How to move: Switch landladies, stay in same building, move down one flight of stairs.
I have somewhere to live in a few days now, and it's very easy - I'm moving downstairs, into the flat the woman downstairs bought off Cathy, and we bonded over how rubbish Cathy is. Apparently, when this woman (Vanda) bought it, Cathy had done something like try and clean the bath with caustic soda, which as Vanda said "made it look like someone had tried to eat it." Cathy covered this over with towels, the surveyor didn't notice, Cathy is a complete cow. Anyway, the flat downstairs- is much better even that our flat now. Because when we moved in, we thought it looks nice, but you know, we didn't know nothing worked and Cathy would be such a nightmare, and it is a bit clinical...I think we just didn't notice at first after living in halls. Vanda used to live downstairs when someone else was renting this flat, and it was just them in the block, so they left their doors open and wandered in and out. She came up to see our flat, and the rubbish proportioning was explained...apparently, they took half of it out to make entrance for the flat they built up in the roof. Apparently, my room used to be the bathroom. This will make sense later, I'll take some pictures of the flat and put them up, when you see the size of the bathroom now...
Anyway, flat downstairs: So, so so nice. She's leaving anything we want; she's moved back in with her mum (messy divorce). She even offered us linen?!? It's just more...homey. And sized properly. The bathroom downstairs is three times the size, and has a window and everything, instead of just lights that randomly flicker on and off when they feel like it. And she's got like, really nice old heavy wardrobes and all, and, the bathroom and fitted within the next week kitchen are brand new, along with the appliances. And- she is the funniest landlady ever. She's never rented before apparently, so she hasn't got a clue and just told us to do whatever:
Us: What about a contract? - Vanda: Oh, just write whatever you want and I'll sign it.
Us: How much rent? Vanda: How much you paying now? We told her, and she said oh, no, and wants less.
Us: Deposit? - Vanda: Oh I can't be bothered, you've lived here long enough and not destroyed it, I lived under you for a few months so I'd know, and I'm not precious about it, I want you to feel like it's home...you know, don't think "oh my god we've burnt the carpet", just tell me and I'll deal with it, it doesn't matter. Same with anything you break and stuff.
Us: Yeah, we won't have wild raucous parties...
Vanda: No, no! This flat was like paradise when I was here and I still love it just too many memories, I want you to have fun too, please have parties in it the flat deserves it, the noise travels less because I did things to soundproof this one, and I can't believe it's only single glazed upstairs, this is double so that'll stop a lot of noise...no, have dinner parties, random student parties, burn the carpet and enjoy yourselves in it, I like you girls.
Us: Er....ok.
Best. Landlady. Ever. She was also just generally mad, she was going on about my desk when we brought her into ours, and how she found one just like it and don't I love it, and how she always felt like on our floor looking out of the window she'd fall out and wanted to skirt round the walls (er, flat downstairs has a balcony, this one has a window...how would she fall?!?) and she doesn't care how long we take it for, or anything really, and if the kitchen still isn't fitted by when we move in next week (she keeps being messed around. She designed one then they wouldn't deliver or something; we know this is true, we watched her arguing with a truck driver b/c he couldn't get in the gate) she said we can't possibly pay her rent until it's done. And you know, we could easily live seeing as we have a microwave and could just eat crap uni food until it's done. We mostly needed somewhere to live. She also went on about a beautiful mirror she had on this wall, but then she dropped it, broke it, and "nearly severed" her finger. Um. Cathy randomly showed up wanting something, and obviously, her assumption was I can fuck you around as much as I want b/c I know I've left you in a difficult situation so you've got nowhere to go. Obviously, she thought right, so I'll say I'm kicking them out then in case I sell it, and if I don't, they'll have to stay paying me rent. So, she just casually said "Oh, so I haven't sold the flat so I guess you're staying." "No, actually, we're moving downstairs". "What?!? Oh...what, into Vandas? Why?" So.many.reasons. Did she seriously think we'd carry on putting up with her shit? I haven't met someone I dislike so much in so long. And she comes from Romford, not many good things are associated with there in my life. I'm just sick of her - ask her one thing, which we have hardly done (we gave up), but when we were moving in, it was ask her to do one thing she should have anyway, and you get a long stream of "how it isn't my fault". You're the landlady, yes it is. Also, we're leaving the flat cleaner than when we moved in, since she hadn't bothered, so she can fuck herself if she thinks she's getting out of giving us the deposit back after everything that's happened. The flat hasn't even had an offer. She hadn't sold it in the 8 months between tenants when we moved in out of last minute desperation (remember, how we ignored it and went surfing instead?). So at least we know we won't get noise from upstairs ;)
I want to move into the new flat now. So does gem. Quite funny, b/c we were all sad and didn't want to leave, but because we're still together, the flat is better we're going to, and we're in the same building, it's just...good. I'm tired of this place. 7 days and I get a normal sized bedroom back instead of a fucking cupboard. And it's all pretty, and I get to have a double bed again. Going home to the king sized has been killing me. Also, I can sleep better now. A bit of the overwhelming stress has been solved, so I'm not up thinking about hanging myself at 4am. Things are more bearable.
