The chronicals of Dirty J...Part IV

Alright I'm back apparently by popular demand, and the chronicles continue......when you have a landlord like Dirty J do they ever end....? I guess not till I move out!

Well not to seem like I'm counting down the days or anything but only about 2 months left in this dump haha and as usual as I'm writing this I constantly think of all the things I could talk about! The list is long and disastrous, and at times pretty amusing. 


So back to bizzz, at this point in the lease it's 2010, new year, and of course a SHITLOAD of new problems. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts as the summer draws nearer and nearer it becomes a popular time for students to start taking tours of houses in anticipation that they will eventually find a place to call home for a year or two (hopefully not one of Dirty J's properties!!!!!!!!!!!). Well as you may have guessed Dirty J, being the landlord of the century that he is, decided that maybe he should start showing the house to students for when we FINALLY move out. Now as a house we have made it a rule to STRONGLY CAUTION the touring groups that this humble abode (house) would not be a wise choice if they value their living conditions at all. Now as most people who have lived alone, or have had the pleasure of dealing with landlords before know that in order for a landlord to enter the premises they must I REPEAT MUST give 24 hour notice to the tenants (DID I MENTION THEY MUST) unless the situation is deemed an emergency, and I would like to think that showing a house to some kids is NOT an emergency!  Dont believe me ok well here........

Entry without notice

Entry without notice, emergency, consent

26.  (1)  A landlord may enter a rental unit at any time without written notice,

(a) in cases of emergency; or

(b) if the tenant consents to the entry at the time of entry. 2006, c. 17, s. 26 (1).

Same, housekeeping

(2)  A landlord may enter a rental unit without written notice to clean it if the tenancy agreement requires the landlord to clean the rental unit at regular intervals and,

(a) the landlord enters the unit at the times specified in the tenancy agreement; or

(b) if no times are specified, the landlord enters the unit between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. 2006, c. 17, s. 26 (2). HAHAHAHAH now that is a joke. I WISH MR DIRTY J would enter the rental unit to clean!! There is a reason I call him Dirty J. Back to the point........

Entry to show rental unit to prospective tenants

(3)  A landlord may enter the rental unit without written notice to show the unit to prospective tenants if,

(a) the landlord and tenant have agreed that the tenancy will be terminated or one of them has given notice of termination to the other;

(b) the landlord enters the unit between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.; and

(c) before entering, the landlord informs or makes a reasonable effort to inform the tenant of the intention to do so. 2006, c. 17, s. 26 (3).

Now this is the clause that I really want to focus on, particularly part (c). Notice the part that states the landlord must inform or make a reasonable effort to inform, well I can assure you that just walking in without talking to one member of the house is probably not a reasonable effort, but hey what do I know...... Anyways the story continues.

I could recall countless times where one of more of us have been chilling in the living room, basement, upper floor, etc..... and Dirty J has entered the so called rental unit without even a knock. I guess having a key means you can enter any time you want....oh wait it doesn't....but in Dirty's World anything goes. Now I'm not even going to get into all these instances (humorous as they were) as it would be enough information to fill a few pages, I'll just get to the good stuff!

Me and my roomate are chilling in the living room one night at about 7:00pm and we see a car pull into the drive way. Now the living room looks right onto the driveway so naturally when we see someone pull in we all get up and look to see who it is. In this case we both have no idea so as usual we wait for the knock. Not to our surprise we are met by 5 bright eyed young students eager to take a tour of the dump (lol). They tell us that Dirty told them he would meet them at 7 to show the house. Well as you guessed neither of us had heard anything from the mysterious Dirty in weeks, so this visit was rather unexpected (though in a sad way it wasn't). We give the kids the same speech we give everyone about how signing a lease with this man is pretty much making a deal with the devil. By this time it's about 7:20pm and Dirty J is still no where to be seen. I never took a class called Being a Landlord 1000 (and I assume Dirty J never took that one either), but my basic Landlord instincts seem to be telling me that when you want people to rent a house from you, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY SHOW UP TO SHOW THEM THE HOUSE YOU MORON!!!!!! hahaha sorry for the outburst, but seriously. 

Now Dirty J is not only a man who is impossible to reach, never around, and always mysterious, but he also has a memory span of about 3 minutes 27 seconds (scientifically proven). Me and Dirty have had a nice talk about how when he comes to the house (with or without notifying us since that is asking far too much) he is only allowed to go into rooms if the person is home or if the door is open. Of course this next story has to do with just that. I'm in my room with my girlfriend (who will probably not appreciate this sorry baby) and we are in bed watching some tv. Now keep in mind I have had no contact with Dirty J about any tours or any showings at this point. I'm just enjoying the program, the room is dark, and then the door swings open. Standing in the doorway is the man himself DIRTY J and 3 lovely girls who will most certainly not be renting from buddy any time soon after that night. I looked him right in the eyes and screamed "CLOSE THE FUCKING DOOR!!!" I have not spoken to him since. 

