Well the house in Albany was inspected today. Unfortunately, it has issues that the owner failed to disclose, even though the issues were known to the owner. There is standing water under the house. Same inspector found water standing under the house when he inspected it for the last buyer who made an offer. That buyer then backed out of the buy.
So my brother wasn't happy that this problem was not disclosed when it should have been and told the realtor to tell the owner that they need to pay to have that problem fixed, or offer withdrawn. So, I'm in limbo again.
Also not disclosed--a fixed place appliance--the wood stove. Even the realtor said this too should have been listed as a fixed place appliance, which it wasn't. But you walk in, there it is. It was not original in the house, I guess, no permit to build it, probably because it was put in before permits were required, but it was altered only a few years ago also without a permit and it's uninsurable as is. There is not even adequate clearance between the front of the stove and the carpet and the chimney probably is not city code legal. Anyhow, my brother has said that's a non issue now, so good.
Other than that, no real problems with the house. A bit of rot in a few corners of the roof overhangs. Gutters leak and need sealed. Some leaky faucets and a sink faucet installed backwards which so common. Whomever put a TV antenna on the roof, didn't seal it properly, so the roof leaks slightly into the attic from that antenna, also a non issue for my brother. Garage door openers have vanished into thin air, as such things seem to do.
But, by and large, except for the water under the house issue, which can sometimes be really easy to solve, it's in good shape. Hopefully the owner will get that repaired, or, the other option my brother gave the realtor, was that he would sign an agreement with the owner, that whatever costs he incurred, in hiring a contractor to fix that issue, would be deducted from the cost of the house. Sounds like a good deal to me. I hope the owners see it that way.
My landlady taped an eviction notice to my door today while I was gone. Technically, a sheriff needs to that, because she's still not supposed to be coming on the property, without permission or notice, unless it's a life and death emergency. Oh well. She's kind of blurred that line for a long time.
When her daughter moved into the house in front, instead of them going to and fro, from the daughter house to the landlord house, through the daughter house backyard, they started crossing my driveway in front of my place and walking down the narrow strip between my east neighbors and this house, right by my bedroom window. And at all hours of the day and night.
I'd startle awake to noise outside my bedroom window, which was always open in the summer, because of the heat, and, there's the fact I usually sleep sparsely clad. My cats would race off the bed in fright from the sound. I'd shine my light out and IT'd be the LANDLADY! How awkward is that? She'd shrug and look like a deer caught in headlights, promise she'd not do it again, would do it again, along with every other member of her family. I mean, what do you do?
I finally strung a baricade along there, old boards, buckets, birdnetting, a piece of old horse fence, to try to deter use of the area beside my bedroom window as a thoroughfare.
You know, if this happened in Albany, I could have shot them, when startled awake by a person right by my bedroom window, and been heralded as a hero, protecting me and mine.
But this is Corvallis, where people can be violated or stomped into the dirt at will, even as protests about human rights take place around the corner.
So anyhow, I hope the water under the house issue gets resolved. Hell, I'm so used to living with water under the house, I'd not blink an eye to it. There's four or five inches under this one right now. There usually is. But my brother does not have the standards of a slumlord. He does not want me to have to live like I rent from a slumlord when I rent from him.
He wants me out of Slumlordville as soon as possible. THANK YOU brother T!!!!!
5 comments:
i know this is probably besides the fact, but we have a good guy at the corvallis housing division--bob lowen. they enforce the landlord/tenant codes and laws. he's been helpful to us when we've had issues w/our landlord and i've been able to cite codes to the owner when he's been in violation. this has forced him to comply on certain repairs. you can also sue for one months rent--it's a tenants right--whenever an owner has made an illegal entry onto the property. you have one year from the time of violation to do so. given how many times this woman has done so, it sounds like you could recover your moving expenses!
obviously the codes in this city do not go far enough (in my opinion they don't) but as renters, we are protected from illegal entries, weatherproofing, plumbing and other "livability" issues. you may want to contact bob and tell him your situation--if anything so there will be a record for the next poor soul who takes the chance to rent from the wench. he knows me--you can tell him i referred you. (btw, nina is my online alias. my real name is vicki.)
good luck w/the issue with the new house. i am sure it will be worked out in your favor.
The landlord told me, in one of her phone messages, that loewen told her it was perfectly legal for her to enter, since a repair was ongoing. This is not the case however, I don't believe. She never did notify intent to enter at any time during that repair, since I was scheduling with the company and the only other legal manner a landlord can enter, unless notice is given, is in the event of extreme emergency, such as tenant is deathly ill or fire or something like that. Why he would tell her that, if he did, well I don't know.
