Last night, I finally moved completely out of my old place. What should have been a very simple process ended up being an ordeal worthy of a Taiwanese soap opera, charged with emotion and drama where none was necessary.

Basically, it all comes down to her exceptional stinginess and my own inability to head it off before getting ripped off. Every time something like that happened, I felt like maybe it was just some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding, and I tried to be understanding. Last night was the last straw, though. She got too greedy.

Moving In

When I first decided to move in, I told her I liked the place, but that I didn’t want to move in until a week later. She said no problem, and asked for a couple thousand bucks as a show of good faith that I really would take the place. No problem, I thought. Once it was time to pay rent, though, I realized that she had calculated my time as starting from the 19th, instead of the 26th. I was a bit upset and explained how we’d clearly agreed that I’d move in on the 26th. She answered that she always charged from the date anyone agreed to move in. None of my other landlords had done this, but I figured maybe it was just a misunderstanding. I gulped, scrounged up the money, and dealt with it.

Altering the Agreement

Aside from the fact that she promised to leave me in peace when before I moved in, and then changed the rules later, money issues really began to get annoying. She forgot I paid one month, and that was a hassle. She always demanded my receipts (which can be used in the lottery) and 7-11 prizes, too. Still, I figured she was just a lonely old lady and I pretty much over-looked these things. At one point, after she’d told me Martin couldn’t visit anymore, I told her I wanted to move out. She seemed genuinely sorry and asked me to give it a try for a little while longer, so I did.

After I found out about Dean moving and decided to take over his place, I told her I was moving, and gave her one month’s notice. I said that the 7th of January would be my last day. She agreed, but then changed her mind the next day and said I needed to stay until the 19th. I was pretty upset at that point and re-iterated my complaints about paying for that week before I moved in, and showed her our agreement that I only needed to give her one months notice. She backed down and became really friendly after that.

The TV

Since my new place had lots of things, and I was getting along with her better, I offered to give her my wardrobe when I left. I also said I was thinking about leaving my TV. She really wanted that. I had no idea how badly until last night, though.

I called the same movers as last time, since I was so happy with their service before. They started carting my stuff out and then all of the sudden, I realized my TV was missing! When I asked the movers, they told me that the landlady had told them to move it into her room! I told the landlady that it wasn’t even the 7th yet, and that I definitely wanted to move out completely, finalize everything, and get back the remainder of my deposit. Then, it came out that she really was going to charge me for an extra half month’s rent. She felt that I ought to pay everything up to the 19th of January, despite having earlier agreed that one month’s notice was fair.

Screw that. I went into the room, grabbed my TV and started walking out. Then, she started shrieking.

Her: But you were going to give it to me!
Me: Yeah, that was before you decided to rip me off, again! I’ll still give you my wardrobe and there’s no way I can stop you from ripping me off for half a month’s rent, but I’m taking the TV.
Her: Don’t decide like this! We can discuss the rent after everything’s finalized.
Me: Okay, we can discuss the TV then, too.
Her: Don’t take it now! Put it back in my room, and then we’ll discuss everything on the last day!
Me: It’s not even the 7th, yet! What the heck are you doing taking my TV already? I’m still not out of here, yet.
Her: Please! I beseech you! I only have one wish, and that’s your TV. I gave my other one away to a friend, and I don’t have a TV right now!
(she was literally trembling- the tell-tale sign of an addict if I’ve ever seen one)
Me: Look, it’s my TV. I was thinking about being nice and giving it to you after I moved out, but you’re trying to rip me off and charge me for extra rent. In any case, it’s not the 7th yet, and if you gave your TV away already, you should be prepared to do without it for a few days.

The Escape

After that, she started tugging on my clothes and shouting incomprehensibly, and then yelling at the movers to unload my TV and give it to her. It was one of the most annoying and embarrassing situations I’ve ever found myself in. Finally, she came running back with all the deposit she owed me, and offered to give it to me on the spot if I left the TV. Since the deposit was worth way more than the TV, and it seemed like the easiest way to get out of the terrible situation, I took it and left. I hope I never see that woman again in my life.

As we pulled out onto the road, one of the movers said, “Wow, she’s calculating. She got the TV, the wardrobe, and that little fridge”.

“Yeah, you got ripped off,” said the other mover to me.

Related Post:Landlady Reloaded

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.