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We called the cops on our downstairs neighbors once, they were having some crazy party and somehow were shaking our floor/their ceiling so hard poo poo was falling off of our countertops at 3 AM. Get the non-emergency number of your local police and look up your local noise ordinances and when they're being loud and obnoxious call the cops. If you want to be extra vengeful wait till there's loud noise AND weed smell. I don't mind pot smoking, but when people are being dicks I have no problem being a dick right back.
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Oct 28, 2014 00:18
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Cheesegod posted:Thanks, I'll look into that. My problem though is theres not really much space to store a trailer where I currently live. The office where I'll be working is outside of SF, so I'll probably be living outside of SF as well. I would much rather live in SF but the commute doesn't make sense and like you said, finding a place there is insane. Whereabouts "outside SF"? Since you're transferring, why not ask your current boss/HR if anyone would be able to give some insight into finding a place?
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Oct 28, 2014 02:25
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ladyweapon posted:Whereabouts "outside SF"? Since you're transferring, why not ask your current boss/HR if anyone would be able to give some insight into finding a place? I don't know exactly where yet. I'm going to go out there for work sometime in December and scope out some places while I'm there based on coworker/friend reccomendations. My main worry right how is how to get my stuff from point A to point B.
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Oct 28, 2014 13:25
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My bathroom has a light fixture that, since I moved in, has never been covered -- it's just a ceiling-mounted holder for a circular fluorescent bulb. I need to replace the current bulb, which is emitting unpleasant buzzing noises, but I have a few issues/questions: 1) The bulb sometimes doesn't light when I flip the switch on. I don't mean that it takes a long time the way crappy fluorescent bulbs sometimes do; I've left the switch in the "on" position for ten minutes or so, and the bulb remains totally dark. It's not dead, though: if I flip the switch a bunch of times, the light will come back on eventually. I'm assuming that this is just another reason to replace the bulb, but just in case, does my description of this problem make it sound like it's likely to be something else? (The switch itself doesn't physically feel like it has a mechanical problem. It doesn't seem to need to be jiggled a certain way, for example.) Here are the switches for the bathroom fan and the bathroom light, which are odd-looking in that they're uneven and only partially covering a single hole in the wall. The one for the light is the one that's on the right and set slightly lower.  2) Here's what the light fixture with the current bulb in it looks like:   I'd rather not have it look like that indefinitely, but totally replacing the fixture is something I don't much want to do and don't even know whether I'm allowed to do. I wondered whether I could buy some kind of clip-on (or otherwise easily [un]installed) cover or shade that would affix to the bulb itself, but I'm having trouble finding clip-on shades that attach to circular bulbs in particular, maybe because I don't know exactly how to search for them. Does anyone know where I could find one, or have an idea for how I could safely DIY one? 3) Any special recommendations for circular bulbs that make minimal noise/are in your experience particularly great, better than the kind that's currently in there (Philips FC8T9 Softwhite, 22-watt, apparently)? I would much rather deal with this situation by myself, if it sounds like that's possible, although it's not beyond my abilities to bug the property manager about something truly necessary. The landlord is in her eighties, very uninvolved with the property, and apparently has some level of dementia (neither I nor my partner has ever even phoned her), so small maintenance issues are theoretically the domain of the property manager, who seems to have more on his plate than he (or the landlord?) can handle. We never did get the back door key we asked for, for example.
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Oct 31, 2014 15:51
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Gabriel-Ernest posted:1) The bulb sometimes doesn't light when I flip the switch on. I don't mean that it takes a long time the way crappy fluorescent bulbs sometimes do; I've left the switch in the "on" position for ten minutes or so, and the bulb remains totally dark. It's not dead, though: if I flip the switch a bunch of times, the light will come back on eventually. That sounds like a faulty wiring issue to me. Call the property manager and have them send someone out. That's their job.
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Oct 31, 2014 17:24
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Gabriel-Ernest posted:My bathroom has a light fixture that, since I moved in, has never been covered -- it's just a ceiling-mounted holder for a circular fluorescent bulb. I need to replace the current bulb, which is emitting unpleasant buzzing noises, but I have a few issues/questions: Sounds like a bad starter, which is easy to replace.
