JAL3
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2009
- Messages
- 14,333
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I'm venting a bit here.
When I got married in 2006, my wife wanted to keep her old house and use it as a rental property. Having managed lots of them, I was dubious about the profitability and knew full well what a hassle that can be but wanted her to learn for herself so I agreed.
It took until last march to find a pair of tennants.
There were always problematical about getting the rent in and even when they did, the checks bounced the first few times they were deposited. They usually cleared eventually though until last November. Then they stopped even pretending to pay.
They changed all the locks on the doors so I could not get in to do maintanance.
We finally had to haul them into court to try and get them evicted. We won in a slam dunk but could not take possession of the property until their timeline for apeal had expired. It finally expired on Monday and we went over to check the place out.
I had a bad feeling on the way over there that just got worse when we pulled up and I found a table and the garbage disposal sitting in the front lawn.
I was going to have to break in through a back door since I don't have a key but that wasn't necessary because the back door was no longer attached to the house.
The inside was a sty with broken furniture scattered about. I was kind of bemused because I realized it was not our furniture. Then I realized that our furniture was not broken because it was gone.
A trip to the kitchen revealed that the appliances were gone as well except for the garbage disposal (which was on the front lawn) and a nice new refrigerator. I wondered why they had not stolen a fairly new fridge for quite a while but then got distraced looking at the holes in the walls and wondering why there was soot and ash on everything.
Then I noticed two more things about the kitchen. The soot concentration was highest there and there were definite signs of a fire emanating from the sink of all places.
At this point I called the local PD to put in a report. The officer showed up and asked who we were. I told him we were the owners but he didn't believe us for a while because he had "met the owners last night" when he showed up "along with the fire truck".
Yep. The fire department had been called out to put out a fire there last night. It was apparently a fairly minor fire that started when the tenants got the wires crossed while trying to disconnect the garbage disposal and dishwasher, both of which had been directly wired into the box for some reason.
In any event, what made the PD and the FD take things seriously were all of the oxygen cylenders lying around the place. In fact, quite a few of them were still cluttering up the house.
They also didn't like the bare wires dangling from alll the ceilign boxes as a result of the tenants taking our light fixtures but I digress.
Apparently, the tenants were in the process of looting when they started the fire. The police and firemen made them nervouse and they went ahead and left before finishing cleaning us out.
They even dug up the hedges in the back and took them too.
Did i mention that the rooms are all painted in differing shades of all the most popular Dayglo colors? All except the living room that is. I'm not sure if that was painted or not since the sheetrock is missing. So is the copper coil from the AC unit.
That was Monday.
I had to wait for the adjsutor to take pics before starting to do anything and then could not find time to do anything until today.
I knew the water was cut off. That's why i wondered about the leak in the bathroom. They had run an ileagle tap to the main and poked it through the bricks. It only operated on the toilet. I wonder how they used the thing with a block of foam blocking the stub?
Then the day got really bad.
Most of the damage will not be covered by insurance. The appliances will and the holes in the sheetrock but nothing else.
I got to work tearing out the runined cabinets. I started to haul them out through the back door in the garage. Something caught my foot as I struggled across the threshold and I went down hard into the filthy and strange smelling mud. (Its been dry around here). I tripped because I had stepped on a 1x4 and my boot remained stuck to it. That would be because of the 8p nails driven through it: 4 rows the lenght of the 8 foot board spaced 3" apart. The hole thing was painted green to make it blend in. In falling I narrowly missed landing on a second trap of the same design. I'm lucky it didn't pierce my boot all the way.
The funny smell from the mud? I still don't know but lye soap has not been able to remove it.
I started at 8 this morning and got home at 10 tonight. I have the feeling this was just the first of many such days to come.
I had the worst realization when I got home.
I have been saving up to go to NSL. I won't be going now. That entire sum has been blown on ordering new cabinets.
My wife want's to know how soon I can have the place ready to show to other prospective tenants.
