Yesterday, I updated y'all on my landlord/tenant mess. See - Eviction Chronicles - A Neverending Saga.
As it stood last night, my landlord had not responded to my terms. He was no doubt up all night mulling whether or not to stumble into court on Thursday and try to evict me one way or another.
In fact, I myself laid wide awake this morning at 3:45am, contemplating my next move. It wasn't him that kept me from sleeping; I just don't sleep much. Anyways, I started to get myself worked up a bit over his Moron's indefatigable stupidity. If he was going to force me to go to court, I'd have to file a response with the clerk by Monday. I'd have to go blow up my pictures of dead rodents; write up my exhaustive litany of complaints; and waste a good amount of my Monday dealing with this inanity.
All morning there was still no response. Then at 11:45 or so he showed up. I went out with MY TERMS of dismissal. He said hello; I said nothing. He put his hand out; I left it dangling out there, alone.
He rapidly signed it and accepted my $2,500 check for February rent. (Still haven't told him about the $867.44 deduction coming next month for the water bill I paid!)
I left without saying almost anything.
His broke-a$$ jumped into his car and SPED OFF in Mario Andretti-like fashion!
Banks aren't open too late on Saturdays...
5 comments:
So you've effectively clawed back 2500 plus some interest of the original 5000?
Yep.
But I did lay out $867.44 for a water bill that will now have to also be clawed back.
And I will offer to do that *in installments* and try to wrest something - even if it's just peace - from the clown.
In other words, if he tries to give us 60 days notice on March 1, I'll tell him that I will take it all back at once - paying only 2,500-867.44 = $1632.56.
And that'll be all he gets for sometime because May would be our *last* pre-paid month.
He needs the money so bad, this little water bill can help me stave of getting booted out soon AND it may help me in my master plan - negotiating an 18-month below market lease that would have to be honored by whomever buys the place at auction.. $1800 a month sounds *fair* to me, in this economy, given the rodents, etc.
Again, this guy is going to go for a Pyrrhic victory, which is going to consist of getting your ass out of the house which he appears to own at the moment. What you perceive as stupidity is more likely behavior supporting the above thesis.
As for the field mice, it is difficult to believe that even a Massachusetts judge is going to get overly excited about that. Mice are a common pest infestation throughout the northeast. Got to do better than that...
But you had to see him with his tail between his legs, accepting my check yesterday.
I clawed back some of my money, and I think I demonstrated to him how difficult I could be. He needs the money so badly he's effectively my *financial biatch*.
A lot of mice, yes. But I also have caught a rat and documented it. Furthermore, my neighbor said he saw two more rats going into my house as well. I have his email as evidence. PLUS, I could probably bait the traps in my basement with bacon and peanut butter and easily catch another.
It's not just up to the judge. I could go to the town's Board of Health and get the place condemned. They aren't particularly fond of my landlord in town.
I don't think any of this will come into play going forward. I think the Moron finally gets it.
In summary, I got back some money, and though I gave up a bit of leverage (now I can't hold the security deposit non-escrow against him), I've still got plenty left should things deteriorate again.
For example, I could threaten him with telling his other (former) tenants that they can easily sue him for not escrowing their deposits. I know for a fact that both sets of former tenants harbor ill will towards him. Such a threat would DEFINITELY scare the poop out of him - much like a pointed gun at his head.
And I have ten more such belligerent ideas ready to go. They should have had me run Gitmo...
So he is desparate for cash, and you want a favorable lease. Why not offer him cash up front in the amount of, say, 10% of the new yaerly reduction?
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