I was having way too much fun with the iron-on transfers and some tshirts I had lying around the house. Maybe I should go into business and sell tshirts! I can design anything! I think that would be a really cool job to have. Tshirt designer! I finally got my act together late in the afternoon and met up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while at one of my favourite pizza joints (where they have whole wheat pizza!) and had dinner with them. It was nice just to sit back and talk with girlfriends. Afterwards I headed over to Walmart (I needed some yoga pants and maternity tights (for the dress I'm wearing Saturday to a wedding) and then I headed to the gym. I worked out for 30 minutes (all my doctor said I should be doing at one time in cardio) and then headed home.Now I'm sitting here with my little container of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (mmm, god bless pregnancy!) and I have time to write an update on my (god damn) tenants.Let me start at the beginning. (I've been putting off writing anything about them at all, because they have been a nightmare, and I didn't want to make myself ANY angrier than I was already, and I didn't need to have added stress by getting any angrier, I didn't want any stress related problems in my pregnancy. But now that I'm already in my 5th month of pregnancy, and I had my ultra sound, and the baby is in great health, and I'm not stressed by the situation anymore, I'm willing to share the story from beginning to end....Here I go. Let me call my tenant Ms. W.Ms. W's lease is from July 1st, 2006 - June 30th, 2007.When she signed the lease, back in May I believe, she wanted to know if my current tenants at the time were able to move out early, so she could start painting. She was sooooo eager to move in. The lease was for Ms. W, her mother Mrs. W and Ms. W's three kids (ages 7, 8, 10). The last week of June, she calls me up and asks if she could pay July's rent late, as her father Mr. W died, and she had a funeral to pay for. I stupidly told her that my mortgage was only due on every other Wednesday, and she had until July 5th to pay me the rent (though I wanted it before the 5th, as the 5th was the actual day it was being withdrawn from my account). That was my ONLY mistake... was letting her know when my mortgage was to be paid, even though the lease she signed says she has to pay her rent on the 1st of every month, or it's considered to be late. She agreed to pay it on the Sunday, July 2nd, at night. She was supposed to come pick up her keys and drop of rent in cash (I had a check for first month's rent, but she insisted she pay cash). Sunday night I got stood up. She called, but only after she was supposed to be here at 5pm, to say that she was going to be only able to come tomorrow night, so we made a time, for 6:30pm. That Monday, July 3rd, I her called at 6pm, left a message that I was on my way home, called at 7pm, left a message that I was waiting for her. I then called at 8pm and mentioned that if she doesn't show up and pay the cash that she wanted to, I will have to deposit the check that she gave me for first month's rent. (Now I'm starting to think that I should have gotten a post-dated check for last month's rent, which I will be doing from now on on new leases). Called a house number that I had (the other calls were to Ms. W's cell) and got someone who said she wasn't in, but "did she call me?" I said no, (confused) and told her to tell Ms. W to call me as soon as possible. Tried the cell at 9pm, no answer, and I did not leave a message. I swore that if I didn't hear from her by Tuesday morning that I would call the bank to see if the check she wrote me will be honoured (if there is enough money in the account) and if so, I would cash it. After that I don't care when she will decide to move in.That night, Monday, July 3rd, actually, Tuesday morning, July 4th, at 1 am, Ms. W called my cell phone. J and I had already been fast asleep. Let's just say it was really hard getting back to sleep after that... She "said" she was out of town, and couldn't get back in time. That was not right of her to stand me up - as I was at home waiting for her. Two days of being stood up, I'm not really happy about that at all.Tuesday, July 4th comes around, and she finally showed up, and I got my first month's rent from her and gave her the keys. She mentioned that she was going through a nasty custody battle for her children and was going to court on July 26th. She would be slowly moving her stuff into the apartment, but was not moving in right away. She mentioned that she needed the apartment to prove to the court that she had a place for her children.
