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They probably just hate theatre people.
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Feb 14, 2013 15:32
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I would avoid it too. If only because you know that the landlord has, in the past, gotten into some "drama" with tenants.
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Feb 14, 2013 15:34
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It is sort of weird, but it also strikes me as the sort of thing that a one-property landlord would put into an ad after dealing with some sort of lovely tenant situation (like a couple that breaks up and no one wants to cop to the lease, or someone that is rude and combatative with neighbors). Depending on how scarce listings are for what you want, I would probably still follow up and try to gauge what the landlord is like - you can also straight up ask them about it, and see what happened to prompt it. I mean, 'no drama' could mean something reasonable like 'please don't set fire to your ex's clothes on the front lawn' but it can also be grouchy old-landlord code for 'Don't bother me about that funny gas smell or sparking outlet'.
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Feb 14, 2013 15:35
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"No drama" in that situation barely gives me pause. Like I would note it, but it certainly wouldn't stop me from seeing the place and chatting to the landlord to find out what he was like. I would guess he just had a bad experience in the past, a couple that fought nonstop or someone who had the cops called on them or something. If I met him and he was nuts, obviously I would bail, but I think there's a good chance he just had a lovely craigslist tenant in the past. The monthly pest control (from someone else's post) wouldn't bother me at all either. In New York, that kind of preventative maintenance is completely standard in big buildings. They always do common areas, and they leave a sign-up sheet in the lobby if you want your apartment done too. If you're in a big building where pest control is a hassle to get, and has to be called out just for you, then that's a huge red flag. Anne Whateley fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Feb 14, 2013 |
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Feb 14, 2013 16:09
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i like nice words
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I think the pest control thing is pretty location specific, yea. For example, our office building has very regular pest control. I talked to the pest control guy about how often they came out, and he explained that the building is really old, and it basically sits on top of the subway system - as far as bugs go, the sub-basement is basically connected to the subway tunnels and lines. That means that it's basically impossible for them to clear the building, because even if they gas the whole thing two weeks later new bugs will have moved in from the subway (which is never going to get cleared). So the regular visits and control keep the situation confined to the sub-basement and make sure that nothing is moving further up in the building. I mean, would it be better to be in a place without that issue? Sure, but it would mean trying to find a new construction well out of the area we want to be in. At least management is handling the issue as best they can with a plan that works.
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Feb 14, 2013 16:18
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Monthly or weekly pest control is a good thing. It doesn't mean you should expect problems, just that they have a program there to prevent and/or respond to problems. As far as model units go, it's perfectly legitimate for them to furnish it much more nicely than a typical resident might. However, having finishes (carpet, countertops, lighting) that are nicer than the actual units is highly unethical, and pretty unusual in my experience.
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Feb 14, 2013 16:35
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Jet Set Jettison posted:I was looking at apartment listings on Craigslist and found one I wanted for the right price. Unfortunately I'm gonna pass over it because the landlord thought it was a good idea to write "no drama" in the listing. I don't see that as a red flag, actually I kind of see it as a good thing. The landlord obviously doesn't want to have crazy or loud tenants so you know that you'll be renting a nice quiet space. If that's what you're looking for, anyway. I know rental prices are different on the coast and blah blah but goddamn, that apartment is almost twice what I pay to rent a two bedroom house!
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Feb 14, 2013 17:51
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It's not even really a coast thing, its that the Boston rental market is totally poo poo, making that a pretty reasonable deal (although its kind of far out of the city for that price, to me). I think that anything that isn't renting a room in a house with a bunch of other people is $800+ (including tiny studios and terrible dive apartments). On top of that, you are often stuck paying a dipshit agent 1/2 or a full months rent for the privilege of renting a place.
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Feb 14, 2013 18:26
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Hey guys, other than droppings and dark smudges on ceilings and corners, what signs should I be looking for in terms of having mice? My upstairs neighbour is a bit of an animal hoarder (2 cats, 2 cockatiels, 3 love birds as well as kids and grand kids) and general hoarder and she said she's noticed mice in her home (and no one is surprised). I really don't want her problem to become my problem. I've been keeping food in cupboards and my fridge and not out in the open but I'm worried it won't be enough. My apartment is clean and tidy but I want to keep my eye open for telltale signs.