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Oct 31, 2014 17:32
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It looks like you live in a pit (sorry), so management probably isn't suddenly going to do a great job. Do you have any friends who have friends who do wiring or anything related? It's actually not hard to do yourself, but I am super amateur myself so I don't want to tell you how to get electrocuted over the internet. But you could easily get a nice light fixture of your choice and a normal-looking switch situation. It wouldn't be expensive at all, and it would happen way sooner than waiting for a slumlord.
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Oct 31, 2014 18:05
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i like nice words
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That light fixture is held on there with two screws and connected by two wires, a white one and a black one. Go to Home Depot and buy basically any $20 light fixture and replace it. Or, ask the property manager to do it, which is their job. Back door key, you can remove the lock and take it to a locksmith who can make you a key or re-key the lock for around $10. You can throw away the lock and replace it with a new one for around $20. I lived in a nice apartment when I moved to California that cost $900/mo, it was a nice place. A place came up for rent next door that was about the same size but way more run down for $750/mo. I decided to move next door, save the $150/mo, and do some upgrades to the place on my own. The landlord was really hands-off. I didn't do much, painted a lot, replaced some light fixtures, seeded some grass, hacked the weeds down and planted some stuff, but eventually I had a nice place for way less money after dumping some cash into it. It's not a really traditional tenant/landlord relationship, and it doesn't work everywhere, but that lady would have let me live there forever and never raised the rent, and it was a good thing while it lasted. If you want it, it sounds like you've got that.
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Oct 31, 2014 18:49
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Does anyone have experience with couch surfing? Me and my girlfriend are getting into some house drama and we kind of want out. Luckily, we live in a housing co-op so there are super friendly exit terms on the lease and we can basically drop whenever, no problem. The idea is to keep food boarding at the house but ask a bunch of friends if we can have access to their couches for one or two nights a week and just do that for a couple of months until we save up enough to safely get a place of our own. Hopefully by staying only really to sleep and only about a night a week, we won't outstay our welcome anywhere, and we can live super cheap for those couple of months to make saving up a lot easier. Is this an okay or a terrible idea?
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Nov 6, 2014 19:29
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It completely depends on how close you are with your friends. A couple of months is quite a stretch. If by couchsurfing you mean couchsurfing.org, I highly doubt that would work. Most hosts on there are happy to host foreigners/travelers, but Locals and/or people who just don't want to pay rent? that wont fly. My advice: Buy a cheap camper/van and live in the Walmart parking lot.
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Nov 7, 2014 07:20
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I had a friend spent an entire semester without an apartment. I was so sick of his poo poo half away through. I'm sure everyone was too because he started squatting full time. It get old so fast, because I felt like I had to bear his burdens for him. My rent isn't free, my food isn't free, my utilities aren't free. Though he did it just because he didn't want to pay rent. Not to improve his life or anything like that. Definitely talk to your friends before doing anything rash. And maybe focus on how this time of saving money will improve you and your partner's life for a long time to come. And that their help in the manner would be greatly appreciated, but it is understandable if the request is too unreasonable for them. But hey if you got storage, a place to shower, and a place to eat then sleeping in your car isn't the worst thing for a few months. Just spend most the day doing something other being in the car.
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Nov 7, 2014 07:56
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Philip Rivers posted:Does anyone have experience with couch surfing? Me and my girlfriend are getting into some house drama and we kind of want out. Luckily, we live in a housing co-op so there are super friendly exit terms on the lease and we can basically drop whenever, no problem. The idea is to keep food boarding at the house but ask a bunch of friends if we can have access to their couches for one or two nights a week and just do that for a couple of months until we save up enough to safely get a place of our own. Hopefully by staying only really to sleep and only about a night a week, we won't outstay our welcome anywhere, and we can live super cheap for those couple of months to make saving up a lot easier. Is this an okay or a terrible idea? You're basically asking your friends to crowdfund your rent.
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Nov 7, 2014 08:04
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So you're going to keep all your stuff (including food) at your place and then just sleep at your friends' places? If you're doing it to avoid housing drama, that implies that you'll keep busy all day/evening doing something else to keep away from the house, right? So why not just stay out and then keep sleeping at your house? Where were you planning on showering? If sleep is the only issue, buy some earplugs and stick it out instead of bothering your friends. I'd be pissed if my friends had a perfectly good place to live and wanted to stay at my place because they didn't like their roommates.
