My landlord recently raised my rent, which is fine because I've been living here in a townhouse for a steal for years. But I've also put up with a lot of noise and other problems that old houses have, ranging from rusted out water heaters, to broken furnaces, to mice, to silverfish, to roof leaks. In other words, reasonable wear and tear for a house that has a field stone basement and used to be housing for (most probably) farm animals.
Until Mother's Day. On Mother's Day, we think we've blown through another hot water heater when I notice washing dishes that there is zero hot water. Surprise! There is water ALL over the basement. Again. Yes, again. I trudge downstairs with my pants rolled up, calling the landlord at the same time.
But, no, it's not the hot water heater. Instead, it's the hot water to the washer. The hose has rusted clear off, and water is spraying everywhere. Decent. Not only is my basement getting flooded, but so is the brand new, re-done, not yet occupied but already rented townhouse next door.
Two of my three kids are here for Mother's Day. they run out and buy two more mops so we can all have a lovely time together as a family mopping up the damn basement. Between this townhouse and my previous apartment two houses over, this crappy water has rusted out a total of seven of my appliances over the years, so I'm getting to be an expert basement mopper. Not, though, the way I want to spend family time.
So, I have been toying with moving to another place. I don't need three bedrooms anymore, and these rooms are so tiny that I'm not sure they qualify as bedrooms, anyway. I start the search as I did decades ago. I have not actively searched for an apartment really since 1995. I am expecting first and last plus the usual security deposit.
What shocks me, though, is that it is now standard to ask for three-month's rent along with ... wait for it ... here it comes ... an application fee. A FUCKING APPLICATION FEE. It seems that to move I will have to pony up upwards of $5,000.If I had $5,000, I'd put it toward a down payment on something. I would love to have my own house, but after the basement debacle and the five times it took to fix my furnace over the years (that always seemed to crap out during sub-zero times and forced me to buy two electric fireplaces just so I wouldn't freeze to death in my sleep), I think I'm all set with that.
I know I've been out of the game for a while, but it seems to me that landlords should be begging for people like me to fill up their empty places. I guess I'm an idiot. So I'll stay here and mop up my basement and hope to gawd the new people who are moving in soon are not noisy or filthy or bringing bugs into the property because I think I might soon end up living in my car at this point. Oh, except that my car is crapping out because, you know, when your basement floods, karma pisses all over you, too.
