Ugh!

The landlord I have had for the past year is reneging on a verbal agreement he made five months ago. Five. Months. Ago.

The amount of time that passed is important to remember.

When another unit he owns became empty, I immediately raised my hand and said I wanted it. I asked him how much my rent, at that time, would increase in the new unit and he stated, "Twenty-five dollars." I was more than happy with that amount and started organizing things in preparation for moving.

Once the LL carried all the trash, furniture, carpeting, padding, and rotten food out of there, he and I both got a good look at the damage the previous tenant had left behind. LL and I looked at each other, with mouths hanging wide open, there were no words.

Now, the landlord has a slight drinking problem. That's not really true; he's a functioning alcoholic. The apartment flip was supposed to be done within 30 days. I had no idea that the days would not be consecutive or even happen in the same month. Silly me.

One day, six weeks into this flip, the landlord was working in my new apartment so I knocked on the door then let myself in to see how things were going. Not. Very. Far.  It was that same day I found out that this flip was "not a top priority" for him, and that he actually had a job. I would later figure out, based on what the neighbors were telling me, that "job" was code word for "bender". And boy, did he have a LOT of "jobs".

I didn't push him and I rarely stopped by, mostly because he was never there, yet I did wonder why he gave me a 30-day turn around when he knew he couldn't do it. Days turned into weeks and I had already unpacked the moving boxes in order to have a functioning household again.

Weeks turned into months. I still didn't push, and I had never asked him when he would be finished, I just patiently waited.

On Saturday, September 9th, and without even a heads-up, he turned over the keys to my new place and I started moving in. My grandson was staying the weekend with me and I stayed focused on him and our time together rather than moving stuff. The next day, two friends of mine drove three hours, one way, to move all the big stuff I would never have been able to move by myself. (So Grateful!)

The longer it took me to empty the old place, the longer I would be paying rent on both. Talk about motivation! After work Monday night I was running up and down the stairs trying to move as much of my stuff as possible; finally crawling onto the bed I had made on the old apartment floor around 12:00 am.

Tuesday, I had to be home for the utility company in the afternoon and, for fear I would miss that person, not much moving could be done. Of course the guy shows up near the end of his window of time I was given for him to be here so it was almost 5:00 pm before I could continue moving out and moving in. I was DETERMINED that this move be completed that night, come hell or high water.

I finally moved the last box of stuff down the stairs then went back to run the vacuum cleaner one last time. After I finished, I sat down on the floor and cried. It was just past 8:00 pm. I was sore, sweaty, exhausted and overwhelmed. I completed the move in 2 days. (The new lease went into effect on September 10th.)

A long story to get the short point.

The Landlord dropped the lease off Thursday for me to sign and, after looking at it and the spreadsheet attached to it, I was NOT happy. Not even close. He had written the new lease - yet not with the amount we had agreed upon FIVE MONTHS AGO, with an amount $50 MORE than what we had agreed upon FIVE MONTHS AGO.

I sent off a text mentioning the amount of rent we had agreed upon (five months ago) as well as the number of days I was paying rent on both units. He replied with a different calculation than what was on the spreadsheet and didn't address the rent issue at all. He sent me a text today wanting to know when he could pick up the lease. In my reply I addressed the rent increase and in his reply to that, he stood firm on HIS numbers instead of what had been agreed upon previously.

(five months ago)

My reply to that was cordial. I told him I was quite displeased with his increase in rent, especially because he had not discussed it with me beforehand.

Am I mad? A little. He should have talked with me before he came up with his own numbers. What bothers me MORE is the fact that we had made a verbal agreement and he didn't stick to it. I will NOT ever trust him in the future.

Next time I will make him write it down and sign his name in blood. Wait, no. Ick!