Now this will not be the finally to the chronicles as I foresee many many more exciting events to come but for now all has been quiet on the homefront. 

To end this post I would like to personally URGE any potential home buyer or renter to never EVER EVER EVER x1000000 overlook the landlord. They will make or break your time in a student house or house in general, and will make your life a living hell. And hey, if you end up running into Dirty J in the future know that you have my deepest sympathies........and my advice for you: GET OUT OF THERE!!!!!!!

I'm out for now but there will most certainly be a part V I promise. 

eZz

 

The chronicals of Dirty J...Part III

At this point, as I mentioned earlier, I have been living at Dirty J's house for about 10 months now and with every day comes a new adventure, or should I say nightmare. Yeah I'll stick with nightmare. For me to continue with a time line would fill up pages and pages so instead I have decided to use a very simple method to describe just a few of the disastrous milestones that have occurred thus far.  

I'll go back to the Residential Tenancies Act of Ontario and paste every act under Part 3 "The Landlords Responsibilities" and beside each responsibility I will give a fool proof example of how those responsibilities were somehow overlooked by this stories main character.....Dirty J.

Landlord’s responsibility to repair

20.  (1)  A landlord is responsible for providing and maintaining a residential complex, including the rental units in it, in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. 2006, c. 17, s. 20 (1).

I'll start with the responsibility of maintaining and repair clause. I know I already touched on this one before but I believe it is an important one. For starters around 2 weeks after we had moved into the house a disaster of epic proportions rocked the house (and possibly the street). Attached to the back of the house is a main floor patio, and because our basement is above ground it happens to be on the second story of the house, point and case it is a 1 floor drop to the ground. Well if you couldn't tell where this was going from that description....IT COLLAPSED!!!!! That's right the patio fell 1 floor to the ground and so did a full size BBQ, 3 couches, 2 tables, and about 50 people. Turns out the patio was not even built up top code, the foundations (which looked like wooden planks) had completely rotted out, and best of all after having a contractor look at it, the patio was missing vital supports. Dirty J of course couldn't believe this to be possible considering the great TERRIBLE condition of the house. Repair time, which in this situation should have been started the next day, took about 3 months (keep in mind no one even came to look at the damage for about a month). This left us with no patio. There was a bug infestation in the basement and centipedes in the 1000's carpeted the floor. DIRTY J's GLORIOUS SOLUTION......Raid bug spray. Doesn't that stuff cost $7.99 at the local Wal Mart? I thought that was for killing a bug or two......but I guess when your dirty dirty J it works on thousands. Well actually it didn't and we had to wait for them to die then sweet up the corpses (not pretty).

The second large issue that falls under the category of repair and upkeep would be our lovely flood....wait make that 3 of them. Yup, turns out the trees in our backyard decided to grow their roots right into our sub pump (lucky me). Now let me sidetrack for a second to inform the readers that Dirty J is a man of mystery, a man of suspicion, but most of all he is a man who is almost near IMPOSSIBLE to contact. His phone is never on, when it is he doesn't answer, and when you leave a message, you guessed it, he doesn't call back......back to the story. So finally after many attempts to reach Dirty we get through only to be told he has forgotten his plumbers number and we need to call them. Turns out we have their number on a magnet on the fridge....how convenient. By this time there is about 8 inches of water covering the entire basement floor which is coming out of every sink with a steady flow. My roommates bedroom is completely flooded and we are out of patience. When the plumbers finally arrive they turn out to be great guys and help us fix the problem. Now I am well aware that roots growing in to the sub pump are not Dirty J's fault in any way (though I'm sure he somehow managed to make sure it happened), but it was not our fault either and as far as I can tell it IT THE LANDLORDS RESPONSIBILITY TO PROVIDE CLEAN UP so that the rental unit......and I quote the lines above" is in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards"

As you already guessed poor old Dirty J didn't quite have that one figured out either. After 2 days of continuous calling we finally get through only to be instructed to go to another one of his houses and pick up a shop vac (water vacuum) and perform the clean up ourselves. Now by this time stagnant water has been sitting in the basement for 2 days, it smells, mold is developing and the list goes on and on. Unless my eyes have failed me at the ripe old age of 20 I'm pretty sure that contradicts the whole " fit for habitation", or " complying with health" sections of the above clause. Last time i checked mold and stagnant water were kind of on the unhealthy side of things (just saying). Attached to this post are some great home videos of the flood to prove my point, also for your enjoyment, and entertainment. God Bless GREAT landlords.