August rolls around. Tuesday, August 1st. I don't hear from her all day. By dinner, I decide to find out what was going on, and I call her cell phone around, oh I don't know, maybe 6:00pm. The cell phone has been disconnected, the number is no longer in service. I'm fuming! She didn't even call me to give me her new contact number. I try calling the house line number that I have, no idea if she even lives at this number, but it's the phone number I tried calling last month, which is a number that I did reverse lookup on Canada411.com to get with the address off her check that she wrote me as a security deposit for first month's rent. I ask for Ms. W, she's not there, and the woman who answers says she doesn't have Ms. W's new cell number. (Now, if this is the address where Ms. W is still living at (which is where her checks go to) and she has three kids, and her three kids DON'T always go where she goes, and if someone else in the family perhaps sometimes watches her kids, don't you think that someone should have Ms. W's cell number incase of an emergency? Anyhow, I told her to tell Ms. W to call me as soon as possible. I tried again at about 9:30pm, some guy answers the phone, I ask for Ms. W, and he hangs up the phone on me. I call back: ring, ring, ring, ring. I tried from my cell (incase of call display). I try blocking my number. All I get is: ring, ring, ring, ring. Ring, ring, ring, ring.Ok, whatever. I'm pissed. It's my last two weeks of school, I'm tired, and I'm drained, and don't need this added stress in my life, and well, she's just making me a worry-wart stress case.Wednesday morning, August 2nd. I call her just after leaving my OBGYN apointment, just shortly before 9:30 am. I tried that same phone number again, the one where the guy hung up the phone on me last night, and actually got her on the phone. She gives me her new cell number (she should have called me as soon as her contact number changed, especially since she has not moved in yet). I ask her where the rent is. She tells me that she is NOT late on paying. I told her that it's August 2nd, and she tells me that she's not late. I told her that her lease states that the rent is to be paid on the 1st of every month. She tells me that she has until the 5th of every month to pay. I ask her where she got this idea from? (Then I realized, because last month my mortgage, which I pay bi-weekly, on every other Wednesday (which knocks off thousands of dollars in interest over the long term (25 years) - I highly suggest this method if you're bank offers it), and that the 5th happened to be the Wednesday I owed me rent. So, Ms. W being dumb, assumed that every month she had until the 5th of the month to pay the rent.) UGH!
So, after trying to set things straight, she tells me she has to go to a doctor's apt, and that she would call me later. Ugh.... she was very insistant, and pretty much booted me off the phone. I gave it 45 minutes, and wanted to see if the new cell phone number that I had for her was legit, so I called it. I demanded a time for her to come and pay me August's rent. She told me she would be at my house for 5pm. So I re-arranged my day, to be home for 5pm. 5pm comes around, and she doesn't show up. 5:15, she's not answering her cell phone. 5:30pm, she tells me that she can't pack up her three kids and take them in the pouring rain (yes, it was pissing rain that day) onto the bus and metro (subway system) to come to pay the rent. My mouth dropped. I told her that if she lived upstairs, that she would just have to come down and pay the rent, and that she was making my life very stressful right now, that I had to chase her down to pay the rent. I gave her a warning. I reminded her again, that her lease states rent is due on the first of the month, and that I shouldn't have to chase her down for the rent.
Get this: I ask her when she plans on moving in, that I need to know. She tells me that she doesn't think she is going to keep the apartment, so she doesn't think she is officially going to move in. She wants to go back to school and doesn't think she can afford it. She tells me that she she will decide and get back to me. I ask her if she wants me to start looking for new tenants, she tells me that she will let me know. I tell her that she is responsible to pay the rent until I find someone new, but that once a new lease is a signed, she wouldn't have to pay anymore. She tells me that she doesn't think she will save money either way, so that she may just keep the place, but that she will let me know. HUH? Is she dumb??? If she keeps the apartment, she has 10 more months of rent to pay me. If I find new tenants, then she doesn't have to dish out money each month and will SAVE money.... yeah... I think she's dumb! She tells me she will be by at 10-10:15 am the next morning, before I leave to class, to pay rent.
As soon as I get off the phone with her, I go to research information on the internet, but tenants have all the rights in Quebec, Landlords have jack-all for rights. The list of Tenants rights are pages and pages, when the Landlord's rights, are like 2 sentences (just for comparision sake).
Thursday morning, August 3rd, 2006 comes along. 10 am... she doesn't show up. 10:15 am, still no sign of her. I call her. She's still asleep. GEEZ! She had NO intention of meeting me, did she! What a day August 3rd was. I didn't write about it then, because it was my last week of school, and it was the day J's grandmother passed away, and I had so much going on with final projects, I didn't want to make myself even more angry that I was.
