Landlord

My landlord emailed me this morning. He was asking about a "precious sculpture" that he had found when he was digging around in my room. Backstory: the sculpture was a high school art project of his son's (a son who is now out of college), that involved him making a mold of his clawed hand, and painting it lurid green. It was hung on the wall, and I came home one day to find it had fallen and chipped. This had obviously happened before, as there were other chips on it. I put it in my room, intending to glue the chips back on, frankly glad that it was off the wall. He found it while digging through my shelves during a massive invasion of privacy I blog about in this post. As a quick recap for those who don't want to read about it: he sent a team of inexperienced painters into my room on Sunday, without my permission or knowledge, and competely trashed my room, spattering paint over everything, because there was some apparent dire need to paint that weekend.

This was my reply to my landlords current email:

Jack [name changed],
I'm deducting the following items from my rent this month:
$75 - jeans ruined by paint
$75 - sheets with paint on them
$200 - work relating to cleaning paint from the following items: shoes (2 pair), dresser, bed. Some of the paint is unable to be removed from my bed. I've included in this cleanup assosicated with the complete trashing of my bookshelf, which is my filing system for my research.

In about two weeks, I'm also commencing a lawsuit against you. I don't have time, now, because I'm trying to finish a novel, efforts that are constantly impeded by your management of your property. I expect to ask for around $2,100 for invasion of privacy (per fine structures set out in MN statutes), and half my rent back for the time I've been living with you, because of your complete negligence of duties. Total: ~$5,000

Furthermore, I will be posting a letter to the IRS, informing them that, as far as I can reckon, for the past ten (10) years you have collected monies for rent, and I don't believe you have paid taxes on them. I will inform them that at my current rate (x2 for double occupancy) the delinquent amount could be as high as $144,000. That constitutes somewheres around $45,000 in back taxes, not to mention interest, fines, and other sundry enforcement. Several of your past renters have agreed to supply affidavits testifying as such. This is, of course, not something you have to worry about if you have paid your taxes appropriately.

As to the "sculpture" (the high school art project) I came home and found it like that one day. The reason it's in my room was because I intended to glue it back together, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Best Regards,
Starving Artist

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Book and Landlord and It's Late

It's late. I've been working on my book all day, but I didn't make a lot of headway. Only about 1200 words actually written. It was important time spent, because I sketched out what's going to happen in the next few chapters. I'm VERY near the end! I still may make the end of the month!

My landlord never ceases to amaze me. After all the crap I went through last Sunday, after I called the police on him and yelled myself hoarse about his abuses of my privacy, I just found out that the same night he did the same thing to the woman living here, except he took her property and threw it on my bed to store for the night.

Apparently when she came home, after a long shift (she's a nurse), she went into her room, and all her stuff was gone. She basically kicked my landlords door down, and found out that he was storing it in my room.

Let me repeat, this was after I called the police on him for an invasion of privacy.

Nurse just told me about this tonight, and I had to go for a three mile run to cool down. My blood pressure shot up again. I'm suing him now, for sure.

I'm not going to think about it. I'm a little wired, so I'll write until I fall asleep.

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Landlord

More problems with my landlord today. He hired some painters to go through the house, and didn't tell me he was having my room painted, too. I came home today to find a group of painters in my room, none of whom spoke English so communications didn't go so well, who had taken ALL MY STUFF and moved it to the center of the room. Hundreds of books were thrown in a giant pile. My papers, my drafts of my book, everything was in a jumbled mess. A 120 year old picture that my great-great-great grandmother painted of the port my family left from when the departed from Finland was casually tossed on top of a bookshelf, precariously balanced, with random books and objects resting on the glass, just waiting for someone to bump it or for something to get dropped on it. After I moved the expensive items I had to leave. I've literally never been so angry in my life. My blood pressure started to rise and I realized I was actually so angry that I might do some damage to myself, and I didn't want the poor painters to think I was mad at them (although they had tossed my stuff around, they were obviously just some guys my landlord hired, who didn't know what was going on). I walked around a lake and then called the police, and asked them what to do. They sent a really friendly officer out, who completely empathized. He told me I could sue my landlord in civil court for invasion of privacy, but my landlord technically hadn't done anything criminally wrong, although the officer, who was really bright, went into a discussion of Supreme Court cases that he disagreed with, that had stripped tenants of some of their privacy rights. He thought my landlord's actions should be a criminal offense, but he couldn't do anything about it. He also said I was handling it better than he ever would have.

