It has been an interesting, never a dull moment past few weeks around here. Living in what I now make no apologies for calling “in the ghetto” has proven to test everyone’s limit.
Perhaps I have mentioned before that of the 83 townhouses here one jerk, known as the “slum lord of SP” owns ten units here (two are in his parents name because he got busted for owning more than the law allows). This man is a class A ass hole. He has gotten into shoving matches with old folk, never repairs his units problems, has been fined by the association so many times it is a joke and of course he never pays the dang fines so the association has leans on his properties. Gosh if he ever sells em . …
A new renter moved into his unit next door – we share a common wall. She is actually very nice as far as nice goes. She has mental problems, no biggy, we can do that. But her biggest problem is – yep you guessed it – she lives in one of said slum lords units!
We awoke last week to find our back yard and shed flooded. The water heater next door was over flowing like Niagara Falls. Her unit was wet, our yard was wet, and Mr Slum Lord when he received her call in the a.m. told her he would be right over. Yeah right. At 10 am we left a message on his cell. At 5:30 pm, we left another. At 6:30 I called the city 311 number. They left a message for code enforcement to call the next day. At 7:45 pm Mr. Slum Lord came and did something to the water heater. At least the flow of water stopped but apparently she had no hot water and turns out she had not for over a week!
Mr Slum Lord decides he must jump up on the fence between our yard to announce at the top of his lungs that she had “sabotaged the water heater”. Annie dog recognizing a creep when she sees one coming over her fence tries to get at him. KRP is telling him to get down, the dog is telling him I am gonna bite your ass, and I am watching my flower pots go over, the drip system get ripped out, as Annie is moving closer to her prey. Three or four get the F off the fences later he said something that sounded rude and dropped down to his side.
Two days later the gal next doors little girl knocks on the door and says that her mom told her to tell us that the house was flooding from the upstairs. KRP went over and heard the water pouring down and helped the gal turn off her main. We do not dare go into the place as Mr Slum Lord as decided that would warrant suing us. I guess code enforcement made him stop the water heater over flow LOL he hates us big time now.
Well, the gal next doors mom called code enforcement over the second leak and they called me thinking I had called again. Long story short they (the city) sent out the water man to turn her water off not knowing we already had because the slum lord told her he was on vacation and would deal with it when he got back in five days. And oh happy joy joy they turned ours off instead.
Wish I could tell you that her place got properly dried out, that the evil mold will not grow, but alas, I can not. So we wait.
Because all her towels and sheets got wet she decided to hang them on the fence. Yes, our poor ready to fall down fence. We awoke to what I now call the ghetto scene in our yard. Yes, I so love looking at your sheets, towels, and best of all your underwear that fell over the fence onto my bean plants stake. AUGH. Today I finally caught her and asked ever so nicely if she would get her laundry off the fence and out of my yard. I went over with her undies in my hand and returned them LOL now I would be embarrassed if my neighboor rang my bell with my underwear in their hand. Guess that is just me.
This afternoon I found a used rubber as in condom as in can you say YUK out front near the gate.
Did I mention the old toilet that Mr Slum Lord has left out in the carport for me to enjoy when I pull out?
It is official I live in the freaking ghetto. Ghetto is a state of mind and seems most of the folks in here are afflicted with it. But, I have 311. 911 only works if someone is bleeding and then it is pot luck whether or not they come within a few hours.
I need to win the lottery.
Crikey, I was laughing when I got to the underwear on the bean stake yet the whole scenario sounds stressful. I’ve lived in shared housing scenarios most of my life and now a condo. And, it seems when things go bad in regards to neighbors, they go really bad. Other people’s problems become yours based on the shared wall. This scenario seems to have a whole extra layer.
Can your association get involved regarding checking that things are properly dried out? Don’t they have an interest in the overall structure between the units? I had a water leak issue between my unit and another. Talking to insurance companies about which policy covers what side of the drywall and who owns the studs was bizarre though.
All I can say is good luck!
The association can do nothing. If they call someone to dry the place out the owner will sue them for entering his property – yikes he apparently has let them know in the past that any entrance initiated by them means the long and dense arm of the law.
If the wet come into our place our homeowners would cover it. The association is only responsible for the outer walls. Your right it would be a cluster nut to figure out if that does happen. I am thinking that our company would go after him maybe they are bigger than our little assoc. um …
And yes this is getting very stressing.
You have to buy a ticket to win.
Webster please would you provide the winning numbers as I seem never to get it right!