She tells me that she is closer to downtown, and will meet me at some point outside of my school to pay rent. She wouldn't give me a time.
Now, I wish I had known she wasn't coming earlier, because I still had to drop my nephew (we were still babysitting at that time) off at Nana's house, as J's dad's car got broken into the night before, and the car was getting a new window put on, so Nana had no car for the day. I had to do this, (which was out of my way) and then get to school. So basically because of her, I was running late. I wish I had known she wasn't coming, I would have gotten an earlier start to my day. (That was the day that I ended up staying at school from 11 am until midnight, working on my final projects - school has A/C - my house has no A/C and well, school also has MAC's, and at home, I only have a PC).... (Macs are soo much more suitable for the career I chose - graphic design). Anyhow, back onto subject...I called her after dropping off my nephew, demanding to know what time she was planning on meeting me, I had final projects to finish up, and I needed to know what time she was going to meet me. We agreed on 2pm, right outside of my school.That morning I prepared a statement that read:
I Ms. W, give R permission to search for new tenants. I will pay rent until new tenants are found. Once new tenants are found, I will not be responsible to pay rent after their new lease is signed.
I was smart in doing so.
2pm, I went upstairs. Sat and waited, and waited and waited. Got mad, called her cell phone at about 2:10pm. She told me qhere she was, (which was maybe a 2 minute walk away) and that she would be there in a few minutes. 2:20pm comes, I call her cell, it's off. Damn! 2:30pm she finally shows up (I think she was still at home when I called and busted her ass to leave when I called). There is NO WAY it takes that long to walk from where she said she was when I called her. And she even came walking up to my school in a different direction from where she said she was coming from. (WTF??)
She pays me rent. I show her the letter I prepared for her to sign. I asked her if she was serious about keeping the place. She kept saying "Oh I don' t know" over and over again. Her cousin, who was with her, kept telling her to sign the paper, that it was the best decision.
She signed the paper.
I was relieved! I was to find new tenants.
That day, I got home, I put the A LOUER/ FOR RENT sign back up in the window with my number to call for inquiries. I put the ad back up on craigslist.org for rent.I got stood up by one person, another person made an apt, but then cancelled... and then I finally had an apt for Thursday, August 17th, right after my ultra sound.Wednesday afternoon, August 16th comes around, and in the afternoon I get a phone call from Ms. W. She tells me she has a new cell number, and so I start to mark it down, it's the one she gave me two weeks ago, when I finally tracked her down. Is she an idiot? Does she really not remember me asking her for it, because I needed to have her updated contact info? She also decides to tell me, that she started moving furniture into the place last night, and that she has decided to keep the apartment afterall. I tell her that rent is due on the first of the month, not on any other day. She tells me she will abide by that, and I will have my rent for September on the 1st, and that she should be all moved in by then.
CAN SHE MAKE UP HER MIND? I don't want to have to chase her down each month for rent. I don't want rent to be late each month,I had no way to reach the people who had the 10 am apt on Thursday, and I was running late from my Ultra sound, (since baby S didn't want to turn over in my stomach, and they couldn't get to see his heart for 2 hours, until he turned) and of course they were there when I showed up, waiting on the stoop. I had to tell them, that I am sorry I was late, and that unfortunately the place was rented out. (They made an apt for 2 days after calling - and usually when that happens, if someone calls and asks to see the place right away, it's first come first serve). It was 4 female students coming to see the place, that would have been ideal. I feel sooo bad that I had to turn them away.I really hope for my sake, that for the rest of the lease it works out with Ms. W. But all the hassle and mess I've gone through in the last 2 months, I wish could have been avoided. I do NOT need this stress in my life. Not at all. Not one bit. You know?
I hope I am not leaving anything out. I think I've captured the story of all the incidents very clearly. And this seems to be the LONGEST post I've ever written. I hope my luck turns around in the tenant department. It sucks that I get stuck with situations like this! I hope things turn around for the best for September, and I don't have to chase her down. (So far she's been only showing at really weird hours in the middle of the night - never during the day). Like she's up there right now, and she just just got there. It's almost midnight. Who lives a life like that??? Weird.....
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