Part IV on its way.

eZz

 

The chronicals of Dirty J...Part II

Ok where was I......... oh yeah Dirty J.

Summer just started, the lease has already been signed, and its move in day. I figure this would be easier to grasp if I make a half ass time line so here goes.....

(12:00 pm): Should be standard move in time, so thinking that I arrive at the house with my stuff ready to move in. BIG MISTAKE!!!! There is a white van parked on the lawn in front of the main door, and the current tenants are still taking their time moving out, AKA they have barely even started. Dirty J is no where in sight and there is really nothing any of us can do to speed up the process.

(6:00 pm): Finally the remaining tenant is done moving out and we are allowed to begin moving in. http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_06r17_e.htm#BK21.
Above is a link to the Residential Tenancies Act of Ontario, just for fun, well also to prove some points but who wants to read a big legal document anyways. The point is 6:00 pm is certainly not a good move in time.....but it gets worse.

(7:00 pm): Still no sign of Dirty J, and by this point we are all pretty sure he is not coming. This is where that link comes in handy but ill make it easier on the readers by pasting in good points. House is a complete mess, the prior tenants left pretty much anything they didn't want to take with them at the house. None of us have keys to the house since we have still not seen the landlord. House is visibly damaged and has not been repaired in some time, not to mention the HUGE amount of dust, mold and just plain out greez throughout the house.....the list could go on and on but at this point I just wanted to get my shit out of the truck and into my soon to be lovely home. HAHA

PART III
RESPONSIBILITIES OF LANDLORDS

Landlord’s responsibility to repair

20. (1) A landlord is responsible for providing and maintaining a residential complex, including the rental units in it, in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. 2006, c. 17, s. 20 (1).

Oops...must have missed that one Dirty J but there is still more......

I have lived at this house for close to 10 months now and I never thought I could have ever witnessed this kind of shit from ANY LANDLORD EVER!!!!! Apparently Dirty J owns several properties throughout the city, and even some in other cities........so my question is how does this happen? ? ? Isn't this shit illegal or partially illegal, I mean the guy is getting paid a good amount of money so shouldn't I be seeing results. This is just the icing on the cake though.
Part III coming soon!
eZz

The chronicals of Dirty J

Alright so this is my first post and I figured I should start by addressing an issue which has been bugging me for quite some time: NEGLIGENT LANDLORDS!!!!!!!

I have lived on my own for 2 years now and to be honest this year has been far from a great experience. Student life can be tough as it is as I'm sure many many students can attest to, but what makes student life even more frustrating is when your finally done a long day of classes and you can't even look forward to going back to your place of residence.

I'll start from the beginning.......
In August 2008 my friend and I decided that for our first year of school we would avoid residence and find our own place to live. As any student knows, there is a certain urgency when it comes to the matter of student housing and properties do go fast, so we were more than a little bit late and it was pretty slim pickings. After making some calls and looking around we ended up signing the lease on a nice 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom basement apartment. The place was great, good size bedrooms, recently refurbished, and the BEST part.....the landlord (I'll call him RJ) was a very friendly down to earth guy. To put it bluntly NO PROBLEMS!!! I'm not sure if a saying exists that states if something starts off going well it will probably turn out well, but when it comes to student housing and landlords my experience teaches me that is most definitely the case. On move in day we arrived at the property at 12:00pm (standard move in time) and were greeted by RJ and his lovely wife who were in the process of cleaning the house and changing the locks for us. We moved in got our keys and internet password and that was it, no bullshit excuse my language. Throughout the whole 8 months living there I never had a problem contacting RJ, and even when my room flooded (which was pretty serious) RJ arrived almost instantly, cleaned the mess himself, fixed the problem (which was something to do with the foundation), and assured me it would not happen again......AND IT NEVER DID! Thanks RJ.

Fast forward to March 2009, same scenario, a couple friends and myself are again in need of a place to live for the upcoming year.....except this time we actually got on it early enough that we would have a few more options. After some tours and searching we stumbled upon the fantastic house in which I am currently sitting in typing this post. HA....well the second part is true I am sitting in it but it's far from fantastic.

Fast forward again (sorry) to May 2009. After meeting several times with the landlord (I'll call him Dirty J for obvious reasons) the lease was finally signed and we were officially ready to move in.

I currently have some laundry waiting to be put in the dryer so I'll continue this lovely story in my next post.
eZz