Working into a huge rant

[LovelyLadyLux]

AGHHHH!!!!!!

[Horus]

Go on then, tell us what is up

[Jayway]

Madam is obviously too furious to type or maybe smashed the keyboard -

[LovelyLadyLux]

Am back although I really only went to my first home but am now back to my regular home........

I have my original home in the north end of the island. Pretty big place where I raised my daughters. Since about 2002 I've had it rented as I just couldn't keep it and live in another country. I have always maintained it well and do have my own little home on the back of this property.

(OK - I tend to collect 'homes' and can't seem to ever settle into ONE home)

Anyway about 3 months ago now I sent a painter up there to so I could get quotes on painting the place. He went, saw and immediately called me describing (ahem) conditions that were not to my liking so a week or so later I took myself and the daughter for a drive (3 hours north of here) for an impromptu visit. Wasn't too happy at what I saw so issued an eviction which came into effect June 1st.

I was very nice about it, explained that I couldn't afford to keep the big house going as a rental and wanted it back for me. In the past 4 years this family lived there I hadn't put the rent up and it was also very reasonable rent considering the size of the house & location they were getting.

May 28th I arrived to an empty house (they moved out day before they had indicated) BUT somewhere along the line FLOODED the house!!!!!!!!!!

Can't even begin to describe how ANGRY I was. I rarely get that upset but it was a real mess. Had to get Insurance people in and so far to date the flooring has been lifted and huge dryers installed with de-humidifiers to try and dry the house out. Will have to replace flooring, cabinets, re-paint..........Don't even have a final total $$ amount.



When I started to write this thread I was in a coffee shop taking a break. I was trying to log on but only had my Kindle and it tends to insert words so I wasn't getting too far too fast in typing out what I was trying to say.

Now the restoration/repair saga starts. NOT quite my idea of how to pass a summer.

[Ruby Slippers]

LLL, have you laws over there that enable you to take your ex-tenants to court and make them pay for necessary work? I take it they were negligent?

[LovelyLadyLux]

@RS - they were negligent in the extreme (as I found out) however the Provincial gov't has an Office of the Rentalsman. The laws are so slanted in favour of the tenant it is literally impossible for a landlord to get compensated for anything a tenant does.

[Ruby Slippers]

I really feel for you! We have had several TV series on the Tenants from Hell lately, and it's beyond belief what they do to trash a house. Of course, as you say, the laws are weighted on the tenants side over here too!

[Horus]

I would have thought that under the circumstances of you reclaiming the property that you would have a good case for their intentional criminal damage to your property.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I'd of thought so too but how to prove it was intentional? Especially when they have no history of malicious acts (they were grandparents raising grandchildren), seemingly very stable and long term employment (30+ years) with the schools and absolutely no smoking/drinking etc etc etc. They were always very friendly nice people and the first couple of years all was well so I don't know what happened coming into year #5 that the house was full of clothes in all corners, garbage in the kitchen just rotting and moulding to the point of a smell ...... ????

I was there often but I would go up a few times a year. We'd usually have a good chat and sometimes they'd ask me in for a supper and all was good. There is also a law (well not a law law) but insurance insists a landlord do a walk through of a house at a minimum of once a year and that was always easy as these people were ok. A few things broke over the years (i.e. when the toilet leaked a bit in the main bathroom that was fixed and since the toilet up I put down all the new flooring to match), the kitchen taps got updated and replaced, new roof put on the house - stuff like that and always it presented as fine so ??? Not sure what happened.

I know - it is all HIGHLY suspicious and just driving me crazy (although I'm much settled down now and trying to one finger type on a Kindle that was constantly inserting words wasn't helping my mood when I started this thread).

I want to believe this was all accidental - BUT ?

Anyway - I'd just put totally new "matching" floors in the kitchen, 3 bathrooms and utility room. I was fortunate enough to be able to go back to the floor store and get the same colour/style flooring so the house can all be replaced back to original. The one ceiling had to be completely ripped out but the others are only water stained and can be painted (AND painters are scheduled to start next Monday on the outside of the house anyway and the following week inside so insurance will cover some of the painting vs me).

[Kiya]

I really feel for you LLL, I would be fuming hope your claim can go through & take the sod's !! for everything .

[Mad Dilys]

This is terrible LLL but I'm not clear how it happened, was it an overflowing bath with the plug in, or a toilet cistern fault?

I ask because last year on the morning that I was leaving for Ibiza, I noticed just a few drops of water in the middle of the kitchen floor and couldn't work out where they had come from. To cut a long story short when I got back from my holiday there was a hole about a metre square in the ceiling, and the water was still running slowly through the hole and onto the debris.
I was very lucky, there was actually a double ceiling and apart from mess and a ruined hardwood floor, the rest of the house was OK.
In my case, there was a fault in the bathroom lavatory cistern so that the water trickled all the time, combined with the cantilever toilet itself sliding just a little off it's attachment so that the exit pipe parted slightly. Very common apparently.

My sister was actually living in her newly redecorated three story house, woke one morning ground floor awash from a fault on the top floor bathroom which ran down the walls lifting the new wallpaper on each floor before it hit ground level and ruined the new carpet.

So I guess that since you think it was deliberate because of .........?

[LovelyLadyLux]

@ MD - the Insurance is still investigating because

1)there is water all across the kitchen floor (10' x 10' area that soaked down to the bedroom below ceiling) apparently from the dishwasher (but no evidence the dishwasher is broken). Then the hallway and middle bedroom or computer room is bone dry.

