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When I was in school in NM, my housemate and I had to "check out" from the place we were renting separately. I meet with the landlord one morning. He slammed me against the wall, attempted to kiss me, and started trying to grope anything he could grope. I shoved back at him, said clearly no. He then told me he'd give me all my deposit back if I was willing to--- Yeah, NOPE. I desperately needed that deposit but not THAT much. I was disgusted, felt violated, and should have reported it to the police. I did, however, warn my housemate to drag her bf along when she moved out. Bf didn't want to go, so she went alone. Yeah, he did the same thing to her. At the advice of an older and wiser friend who had information we did not, we called the landlord, told him we both expected our deposits back or we'd be calling his wife. What the older friend had told me was that the $ in the marriage was hers, and even community property wouldn't have gotten him much of it.
Leaving aside that nasty event, dh and I combined have had more problems with property managers in Bellingham in the three years Perry has been renting than we did in all our years (counting, that would be... about 20 years, and 8 landlords). So eh, aside from the asshole above, neither of us had ever had any major gripes with landlords.
Perry: rental year one, they sent everyone to collections by mistake, apologized about it, to be fair, but come ON. (It was covid. Instead of sending everyone a bill with the final amount owed after clean up etc fees, they sent everything to collections. Nobody got a bill. People were pissed.)
Perry: rental year two, the weird kicking everyone out 5 days before the end of the month, the parking fees, which were clearly detailed, but she decided to change with no warning, despite everyone having a written copy. Parking permits were on a month-to-month basis, detailed in the lease. At some point, she decided they "go with the lease" and had to be paid as long as the lease was in effect. She demanded payment after Perry (and Molly) had informed her they were moving out and didn't need parking June/July/August (obviously, we continued to pay rent on an emtpy of kid appartment). Sigh. Apparently, when faced with that change of policy, some unknown tenant either bought or found a destroyed junker car and left it the garage all summer. So, just $120, but annoying. What was worse was the fact that she refused to back the kids up when they tried to call the police because there was an unhoused guy living in the back of the garage, who left needles etc around behind the cars, as well as other biological offerings. Remember both Perry and Molly were leaving at 4:15AM and it was a bit creepy and gross for them.
Perry and Linnea this year: we paid the deposits. We paid all the fees. We paid the first month rental as per the lease. It's due on the 1st of the month, we paid on the 24th via bank transfer, using the pay your rent button on their website. We have receipts. Their account is up to date. Molly paid her portion of the rent via cashier's check yesterday morning. The account shows everything paid. Yesterday afternoon when Perry was sleeping off his early morning dip in the Montlake Cut, another text came in, saying they could not move in until the 4th because Perry and Linnea had paid via bank transfer (ie using the 'pay your rent' portal) and they don't credit those for 10 whole days, meaning they won't get access until 4 Sept, but we could, of course, come over tomorrow (ie today) with a cashier's check. I found out about this when Molly texted me at about midnight. Perry had completely missed it, having slept through most of the afternoon and evening, and Linnea? who knows. The management company, contacted this morning, says that policy was sent out in an email on 20 August, aka the last day to pay via their website, if I'm reading correctly. There is NO indication of that 10-day policy on the website. That policy is not in the lease. It was just mentioned, in passing, at the bottom what looked like a routine email. And how were we supposed to know there was a problem, since nothing on our account showed ANY problem, EVER, until the text sent at (just checked the copy of the text Molly sent me) 4:39PM yesterday. Late last night, (again, from Molly, my two were LONG asleep) they got a text saying they would not be able to move in until noon because the cleaning staff were running late. Then the kids get a text saying the apartment is ready. Finally, Perry got ahold of the actual person who deals directly with that apartment, rather than the "it takes 10 days to clear payments made via the 'pay your rent' button the website" person. He points out the fact that the account shows nothing due, they have the money, the lease says nothing about this and-- Oh, sorry, let me send you the codes for the door right away. UGH. What a fucking waste of a morning, reading through the lease AGAIN, trying to reach people etc.
I fault the kids for not noticing the last paragraph of a long email which contained mostly information that was either irrelevant or that they already had. I fault the management company AND the property manager for everything else, LOL.
Also, now I understand why there was so much whining about "Bellingham landlords" on the grad student email lists!
Leaving aside that nasty event, dh and I combined have had more problems with property managers in Bellingham in the three years Perry has been renting than we did in all our years (counting, that would be... about 20 years, and 8 landlords). So eh, aside from the asshole above, neither of us had ever had any major gripes with landlords.
Perry: rental year one, they sent everyone to collections by mistake, apologized about it, to be fair, but come ON. (It was covid. Instead of sending everyone a bill with the final amount owed after clean up etc fees, they sent everything to collections. Nobody got a bill. People were pissed.)
Perry: rental year two, the weird kicking everyone out 5 days before the end of the month, the parking fees, which were clearly detailed, but she decided to change with no warning, despite everyone having a written copy. Parking permits were on a month-to-month basis, detailed in the lease. At some point, she decided they "go with the lease" and had to be paid as long as the lease was in effect. She demanded payment after Perry (and Molly) had informed her they were moving out and didn't need parking June/July/August (obviously, we continued to pay rent on an emtpy of kid appartment). Sigh. Apparently, when faced with that change of policy, some unknown tenant either bought or found a destroyed junker car and left it the garage all summer. So, just $120, but annoying. What was worse was the fact that she refused to back the kids up when they tried to call the police because there was an unhoused guy living in the back of the garage, who left needles etc around behind the cars, as well as other biological offerings. Remember both Perry and Molly were leaving at 4:15AM and it was a bit creepy and gross for them.
Perry and Linnea this year: we paid the deposits. We paid all the fees. We paid the first month rental as per the lease. It's due on the 1st of the month, we paid on the 24th via bank transfer, using the pay your rent button on their website. We have receipts. Their account is up to date. Molly paid her portion of the rent via cashier's check yesterday morning. The account shows everything paid. Yesterday afternoon when Perry was sleeping off his early morning dip in the Montlake Cut, another text came in, saying they could not move in until the 4th because Perry and Linnea had paid via bank transfer (ie using the 'pay your rent' portal) and they don't credit those for 10 whole days, meaning they won't get access until 4 Sept, but we could, of course, come over tomorrow (ie today) with a cashier's check. I found out about this when Molly texted me at about midnight. Perry had completely missed it, having slept through most of the afternoon and evening, and Linnea? who knows. The management company, contacted this morning, says that policy was sent out in an email on 20 August, aka the last day to pay via their website, if I'm reading correctly. There is NO indication of that 10-day policy on the website. That policy is not in the lease. It was just mentioned, in passing, at the bottom what looked like a routine email. And how were we supposed to know there was a problem, since nothing on our account showed ANY problem, EVER, until the text sent at (just checked the copy of the text Molly sent me) 4:39PM yesterday. Late last night, (again, from Molly, my two were LONG asleep) they got a text saying they would not be able to move in until noon because the cleaning staff were running late. Then the kids get a text saying the apartment is ready. Finally, Perry got ahold of the actual person who deals directly with that apartment, rather than the "it takes 10 days to clear payments made via the 'pay your rent' button the website" person. He points out the fact that the account shows nothing due, they have the money, the lease says nothing about this and-- Oh, sorry, let me send you the codes for the door right away. UGH. What a fucking waste of a morning, reading through the lease AGAIN, trying to reach people etc.
I fault the kids for not noticing the last paragraph of a long email which contained mostly information that was either irrelevant or that they already had. I fault the management company AND the property manager for everything else, LOL.
Also, now I understand why there was so much whining about "Bellingham landlords" on the grad student email lists!
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