My Crazy Landlady Gets the Riot Act... (part 2)
Well this morning I start hearing hammering right at 9am; it sounded like it was inside, but I hadn't heard anyone come in. I actually had hung a windchime on the door closest to my room, which is the door usually used by everyone, even CL and FS, but the other front door is on the other side of the house and I wouldn't hear that.
So I check out what's going on; there's a pickup truck and a small compact car parked in the driveway, and two guys taking down the gutters.
I remember that CL had mused some months ago about having the gutters taken off; this house is weird, it was built by her father apparantly without any sane architectural guidance. The roof has eaves that are almost two feet deep, and apparantly that was thought sufficient to direct rain and snowmelt onto grass/plantings, so there are no gutters on the house. Except gutters HAD been installed on the front of the house, and along the side of the garage, which is where the walkway to the door that I and everyone else uses is.
So now in the winter rain and snowmelt can drip off the eaves and cause the walkway to ice up. Hope CL has homeowner's insurance paid up on this place! :-P
At 9:40 FS calls me to tell me to expect workmen here today; I tell her that they are already here. That is all she tells me.
But not for one moment did I believe that they'd schedule work to be done and not show up here themselves. Especially when more and MORE workmen showed up and started doing other stuff.
Sure enough, FS shows up just before 1pm, but she stays outside talking to the workmen. I suspect that she at least HAS checked out the law, and is playing the role of "I'm staying out of all of this"...
Which is bullshit. She didn't sign the lease with me, but her name's on the eviction papers along with her sister, CL, so FS is as involved in all of it as her sister.
Who shows up sometime after 1pm; I hear voices in the house, but never heard the windchimes on the door, so I suspect that they saw that I'd hung them on the door (which is all glass) and came in by the other door. Now if you're so convinced you have a perfect legal right to enter these premises whenever you want, why would you SNEAK in?
So I go out to confront them. CL is arguing with FS about something. CL is in another room, FS is in the kitchen. Right after their father died, when CL was still on good terms with me, she told me the whole soap opera regarding what happened when their mother died a few years ago, apparantly FS had basically embezzelled money from Mom, also got herself named as executrix of Mom's estate, and CL ended up taking FS to court to fight over their mother's estate.
I suspect that if they didn't have ME to concentrate on, that they'd be going hammer and tongs at each this time around, too.
The copy of the statutes that I'd highlighted were still on the dining table. I hold it out to FS and ask if she's read it, and she demurs (never really admitted if she'd read it or not) and says that I should talk to her sister.
Who pops out of their father's room and tells me she's read it but it doesn't apply to her, because of all the reasons she had harangued about the week before. I don't get into an argument with her, just turned on my heels and headed back to my bedroom to call the police.
But she nips at my heels like a rabid terrier, going on about me, the tenant, needing to allow "reasonable access" to the landlord, but still refusing to acknowledge that she needs to give me reasonable notice regarding such access. She follows me all the way to my bedroom, ending with:
"I'm having someone come here to check out the wiring, we'll be needing access to your room and your bathroom!"
I tell her they can wait until I move, to which she asks, "When are you moving?"
"When I find a place to move to," I answered.
So she gets all rabid terrier again and hysterically yaps that she won't insist on access today, but that she WILL be having someone come to look at the fan in the bathroom and this gawdawful industrial fluourescent light fixture in my room.
Neither of which are exhibiting any problems of any kind. This is not a case of an emergency. I don't even know WHAT she has in mind, but whatever it is can wait until I move.
I close my bedroom door in her face, and then I called the local police. Explained what the situation was, and was surprised that it only took them a half hour to send an officer out.
Long enough for me to get my copy of my lease, and what rent receipts I have on hand ready to show if the officer asked.
He talks to CL and FS first; I'm sitting out in my hallway and can hear most of it, but moved closer to hear better, without being seen.
