Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff

[Pyrephox]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Have I entered a state of delusion, or can a landlord suddenly change rules/terms/fines for xyz on a lease without advance notice or it being.. oh, signed?

This is a question that you should ask your local tenant rights or renters' advocacy organization immediately!

[Ganymede]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Have I entered a state of delusion, or can a landlord suddenly change rules/terms/fines for xyz on a lease without advance notice or it being.. oh, signed?

Generally, no.

[Macha]

Basically, a new management company bought our complex a few months ago. They've been kinda jerks about some stuff. They raised the rent without any actual warning or anything signed by us, but we let it go.

We've had issues with people stealing things off our patio, throwing their trash in front of our patio, leaving their dogs off leash to go to the bathroom near our unit.

Now they're threatening fines if dogs aren't cleaned up after, if there's littering, etc. But we didn't sign these changes into our lease, and like hell I know how we prove this shit (in some cases literally) isn't ours.

[Roz]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Basically, a new management company bought our complex a few months ago. They've been kinda jerks about some stuff. They raised the rent without any actual warning or anything signed by us, but we let it go.

Uhhh. Why? If you have a lease, your rent is fixed for the length of the lease, unless there is somehow language in the lease allowing for this (which wouldn't make any sense). It's very likely that you're legally owed the difference in that rent. I'd definitely follow Pyre's advice above and see if you can find a legal advocacy org focused on tenants' rights, etc.

[Ganymede]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

But we didn't sign these changes into our lease, and like hell I know how we prove this shit (in some cases literally) isn't ours.

Did you sign changes to your lease?

[Macha]

@ganymede Nope. Same lease (and we did re-sign with the small rent increase) because they switched us from 6 mo lease to month to month.

they've also already tried to 'offer us' the chance to move into one of the 'upgraded units'. AKA they made some cosmetic changes to the units. They want a LOT more money, for nothing worth that kind of upcharge. We politely declined.

ETA: Why do I think they chose to drop this, without warning, on the 1st, and say "Well you paid rent, that was you agreeing?" (We pay auto, but..)

[Pyrephox]

@macha Please talk to a local professional about this ASAP. Renters are often taken advantage of because they don't know their rights, and because housing is //very important// so people don't want to risk getting evicted. This enables predatory landlords to dick people around - but the laws around tenants' rights vary widely and can be complex. You're not likely to be able to handle this without trained, professional help. Document everything, write out the timeline as best you know, make copies of your receipts, and find an advocate.

[Macha]

@pyrephox We do all communication via text or email. Because I want records. I've straight up told them people steal things. No response. The neighbor has a camera pointed at our front DOOR (whom has been one of the people stealing and vandalizing our things, because I was polite to her husband. No, I wish I was kidding) , I asked them to request the tenant point it at their own door. No response. I pointed out there are several dogs off leash around here not being cleaned up after.
They responded to that... by asking me to take pictures of it. Like.. bitch, I'm working all day. I don't have time to play Peter Parker. (that was not how I said it, tbh, but how I wanted to!_)

[Tributary]

@macha Honestly, I'd be tempted to take a picture of the turd and send them that. "Look, my neighbor didn't pick this up. Deal with it, please."

[Macha]

@tributary I'd have to actually CATCH them. I don't work a normal schedule. I don't roll out of bed before 10:30 or 11am during the week. By then, most of them have let their dogs out and back in and gone to work.

[Tributary]

@macha I mean, just the turd, not the neighbor.

[Macha]

@tributary Lol they'd want me to prove it wasn't my dog's. they are not bright people.

[Derp]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@tributary Lol they'd want me to prove it wasn't my dog's. they are not bright people.

Fortunately, this is fairly easy and cheap to solve.

Just get one of these little Geeni security cameras. Should run you somewhere around twenty bucks or so, and a smallish SD card that should also not run you very much. Stick that little bad boy in a window facing the grassy part in question and it'll just record everything to the SD card, and start overwriting when it's out of room. I think I have a 128 GB in mine and it's got like four solid days of footage or something.

Problem solved.

[Macha]

@derp We have a camera already, but one of the dogs doing it is a chihuahua. Which clearly does not take the same size shit as a pit bull, but.. clearly they don't get it.

[Ganymede]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I've straight up told them people steal things. No response. The neighbor has a camera pointed at our front DOOR (whom has been one of the people stealing and vandalizing our things, because I was polite to her husband. No, I wish I was kidding) , I asked them to request the tenant point it at their own door.

I know this is not a solution to the problem of your neighbors or landlord, but have you considered getting a P.O. Box?

[Derp]

@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

have you considered getting a P.O. Box?

This is one solution. Another solution is to do what I did -- request that they hold all package deliveries at the post office for pickup instead of delivering them to the home. I had an issue with someone constantly stealing our amazon boxes and my post office staff just gave me a little form to fill out, and they would leave a little notice in my mailbox that I had a package waiting. It was really nice.

[Macha]

It's not packages they're stealing. They stole and destroyed Logan's dog bed (the psycho neighbor took that and the blanket I loaned her husband when they were fighting, so he could sleep on their couch outside their apartment. She took the dog bed, took out the foam, cut it out, jumbled it up with the blanket, and URINATED on it, and wiped some of her menses on it and left it outside our door. (The husband came and told us, apologized, and he bagged it up and took it to the dumpster).

They took a box fan off the patio table that was out there because I was cleaning it and got a work call, so I left it there. They stole a broom we used to sweep off the patio.. shit like this.

[Alamias]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

She took the dog bed, took out the foam, cut it out, jumbled it up with the blanket, and URINATED on it, and wiped some of her menses on it and left it outside our door.

WTF?!

[Macha]

@alamias Yeah. We have a few stories with this bitch.

[Derp]

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@alamias Yeah. We have a few stories with this bitch.

You should call the police. If the apartments won't take action, the police will. That's still some manner of theft. Potentially trespass.