sabrinathecat
Explorer
One of my tenants just returned custody of an apartment to me.
Wow.
I have cleaned up worse, but never from a tenant I chose.
Even allowing for the fact that small children were there, they treated my place like a slum. They made me look like a slum-lord.
Atrocious, Disgusting, and disgraceful. I had to ask him how he could live like this. He blamed his wife. Damn, you've got two hands. You've got a bucket and sponge.
Carpet that is supposed to last 10-15 they wrecked in 5. Never replaced a light-bulb. (only about 6 of 20 bulbs work). They've destroyed the garbage disposal. The refrigerator has had all the handles and internal pieces broken (and thrown away). Oh, all the batteries are gone from the smoke detectors, of course. And they managed to break a window. "Oh, it was like that when we moved in. See, it's on the outside." I have pictures of everything from when they moved it. I pointed that out. "Oh no, it was there. I thought you knew." Oh, the front door is broken (there's nothing for the dead-bolt and knob to anchor to). The wife said he broke it one night when he was mad. He said the wood was already split when they moved in. Yeah. Right.
Well, this is going to take a few weeks.
Not touching anything there in the dark (one light switch was covered in grime and grease--yuck I can still feel it on my fingers, and I've used soap and dish soap)
Now, the topic I propose to discuss: How could someone live like that? If you move into a place, and everything is nice, freshly painted, new flooring, new light fixtures, clean, shiny, clean, refurbished, clean... How do you let it get this bad? You saw what it was like. You lived in it. You know what it can be... How, and more importantly WHY, would you let it devolve that far. This was nothing like what I saw last spring when I made an annual inspection, so most of this is from the last 6-9 months.
What is the mindset?
Is is: "I don't care; it's not my property=it's not my problem; I just live here"?
Is it "This is what I'm used to, so that's what I expect, even if someone shows me better"?
Is it "I'm not happy unless I can see cooking grease on all the walls"?
Is it "I don't value my self, so I deserve to live in muck"?
Is it "I don't have a problem with this."?
Something else?
Thoughts?
Opinions?
Wow.
I have cleaned up worse, but never from a tenant I chose.
Even allowing for the fact that small children were there, they treated my place like a slum. They made me look like a slum-lord.
Atrocious, Disgusting, and disgraceful. I had to ask him how he could live like this. He blamed his wife. Damn, you've got two hands. You've got a bucket and sponge.
Carpet that is supposed to last 10-15 they wrecked in 5. Never replaced a light-bulb. (only about 6 of 20 bulbs work). They've destroyed the garbage disposal. The refrigerator has had all the handles and internal pieces broken (and thrown away). Oh, all the batteries are gone from the smoke detectors, of course. And they managed to break a window. "Oh, it was like that when we moved in. See, it's on the outside." I have pictures of everything from when they moved it. I pointed that out. "Oh no, it was there. I thought you knew." Oh, the front door is broken (there's nothing for the dead-bolt and knob to anchor to). The wife said he broke it one night when he was mad. He said the wood was already split when they moved in. Yeah. Right.
Well, this is going to take a few weeks.
Not touching anything there in the dark (one light switch was covered in grime and grease--yuck I can still feel it on my fingers, and I've used soap and dish soap)
Now, the topic I propose to discuss: How could someone live like that? If you move into a place, and everything is nice, freshly painted, new flooring, new light fixtures, clean, shiny, clean, refurbished, clean... How do you let it get this bad? You saw what it was like. You lived in it. You know what it can be... How, and more importantly WHY, would you let it devolve that far. This was nothing like what I saw last spring when I made an annual inspection, so most of this is from the last 6-9 months.
What is the mindset?
Is is: "I don't care; it's not my property=it's not my problem; I just live here"?
Is it "This is what I'm used to, so that's what I expect, even if someone shows me better"?
Is it "I'm not happy unless I can see cooking grease on all the walls"?
Is it "I don't value my self, so I deserve to live in muck"?
Is it "I don't have a problem with this."?
Something else?
Thoughts?
Opinions?