I can hear the officer explaining to CL what the law is (basically what I put in my first post), and CL actually argues with him that he's wrong! That I only rent a bedroom and bathroom, I don't rent the whole house, so that gives her and her sister the right to enter whenever they want, yada yada yada.
The officer gives up trying to explain in reasonable terms to her what the law is, and says he's going to talk to me.
So we have a huddle in the alcove outside my bedroom; I explained to him that I was being evicted, and ever since CL started the eviction was when she'd started harassing me with showing up unannounced, and not for any emergency reasons. I tell him that she shows up to water plants and do laundry. He asks where she lives, and I tell him what town, which is on the other side of the state, more than an hour away...quite a hike just to water plants and do laundry. I tell him that FS lives in another town, but that's only marginally closer, perhaps 35 to 40 minutes away.
The officer asks if I have a copy of the lease, and I was happy that I'd had the foresight to stick it in my pocket. He reads it and tells me to wait there while he goes back to talk to them.
Well I didn't wait there, I snuck closer to hear what was being said.
And the cop basically read them the riot act. Actually, FS wasn't saying a word, it was CL still yapping like a rabid terrier.
CL still can't accept that she has no right to just pop in whenever she wants without any notice. She keeps going on that because I only "share" the living room and kitchen, that makes her half a tenant with the right to enter when she pleases with no notice.
The cop tells her that that is not the law. That the court will not see it her way. That if she continues to do so, she can be arrested. The cop basically is begging her to see reason, telling her she's only exacerbating the situation and making it worse if she continues to show up unannounced. CL says that if need be she will move into this house.
He explains what the law is regarding tenants' rights, and basically tells her that the courts are rather more sympathetic to tenants than to landlords. CL counters that since it's only a month-to-month tenancy that I should have been gone in 30 days.
The cop tries to explain to her what THAT law entails, telling her that the courts give tenants reasonable time to look for a new place, and since I'm unemployed the court can give me UP TO SIX MONTHS!
CL still argues with him! Still tells him that he is wrong! Tells him that *I* am the one who's been nasty and unreasonable! lol
The cop finally stresses not only can I have her arrested, but points out the clause in the statute where I can sue her for harassment. THAT gets FS to finally pipe up. She stays all calm and sweet and tells her sister to let the court settle it.
I don't trust FS as far as I could throw her; she's one of those babes who act like butter wouldn't melt in their mouth, but who's really a super bitch. At least her CL sister openly displays her bitchiness.
They both argue that they need to have access to the house to start divvying up their father's belonging; CL mentions taking pictures, I'm not sure what for, because whatever was said before that was mumbled. I suspect that she said something about me stealing or vandalizing stuff, because later when the cop came back to talk to me he said something about not taking anything that doesn't belong to me.
The cop ends it with them by saying that if I want them to leave at that moment, they will have to leave at that moment. They complain that they're eating lunch and still have laundry.
The cop comes to me and asks if they can stay until the laundry is done; I tell him I'd really like them out ASAP, and if it's just a matter of whatever they'd just washed needing to be thrown into the dryer, that *I* would take it out and put it away. The cop explains that apparantly whatever they were washing they wanted to take with them. So I agree to let them stay until it was dry, but no longer than an hour.
CL comes over and says that they will need "reasonable access" for the work they have planned, also to sort thru their father's things. The cop is right there. I tell CL that she's had since her father died at the end of August to sort thru his things. I tell the cop that the day after the father died -- which was the day Hurricane Irene was going to hit us -- that CL and FS were there taking things out. That one or both of them showed up at least once a week, if not twice, from the first week of September thru the end of October, to "take inventory" and "sort thru" their father's belongings. At this point I say they can wait until I move to do any more "inventory" or "sorting". That "reasonable access" for that purpose means once a month, and I'm counting today as January's "reasonable access".
Ditto any work; nothing's an emergency, in fact I'd overheard both CL and FS tell the cop that they want to turn this place into a "business". Have no idea what sort of business they have in mind, altho CL at one time mused she'd like to run it as a B&B.
