Is this normal?

[impy]

Advice? Anyone? Bueller?

Today the landlord came to fix the upstairs toilet, again. I gave him the rent check since he was here anyway, and bid him a happy holidays.

I wait fifteen minutes, kind of happy that things were looking up (I know, I know). The toilet was possibly fixed for another week or two if we were lucky, the carpets were pretty clean, I hadn't murdered the dishwasher after all, and I'd also managed to get rid of some boxes! Seriously, I had about five minutes of absolute contentedness going on there. Then I went to get the mail in hopes that the little gift catalog from AG would be there. It was!

But then I noticed a business envelope from the landlady. I thought about it and while technically the check was due on the first, she had said it was fine for it to be within the first week or so of the first of the month. (As evidenced by the previous tenants having left their check out on like, the 7th, when we first looked at the place.) So it wasn't that. It was too flimsy to be even a really cheap holiday card. So I opened it on the way home and my nerves went to anger to confusion back to nerves with side tinglings of the other things.

The letter is dated 12/2 and basically says, "Surprise! We would like to do an inspection 12/9!" Routine to make sure there are no water spots on the ceilings, that the house is being kept up, blah blah blah.

Which I could see at the 6 month mark, I suppose, but I'm not kidding when I say that the upstairs toilet has needed a looksee every month since we moved in. Landlord has been in at least once a month since we moved in, and it's been more like twice a month. He still hasn't repaired the rip or whatever in the living room wall that was there before we moved in (and that he's promised to fix at least twice without his wife present and she's promised twice without him present) btw.


Is this normal? The dropping in for an official visit after making numerous trips to the house, especially when he was literally just here and didn't say a word about this?

Or is this some fun combo of this place actually being their's and not just a property they oversee for someone else plus Mom's outbursts previously?



I am so tempted to make a lovely little wreath of lights like a bullseye around that rip just to see if they get the friggin' point.


Sigh. Naturally this has spiked the whole "We're definitely moving at the end of the lease" comments but um, a) do you lot recall how long it took to find this place? Because I do. It took until JULY and we had to move in AUGUST.


And the letter does say we can reschedule but honestly this is probably the best this place is gonna look for awhile so I don't see the point if we can whip the remaining stuff into shape in time.

Comments

[zallia.livejournal.com]

Maybe she just does all of them on an automatic schedule? Like every 3 months (would that be accurate to when you moved in?) or can you ask your neighbors? Maybe she just has a set time that she does everyone's to get it all over with at once. Like she'll do all of them in december and then again in june or july and you guys just missed the first one? I've never really had a landlord, so not sure what other advice to give. :/

[irishgypsie.livejournal.com]

Um, that does not sound normal. I've never known of any landlords who do routine inspections (much less surprise ones). In my experience the landlord is there to take care of problems if/when they arise and then only because the tenant contacts them to let them know there's a problem.

My in-laws rent out a house and have never performed an inspection (although maybe they should have - we just found out that the tenants were harboring a parole violator AND growing marijuana in the house in addition to totally trashing the place). They have to evict said tenants and decide what to do with the property. It would cost upwards of $30,000 to fix all the damage these assholes caused and my in-laws just don't have that kind of money. They may be forced to sell the house as a fixer upper and take a big loss on it.

Anyway, that was kind of a tangent. Basically it feels like these people are just spying on you and shirking their actual responsibilities. I think you or your mom should say something to them, especially given the issues with the toilet and the rip in the wall.

[luxken27]

Late to the party (as usual these days) - and I've only had apartments, but there is a routine scheduled inspection that pretty much has nothing to do with the lease date and everything to do with having more than one building in the complex. They start at one, wind their way through all of 'em, and then start back at the first one again. And it doesn't matter if maintenance just came in to fix something. Its just the routine.

IDK how analogous this is to your situation, but its not totally out of the realm of possibility IMO.

(It is weird that he didn't mention it while he was there, but maybe he thought you already knew? Communication doesn't sound like these folks' strong point.)