving into a house isn't always any better.

I was just about to say that.

When I bought my house the inspection revealed that it was entirely wired with the wrong gauge wire and the whole thing had to be redone.

I learned within about a week that the roof needed to be replaced. Then the ceiling below the leak needed to be repaired.

Within two months the central air conditioning unit died. That was fine, I decided that I could live without it, since I was too broke to replace it after putting the downpayment on the house.

Another two months went by and the furnace blew and had to be replaced. It was 11pm on a cold night in mid-November in Upstate NY, and suddenly smoke started pouring out of all of the heating vents in the house.

Now, when you are the homeowner, you have to come up with the money for these expenses out of pocket, on top of the mortgage payment and property taxes - that's definitely not easy, and mine wasn't even that old a house.

Now I find myself back in an apartment - but this time with a great landlord - and that really makes all the difference. I hope that your new landlord handles this for you quickly and responsibly.

[Exodus]

If you knew all the work I've had to do with my house... it was built in 1960.

[PrintDriver]

Yeah, Mo even the termite inspector missed the mud tubes in a dark corner of the first house. But he was bonded and he paid for the full perimeter eradication. And the owners got to put a new roof on as part of the buy deal based on another inspection. The only thing we missed that nabbed us on resale was a Radon test. It was just above the low side of unacceptible and WE got nailed to do the abatement before the sale would go through.

Homeowning does mean YOU have the expense of fixing the broken, not the landlord. Can be tough. Furnaces are not cheap.

[cornfed]

We bought our house in November. We wouldn't have bought it had it not come with a warranty. We took one look at the central AC and knew it was gonna go out any day. Sure enough about a month back it went out! Still costs me $500 to the ac guy and a bunch of other money for eating out, fans, etc. Had we not had the warranty, though, it would have been a lot more!

[Kool]

While all the homeowner headaches mentioned above are valid at least when you have to replace stuff yourself you can get quality items. Every landlord I ever had always did the absolute minimum required to fix any problem and if something needed to be replaced it was replaced with the cheapest possible replacement.

I know owning a home isn't for everybody but for me there was nothing like the feeling when we bought our house. Knowing I could pound a great big nail in the wall if I wanted to hang a heavy picture or cutting out part of a wall to place an aquarium behind it was priceless

[morea]

I don't think that anyone is suggesting that owning a home is a bad thing, just that it's not a cureall for the woes of renting.

[cornfed]

I agree Kool! I love owning my own home. Even though we're responsible for all of the repairs, etc. it's still a good feeling every month to pay my mortgage instead of someone elses. I love my house, too. It suits my families needs very well. I plan to live here for a long time. At least until all of my kids are off to college!!

[CkretAjint]

My roommate is looking into purchasing a house right now. Worst idea ever for the kid, I swear!!! But to each their own. I'd rather rent and not worry about crap breaking and it coming out of my pocket....

[icekitty37]

Well at least at that point you are free standing and don't have to hear the neighbors above you. OR everytime they shower. For some reason the water noise is horrible!

[cornfed]

Ckret, I think it really depends on where you are in life that determines whats best for you.

[CkretAjint]

Corn:

Wanting to move into a 300,000 house built in the 60's located in dowtown Fort Lauderdale, FL (5 miles from beach — see huricanne insurence there), making sub $35k a year....

[John G]

My roommate is looking into purchasing a house right now. Worst idea ever for the kid, I swear!!! But to each their own. I'd rather rent and not worry about crap breaking and it coming out of my pocket....
It might actually be one their better ideas... assuming they find a decent house in a neighborhood that isn't on the decline. $600 a month for rent going completely down the drain.. or $750 of a $1050 (taxes and insurance) monthly house payment that's more than likely going to come back to you when you sell?


*edit: yea the 300k house on a 30k salary is just dumb then though. lol living expenses. Tell him that APR will more than likely at least double or probably triple when it's up for review.

[icekitty37]

I know I can't afford a house now, besides I just have one year left here. But after that, no idea where I want to go or live... I think a condo or midrise in the city would be cool, but I better start saving...

[cornfed]

Yep, Ckret, thats pretty ridiculous. I'm in hurricane territory too. It makes a difference!

[John G]

If you can get 20% down that'll aleviate pretty much any loan troubles whatsoever. That might also get you out of having to put your property taxes into escrow... and there's another charge that you get out of too, but I can't remember the name >.<

[cornfed]

Mortgage insurance is what it's called, John G.

[LeftBrain Artist]

I got a house a in 2003, it was built in 1925. If I wasn't extremely handy, I probably would have wound up shelling out another 10 to 20K to have other people fix stuff over the last 4 years. A couple of roof leaks, a refinished hardwood floor, extensive basement wall repair and sealing, a deck rebuild, eradication of a squirrel family, bad wiring, replaced a bunch of plaster with drywall, a few furnace problems... just to name a few. I've got a list of stuff I need to do yet - I don't know why, its not like I'm likely to forget I need to put a new roof up - and its not like having it on a list is going to make me more likely to do it anytime soon.

Sorry to hear about your apartment plumbing issues. I was about to suggest switching to a high fiber diet, but if it was the dudes before you, that wont help much.

[icekitty37]

LOL Yeah it had to have been them. I've been here less than a week!

[cornfed]

That's the part that would gross me out. The fact that it was the former tenants poop that caused the problem.

[MD]

The glass is half full icekitty.

think of it as a free wading pool in your bathroom. Sounds like a good way to beat that summer heat.

[budafist]

Guys, you are scaring me out of wanting to buy a house! On the upside, there would be no furnace or air con problems to worry about - Auckland is warm or cold enough for either.