Should I move out of my apartment?
My landlord has had a tree cut down and it really wasn’t necessary. They actually do a lot of half ass things in maintaining their property. Having an old fence half falling off in places when their was a nice solid PVC fence on the neighbor’s side in place. Removing it in pieces and leaving some up like a haircut with chunks missing.
Systematically ripping out 85% of the flowering plants and not repairing simple things around my portion of the house. And today was the Pièce de résistance. They have been whittling away at this huge beautiful pine/fir tree from the base up. Eliminating any privacy the side yard may have had from the neighbors and making it look like a huge ridiculous lollipop.
And this morning I found a laborer finishing the job. Apparently they want to cut it down completely. I was so angry because there was a nest with three baby birds. The laborer’s English was suddenly no comprende and my landlord’s Mother in Law(the only one home at the time) was even worse. I pointed out the nest and sure enough the nest was empty like he said, but there were just birds in it last night.
Meanwhile the birds’ parents were screaming and basically divebombing at him the whole time. I removed the nest before he cut down that branch and placed it in another tree but to no avail. The young were gone as mentioned and can’t fly anyway. The birds no doubt waddled to another yard and will be cat food in short order. I just saw the mother who came back and was frantic with food in her mouth.
I am just so sick of the indifference that they have towards the maintenance of the house. They are a nice couple for the most part but there just seems to be a serious disconnect in the value we place on certain things in our environment. I’m ready to jump ship but there are nice things they offer. They never question late rent and rarely make any noise or come to my side of the house/yard. The place is small and I do want something bigger but the price is cheap for Long Island. Oh and I have no lease nor do they hold a security deposit of mine.
So like the Clash say,
“Should I stay or should I go?”
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17 Answers
There’s no harm in looking around. I’d certainly think about it.
In my tenant days I found that the truth of a rental situation often did not emerge until too late. The next-door neighbor with the trumpet was silent while I was looking at the apartment. The cockroaches showed up only after I was all moved in. The landlord forgot to mention that he’d be keeping a dog in the back yard who would bark all night long when it got cold.
So my question is just how you could have known in advance what would happen at this place and how you would really tell if a new place was any better.
Move move move but give me your landlords info, My step-son will take the place in a heart beat. His landlord is an ass. He shows up at midnight to collect the rent for the next month. Will not take it any sooner. And that is his nice quality.
Go. Where you live should not be a source of stress. Start looking.
I just found two of the baby birds dead in the neighbor’s yard. Another was alive and I placed him back in the nest in another tree. Hopefully they will tend to him or maybe I’ll adopt him.
@SeventhSense Oh, I’m SO sorry. Those poor little birds. I don’t blame you for being irate. If you can find a place close to the same size & price, I’d go for it. Pandora’s right. Who needs that kind of stress? Who knows what he’ll do next?
You can’t be sure the next place would be any better, and frankly it doesn’t sound all that bad. The unfortunate incident you mentioned is sad, but not the kind of dealbreaker that would make me move.
For the privacy issue, you could consider placing you own potted, staked plants as a barrier between your yard and theirs, at your own expense and care for them yourself.
Hmmm, that’s a good idea @YARNLADY. Maybe some posts with some big bushy ferns. I have actually been thinking and looking for the past few years!
Every once in a while something will drive me nuts and I will make a bunch of calls and visits but there is nothing really significant or enough of a write off to justify a large increase in rent. And I’m not willing to double the rent just yet.
The older I get it just seems harder and harder to make the impulsive moves that I would have quickly made in my 20’s or 30’s. But if that perfect place comes and right place and time, I’m jumping..or maybe I’ll just wait until I buy a house….sigh..maybe even get married someday…
Oh the horror..~_~
@SeventhSense I sympathize with you. We’re in a different but somewhat similar situation. We own our home and it is in a quiet neighborhood of small older homes. The house next door is on a large lot and the owner (who doesn’t live there any more) is looking to subdivide the lot so a builder can build a largeish house that would be right next door to us. The lot as it now stands has many mature trees and is home to a number of birds. Lovely light streams through our kitchen window in the afternoon. We are sick about the subdivision and have attended planning board meetings but it seems likely to go through.
I don’t have answers for you but I do empathize. However, the other posters make some good points about the fact that you don’t know what you’d be getting in a new place and the landlord doesn’t seem totally unreasonable.
@janbb—that is so sad. It happened to me once. We live next to an empty corner lot, which meant a huge yard, which we kept mowed. It had a lovely old carriage house on it, with blackberry bushes all around. The developers put up two huge homes on that lot, with a few feet of space around them.
I personally need greenery and flowers and trees. If this were happening to me, I’d start looking to move. Especially if they can’t be arsed to keep up the property properly and let things like the fencing go to hell and remove plants that they’d rather not care for.
I’d probably start looking around, a move always gives you a chance to clean out unnecessary stuff you have accumulated while living there. I always got revitalized from a move to new surroundings.
I’d start searching for a new place. I’ve had awful landlords (much like this one) and great landlords. And it makes a huge difference in your quality of life. Of course you really can’t tell when you first move into a place which is well quite annoying to say the least.
@RedPowerLady
Well in some ways they are really good landlords. I’m still questioning…
P.S- all the birds died…:(
@SeventhSense In which ways?
All the birds died, no greenery, and aren’t fixing things.
It must be the rent??
I’m just being funny :)
They don’t bother me. That’s worth a lot. There’s nothing worse than a landlord who is in your business 24–7.
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