Anyway, flat downstairs: So, so so nice. She's leaving anything we want; she's moved back in with her mum (messy divorce). She even offered us linen?!? It's just more...homey. And sized properly. The bathroom downstairs is three times the size, and has a window and everything, instead of just lights that randomly flicker on and off when they feel like it. And she's got like, really nice old heavy wardrobes and all, and, the bathroom and fitted within the next week kitchen are brand new, along with the appliances. And- she is the funniest landlady ever. She's never rented before apparently, so she hasn't got a clue and just told us to do whatever:
Us: What about a contract? - Vanda: Oh, just write whatever you want and I'll sign it.
Us: How much rent? Vanda: How much you paying now? We told her, and she said oh, no, and wants less.
Us: Deposit? - Vanda: Oh I can't be bothered, you've lived here long enough and not destroyed it, I lived under you for a few months so I'd know, and I'm not precious about it, I want you to feel like it's home...you know, don't think "oh my god we've burnt the carpet", just tell me and I'll deal with it, it doesn't matter. Same with anything you break and stuff.
Us: Yeah, we won't have wild raucous parties...
Vanda: No, no! This flat was like paradise when I was here and I still love it just too many memories, I want you to have fun too, please have parties in it the flat deserves it, the noise travels less because I did things to soundproof this one, and I can't believe it's only single glazed upstairs, this is double so that'll stop a lot of noise...no, have dinner parties, random student parties, burn the carpet and enjoy yourselves in it, I like you girls.
Us: Er....ok.
Best. Landlady. Ever. She was also just generally mad, she was going on about my desk when we brought her into ours, and how she found one just like it and don't I love it, and how she always felt like on our floor looking out of the window she'd fall out and wanted to skirt round the walls (er, flat downstairs has a balcony, this one has a window...how would she fall?!?) and she doesn't care how long we take it for, or anything really, and if the kitchen still isn't fitted by when we move in next week (she keeps being messed around. She designed one then they wouldn't deliver or something; we know this is true, we watched her arguing with a truck driver b/c he couldn't get in the gate) she said we can't possibly pay her rent until it's done. And you know, we could easily live seeing as we have a microwave and could just eat crap uni food until it's done. We mostly needed somewhere to live. She also went on about a beautiful mirror she had on this wall, but then she dropped it, broke it, and "nearly severed" her finger. Um. Cathy randomly showed up wanting something, and obviously, her assumption was I can fuck you around as much as I want b/c I know I've left you in a difficult situation so you've got nowhere to go. Obviously, she thought right, so I'll say I'm kicking them out then in case I sell it, and if I don't, they'll have to stay paying me rent. So, she just casually said "Oh, so I haven't sold the flat so I guess you're staying." "No, actually, we're moving downstairs". "What?!? Oh...what, into Vandas? Why?" So.many.reasons. Did she seriously think we'd carry on putting up with her shit? I haven't met someone I dislike so much in so long. And she comes from Romford, not many good things are associated with there in my life. I'm just sick of her - ask her one thing, which we have hardly done (we gave up), but when we were moving in, it was ask her to do one thing she should have anyway, and you get a long stream of "how it isn't my fault". You're the landlady, yes it is. Also, we're leaving the flat cleaner than when we moved in, since she hadn't bothered, so she can fuck herself if she thinks she's getting out of giving us the deposit back after everything that's happened. The flat hasn't even had an offer. She hadn't sold it in the 8 months between tenants when we moved in out of last minute desperation (remember, how we ignored it and went surfing instead?). So at least we know we won't get noise from upstairs ;)
I want to move into the new flat now. So does gem. Quite funny, b/c we were all sad and didn't want to leave, but because we're still together, the flat is better we're going to, and we're in the same building, it's just...good. I'm tired of this place. 7 days and I get a normal sized bedroom back instead of a fucking cupboard. And it's all pretty, and I get to have a double bed again. Going home to the king sized has been killing me. Also, I can sleep better now. A bit of the overwhelming stress has been solved, so I'm not up thinking about hanging myself at 4am. Things are more bearable.