This place is a dump; it wasn't built well when it was new, and little to no maintenance has been done on it in a couple of decades. This is NOT a resort area, I don't know why she thinks anyone would be interested in renting it as a B&B.
Whatever. None of that is an emergency, gives her no right to traipse in here, or bring workmen around because they're finally getting around to deferred maintenance.
Anyway, I make it emphatically known to the cop -- and CL and FS were peering around the corner, listening -- that if CL and FS weren't gone in exactly an hour that I was going to be calling the police again and have them arrested.
The cop tells me he thinks I'm being reasonable, to just stay in my room for the next hour, and then he goes and tells CL and FS just that -- that they have exactly an hour, and that they CAN be arrested if they don't leave by then.
I think they may have left earlier, because I noticed it got really quiet, both inside and out, about 45 minutes later. I waited for 60 minutes exactly, and when I checked not only were CL and FS gone, but all the workmen also, altho a ladder's laying next to the driveway, and what looks to be either siding or the gutters are laying in the center island, so I guess they're going to be back tomorrow.
The cop gave me his name, but when I mentioned about getting a copy of his report, because Legal Aid said to do that, he said that since it wasn't considered a criminal matter that no report was required to be filed. He said that I could go to the station house and get a copy of the incident book showing that I'd called today, and the reason why I called, so I am definitely going to do that because I'm definitely going to be suing CL and her FS for harassment!
And on a more upbeat note, when I came back into my room after checking that CL and FS were gone, and checking that they hadn't messed with any of my food or things in the kitchen, there was a message waiting for me on my phone. From an employment agency regarding a position I'd applied for on Craigslist.
I call the agency back, and the guy talks to me for awhile and then says that while it sounds like I'd be a good match for the part-time data entry position I'd applied for, that I sounded like I'd be a better match for a full-time CSR position they have available that's a temp-to-perm opening. He wants me to call him back tomorrow so that we can set up an appointment for me to come in later this week to register with them.
So cross your fingers and toes and any other body part you can cross, and send me good vibes/karma/prayers for the job, and to get thru this mess regarding my crazy landlady! :-o
So I check out what's going on; there's a pickup truck and a small compact car parked in the driveway, and two guys taking down the gutters.
I remember that CL had mused some months ago about having the gutters taken off; this house is weird, it was built by her father apparantly without any sane architectural guidance. The roof has eaves that are almost two feet deep, and apparantly that was thought sufficient to direct rain and snowmelt onto grass/plantings, so there are no gutters on the house. Except gutters HAD been installed on the front of the house, and along the side of the garage, which is where the walkway to the door that I and everyone else uses is.
So now in the winter rain and snowmelt can drip off the eaves and cause the walkway to ice up. Hope CL has homeowner's insurance paid up on this place! :-P
At 9:40 FS calls me to tell me to expect workmen here today; I tell her that they are already here. That is all she tells me.
But not for one moment did I believe that they'd schedule work to be done and not show up here themselves. Especially when more and MORE workmen showed up and started doing other stuff.
Sure enough, FS shows up just before 1pm, but she stays outside talking to the workmen. I suspect that she at least HAS checked out the law, and is playing the role of "I'm staying out of all of this"...
Which is bullshit. She didn't sign the lease with me, but her name's on the eviction papers along with her sister, CL, so FS is as involved in all of it as her sister.
Who shows up sometime after 1pm; I hear voices in the house, but never heard the windchimes on the door, so I suspect that they saw that I'd hung them on the door (which is all glass) and came in by the other door. Now if you're so convinced you have a perfect legal right to enter these premises whenever you want, why would you SNEAK in?
So I go out to confront them. CL is arguing with FS about something. CL is in another room, FS is in the kitchen. Right after their father died, when CL was still on good terms with me, she told me the whole soap opera regarding what happened when their mother died a few years ago, apparantly FS had basically embezzelled money from Mom, also got herself named as executrix of Mom's estate, and CL ended up taking FS to court to fight over their mother's estate.
