This has to be a simulation. So the woman who strung me along apparently added me to her mailing list (gee, thanks) and I just got an invite from her company to a broker’s open house at… my current hellhole.
Triggered.
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I feel like your whole experience could be written up as a Kafka style short story.
I’ve never read anything by Kafka, but this definitely seems to be Kafkaesque. I’m not trying to create any ridiculous equivalencies or anything, but this does feel very hopeless and oppressive. Like getting a hot water heater fixed and finding a new place to live feels like a Sysyphean task, and I just have no choice but to vacate my current apartment once a week for a day so they can temp-fix the hot water, then disinfect everything, and I have to pay them $3K a month for this involuntary experience.
I guess I could voluntarily take 7 weeks of cold showers and not have a functional dishwasher, so that’s always an option lol…
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She figured she would bolster attendance by inviting you to an open house showing of your own apartment.
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Buy a solar shower.
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I know. That’s why I specified online pro. A winner online before the quarantine will likely be an even bigger winner during the quarantine b/c a large part of the live crowd will get bored and give online a try. You also had other people who hadn’t played poker in years who came back looking for something to do. Games aren’t as good online as March/April, but still easier than February imo.
Get ready to wake up as a bug any day.
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It seems like the market is starting to slow down in Chicago, at least in the city for luxury apartments. A bunch of high rises are offering 2-3 months free rent if you sign a 16-24 month lease plus savings on move in fees and other fees
Could be worse. You could wake up as Bret Stephens.
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Maybe while she’s there she can verify your rent history
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If they get it down to no fee move in I might pop in and stay until they can legally evict me. Fuck 'em.
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I guess she was able to get ahold of the management company to set up an open house
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Update: I had heard nothing by 3pm and followed up, she texted back 10 mins later that they were still in there. Then she called and said I’d have hot water for a day, but he needed to come back in and test tomorrow to see if it was still working. She said they replaced the hot water heater, though, which makes no sense if it’s only going to work for a day.
I got home, checked, same hot water heater with the same scratch down the side and the same serial number. I’m going to the office tomorrow and raising hell. They’re either giving me 6 days rent back for the six visits, my security deposit back immediately (I found numerous complaints in reviews of other properties that they don’t pay deposits back and don’t return calls), the last month free and fixing the issues tomorrow, or I’m going to call every media outlet in the city, the department of the city that oversees landlords with regard to hot water, the Better Business Bureau, and giving them horrible reviews on every single site. And they have two hours to respond to me on that and then 24 hours to cut me the check and give me a signed document about the last month’s rent or it’s on.
Then I’m going to the leasing office and warning off every prospective tenant til they respond.
I’m fucking done I’ve had enough. They can fuck with me and I have no real recourse but I’ll spend 8 hours a day outside the leasing office because fuck them that’s why. I’m a tenant here and my rent is paid, so I don’t even think they can remove me from the property for standing outside the leasing office.
Narrator: and that’s how cuserounder got arrested for trespassing, contracted covid in jail, and died.
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Obv don’t have anything helpful to say, but I really am sorry you are dealing with such epic bullshit. It’s completely outrageous. I hope you are able to somehow make them regret their behaviour (in a way that doesn’t come back on you).
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Narrator: They were already there, but cuserounder started checking all potential landlords on this site and avoided the next catastrophe.
They’re actually not there yet.
Update: 10:30 maintenance appointment was entered for “after 10:30.” Manager is unavailable to speak to me, has meetings all day, assistant will meet with me in person when maintenance comes around 12pm.
Little do they know, that manager is getting pulled from a meeting at about 12:15 when I leave, cause they’re going to have to run some shit up the chain of command REAL fucking quick.
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You’re assuming that they care about you picketing them. With the prices they are offering relative to the market their foot traffic might be super super low.
I’m getting all kinds of sinking ship vibes from these people off you for the record. I actually think that a lot of the weirder shit they are doing is probably due to that.
I lived in an apartment complex that got sold and had major AC issues. They went way out of their way to stall my repairs until after the sale went through. In retrospect it’s super obvious they were trying to put zero dollars into that unit and stick the repairs on the new owners. This was like 1/5 or less of the problems you’ve been having with your water heater for the record.
I would be zero % surprised to find out that they were negotiating a contract that was priced based on the average rent per square foot in each occupied unit or some stupid shit like that and as a result your apartment is worth more empty to current ownership than filled at a lower rent.
There’s a lot of weird stuff going on here basically, so don’t be super shocked if their line remains mega strange.
I’d look up your apartment building anywhere people do legal filings. You might be able to gain some leverage from finding out who is buying the building.
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Your situation sucks, and again I’m sorry that you’re having to deal with it. But I think you’re overestimating your leverage here - I don’t think you have realistic expectations about what you’re entitled to. You’re probably not going to get:
- back rent
- your security deposit back immediately (I don’t even understand this request/demand)
- last month free
And if you go into this conversation thinking that those are likely outcomes, I expect you’re going to be disappointed. I’m not a lawyer, but if I were you I’d focus on them not providing a safe and habitable property, and I would tell them that you’re going to withhold rent until that safe and habitable property is provided. (What this is supposed to mean is that you make the rent payment to an escrow account to show that you’re not just trying to avoid paying altogether.) And then tell them that when you do resume payments, you’re going to deduct from that payment a prorated amount reflecting the days that your property was not usable. (Presumably you have a documented record of these dates.)
Of course, if you’ve already made your final payments under the lease, you don’t have a ton of leverage left. In this case, I’d ask for a refund of some prior payment, but expect not to get it. I would then become very familiar with Pennsylvania law over security deposits and then take them to small claims court when they violate those laws (which they likely will). Note: I would not threaten this last part or warn them in any way. I would just quietly wait for it to happen.
Good luck
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This post feels right to me unfortunately.
What sort of legal filings am I looking for? I get the same vibe, and they’re now offering 2 months rent free to new tenants. So the market realities are starting to hit. They’re having a lot of open houses too. Thing is, I want like 3600 in cash right now, 3K of it is my own deposit. Then I want no rent for the last month. So basically $600 out of pocket, my own money back, and they write off the last month.
If I cause one tenant to bail on one unit at the cheapest price in the building getting two free months, I cost them $19,000. The bad press could also connect to their other six Philly buildings.
Do I expect them to be logical? No. I expect them to say LOL fuck you and do nothing at all, and I expect them to fuck me on the deposit. I will then take my pound of flesh just because I can.