(no subject)
So, where have I been? Freezing in Middletown NY.
Power Company: "Fix your thermostat before we can turn on heat."
Me: "It works just fine, see?"
Power Company: "It needs to -look- fixed, which requires a rewire to make sure. Cost: $5000."
Me: "............."
So I go up to the apartment of the Super of the building to get things sorted out.
Vacant. Room's completely empty, freshly hosed down. Door's wide open, some no-english-speaking immigrant is working on the door frame. From what I could make out of the monkeyspeak, the super up and quit. No one knows where he is and his phone is disconnected.
I'm in a room with no heat, no insulation, and tempratures rapidly dropping for the winter months. I have a shit heater that can't compensate because of no insulation and which will fry itself if I turn it on high due to poor quality construction (my father certainly got what he paid for...) Oh, and my food stamps and government aid was revoked. As my caseworker put it, it's "because of hostile politics in Albany. All my allies that got stuff done for us have been kicked out and backdoors closed. My hands are tied, we're fucked."
Essentially the landlord lied to us saying the apartment was ready when it was nowhere near, and bait and switched the wording so it'd be on the super's shoulders to repair shit so that he wouldn't have to. I try to contact him but he's all "don't call me don't call me" (about the only three english words he speaks) because he thinks the super is still around and refuses to believe he'd up and quit. I don't want to get into an argument or evicted yet because I have no backup plan and this landlord looks like he's about to up and quit himself, which means he'd evict everyone in the building...
Edited to add: Well, maybe I have one emergency route *eyes a lion* But that's a real worst case scenario and I'm exploring all other options at least three times first. Moving -there- would remove my disability aid benefits (crossing state lines)
Power Company: "Fix your thermostat before we can turn on heat."
Me: "It works just fine, see?"
Power Company: "It needs to -look- fixed, which requires a rewire to make sure. Cost: $5000."
Me: "............."
So I go up to the apartment of the Super of the building to get things sorted out.
Vacant. Room's completely empty, freshly hosed down. Door's wide open, some no-english-speaking immigrant is working on the door frame. From what I could make out of the monkeyspeak, the super up and quit. No one knows where he is and his phone is disconnected.
I'm in a room with no heat, no insulation, and tempratures rapidly dropping for the winter months. I have a shit heater that can't compensate because of no insulation and which will fry itself if I turn it on high due to poor quality construction (my father certainly got what he paid for...) Oh, and my food stamps and government aid was revoked. As my caseworker put it, it's "because of hostile politics in Albany. All my allies that got stuff done for us have been kicked out and backdoors closed. My hands are tied, we're fucked."
Essentially the landlord lied to us saying the apartment was ready when it was nowhere near, and bait and switched the wording so it'd be on the super's shoulders to repair shit so that he wouldn't have to. I try to contact him but he's all "don't call me don't call me" (about the only three english words he speaks) because he thinks the super is still around and refuses to believe he'd up and quit. I don't want to get into an argument or evicted yet because I have no backup plan and this landlord looks like he's about to up and quit himself, which means he'd evict everyone in the building...
Edited to add: Well, maybe I have one emergency route *eyes a lion* But that's a real worst case scenario and I'm exploring all other options at least three times first. Moving -there- would remove my disability aid benefits (crossing state lines)