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Feb 14, 2013 20:32
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Keeping your food in cupboards is definitely not enough. A mouse will go through a box of cereal or a plastic bag of rice like it wasn't even there. Invest heavily in Tupperware. And remember to keep things dry -- they're also looking for water around/under your sinks, in your bathtub, near a dripping faucet. In general a mouse is pretty obvious, though. There will be visible droppings, or visible chew marks, or a visible furry flash.
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Feb 14, 2013 22:24
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cuntvalet posted:Hey guys, other than droppings and dark smudges on ceilings and corners, what signs should I be looking for in terms of having mice? Clearly she needs more cats.
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Feb 14, 2013 23:44
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When my parents had mice, I discovered them when I was home over break in college. I was sitting quietly late at night dicking around on the internet and heard scratching noises in the walls so my parents called out an exterminator who found mice in the attic. I don't know if your apartment is quiet enough to listen for them, but it might be something to keep an ear out for. My parents never noticed before because my dad's the type of person who has to have background noise on 24/7. Re: monthly pest control: that was the only complex that offered it, and coincidentally the only complex with massive bug problems. It does depend on your area though. If every complex had some sort of pest control policy it wouldn't have been such a red flag, but it was just the one.
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Feb 15, 2013 17:30
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Monthly or weekly pest control is a good thing. It doesn't mean you should expect problems, just that they have a program there to prevent and/or respond to problems. I agree. My apartment has quarterly treatments, but the exterminator is at the complex every Monday. Then again my complex has 8 buildings with approximately 54 units per building. Also, I estimate that my complex was built in the 40's or 50's. More recently it was apparently a shithole up until about 3 years ago when the current owners bought it and started flipping the place. From what I gathered there used to be a huge problem with just about any insect pest you can think of, as well as mold issues. Oh and apparently one of the buildings burnt to the ground at one point. I discovered all these things when trying to figure out why a complex of this size was built out in an area that was apparently pretty backwater until the last 20ish years. As for my experiences, aside from a creaky floor that has a couple of uneven spots the biggest pests I've seen are a housefly that my cat quickly ate, and people from the local baptist church prosthelytizing door to door every couple of weeks. Anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of babtists? I know pest control can't treat for them.
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Feb 16, 2013 13:02
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vonnegutt posted:It's probably just variations in heat/humidity making your doors swell. I know mine do. If you want to fix it, first, check if there is crusted up paint on the door. If it's a cheap apartment, it's likely, since painting between each tenant is sort of standard. If there is, coarse grit sandpaper on the sticking parts should take care of it real quick. Be careful not to sand through paint, but you can sand away paint to your heart's content. Yeahh... I thought about that, and yeah it's overpainted probably, but it's weird how MUCH it changes and how randomly. The frame itself is metal; only the door is wooden. It's winter. It's not humid. It does get quite hot in our apartment (yay included utilities! boo it's 80 degrees in here!) so maybe the bad times have only been when we haven't had the bedroom window open or something. It is possible. The maintenance man is coming over today to have a look at it. If it weren't for the big fuckoff cracks in the wall I'd have stuck with what you say too.  
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Feb 16, 2013 17:30
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Yeahh... I thought about that, and yeah it's overpainted probably, but it's weird how MUCH it changes and how randomly. The frame itself is metal; only the door is wooden. It's winter. It's not humid. It does get quite hot in our apartment (yay included utilities! boo it's 80 degrees in here!) so maybe the bad times have only been when we haven't had the bedroom window open or something. It is possible. The maintenance man is coming over today to have a look at it. If it weren't for the big fuckoff cracks in the wall I'd have stuck with what you say too. Metal has a high thermal transfer rate, and it's probably expanding and contracting on top of the door swelling. I do feel your pain with included utilities, it's snowing otuside and I have to keep my windows open to keep it below 80.