I suspect that if they didn't have ME to concentrate on, that they'd be going hammer and tongs at each this time around, too.
The copy of the statutes that I'd highlighted were still on the dining table. I hold it out to FS and ask if she's read it, and she demurs (never really admitted if she'd read it or not) and says that I should talk to her sister.
Who pops out of their father's room and tells me she's read it but it doesn't apply to her, because of all the reasons she had harangued about the week before. I don't get into an argument with her, just turned on my heels and headed back to my bedroom to call the police.
But she nips at my heels like a rabid terrier, going on about me, the tenant, needing to allow "reasonable access" to the landlord, but still refusing to acknowledge that she needs to give me reasonable notice regarding such access. She follows me all the way to my bedroom, ending with:
"I'm having someone come here to check out the wiring, we'll be needing access to your room and your bathroom!"
I tell her they can wait until I move, to which she asks, "When are you moving?"
"When I find a place to move to," I answered.
So she gets all rabid terrier again and hysterically yaps that she won't insist on access today, but that she WILL be having someone come to look at the fan in the bathroom and this gawdawful industrial fluourescent light fixture in my room.
Neither of which are exhibiting any problems of any kind. This is not a case of an emergency. I don't even know WHAT she has in mind, but whatever it is can wait until I move.
I close my bedroom door in her face, and then I called the local police. Explained what the situation was, and was surprised that it only took them a half hour to send an officer out.
Long enough for me to get my copy of my lease, and what rent receipts I have on hand ready to show if the officer asked.
He talks to CL and FS first; I'm sitting out in my hallway and can hear most of it, but moved closer to hear better, without being seen.
I can hear the officer explaining to CL what the law is (basically what I put in my first post), and CL actually argues with him that he's wrong! That I only rent a bedroom and bathroom, I don't rent the whole house, so that gives her and her sister the right to enter whenever they want, yada yada yada.
The officer gives up trying to explain in reasonable terms to her what the law is, and says he's going to talk to me.
So we have a huddle in the alcove outside my bedroom; I explained to him that I was being evicted, and ever since CL started the eviction was when she'd started harassing me with showing up unannounced, and not for any emergency reasons. I tell him that she shows up to water plants and do laundry. He asks where she lives, and I tell him what town, which is on the other side of the state, more than an hour away...quite a hike just to water plants and do laundry. I tell him that FS lives in another town, but that's only marginally closer, perhaps 35 to 40 minutes away.
The officer asks if I have a copy of the lease, and I was happy that I'd had the foresight to stick it in my pocket. He reads it and tells me to wait there while he goes back to talk to them.
Well I didn't wait there, I snuck closer to hear what was being said.
And the cop basically read them the riot act. Actually, FS wasn't saying a word, it was CL still yapping like a rabid terrier.
CL still can't accept that she has no right to just pop in whenever she wants without any notice. She keeps going on that because I only "share" the living room and kitchen, that makes her half a tenant with the right to enter when she pleases with no notice.
The cop tells her that that is not the law. That the court will not see it her way. That if she continues to do so, she can be arrested. The cop basically is begging her to see reason, telling her she's only exacerbating the situation and making it worse if she continues to show up unannounced. CL says that if need be she will move into this house.
He explains what the law is regarding tenants' rights, and basically tells her that the courts are rather more sympathetic to tenants than to landlords. CL counters that since it's only a month-to-month tenancy that I should have been gone in 30 days.
The cop tries to explain to her what THAT law entails, telling her that the courts give tenants reasonable time to look for a new place, and since I'm unemployed the court can give me UP TO SIX MONTHS!
CL still argues with him! Still tells him that he is wrong! Tells him that *I* am the one who's been nasty and unreasonable! lol
The cop finally stresses not only can I have her arrested, but points out the clause in the statute where I can sue her for harassment. THAT gets FS to finally pipe up. She stays all calm and sweet and tells her sister to let the court settle it.