2)Then directly below the next bathroom there is water soaked through the ceiling to the room below complete with a huge chunk of ceiling plaster fallen out. THIS ceiling has now been completely removed and there is not ONE drop of water on any of the boards (so how was the ceiling of the room below water marked and soaked until a chunk plaster fell off onto the floor? All surrounding area is dry. This room has the least damage but still everything has to be removed/dried and replaced.



3) the ceiling of the next bathroom (the ensuite off the bedroom) has extensive water damage on the ceiling meaning the water has to be coming through the roof (but the entire roof was just replaced several years ago with 30 year shingles + reputable company). This room looks to me more like long term neglect than any sudden water flooding but ? I was at the house late March after the painter and this wasn't there.



I wish I'd taken photos of the kitchen floor as it had huge bubbles where the subfloor material had absorbed water and raised up. The Insurance man had it off in a jiff via his helpers with plastic up to seal the room and blowers etc to get it dry asap before anything else got wet.

What I'm trying (not well) to describe is three completely isolated areas of sudden soaking wet areas in 3 different areas of the house surrounded by dry.

I can understand if a seal on the toilet went and theory #1 was that the toilet leaked suddenly down to the bathroom below at the same time the dishwasher broke and the roof leaked at a time when we've had record dry for the past 2 months.........AGH!!!

[Mad Dilys]

Oh My Goodness!! Have a cyberhug, can't get the Smilies up at the moment as I keep losing contact with the forum. Hope this gets through.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Thanks MD! Appreciate the hug.

[LovelyLadyLux]

The latest update is there is now replaced lino on the floors and the damaged cabinets have been replaced - HOWEVER - Monday night I got a call from the Painters who had returned to the house and found water all over the floor on the new lino with damage to the NEW cabinets!!!!

Long story short when the new cabinets were installed somehow something happened with the plumbing that caused a slow leak that again flooded sufficient to damage the new cabinets which are now being replaced again with new(er) cabinets!

Am heading north again this weekend to view how things are coming along up there ... (can't get worse) but all inspections that are now done have indicated it was tenant damage NOT faulty house structure.

[Jayway]

Is it worth it, LLL, being a property magnate ??? I am so lucky, I own very little, a car, a bike and a horse - - - and thats enough.

[LovelyLadyLux]

So - After about 6 weeks I finally have the house to where I can list it with Real Estate to sell. WHEW - however - on discussion with Real Estate the list price and what to expect re: offers the Listing Agent man advised that I need to be prepared for "APPLIANCE ALLOWANCE"

"What might an appliance allowance be I asked?"

Apparently now if you are selling a house without fridge/stove/dishwasher/washing machine and dryer it is common practice for Buyers to request an "Appliance Allowance" of approximately $5000 to purchase NEW appliances for themselves!!!!!

"WHAT?!?!?!" I replied somewhat taken aback and a bit testy.

Long story short in this NEW ME GENERATION it is now relatively common for people to ask for the Seller to give them upwards of $5000 to purchase brand new appliances for themselves if there are none in the house.

I honestly guess I'm getting old as I'd of never thought that a person selling a house would ever be responsible for providing appliances or money for the purchase of same to a potential buyer.

I would have never asked somebody else to buy me appliances but in todays age it really is all about ME ME ME ME ME (IMO)

Course I said "I" could provide appliances .... but the Agent had already read my mind and said the house would present better without OLD appliances

Just marveling at this new breed of people............

[Grandad]

Is it worth it, LLL, being a property magnate ???

And a thought occurred to me LLL. What if you had left decent quality and perfectly serviceable appliances in the house, would a prospective buyer still argue that they want better models and demand money to buy them? In my book, many pre owned things are offered for sale 'as seen' for some specified price. But specific items may come into the negotiation process but your example seems to put the buyer in a win win situation.

And the agent will go along with anything that helps to make the sale and him to get his commission. You pay his fee but the buyer seems to get the benefit of his involvement.

[Mad Dilys]

I often wonder how this came about LLL.

But about 10 years ago I was talking to a Luxor lady whose niece was getting married.

She shook her head in disbelief at what the local girls insisted on having for their home before they married. A nice flat, furniture, appliances, namely the latest automatic washing machine, TV etc etc.

She said "When I got married, I had a second hand wardrobe for a wedding present and had to move in with my mother-in-law. I washed by hand, with hard soap, though there was a communal very, very, old fashioned machine just an open tub with a paddle in it. We had the old fashioned benches, and all the women in the house helped with the housework, bread-making and childcare. This was only ten or fifteen years ago.

Nowadays, the girls the girls don't wear the back arbaya when they shop, they want Fashion! OK they wear some sort of head covering, but their clothes are too tight and they wear high heels. Their husbands want transport. Oh, no way are they going to have a donkey. No, they want at least a motorbike, maybe even a car! Where is the money for all this coming from?

I'll tell you, not from what their husband has earned, but from the bank - using their family land as security. Every time there is a crisis and people lose their jobs, the bank take back land that has been in the family for many generations. This is a sad time for Egypt and will end in tears, you see.".

[Horus]

What you describe MD is really sad as they seem to be literally selling their birthright for a mess of pottage (to quote the Bible). I often wonder if the people who take advantage of these so called ‘pay day loans’ such as Wonga and the like are really stupid or just so utterly desperate for money that they cannot see the futility of it.