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Feb 16, 2013 23:47
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Am I a total dick for repeatedly reporting my neighbour to the letting agency for smoking weed in his flat? It's a building of 8 flats, all owned and rented out by a letting agency working on behalf of a landlord. I moved in about four months ago and have been smelling weed from the flat next to mine at least twice a week ever since. It seeps into my flat and my bathroom, makes me nauseous and makes me worry about health implications for me and my cats. I'm sure I'm not going to get cancer or anything but at the same time, it doesn't seem like something I should have to deal with. I've reported him to the letting agency several times and I know they've had other reports. They've spoken to him about it twice but the only thing that's changed is that he now mixes the weed smell with what must be an entire can of air freshener. Which is probably actually worse. I sent the letting agency an angry email this weekend because I'm sick of dealing with it but I feel like a bit of a dick. I don't really care if he wants to smoke weed in his flat (although smoking of any kind is against the tenancy agreement and obviously weed is against the law) but when it keeps affecting me, it pisses me off. I don't know what the agency can actually do other than kick him out though, and I'd feel pretty bad about that. As well as scared of retribution if he works out it's me complaining (not hard as I'm the only other one on his floor).
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Feb 18, 2013 05:27
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After looking at the standard online dealers, I've upped my rug budget to $300-400 for an 8x10 rug for my living room. My intent is to have it be a rug for sitting and lying on, Central/South Asia style, so with some floor poofs, low table, and no chairs. I was about to buy a dhurrie since those look pretty cool, but most of them from US sellers are no-pile. Would a no-pile rug (albeit with a rug pad below it) be uncomfortable to lie down on? Not that I want to go all shag carpet or anything, but is there a minimal amount of pile I want to have in order to enjoy lying down on said rug with a pillow and listening to the stereo, or sitting on it while playing guitar?
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Feb 18, 2013 06:45
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marshmallard posted:Am I a total dick for repeatedly reporting my neighbour to the letting agency for smoking weed in his flat? No. You paid to rent an apartment on the understanding that smoking isn't allowed in the building - that is a pretty big deal for a lot of people. Who cares if he's smoking a pipe or a cigar or weed, if he's not supposed to be smoking and it's getting into your apartment, then it's a problem that management needs to resolve with him. I don't give a poo poo about people smoking weed all they want (or whatever else they care to smoke, really) but do it somewhere or somehow that it doesn't gently caress up other people's living situation.
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Feb 18, 2013 14:49
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Ashcans posted:No. You paid to rent an apartment on the understanding that smoking isn't allowed in the building - that is a pretty big deal for a lot of people. Who cares if he's smoking a pipe or a cigar or weed, if he's not supposed to be smoking and it's getting into your apartment, then it's a problem that management needs to resolve with him. Ok, thank you. The letting agency came back to me today with this total cop-out - what should I do now? No way am I talking to him about it myself, because then he'll know I dobbed him in. "We will write to him with a warning letter quoting the clause in his contract that says he must not smoke in the property and that illegal activities are prohibited. However, other than sending him warnings there is little else that can be done. I have taken legal advice previously to combat such issues with other properties and to have someone evicted from a property through the courts for such reason as this, is almost impossible, extremely costly and a very long and drawn out process. We will continue to warn him, but I think politely speaking to him yourself and letting him know that the smell is upsetting you is likely to be an effective solution. Every time anyone has visited the property we have not been able to detect smoking or any evidence of it. The other alternative is for you to report his smoking to the police, as a warning from an officer may have the desired effect."
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Feb 18, 2013 15:02
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Well the thing is, what they're telling you is true. Especially if they can't confirm it themselves, then you have one person's word against another's, and the courts are unlikely to evict someone based on that.
