Landlords: does anyone actually like them? Well, we guess you lucky ducks out there who are blessed with one who doesn’t blast dubstep up through your apartment floor on random occasions or fixes your goddamn sink like he’s supposed to, maybe like your landlords. But Bushwick Daily found some stories from tenants who put up with crap landlords for the cheap rent they offered in Bushwick. Which raises the question, how much would you put up with to live where you want and not pay through the nose?
The best (worst?) story is the one from Amma, who had a landlord that obviously came from the Buster Keaton school of dramatic flailing. When he came by for an inspection, all hell broke loose:
“While there he was spooked by her cat and then literally backed right into her bedroom door and took it off the hinge Dumb & Dumber style. (True story). Despite the landlord’s promises and apologies, the door was never fixed.Amma also requested that bars be installed on the windows after a couple of neighborhood mooks attempted a robbery. It took two months to finally get the bars.”
Amma put up with all that though, because she was paying $1575 per month, what she considered cheap, for a two bedroom on Greene Avenue. Our dubstep landlord is definitely the worst one we’ve ever had in our years living here, but at least we have heat and doors. What about you guys: have any landlord horror stories that you gutted through for cheap rent? What would be your breaking point?
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no matter how cheap your rent is, the landlord is supposed to take care of your apartment. i suppose it’s about renewing the lease for folks? the example doesn’t seem all that cheap though.
also, for real structural issues, you should report the landlords. this is why we can’t have nice things.
Amma here. Let the record show that I did not find the rent cheap, nor was I crazy enough to stay through that ridiculous price hike. I was a victim of needing a place to live ASAP. Times were tough.
When I moved into my apartment in Bed-Stuy(a few blocks shy of East New York), there were no locks on the doors or bars on the windows. There was no running water, and there was no heat. The water, bars, and locks were fixed by the next day, but the heat took about a month and a half to come on, it was November 1st when we moved in by the way. In the process, since who had worked on the apartment before was inept, water would leak out of the ceiling from holes in the pipes.
For the past few months water intermittently leaks through the ceiling when my upstairs neighbors take showers because the tub is not sealed to the wall correctly. My landlord frequently ignores my calls, and if he comes at all he rarely fixes anything but manages to tracked mud all throughout my house.
But, for a huge duplex three bedroom, with exclusive access to a yard thats maybe more square feet than the whole apartment, for 1900 (which I pay 1/4 of) I can’t really complain.
but you literally CAN complain. there are tenant’s rights laws for a reason.
Well yes. I can complain. I can call 311 and say how I have a slumlord but I don’t actually feel like it would do much. If they actually looked into the things wrong with my apartment I feel like it would only make living here more difficult.