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Nov 7, 2014 17:19
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I LIKE COOKIE posted:My advice: Buy a cheap camper/van and live in the Walmart parking lot. My advice: Don't do this because they will call the police.
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Nov 7, 2014 18:13
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ladyweapon posted:My advice: Don't do this because they will call the police. I think it depends on the walmart. Some Walmarts in my area always have camper in the back of the lot. Other I have never seen a camper there.
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Nov 7, 2014 19:32
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Yeah I imagine anyone would resent you pretty quickly, even if they were outwardly cool about you staying with them for a little bit, especially if they found out you still had an actual real bedroom with a bed that you could be sleeping in instead.
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Nov 7, 2014 22:25
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In Colorado, 24 hour-a-day Walmart's allow people to stay overnight in the parking lot. At my local Walmart there's probably over 30 people doing this.
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Nov 7, 2014 23:15
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Different locales have different laws regarding "lodging in a vehicle", and then businesses have their own options for restricting it on their property even if it's legal.
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Nov 7, 2014 23:54
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God damnit. So the black widows are gone, and now we have a cockroach problem. There were some before but they weren't a big deal, now we're finding them every day. There's droppings in the kitchen drawers with our food utensils. Ew. I bought some "liquid" traps last weekend and they did nothing. I put out some diotamacous earth and it didn't seem to do much. The problem is that it's an old house and there's too many crevices for them to come into the house from underneath the house. We just can't cover all of them in the earth stuff. I've had nothing but problems with this house and I'm at my wits end with these bugs 
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Nov 15, 2014 06:25
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chupacabraTERROR posted:God damnit. So the black widows are gone, and now we have a cockroach problem. There were some before but they weren't a big deal, now we're finding them every day. There's droppings in the kitchen drawers with our food utensils. Ew. The black widows were probably eating the cockroaches before. Now, the cockroaches are gorging themselves on the dead widows. Honestly, black widows aren't that bad; it's fairly easy to maintain a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with them.
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Nov 15, 2014 06:51
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Well it's a little too late for that unfortunately I guess I just have to wait for the spiders to come back.
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Nov 15, 2014 17:31
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You have two choices; start eating the roaches yourself, or seed the building with your own choice of spider!
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Nov 15, 2014 20:26
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Ashcans posted:You have two choices; start eating the roaches yourself, or seed the building with your own choice of spider! How would I go about doing the latter option? These cockroaches are pretty big so I'd imagine I would need a hefty breed of spider.
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Nov 15, 2014 22:59
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chupacabraTERROR posted:How would I go about doing the latter option? These cockroaches are pretty big so I'd imagine I would need a hefty breed of spider. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogna_carolinensis 
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Nov 15, 2014 23:26
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That looks like it'll get the job done. Now to get a couple in LA...
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Nov 16, 2014 02:16
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How do you insulate a crank out window crank? The window itself is fit nice and tight and we can't detect any leakage. Beneath the mechanism that actually opens the widow is basically an uninsulated hole. I'd wrap the window in plastic, but the crank protrudes farther out than the window casing, so I don't think that plastic is an option. Right now we have some towels wrapped around the cranks, but it looks real shabby.
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Nov 17, 2014 20:02
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Some kind of putty? Window glaze maybe? Got a photo of the hole? Do you own the place? Rip out the window and replace it with something better?
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Nov 17, 2014 23:43
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So I'm looking for an apartment with my boyfriend. We're both students and will start working next year (he'll graduate, I probably won't make it through the exams, but that's OK because I already have a degree). My question: I currently have no official apartment in this city. I used to live in a student dorm; this summer I lived with my boyfriend while his roommate was abroad and since September I've been looking for a new place. I'm now staying with a friend, but not officially registered here. I've been putting my parent's address (my official one) on all applications, but that's 200 miles from here. I suspect this may make landlords suspicious, because it's clear I'm not actually living there and studying here. I have lots of money, we're squares who don't smoke, party much or own pets, and I'm not very picky, but I just can't find an apartment. Any tips?