I know there are a lot of bad landlords out there. Landlords don't get into the business to be of help to people needing homes. Renters are a commodity to landlords, not, you know, flesh and blood humans. But from the renters stand point, we want a place to call home and it is extremely stressful to be ousted from one's home. If only the landlord could understand how they would feel if suddenly they were told they must pack up their life and leave their home for good, within 30 days. But renters are not people to landlords, we represent a commodity. When supply of rental units is low in any market, whether it be for places that allow pets, or people that take HUD vouchers, or kids or whatever, then demand is high and people are forced into low quality existences and are open to abuse by others who know the market situation, and understand that this renter has pretty much zero options. Therefore, the landlord might figure they're pretty sure the renter will have to take pretty much any abuses of power thrown their direction and live with it.
I have felt under such a threat, of having no other options, therefore feeling that I have to take things I would not ordinarily take. She has threatened me over and over with eviction, usually without any reason. This is an effective tactic on her part.
So much so that I have dreaded any interaction with the landlord, knowing that almost anything I say will be wrong. When I have stood my ground, it has not been a pretty thing.
This I have learned: NEVER rent a place when your landlord lives beside you. Very bad idea.
I don't think she's much different than most landlords. Some guy I know told me his dad was a Corvallis slumlord for years, would prop up falling apart rotten floors and always blame a tenant somehow, rather than lack of maintenance.
But, the fact she lives right next door, small things become a massive factors. And there's kind of an unspoken ever present air of tension. I've not known anyone who survives long living next to their landlord.
A lady I knew rented a great place, through HUD, over north of Harrison downtown, but her landlord lived right next door. He's nice, she said, but was always over on his property, her rental, which is a violation, but I don't think he could resist and probably didn't think she minded. She couldn't take it and moved out.
So, the moral of the story is, landlords are in it for money. Renters, except possibly students who know they are transients to the area, want a home. Never forget your landlord sees dollar signs when he looks in your face--either red or black dollar signs. We renters aren't humans to landlords.
We want homes and we're not going to get a home by renting, because what happened to me, can happen to anyone in Oregon, where eviction can come at any moment and without cause. Your home is gone. Boom.
I won't make this mistake again. I poured my heart and my limited funds into fixing this place up and making repairs, because I wanted a decent place to call home. I treated this place as if it were mine. --all my effort and money now will benefit a landlord who doesn't even see I have a heart. And doesn't care that I do or how my life has been affected by this eviction. Landlords are probably all the same in this regard.
There's also this. Many landlords actively buy new places, like sharks, that go on the market, --the cheaper houses. This removes these cheaper houses from availability for purchase to first time homebuyers. Some of these people are sucking the American dream, of having one's own place, away from many many Americans. Then they rent them out and badly upkeep them to renters who come to know them as slumlords. I suppose this is just capitalism at work, big fish eating small fish. That doesn't make us small fish feel any better.
Here's another thing. Landowners have always been heralded as of a different class than non landowners--peons is another word for non landowners, serfs, etc.
A lot of these development committees and growth committees are laden with homeowners who already have their piece of the pie. And in Corvallis, there's lots of growth talk about limiting urban growth boundaries and centralizing and stacking people on top of one another in apartment complexes. This is all well and fine for those people, who live on their land in their own homes. But, if they had to live in noisy ill maintained apartment complexes forever, maybe their tunes would change.
What limits people from getting their own homes? Money. On minimum and low wage jobs, you've got no chance. Unless the price of land or building or buying a home was cheaper. Property taxes and amenities in the community bring up the price of homes. The more livable the community is, the less affordable housing is, so the poorer people get forced out or into slums. Corvallis has nice parks etc. Home values in Corvallis are through the roof. This isn't right in a community that claims to value diversity. I say they drop that shit slogan or find ways for people to have homes who aren't upper middle classers.
I say we need to relax some standards. I see no reason why people can't live in yurts or what is that stuff, hob or cob or something houses. I mean half the rentals in this town aren't up to code, why can't we get some land and build a community of cob houses, out of straw, mud and sand? These are cheap, like yurts to build and maintain. And they don't use the massive natural resources a stick house uses. And what about compost toilets? I wonder how they compare in decomposition of human waste with the massively resource heavy waste systems we have.
I keep thinking about where I get cats fixed. It's $40 for a spay, compared to maybe 7 or 8 times that amount at many vet clinics. This is because many vet clinics invest in the most expensive of equipment and do all sorts of blood tests beforehand. And yet, I've never had a post surgical problem at the $40 clinic and he has no expensive fancy equipment. I keep thinking about that in comparison to human health care, and all these fancy tests and machines. Are they worth it? Are so many more people saved because of all this expensive equipment, or, could many more people have basic adequate health care if the fancy dandy expensive stuff was out of the picture?
