« Directions | Main | The Great Floods »
September 01, 2005
Moving or Not?
I own the rowhouse immediately next to mine. I picked it up at a slum-lord auction. After I made the winning bid of $27,000 all the slumlords stopped comparing notes about how little maintenance work they do on the houses and they took a few moments to congratulate me and welcome me to the club.
"This is a great deal." One slumlord said to me, "It's even got tenants already."
Those tenants were my neighbors and had been since I lived in my house. My plan was to continue to let them living in the house as tenants and neighbors and to gut and rehab the house after they left.
But somewhere around the 100th time I was awoken by the neighbors screaming and fighting at 4am and and the 2 bazillionth time in a row I heard that awful "Sweat drippin' down my balls" song I decided not to renew their lease.
I knew it was going to be hard, they were my neighbors. They must have sensed this. In order to make it easier for me they stopped paying rent.
I gave them just over a month to leave the house and it was as easy as that. The next day I saw them packing up their belongings in 40 oz boxes.
I had written off the money that they owed me figuring I'd never get any of it, but one day they decided to give me some of it. I went inside their living room and surrounded by Bud Ice, King Cobra and Steel Reserve boxes and half a dozen naked children with snot dripping from their noses they gave me $200 of the $1300 owed me.
I took for granted that packing up their belongings in the growing mountain of boxes meant they were moving.
Last night when I came home from work the adults were all lounging, smoking cigarettes on patio chairs they keep out on the sidewalk. They didn't look like they were in any hurry to move anywhere.
And they put a new lock on the front door.
Posted by calculatoronfire at September 1, 2005 01:09 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://baltiblogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/6640
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Moving or Not?:
Comments
I never if what you're posting is true or not, but if this one is, YIKES.
Posted by: schmutzie at September 2, 2005 12:13 PM
As a time worn landlady and daughter of a time worn landlandy, I can say, time to call the sheriff. They can't change thier locks and not give you a key. Call Amernick. Google them.
Posted by: molly at September 2, 2005 08:44 PM
I was trying not to bring a lawyer into the mix, but I think I might have to. Thanks for the recommendation.
Posted by: brian at September 3, 2005 09:12 AM
Amernick's not exactly a lawyer and they're a lot cheaper than you'd think.
Posted by: molly at September 5, 2005 08:39 AM
a new lock?! well, at least they're making some improvements on the property. :P
Posted by: d2ana at September 5, 2005 04:28 PM
They've been putting holes in walls and leaving the window air conditioners to leak into the house too.
I suppose that's increased ventilation and an indoor pool. Both improvements to some people.
Come the 15th I think I'll see if Amernick agrees.
Posted by: brian at September 6, 2005 05:31 PM
What's happening on the 15th?
Posted by: argyle at September 13, 2005 05:22 PM