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Nov 18, 2014 14:55
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Put your friend's address down as your current residence (because that is true) and list your friend as the contact person? I mean if you are living with them without being on the lease it probably falls into some sort of sublet situation so I wouldn't even consider this to be particularly duplicitous. Depending on how many previous addresses the applications request, your recent history of hopping around is also going to look unfavorable (landlords want someone who is going to be a good tenant and stay put, not move out in three months for some reason). If you need prior residences, you could either use your parents or the dorms, I guess. Also, you are almost certainly having trouble because you are two students looking for a place. Unless they cater specifically to them, most landlords hate students because they are notorious for being poor tenants, putting a lot of wear on the unit, and bailing out of the place in a year. None of these things are what landlords want. You also say that you have 'a lot of money', but unless you are disclosing a bank statement or something with your application, landlords are only going to see your job/income, which as a student is probably not great(?).
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Nov 18, 2014 15:00
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Ashcans posted:Put your friend's address down as your current residence (because that is true) and list your friend as the contact person? They don't ask for current residence, just "address". I'm not registered with the city as living here, and I don't have any contract. The landlord could presumably find this out by looking at my ID (which still shows my boyfriend's address, but I already de-registered there) or from the city itself. My friends own this house, so I don't think this counts as subletting. No one has asked for my history thus far, but I don't think it's that bad. I know a girl who moved 9 times in 4 years, and she's always managed to find nice apartments. She's a good tenant, too, just loves starting vendettas with her roommates. quote:Also, you are almost certainly having trouble because you are two students looking for a place. Unless they cater specifically to them, most landlords hate students because they are notorious for being poor tenants, putting a lot of wear on the unit, and bailing out of the place in a year. None of these things are what landlords want. You also say that you have 'a lot of money', but unless you are disclosing a bank statement or something with your application, landlords are only going to see your job/income, which as a student is probably not great(?). We always tell the landlords we want to stay a couple of years, it's true too. Our parents have written guarantees for our contract and would even sign the lease themselves if necessary. I have savings that would cover a year's worth of rent, and I think most students don't have much income. Can you think of something we could do to be more attractive to landlords? They're already inviting us to view the apartments knowing that we're students, it's just that we never hear back from them after that. In this city, landlords typically invite about 30-50 interested parties to any given apartment, I need a way for us to be the one they choose. pidan fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Nov 18, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2014 15:25
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Do you show up with everything they want? Proof you have money to cover a years rent, bank statements for the last six months (proving the money stays in your account), copies (and originals) of ID, etc? If its the landlords market, they're looking for tenants who make life easy and pay rent on time, make their life easy. If you can rent sight unseen, that might be your best bet. If your current roommate is OK with it, have them as a contact and tell the new landlord this is where you stay and they can contact your friend for verification. Ask your friend how she continually gets nice apartments if she moves so much. I imagine prospective landlords have met people in your situation before.
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Nov 18, 2014 16:46
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ladyweapon posted:Do you show up with everything they want? Proof you have money to cover a years rent, bank statements for the last six months (proving the money stays in your account), copies (and originals) of ID, etc? If its the landlords market, they're looking for tenants who make life easy and pay rent on time, make their life easy. If you can rent sight unseen, that might be your best bet. If your current roommate is OK with it, have them as a contact and tell the new landlord this is where you stay and they can contact your friend for verification. Yeah, as a person who also lives in a city that's hard to rent, you need to be prepared to sign the lease right when you finish touring the place. Like, before you get back into your car.
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Nov 18, 2014 16:59
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Drunk Tomato posted:Yeah, as a person who also lives in a city that's hard to rent, you need to be prepared to sign the lease right when you finish touring the place. Like, before you get back into your car. This. Bring all your info and a blank check. I print out a rental resume and everyone I've shown that to finds it incredibly impressive that I have one at all, let alone what's on it. The only apartment I wanted that I missed out on was the time I didn't have my checkbook on me.
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Nov 18, 2014 17:35
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ladyweapon posted:Do you show up with everything they want? Proof you have money to cover a years rent, bank statements for the last six months (proving the money stays in your account), copies (and originals) of ID, etc? If its the landlords market, they're looking for tenants who make life easy and pay rent on time, make their life easy. If you can rent sight unseen, that might be your best bet. If your current roommate is OK with it, have them as a contact and tell the new landlord this is where you stay and they can contact your friend for verification.
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Nov 18, 2014 18:11
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What city?
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Nov 18, 2014 18:54
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Thanatosian posted:Personally, I would never, ever rent a place sight unseen. That's just asking for trouble.