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Feb 18, 2013 15:05
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marshmallard posted:Ok, thank you. The letting agency came back to me today with this total cop-out - what should I do now? No way am I talking to him about it myself, because then he'll know I dobbed him in. I lived with a roommate that'd hotbox our apartment in the middle of the night making it impossible for my other roommate and I to sleep. This was made even worse by the fact that my other roommate has asthma. We talked to her about it and she told us to basically gently caress off, so we ended up calling the cops on her one night. Which got her kicked out. The police were ok with us not being there or divulging who called them (although it was pretty obvious). VVV Our leasing office did the same thing as yours did. I think they're more concerned about not having to replace a tenant. Rurutia fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Feb 18, 2013 |
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Feb 18, 2013 15:07
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Well the thing is, what they're telling you is true. Especially if they can't confirm it themselves, then you have one person's word against another's, and the courts are unlikely to evict someone based on that. They haven't even tried to confirm it. Are they not legally responsible for my quiet enjoyment of the flat I rent from them? Surely this is the letting agency's responsibility to sort out.
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Feb 18, 2013 15:14
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marshmallard posted:They haven't even tried to confirm it. Are they not legally responsible for my quiet enjoyment of the flat I rent from them? Surely this is the letting agency's responsibility to sort out. Well the letter seemed to indicate that they had been there and couldn't confirm it. And yes, they are absolutely required to provide quiet enjoyment, but the burden if proof that they are not is on you, and that's going to be a difficult case to make.
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Feb 18, 2013 15:46
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Yea, so the problem here is that while you are right (that this is their responsibility to sort out) they aren't really lying to you or anything - in order to evict the dude, they would probably have to take him to court with sufficient evidence of the whole violation and it could take ages to actually get rid of him. And during that time he is going to keep at it. The most straight forward option is for them to just not renew his lease when it comes time. At this point you have a couple options open to you: 1) Continue to hound the management about this, stressing not just quiet enjoyment but also potential health/wellness impacts. Unfortunately the most likely outcome of this is that they might offer to let you switch units (if they have a vacant one) or let you out of your lease so you can move. I don't know if those appeal to you. 2) Go and speak to him about it, like they suggest. It's a pain in the rear end that you need to do that, but it's always possible that he won't be an rear end in a top hat about it. I mean I expect him to be because he's already been notified and doesn't give a poo poo, but you can try. 3) Call the police every time you smell anything, and try and get them to come out and bug him. Hey, does he have friends over when he's smoking? Sounds like he could be dealing, be sure to tell them that! Yea, he's probably going to know that it's you reporting him, but he probably knows that anyway. The question is whether he'll quit smoking in the place, or try to retaliate. Assuming retaliation isn't killing you, it would only make things worse for him (ie, if he comes over and threatens you, congratulations, you can escalate matters with both the management and the police). The big issue is really that while the management is responsible for maintaining your quiet enjoyment, it's as hard for you to enforce that on them as it is for them to enforce it on other tenants - meaning that you would basically have to take them to court over it. Most of the time, breach of quiet enjoyment is used as an affirmative defense for breaking a lease for this reason, as opposed to as a way to compel landlords to act.
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Feb 18, 2013 16:35
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I actually think he IS dealing, because he somehow affords a private rental when he doesn't work, and goes out maaaaaaany times every day for five minutes whenever his phone rings. And it's not because he can't get signal because he's talking (in another language) all the way down the stairs.
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Feb 18, 2013 19:14
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marshmallard posted:I actually think he IS dealing, because he somehow affords a private rental when he doesn't work, and goes out maaaaaaany times every day for five minutes whenever his phone rings. And it's not because he can't get signal because he's talking (in another language) all the way down the stairs. Just go talk to him about it. Here's how it went for me in that situation: Downstairs neighbor was constantly smoking pot and it was filling up my apartment to an amazing degree. First I tried spraying expanding foam into any cracks I could find in the wall that adjoined our places (he wasn't directly below me). And I put in those air-blocking foam pads that go behind light switches and electric outlets. It still didn't make enough of a dent in it, so I went down and talked to him about it. I asked him to smoke outside because it was filling my place up. He said, "Yeah, cool, cool," but then went promptly back to doing it again a couple days later. So I asked him again. He promised he'd stop, then went right back to it. So I went down a third time, and told him that if it happened again I was just going to let the cops sort it out. This time he stopped. He was also a small-time drug dealer, but not a very successful one since he got kicked out two months later for not paying rent.
