Re: landlords

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 10/10/00 6:56:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

egroups writes:

<< The stress is getting me down and that is why I am asking

for your prayers!

>>

Carol:

You've got them! You didn't mention what kind of prob's you were having, but

I guess it's not relevant....prayers being sent no matter what!!! Hope

things start looking better soon.....

[Guest guest]

Here's another way to look at the landlord situation. You are

paying good money for a product--your housing. The person making

money off of you is not giving providing you with a good product.

The longer you stay in this place, the longer you are allowing this

person to make money off a crappy product.

I have had a crummy landlord before in a rental townhome. Things

like the washing machine and hot water heater tended to break and

flood the basement I lived in at inconvenient times for him. Huh?

It wasn't convenient for me to have a flooded living space, have to

pay out of pocket for repairs my landlord should have made, etc. I

finally said enough. He was collecting $1000 per month on a rental

that cost him about 70K, so I know he was making money off me and

the other tenants.

Think about it. Is it worth your health to make someone else rich

while they are sitting back letting the house mold away? In a

perfect world, landlords are attentive and fix problems as they

occur, but reality is, that doesn't always happen.

>

> Serena,

>

> First, let me apologize for ranting at you.. You know, I think you

> were right when you said that I am probably being effected by the

> mold.. I was just sitting in my bathroom and you know, I can tell

that

> its true because I just finished cleaning and I was getting what

can

> only be described as mild visual field distortions.. almost

borderline

> hallucinations.. And this is with all the windows open and fans

on..

>

> Arrgh...

>

> Someone else wrote me a letter in solodarity and here is what I

> replied to her which perhaps gets to the point of what i was

trying to

> say..

> _____________cut here________

>

> Thank you,

>

> I just don't see the moving option as being a realistic one for

many

> people except as a LAST resort. Because often, people don't have

> anywhere to move TO.

>

> ___to Serena____

>

> (Really, Serena, this is TRUE. If you don't believe me, look at the

> mess left by Katrina - the RUINED LIVES - I am sure that many older

> people will DIE without a place to live. The system is BROKEN,

> profoundly broken. It is often NOT poor people's fault they are

poor.

> They never had a chance. Really. Not one chance in 100. And we are

in

> denial about where its going. Because good jobs are going away for

> good.

>

> The system is broken and we are unwilling to look at the real

reasons

> why because - surprise, we are next in line for

disenfranchisement..

> nobody wants to realize that..)

>

> __return to letter___

>

> personally, I have eaten through my financial resources and I can't

> make more money until I get better.

>

> That means landlord cleaning up place. Other landlords do it. I pay

> good money for my apartment, probably much more than most people on

> the list do for their spaces. (almost $1400/month)

>

> I live in a multi-unit apartment under rent control. Almost all the

> other housing units in my neighborhood are also rental stock. As a

> whole, the rents in my building are comparable to others in the

> neighborhood. However, our building is perhaps the worst

maintained.

>

> Our house is the only house on our block that consistantly floods.

Our

> landlord doesn't do practically any real maintenance and for years

we

> have been on our own. At this point, our building *smells*. The

> Department of Building Inspection has issued them an ultimatum,

which

> they are ignoring. The Department of Health has also cited them for

> the mold.

>

> I don't know what it is but there is something wrong with these

people.

>

> *I have always been a good tenant* in places I have lived and

tried to

> keep up the buildings. Before I moved here I was healthy and didn't

> even have any allergies, now I am in terrible health. For many

years i

> had no idea what was causing my decline into sickness.

>

> Now it is obvious, as you can see the effect on my of having fans

> blowing fresh air in (freezing cold) vs. no fans. (illness) I don't

> have a degree, so I can't really get a corporate job with decent

> insurance in this economy until I recover. For people with degrees,

> its a lot easier. They don't understand this, though. How hard it

is

> for the formerly middle class working people of this country.

because

> they are profoundly alone.

>

> Serena's .sig file quotes Ayn Rand, which implies to me that she

has

> an agenda to some extent. Perhaps I have an agenda too, but its not

> the one some are trying to pin on me.

>

> I just think that it is the *landlord's* responsibility to provide

a

> safe living space as their part of the contract between them and a

> tenant. If they deliberately try to shirk that responsibility to

save

> money, that might be forgivable IF they cleaned up their act when

they

> realized that they were making people SICK. But if anything, that

has

> made my landlord worse. Which to me makes them a PREDATOR. A

slumlord.

> A killer.

>

> Thats wrong.. they are completely evil to do that.. I feel that

its my

> obligation to fight people like that.

>

> Thats all.

>

[Guest guest]

Besides buying a house (not feasible for a great many people,

especially those living paycheck to paycheck, or unemployed) what are

the alternatives?

We have to live somewhere. (I know that some people get an RV and live

on the road, but I don't see that as a viable alternative because then

you are not considered to be a person by the state in the sense that

you don't live anywhere. You can't vote if you don't have a home,

unless you lie.. Even if you are a US citizen, you become, in a sense,

a 'stateless person'.

(which is a whole other story.. a very sad and scary one, in its implications..)

