Rant/Vent Pants #5928347
...'cuz frankly, I've had a c*nt of a day. It's been humid as hell, which doesn't add to the experience in a positive way. Wednesday, I went to Nameless, Inc.* real estate to see about renewing my lease. Brainless Reception Bimbo tells me that they send leases out to properties now, to which my response is "Oh, last year I had to come in and sign one." to which she gave me a bewildered look. (This was before my real estate changed ownership, I might add.) So after a short conversation, she tells me she will get a hold of the owner (who lives in Sydney), and get back to me. She also tells me there will most likely be a rent increase, which I was expecting.
Today (Friday), I receive an envelope from Nameless, Inc. which contains the new lease and various paperwork. My rent has increased $30, due to increases in cost of living, CPI, rates, blah blahblahblahblahblah. Bit steeper than I expected, but I can deal with it. Just. While down there, I asked for a 12 month lease, but the owner has asked for 6 months, and is happy to renew (and most likely put the rent up again) in another 6 months. More paperwork and more hassles 6 months down the track. I'm pissed off about it, but at the moment have not much in the way of other options at short notice. So I will sign the lease and return it on Monday, as well as filling out yet another maintenance request for various ailments that the property has.
I'm annoyed because looking at it, on the inside, this property is so NOT worth what I'm paying for it per week. In the 5 years that I've lived here, I can count 4 and a half things that needed fixing, that have actually been fixed. The taps in the shower needed replacing, they were done while I was away last year. The hot water heater blew up the first year that we were here (typically, right smack in the middle of winter), and we were without hot water for 2 weeks. The stove blew up, and we were without one for EIGHT weeks over summer. When I moved into the property, there were no doorhandles on the interior doors. These were fixed in 2005, but a day later, the new doorknob in my room malfunctioned while I was stuck inside my room.
The 4th-and-a-half thing to be fixed, was both back and front staircases. This was done in January 2003 by a dodgy repairman, who did a halfass job of it, turning over most of the half-rotted stair treads and only replacing about 4 of them (over both staircases). He also failed to properly seal the decking on the balcony (actually, he didn't bother to seal it AT ALL), and did such a bad job of it, that it will need to be done again in less than 5 years time. The boards are starting to lift up and the stair treads are all bowed because they haven't been sealed against the elements either. "Why don't you just do it yourself?" some might ask. Because it's not MY responsibility to repair a property that's not mine. Thankfully, one saving grace to this property is that the roof does NOT leak.
Another one I've heard is "You should go to the RTA about it." Yes, I'm aware of that, I've also already gone down that avenue and got about as far as I had before. Nowhere. I'm sure in the real estate office there's a thick pile of paperwork in the file for this house, and strangely enough, most of the problems were caused by the last tenants, NOT me and my housemates. There's 3 things I'm aware of that were caused since we've been tenants, one is a hole in my door (from when I was stuck in my room, my housemate tried to kick the door in, it didn't work), and I've patched it up. There's also a small hole in my wall from when I moved my desk in here, that I shall patch up when I move out. There's also a crack that needs patching in another room where I accidentally elbowed the wall. It's half patched up and I will finish it this summer. Bloody cheap fibreboard houses. Brick houses are so much easier to deal with in terms of things like that.
But anyway, the dilemma now stands that in another 6 months there's a very real possibility that I will be moving. Where to, I'm not so sure as yet. I'd like to stay in Brisbane, apart from the hot muggy summers, I do like it up here. I've had a bit of a think about it and might have an iron or two in the proverbial fire. Mere speculation at this point, but if I can't rustle up anything, I may be going back west...
* - obviously not the name of my Real Estate.
Today (Friday), I receive an envelope from Nameless, Inc. which contains the new lease and various paperwork. My rent has increased $30, due to increases in cost of living, CPI, rates, blah blahblahblahblahblah. Bit steeper than I expected, but I can deal with it. Just. While down there, I asked for a 12 month lease, but the owner has asked for 6 months, and is happy to renew (and most likely put the rent up again) in another 6 months. More paperwork and more hassles 6 months down the track. I'm pissed off about it, but at the moment have not much in the way of other options at short notice. So I will sign the lease and return it on Monday, as well as filling out yet another maintenance request for various ailments that the property has.
I'm annoyed because looking at it, on the inside, this property is so NOT worth what I'm paying for it per week. In the 5 years that I've lived here, I can count 4 and a half things that needed fixing, that have actually been fixed. The taps in the shower needed replacing, they were done while I was away last year. The hot water heater blew up the first year that we were here (typically, right smack in the middle of winter), and we were without hot water for 2 weeks. The stove blew up, and we were without one for EIGHT weeks over summer. When I moved into the property, there were no doorhandles on the interior doors. These were fixed in 2005, but a day later, the new doorknob in my room malfunctioned while I was stuck inside my room.
The 4th-and-a-half thing to be fixed, was both back and front staircases. This was done in January 2003 by a dodgy repairman, who did a halfass job of it, turning over most of the half-rotted stair treads and only replacing about 4 of them (over both staircases). He also failed to properly seal the decking on the balcony (actually, he didn't bother to seal it AT ALL), and did such a bad job of it, that it will need to be done again in less than 5 years time. The boards are starting to lift up and the stair treads are all bowed because they haven't been sealed against the elements either. "Why don't you just do it yourself?" some might ask. Because it's not MY responsibility to repair a property that's not mine. Thankfully, one saving grace to this property is that the roof does NOT leak.
Another one I've heard is "You should go to the RTA about it." Yes, I'm aware of that, I've also already gone down that avenue and got about as far as I had before. Nowhere. I'm sure in the real estate office there's a thick pile of paperwork in the file for this house, and strangely enough, most of the problems were caused by the last tenants, NOT me and my housemates. There's 3 things I'm aware of that were caused since we've been tenants, one is a hole in my door (from when I was stuck in my room, my housemate tried to kick the door in, it didn't work), and I've patched it up. There's also a small hole in my wall from when I moved my desk in here, that I shall patch up when I move out. There's also a crack that needs patching in another room where I accidentally elbowed the wall. It's half patched up and I will finish it this summer. Bloody cheap fibreboard houses. Brick houses are so much easier to deal with in terms of things like that.
But anyway, the dilemma now stands that in another 6 months there's a very real possibility that I will be moving. Where to, I'm not so sure as yet. I'd like to stay in Brisbane, apart from the hot muggy summers, I do like it up here. I've had a bit of a think about it and might have an iron or two in the proverbial fire. Mere speculation at this point, but if I can't rustle up anything, I may be going back west...
* - obviously not the name of my Real Estate.
posted by FrostilicusFrost at 3:08 pm
1 Comments:
Real estates and landlords are all cunts. Penny pinching tightarse bastards!!
I wouldn't hand in the new lease until everything is fixed, but then you run the risk of them taking the offer off the table. It's a no win situation really.
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