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Feb 18, 2013 19:54
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Knock on his door and hand him a groove tube.
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Feb 18, 2013 20:40
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I have a question about renter's insurance. Does it pretty much always come in exact 1-year chunks? We got a policy at the end of February 2012 and they recently sent us a bill for the new year. I emailed my agent (Allstate) to ask if we could only renew for the next 3 months instead of the whole year, because we are moving out soon. He sent a 1-word reply of "Yes." and then we heard nothing from him for 2 weeks. I emailed him again, because my online bill still showed the full year balance, and he said "If you pay $XX this should be enough to cover you through May." Firstly, "should be"?? Secondly, I tried to pay the $XX online and it warned me that since that is less than the full-year balance I will be charged an installment fee. I emailed him again asking about the fee and he said "Please include $[fee] to it"[sic] Does he sound ridiculously lazy, or does this sound standard for this kind of thing? I'm not terribly worried about the fee since it's like the price of a lunch, but given the choice I would prefer to buy lunch with that and it kind of ticked me off that he's not giving me any options other than "pay full year balance and get it refunded after you cancel" or "pay a fee". Is it really unrealistic to expect a policy that simply goes through the end of my lease?
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Feb 18, 2013 21:20
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I've never had renter's insurance before and was thinking about getting it. Apparently all of the companies want your name, address, phone and social security number before they'll even give you a quote, which seems a little, I don't know, invasive for a company you haven't even hired yet. Anyone know a way around this? eta: I don't have a car so getting it through a current auto insurance company is not an option.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:35
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1. Companies give you a discount if you pay for a full year. You can pay monthly generally, but they're going to charge you extra to do so, hence the installment fee. 2. They can give you an estimate for people in your area, but they can't tell you what it's going to cost you until they check you out. Just like most any insurance, they need to know who they're insuring and what their history is before making a quote. So you can get a ballpark form them, but if you want to know what it's going to cost you specifically well you have to let them know who you are.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:39
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I get that they want to know who they're insuring, but Progressive, for example, won't give me even a ballpark quote. Either you give up all of your personal info, including social security number, or they won't give you even a rough price. I would gladly give that info up to a company I've already decided to go with, but the thought of just handing it out to 5 different companies to know how much I could be paying and hoping they'll play nice just sets off alarm bells for me.
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Feb 18, 2013 21:48
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:1. Companies give you a discount if you pay for a full year. You can pay monthly generally, but they're going to charge you extra to do so, hence the installment fee. The installment fee was in addition to the extra cost for going "monthly". :-/ I guess it really doesn't matter, him avoiding full answers just irked me. I wonder if I can get him to confirm that $XX does cover me until May, instead of "should".