I couldn't afford even close to the number of spays I get done, if I had to pay the price most vets charge per spay. Thank god there is that cheaper vet, because, as a result, thousands upon thousands of lives have saved, as a result.
So how many human lives could have been saved if cheap basic health care could be had, without the frills, yet kindly hands on delivered, in an old fashioned handshake variety manner, like I get for cats, with that old country vet?
I've kind of diverged. I think our standards are too high and our expectations, also. I think lowering our standards might even make things a whole lot better.
when charlie and rob were running for mayor, one of the questions i asked them was "what are your thoughts on affordable housing and what will the city do to get the housing costs under control?" both only addressed the issue of building more affordable homes--to which i say $130,000 for a home is STILL an outrageous price and unreachable for those of us making $8-$10/hour. NO ONE IN A POWER POSITION wants to talk about the high cost of housing--because they already own and have profited grossly off of this venue. it's the only reason my dad has done so well (buying and selling every 3-5 years). i really don't believe owning a home should be a profit making venture. it should be a place we call home. our safe shelter. period. and i completely agree with you on living in yurts and cob homes as well as the ridiculous idea of massive apartment complexes where people are crammed together like sardines. this isn't healthy! i once read where this kind of congested living is contrary to the needs of our soul--and i utterly agree. i need quiet and space. however, i also know we have over-populated this planet. there is absolutely no way for every one of us to have our own private, quiet sanctuary. i took a quiz online about our lifestyle and was informed it would take 1.4 planets to sustain our lifestyle. surprised me given how little we drive, own only 1 vehicle, live in a small duplex and buy locally as much as possible. i thought "my god, you mean i need to consume even less??" of course i know that score would come down if we owned a hybrid--but my god, again, we can't afford a $20k vehicle! if we could afford one, we would have bought one already!
our rental (like many others) is overpriced. the roof and siding need repairs--water seeps in on one side of the house--we had water droplets on our bedroom wall last winter. he knows this--hasn't done a thing about it yet--he thinks caulking the window will fix it, even though we told him numerous times "no the water is seeping THROUGH THE WALL". he said he would fix that before fall arrived. suuuuure. he also installed a sliding patio door unit in may 2005--a project he's still not finished with. he put it in incorrectly (not to mention crooked). as a result, water is still seeping in from the bottom. the door, on the outside, looks terrible. very crappy work--very sloppy. i know our rights--we could call him and inform him he has 10 days to fix (fix that and the moisture problem in the bedroom)--but that means having the patio door ripped out for several hours and there is no way i will put up with that during the winter. we plan on moving next year anyway so at this point i don't wish to bother w/him any further. he also spilled caulking/insulating cream on the patio--a patio that my hub and i pressure-washed over the summer. yeah--i hear you on landlords. we are nothing but dollar signs to them and it sickens me. this area needs an organized, strong tenants union.
we have yet to have a landlord that wasn't greedy, who was responsible in fixing what needed fixing (without hesitating or trying to blame us/get us to pay for it) or who respected our privacy. thankfully your brother will be yours!
along the health care lines.....besides wanting to see the profit taken out of health care and a return to a more simplistic approach, i also want to see a complete acceptance of the "alternative" practices. while surgery is sometimes the only option, there are so many other practices that can heal physical ailments. massage therapy, for me, has been the best form of medicine in that it returns me to a state of balance and relaxation--which is necessary to avoid illness to begin with. i just can't afford to do it as much as i would like. again--we need health insurance that is affordable and that will cover these things.
i've mentioned our puppy dog. i used to feed her only dog food. the two vets i had taken her to were against "human" food. well, since i began feeding her a primarily "human" food diet--cooked turkey, beef and chicken along with peas, carrots, potatoes and whole grains--her flea problem has disappeared. she's even happier which is a no brainer--this food tastes better! we've also greatly reduced the vaccination schedule. my last dog died at 10--early for her size. i always felt inside it was due to yearly vaccinations and strict processed food diet, so with our current baby, i wanted to do things differently. i have a book written by a veterinarian--holistic health care for dogs and cats--and he is adamantly opposed to the processed food diets and the standard vac. routine. i would like to find a vet like him in the area--one that didn't charge $30-$40 just to walk inside the door! i have been concerned about returning to her former vet considering the changes i have made. i don't want to be accused of being neglectful or uninformed.
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