I hoep tomorrow is better.
When I got married in 2006, my wife wanted to keep her old house and use it as a rental property. Having managed lots of them, I was dubious about the profitability and knew full well what a hassle that can be but wanted her to learn for herself so I agreed.
It took until last march to find a pair of tennants.
There were always problematical about getting the rent in and even when they did, the checks bounced the first few times they were deposited. They usually cleared eventually though until last November. Then they stopped even pretending to pay.
They changed all the locks on the doors so I could not get in to do maintanance.
We finally had to haul them into court to try and get them evicted. We won in a slam dunk but could not take possession of the property until their timeline for apeal had expired. It finally expired on Monday and we went over to check the place out.
I had a bad feeling on the way over there that just got worse when we pulled up and I found a table and the garbage disposal sitting in the front lawn.
I was going to have to break in through a back door since I don't have a key but that wasn't necessary because the back door was no longer attached to the house.
The inside was a sty with broken furniture scattered about. I was kind of bemused because I realized it was not our furniture. Then I realized that our furniture was not broken because it was gone.
A trip to the kitchen revealed that the appliances were gone as well except for the garbage disposal (which was on the front lawn) and a nice new refrigerator. I wondered why they had not stolen a fairly new fridge for quite a while but then got distraced looking at the holes in the walls and wondering why there was soot and ash on everything.
Then I noticed two more things about the kitchen. The soot concentration was highest there and there were definite signs of a fire emanating from the sink of all places.
At this point I called the local PD to put in a report. The officer showed up and asked who we were. I told him we were the owners but he didn't believe us for a while because he had "met the owners last night" when he showed up "along with the fire truck".
Yep. The fire department had been called out to put out a fire there last night. It was apparently a fairly minor fire that started when the tenants got the wires crossed while trying to disconnect the garbage disposal and dishwasher, both of which had been directly wired into the box for some reason.
In any event, what made the PD and the FD take things seriously were all of the oxygen cylenders lying around the place. In fact, quite a few of them were still cluttering up the house.
They also didn't like the bare wires dangling from alll the ceilign boxes as a result of the tenants taking our light fixtures but I digress.
Apparently, the tenants were in the process of looting when they started the fire. The police and firemen made them nervouse and they went ahead and left before finishing cleaning us out.
They even dug up the hedges in the back and took them too.
Did i mention that the rooms are all painted in differing shades of all the most popular Dayglo colors? All except the living room that is. I'm not sure if that was painted or not since the sheetrock is missing. So is the copper coil from the AC unit.
That was Monday.
I had to wait for the adjsutor to take pics before starting to do anything and then could not find time to do anything until today.
I knew the water was cut off. That's why i wondered about the leak in the bathroom. They had run an ileagle tap to the main and poked it through the bricks. It only operated on the toilet. I wonder how they used the thing with a block of foam blocking the stub?
Then the day got really bad.
Most of the damage will not be covered by insurance. The appliances will and the holes in the sheetrock but nothing else.
I got to work tearing out the runined cabinets. I started to haul them out through the back door in the garage. Something caught my foot as I struggled across the threshold and I went down hard into the filthy and strange smelling mud. (Its been dry around here). I tripped because I had stepped on a 1x4 and my boot remained stuck to it. That would be because of the 8p nails driven through it: 4 rows the lenght of the 8 foot board spaced 3" apart. The hole thing was painted green to make it blend in. In falling I narrowly missed landing on a second trap of the same design. I'm lucky it didn't pierce my boot all the way.
The funny smell from the mud? I still don't know but lye soap has not been able to remove it.
I started at 8 this morning and got home at 10 tonight. I have the feeling this was just the first of many such days to come.
I had the worst realization when I got home.
I have been saving up to go to NSL. I won't be going now. That entire sum has been blown on ordering new cabinets.
My wife want's to know how soon I can have the place ready to show to other prospective tenants.
I hoep tomorrow is better.