Landlord by vibr8 Blog entry

Blog: Vibrational Health Village
by vibr8

Landlord

a bit off-topic, sometimes bloggers need to vent

Date: 9/24/2005 4:48:48 PM ( 20 y ) ... viewed 2033 times

Although I pay a mortgage on a residence (they call that owning in this society :) my son rents.

A new owner is condominiumizing the wonderful apartment that he and his girlfriend had really treasured.

Each day, something new happens on the property. The first thing the new owners did is cut down many beautiful 50+ year old shade trees on the property. Then they dumped rocks in various locales on the property. Not with any clear xeriscaping plan, just truckfuls of dumped river rocks.

After removing the trunks of the healthy, happy old trees, the workmen dug up the yard. Then they put in different soil and a sprinkler system, and then some sod and little bushes and flowers from a local big box store.

They sent a letter to my son and his girlfriend saying they were restoring the apartments and they would have a first chance to purchase their one bedroom apartment for 350,000 dollars. Although they get by pretty well with their chosen careers, that is not an affordable home price for them at this time.

Although when the new owners bought the building the tenants were told their leases would be honored, it is almost impossible for anyone to go about peacefully existing within or outside the building. So an honored lease has little meaning within those parameters.

The trash dumpster that the building's tenants were using has been taken away, and their recycling container is being used by the workmen to dump building waste. Loud sounds like blasting away concrete eradicate any possibility of silence or peace during the day and early evening.

Within less than two months of the new ownership, realtor's lock boxes were placed on all the apartment doors.

These are realities of today's business world. My son and his girlfriend are good tenants. They pay their rent on time, helped keep up the grounds for the former owner, keep the apartment very clean and orderly, and take care of small repairs themselves.

I know life is often not fair, but they just don't deserve this.

Of course they are looking for another apartment and I hope they find one soon.

This town used to protect the rights of tenants, but after doing some research my son's girlfriend has found that tenants apparently have very few rights anymore here.

Thinking and writing about it creates frustration for me. I guess owning property gives people the right to just do whatever they want within legal parameters, and the rights of tenants who will be gone within a year are not their primary concern.

So life goes on.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to vent.

If you've got landlord stories you'd like to share, please feel free to email them to me and I'll add them to the blog. It would be great if your stories were more solution focused than mine. The solution is yet to come for my son, but he is working toward it.

Peace to you.