I'm at my girlfriends now. She gave me some ice cream to make me feel better :)

I'm going to go through my stuff tomorrow, and deduct anything that was damaged off the rent. The pants I was wearing got a paint stain, so I'm deducting those, too. I'm not going to do anything else, although I had a talk with my landlord over the phone, the most severe rant I've ever had with anyone in my life, and I told him I was taking him to court, but I'm not. I don't have time to think of this stuff right now. I gained absolutely no feeling of moral absolution by yelling at the landlord. I almost felt worse afterwards. He's a perennial screw-up, and I know it's probably some brain chemistry issue and I honestly don't think he thinks he's doing anything wrong. Yelling was completely immature, I know, but I had to get it off my chest. I don't like the fact that I yelled at him any more than he probably likes the fact that he's always messing up.

This is a lesson for me, and a warning for anyone who jumps into a living situation without putting enough thought into it, just to save a few bucks. Money is definitely not everything.

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Oh, another email to my landlord...

Mr. X,
Please re-read my below email. I was specifically referring to the fact that you engaged in a physical struggle with Y. I was referring to the fact that you started the struggle. I was referring to the fact that I came downstairs because of the commotion and thought that I might end up physically injured because of the struggle that you caused. I am referring to the fact that you pushed Y. You were raising your voice, Ywas not.

I don't want to get in an argument over legal details, however, I happen to know that Y had a legal right to take down that wall because I built similar structures at two previous residences. As long as Y didn't nail the stucture to the house, it's legaly his to do with as he pleases. Y did not nail the structure into the wall--I was with him when he built it. We had a conversation about that very fact. The structure was held in place using small wedges of wood, like doorstops. As I said, I have done this twice in previous residences. It is firmly seated, but it is not nailed in, and it is not permanent. It is legally considered to be "freestanding." Renters often do this.

And again, it was the safety of the household which you disrupted by engaging in a physical struggle with Y.

Whatever Y did and whatever legal struggles you have with him are irrelevant to the fact that you picked a fight with him and in doing so endangered me, Z, Y, and yourself. I'm quit certain if Y told the police you pushed him, you would have been arrested, because pushing people is wrong, and illegal. Your entire email ignored the fact that you caused a dangerous situation. Pat did not run up the stairs and push you. You ran down the stairs and pushed him. Your email evaded all responsibility for your physical actions, and in no way made me feel better about the situation.

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An Email To My Landlord

Mr. X,
As I've tried to make clear, I have no intention of getting involved in your dispute with Y. I see this as none of my affair. I am, however, disturbed at the violent and frankly unusual behavior you exhibited yesterday. I am concerned that the police threatened to arrest you for unnecessary 911 calls.

I have, obviously, begun considering discontinuing my stay at your residence, given what I see as highly unusual and highly unnecessary behavior on your part. I am deeply disturbed by your actions. I have never seen a landlord lay hands on a tenant.

It is in never appropriate for you to lay hands on a resident.

If you wanted to keep Y from taking down the partition, you should have told him in writing that you somehow saw the partition (which he constructed??? which wasn't nailed into the wall???) as your property, and you would seek legal action should he remove it. LEGAL action, X, not physical actions.

YOU SHOULD NOT have involved the entire household in a potentially dangerous struggle. You did not need to physically confront Y. You did not need to push him. Please do not tell me you did this because you thought Y was "destroying your house." That was simply your excuse to act in an extremely childish manner. Even if you had some far-fetched legal reason to stop him, you should have taken the safety of MYSELF and the young woman Z into account. You should, frankly, have taken Y's safety into account, even if you dislike him. You did not. You made the WRONG decision.

You have consistently shown that you care more about YOURSELF and YOUR MONEY than you care about the safety and comfort of your residents. Per your below note, I would hope you understand that I am obviously more disturbed about "possible building code violations" than I am disturbed that Y is trying to get his deposit back. Again, I do not care if you and Y have monetary problems. YOUR MONETARY PROBLEMS ARE NOT MY CONCERN.

I have never been so disgusted with the actions of a landlord in my life. I feel like I am living in the house of a slum lord, and I am embarrassed to be there. It makes me look foolish and unprofessional to continue living in such circumstances. Everyone I know has told me to move out.

In conclusion, let me be clear, I am in no way worried about Y or any violence from him. Because of the way you have acted, I am worried about you.

P.S. - Please repair the awnings over the windows - they look horrible and the neighbors are commenting about them.

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