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Nov 18, 2014 19:38
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Thank you for all your answers! I guess I'll prepare a small folder with all our documents and just ask if I can sign a lease immediately. I'd never rent a place without actually having been inside the apartment, but the only people who offer that here are scammers anyway 
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Nov 18, 2014 21:11
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Edit: When my husband woke up he said he's going to escalate it to the landlord in the hopes of getting a pro sent out to fix whatever the problem is. Our (gas) furnace quit in the middle of the night several times in the last week and a half. This is in a rental in upstate NY, where it has been getting really cold lately. We call maintenance every time. The guy comes, "fixes" it, & it quits again a day or three later. He proclaims that while he's a general handyman, furnaces are the one thing he's really good at. First he said it was the igniter; furnace before dying would kick on, not ignite, and shut off after 10min of trying, cool off 10min, repeat, & after the 2nd time it wouldn't try again for 30-60min. So he got a new igniter (he complained that it was the $100+ type). Then when it quit again, he said it was some control door switch deal for the gas. He jiggled it or the wires to get it working again, saying he was trying to save money because it's a $200+ part. It worked for a day. He came back, turned the knob on the box to off & then on, it worked again. Later that night it died again & turning the knob to off & then on didn't fix it. So he bought a new control box thing. Still didn't work, so he checked voltage, said he found a short, fixed it, & it worked again. In the middle of the night last night it quit working again. We go to bed, its working fine. I wake up at 4-5am because I'm freezing, check the t-stat, & see that it says it's 65-ish, whereas we have it set to 72. Its even colder in the bedroom (by probably close to 10 degrees) because the flex tube for that vent is shredded and crushed because of how they routed it around the metal framing and everything up in there. I flipped the AC thermostat switch to off (there's a thermostat for the AC that has the heat/cold/fan controls, & a tstat-only box next to it for the heat) & then back to heat, hoping it'd work, but it didn't. Then after about an hour of sitting around, it decides to try running again & ignites no problem. Then after getting up to temp & shutting off, it tried to kick on again 10min later & failed to ignite. Should we just continue calling maintenance, or should we move on to bitching to the landlord and the management company (as I understand it, there are 4 hands in this cookie jar; realty company who lists/shows, management company who handles payments, building manager who passes along complaints/etc to maintenance and others, & landlord). I feel like at this point we should be demanding a pro come look at it. Should we? We have baseboard heat as a backup, but that's expensive and only works well in the bedrooms, so we only use it in an emergency. There's only one half-wall length one in the livingroom for the entire rest of the apartment, and I think the tstat dial for that one is faulty because if the hvac t-stats say its 65 in here, you have to turn that room's baseboard tstat all the way to 80 to get it to click on (and put a box fan on to circulate the heat away from the wall). I tried setting it to 75 and after several hours it hadn't done a drat thing...was still cold in the livingroom & the heater itself was cold to the touch. Every time the furnace breaks, I have to listen to the maintenance guy bitch about my husband turning off the furnace switch, the breaker, & the valve for the gas. He kept trying to say "well of course it didn't work, the gas wasn't on". I had to explain, every time he came, that it quit in the middle of the night & my husband only turned that stuff off after we woke up & realized it was busted & not wanting to work. Or "oh it keeps breaking because you guys are turning all those things off, stop that" (except we are doing it after it already breaks so that it doesn't keep trying & failing all day). I'm pretty sure it's not anything we are doing, unless it has to do with the thermostat. No matter what we keep that at, I find it strange that it kicks on at the set temp, but only warms it up to like 1 degree above that before kicking off. So its on for maybe 5-10min, then off for 10min or so before it hits the set temp & kicks back on again to heat things up. I almost wonder if the tstat itself is faulty and is forcing the furnace safety features to kick in somehow. IdeoPhanthus fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Nov 19, 2014 |
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Nov 19, 2014 13:26
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Call the building manager and list out what you listed here. If they don't get the problem fixed, then call the landlord.
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Nov 19, 2014 13:32
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We've been calling the building manager every time there's an issue with anything, since he was the one who passes along things to maintenance for all the units. The last time we called he just gave us the maintenance guy's number since it just kept happening. I was about to edit my post since when my husband woke up & I told him it was busted again, he said he's going to just call the landlord this time and ask to get a pro out here.
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Nov 19, 2014 14:38
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