So, that is not an option I think is a viable one.. The right to vote

is priceless.

I read a survey a few months ago that was done here that said that if

the 90% of the residents where I live who rent had to go out and

re-rent their apartments at market rate, that only around one quarter

of them could afford it by any reasonable measure of financial

sanity..

Thats an awful lot of homeless people..

>

> Think about it. Is it worth your health to make someone else rich

> while they are sitting back letting the house mold away? In a

> perfect world, landlords are attentive and fix problems as they

> occur, but reality is, that doesn't always happen.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Serena,

Good advice..

Thank you. We are not as bad off as many. I'm doing much worse than my

wife, but she is starting to get the headaches too. And that scares

me..

I have CSM and its helping a lot.. But it can't make the mold go away

and it seems like the mold in our house is getting worse and worse..

Hey, here's a request for everybody.. How do I ask the other people in

the building if its making them ill in a way that wont make them think

I'm a nut?

When it was really bad around a month and a half ago - after we got

back our air testing results I went around to them telling them we had

toxic mold and I got a mixed reaction.. Some of them are paying quite

a bit more than us and *their* apartments are better sealed.. it

seems.. but they also have mostly only been here for periods ranging

from months to a year and a half.. (that guy is very sick, but he has

diabetes as well)

Our downstairs neighbors are paying less than us and they have been

here for much longer.. and their apartment has moldy smell when they

open their door, more than the hallway, which is already very bad- but

they are in denial..

But I am sure that it must be making them sick, I hear all sorts of

dry coughing coming from their and other apartments..

How do I get them to consider that maybe there is a connection? If we

can together unify on this, maybe we could force the landlord to

actually remediate..

[Guest guest]

Are you really discussing voting when you should be getting toxins

out of your brain? this last rationalization only proves you need to

de-tox badley. What next, Oh- if you had to move your african violet

your grandmother gave you might not survive- you have to get your

priorities straight- And as for alternative living situations- you

have been deludged with them by people on this board

>

> Besides buying a house (not feasible for a great many people,

> especially those living paycheck to paycheck, or unemployed) what

are

> the alternatives?

>

> We have to live somewhere. (I know that some people get an RV and

live

> on the road, but I don't see that as a viable alternative because

then

> you are not considered to be a person by the state in the sense

that

> you don't live anywhere. You can't vote if you don't have a home,

> unless you lie.. Even if you are a US citizen, you become, in a

sense,

> a 'stateless person'.

>

> (which is a whole other story.. a very sad and scary one, in its

implications..)

>

> So, that is not an option I think is a viable one.. The right to

vote

> is priceless.

>

> I read a survey a few months ago that was done here that said that

if

> the 90% of the residents where I live who rent had to go out and

> re-rent their apartments at market rate, that only around one

quarter

> of them could afford it by any reasonable measure of financial

> sanity..

>

> Thats an awful lot of homeless people..

>

>

> >

> > Think about it. Is it worth your health to make someone else rich

> > while they are sitting back letting the house mold away? In a

> > perfect world, landlords are attentive and fix problems as they

> > occur, but reality is, that doesn't always happen.

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Mmmm...ok. Let me think about this. I understand what you're saying. People

often either don't see it, or don't want to see it. There's only so much you can

do about that, but it might be worth a try. And if you believe they are being

affected, I'm sure it's the right thing on your part to at least give them the

opportunity to have some information. What they do with it after that is up to

them. I very much doubt you and your wife would be able to withstand a

remediation effort, if you're already sick. And no reputable person would leave

you in it, anyway. It might be that the landlord would have to put you up

elsewhere while it was going on - and that's an exit point, right there. Not one

I'd count on heavily, but a possiblity.

So, let's say you're doing this merely as a person of good will. We might

have some information somewhere that you could print out for them. Something

short that gets the idea across without relying on whether they believe you as

an individual or not. Is the building very large?

LiveSimply <quackadillian@...> wrote:

Serena,

Good advice..

Thank you. We are not as bad off as many. I'm doing much worse than my

wife, but she is starting to get the headaches too. And that scares

me..

I have CSM and its helping a lot.. But it can't make the mold go away

and it seems like the mold in our house is getting worse and worse..

Hey, here's a request for everybody.. How do I ask the other people in

the building if its making them ill in a way that wont make them think

I'm a nut?

When it was really bad around a month and a half ago - after we got

back our air testing results I went around to them telling them we had

toxic mold and I got a mixed reaction.. Some of them are paying quite

a bit more than us and *their* apartments are better sealed.. it

seems.. but they also have mostly only been here for periods ranging

from months to a year and a half.. (that guy is very sick, but he has

diabetes as well)

Our downstairs neighbors are paying less than us and they have been

here for much longer.. and their apartment has moldy smell when they

open their door, more than the hallway, which is already very bad- but

they are in denial..

But I am sure that it must be making them sick, I hear all sorts of

dry coughing coming from their and other apartments..

How do I get them to consider that maybe there is a connection? If we

can together unify on this, maybe we could force the landlord to

actually remediate..

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