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Feb 18, 2013 22:03
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drat Bananas posted:The installment fee was in addition to the extra cost for going "monthly". :-/ I guess it really doesn't matter, him avoiding full answers just irked me. I wonder if I can get him to confirm that $XX does cover me until May, instead of "should". I worked in auto, not renter's, but I imagine they're pretty similar in this case. As far as the term goes, it definitely is standard for the policy term to be 1 year. You shouldn't have any issues cancelling the rest of the term when you do move, but most companies don't let you postdate changes/cancellations more than 30 days out. Likely the reason he's being a bit vague about the time frame it'll pay you to is he's probably dividing your premium by 12 and then giving you that number x 3. But towards the end of those 3 months you'd likely get a notice saying if you don't pay by xx date (usually 14 days out) it would cancel. Also, if you cancel earlier than that you may be due a refund of some sort. So he may just not know the answer until he's able to actually set it up to cancel. Edit: Also, you mentioned there was an extra cost for going monthly. This is just a guess, but I know at my former company if you switched to monthly you had to be paid 1 month ahead of time instead of a pay as you go. So essentially, your first payment is like a double bill & when you do cancel you get that extra month payment refunded. Kind of like a deposit. Just a guess. supkirbs fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Feb 18, 2013 |
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Feb 18, 2013 22:23
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marshmallard posted:Ok, thank you. The letting agency came back to me today with this total cop-out - what should I do now? No way am I talking to him about it myself, because then he'll know I dobbed him in. When I was in college I shared a duplex with a weed/shrooms/who the hell knows what else dealer for three years. My family owned one half, his owned the other so neither of us were going anywhere. Besides calling the cops on him when he's smoking up (and honestly, the cops don't give a poo poo unless they're a serious dealer, not some college kid selling an eighth to his buddies every so often) there's nothing you can do. Going to talk to him about it will not change anything, all you'll get is a "lighten up, maaaaan. Here, try some, it'll chill you out". He's not going to stop smoking just because the smell bothers you. If it bothers you enough, move when your lease is up. The best you can hope for is that he'll throw a party or two as drug dealers are wont to do and you can nail him on a noise complaint.
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Feb 19, 2013 00:04
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UnclePlasticBitch posted:I get that they want to know who they're insuring, but Progressive, for example, won't give me even a ballpark quote. Either you give up all of your personal info, including social security number, or they won't give you even a rough price. I would gladly give that info up to a company I've already decided to go with, but the thought of just handing it out to 5 different companies to know how much I could be paying and hoping they'll play nice just sets off alarm bells for me. It is because there really is no ballpark. Policies have a huge variance based on your location, building type, age, and claim history. It is like with car insurance. My total coverage is less than half of my friends identical coverage simply because I am older, live in a nicer area, and have had no tickets. They don't want to give you a very off estimate, and they really don't want you knowing how much more or less you might be paying than their median.
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Feb 19, 2013 21:14
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So is there any kind of similar overlay to http://www.richblockspoorblocks.com/, except for crime statistics? A lot of the cheaper places I am looking at in Jersey are kind of near less than desirable areas and I just want to know what I would be looking at for certain apartments
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Feb 19, 2013 22:23
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It sounds like you are looking or http://spotcrime.com/ - it shows reported crime stuff for a given address/area. I have trouble with it when you try to zoom out too far though, so maybe stay close to the specific address/block for best results. Also, don't be too scared if you see something that looks scary (like 'Shooting' or 'Arson') and click through to see what the actual incident was. I remember looking at this once and noticing a shooting tag really close to us - when I followed up and looked at the actual report, it was basically 'Someone called the police and said they heard gunfire - officers responded, found nothing, no other reports or confirmation'. Someone thinking they maybe heard a shot is not really big on my worry list.
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Feb 19, 2013 22:30
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Ashcans posted:It sounds like you are looking or http://spotcrime.com/ - it shows reported crime stuff for a given address/area. I have trouble with it when you try to zoom out too far though, so maybe stay close to the specific address/block for best results. Ah, perfect. Thank you. So how far back does this thing go?? And how's it compiled?
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Feb 19, 2013 22:56
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I know it covers at least the previous year, I'm not sure if it goes back further than that. I believe that it works by basically scraping a bunch of crime-report website and news articles - if you click on any incident, it will let you click through and see the source. A bunch of the time this is actually a little news blurb, sometimes it is a link to a crimeblotter or police record, and other times it's some sort of scanner/reporting service. I have no idea how comprehensive it actually is, but I am always finding things on it that I never even hear about in local news, so it seems as good as anything.
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Feb 19, 2013 23:05
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| # ? May 31, 2024 20:16 |
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THE MACHO MAN posted:So is there any kind of similar overlay to http://www.richblockspoorblocks.com/, except for crime statistics? A lot of the cheaper places I am looking at in Jersey are kind of near less than desirable areas and I just want to know what I would be looking at for certain apartments City-data.com has an absurd amount of data for any given town, including some crime statistics.
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Feb 20, 2013 04:17
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