Categories: scming
Tags: housing
Date: 14 March 2006 20:19:16
I know I have much to catch up on and tags to complete but I thought that I should update you on the flat situation.
The inspection didn't happen on the first because the Landlord said he would come and fix some of the problems. He said he couldn't give me exact dates for a number of reasons which I've decided now shouldn't matter. My contract says 48 hours and that's what I'm going to insist on from now on. I reluctantly agreed to provide access at some indistinct point in the future at his convenience to look at different things but if people were visiting I wanted a note to know that they had been. No notes appeared - not even when I got home from work very late last Thursday to discover the contents of my kitchen in my hallway, the sink resting on the floor and no surfaces. It was still about another hour before I discovered that (of course) they'd turned the water off too. Bearing in mind it was already late and was possibly the busiest night of my year so I was Really Not Impressed.
On Friday I phoned the agency and was told that the landlord apologised, would email me and it would all be done by Friday evening. When I eventually got home, yesterday, I found that all the junk from the Kitchen was still where it had been dumped and I was really quite angry. This was nothing to the anger from the email when I read it at about midnight. The subtext of it is that the Landlord thinks I'm lying (I'm really not), i'm wrecking the place (it's still in better condition than it was when I moved in), I'm hypocritical (well, frequently but not on this occasion) and that he's not going to do anything else until I make some effort to come to his half way point.
Basically, his gripes are that I am not living up to his slightly idealised standards of living. Mine are that he's breaking the law. According to the law, my flat is uninhabitable.
The email isn't even phrased well - or for that matter politely. It appears that punctuation is optional, making it quite hard to read. I know I don't always get mine right, but I am aware of the concept! It served the purpose of making me more angry than I can ever recall being (even moreso than Thursday night). The email is above and beyond what is acceptable. I have been to the agency today to report this and have made it clear that I'm looking for somewhere new - the sooner the better. I DO NOT intend to spend any more time here than absolutely necessary. I've told the agency that too.
So, back on the normal front - I'm currently sitting in my very cold flat, shaking, as there is no heating. I will be intregued to know what happens when, tomorrow, I get called by the agency about my complaints.