I don't trust FS as far as I could throw her; she's one of those babes who act like butter wouldn't melt in their mouth, but who's really a super bitch. At least her CL sister openly displays her bitchiness.
They both argue that they need to have access to the house to start divvying up their father's belonging; CL mentions taking pictures, I'm not sure what for, because whatever was said before that was mumbled. I suspect that she said something about me stealing or vandalizing stuff, because later when the cop came back to talk to me he said something about not taking anything that doesn't belong to me.
The cop ends it with them by saying that if I want them to leave at that moment, they will have to leave at that moment. They complain that they're eating lunch and still have laundry.
The cop comes to me and asks if they can stay until the laundry is done; I tell him I'd really like them out ASAP, and if it's just a matter of whatever they'd just washed needing to be thrown into the dryer, that *I* would take it out and put it away. The cop explains that apparantly whatever they were washing they wanted to take with them. So I agree to let them stay until it was dry, but no longer than an hour.
CL comes over and says that they will need "reasonable access" for the work they have planned, also to sort thru their father's things. The cop is right there. I tell CL that she's had since her father died at the end of August to sort thru his things. I tell the cop that the day after the father died -- which was the day Hurricane Irene was going to hit us -- that CL and FS were there taking things out. That one or both of them showed up at least once a week, if not twice, from the first week of September thru the end of October, to "take inventory" and "sort thru" their father's belongings. At this point I say they can wait until I move to do any more "inventory" or "sorting". That "reasonable access" for that purpose means once a month, and I'm counting today as January's "reasonable access".
Ditto any work; nothing's an emergency, in fact I'd overheard both CL and FS tell the cop that they want to turn this place into a "business". Have no idea what sort of business they have in mind, altho CL at one time mused she'd like to run it as a B&B.
This place is a dump; it wasn't built well when it was new, and little to no maintenance has been done on it in a couple of decades. This is NOT a resort area, I don't know why she thinks anyone would be interested in renting it as a B&B.
Whatever. None of that is an emergency, gives her no right to traipse in here, or bring workmen around because they're finally getting around to deferred maintenance.
Anyway, I make it emphatically known to the cop -- and CL and FS were peering around the corner, listening -- that if CL and FS weren't gone in exactly an hour that I was going to be calling the police again and have them arrested.
The cop tells me he thinks I'm being reasonable, to just stay in my room for the next hour, and then he goes and tells CL and FS just that -- that they have exactly an hour, and that they CAN be arrested if they don't leave by then.
I think they may have left earlier, because I noticed it got really quiet, both inside and out, about 45 minutes later. I waited for 60 minutes exactly, and when I checked not only were CL and FS gone, but all the workmen also, altho a ladder's laying next to the driveway, and what looks to be either siding or the gutters are laying in the center island, so I guess they're going to be back tomorrow.
The cop gave me his name, but when I mentioned about getting a copy of his report, because Legal Aid said to do that, he said that since it wasn't considered a criminal matter that no report was required to be filed. He said that I could go to the station house and get a copy of the incident book showing that I'd called today, and the reason why I called, so I am definitely going to do that because I'm definitely going to be suing CL and her FS for harassment!
And on a more upbeat note, when I came back into my room after checking that CL and FS were gone, and checking that they hadn't messed with any of my food or things in the kitchen, there was a message waiting for me on my phone. From an employment agency regarding a position I'd applied for on Craigslist.
I call the agency back, and the guy talks to me for awhile and then says that while it sounds like I'd be a good match for the part-time data entry position I'd applied for, that I sounded like I'd be a better match for a full-time CSR position they have available that's a temp-to-perm opening. He wants me to call him back tomorrow so that we can set up an appointment for me to come in later this week to register with them.
So cross your fingers and toes and any other body part you can cross, and send me good vibes/karma/prayers for the job, and to get thru this mess regarding my crazy landlady! :-o