12 years, 4 states, 5 cities and 8 homes gives you a lot of personal experience.
And you gather experiences from your friends, relatives and neighbors too.
Most of us have a “Grrrrrrr…” kind of experiences with them and the smiley ones are rare and few. I believe, they can be of only 2 types…
- Too Good to be True
- The Rental Nightmares
Yes, we are talking about the Owner or Proprietors or Lessors or the Lords of the Land (LOL) or the Landlords.
While the Too Good to be True are really Too Good and are epitome of all goodness (Like our current Landlord and KG…
Our experience is rich with the “The Rental Nightmares”. So, here I share some of the rented woes:
- These LOLs do not believe in post-dated-cheques and need hard cash only. And will ring your doorbell at 7 in the morning on the 1st of every month and some even on 28th or 30th of the month. Gives you a feeling of staying in a hutment dwelling and working as a daily wage earner!
- Then there are those types who believe that once they have rented the space to you, all its woes are taken on rent too…of course by you. Whether its the peeling paint or leaking faucet or a broken tile. You got to repair it all, even before you occupy the house.
- If you happen to stay with them in the same premises, then you have double trouble or may be more…
- Children should not be running around, the noise of them running around disturbs them.
- Their car should be the first to go out of the garage, at any given point of time. So, whatever the hour of the day (or night), you park your car in the given preference! (You know the drill…ring their bell, take their car keys, take their car out, park your car in and then park their car behind your car, hand over their keys!! Always!)
- There is a rationing of the water you use, how you use and when you use. (Though you’d be paying the water bill too!)
- There can not be too many parties at home. Music, laughter, banter affects them!
- Some, even want you to be home by 10 pm. Did we say, we miss staying in a Girl’s Hostel?
- Creating ruckus over minor things is their favorite time-pass. “Why did your guest ring our door bell?”, “The child’s ball has withered the flower”, “Why did you leave the gate open for 5 minutes?”…
- Their enemies (read neighbors they have tussle with) should be our enemies too.
- In case they visit their property (your home), every nook and corner would be looked at with critical eyes, just as a detective would look for clues for his murder case.
- Some have strict preferences…only vegetarians. Hello, we cook and eat in our own vessels and dishes and do not paint the walls (of your precious house) with non-veg food or don’t use the bones as treasure hunt clues, around the home!
- They do not believe in returning the advance rent you had paid at the beginning and would find innovative ways and means of retaining it with them…for damages, breakdown or even the changes that you made for fixing your AC, for drilling few nails on their walls for the clock or a lone painting!
- One LOL, uprooted (without informing the tenant) a small Curry Leaves (Meetha Neem or Helichrysum italicum) plant, which a friend had planted in the backyard, because, it spoilt the look of his garden!!
Phew!! Some LOLs! Nah, you will never be laughing out loud with them around!
The relationship between a Landlord and a Tenant is symbiotic in nature. It’s a win-win relationship. Wouldn’t it be better if it has more smiles and less of sneers!
Image Courtesy : http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com
PS: Being LOLs ourselves, the rules/tricks of the game from this side are not unknown to us!!
21 Responses
My LOL told us strictly that, you pay your rent and if 20 people live in the house he doesn’t have any problem. Cool guy na…..
I hate these detective types ones.
you know.,.an extra rent of 16000rs was charged from my cousin because she nailed a wall to hang her baby’s pic!! get a life people!! 😛
the thing is My dad always pays the rent on the first day (and luckily all our landlords..some 3-4 have been sweethearts…)so no probs there..but my dad’s tenants need to be reminded even after 15th of the month..I mean i get pissed off…maybe next time a land lord centric post? 😉
I know these landlords…my current one is one of his kind, calls on the 5th of every month and asks everything abt the family and will talk to you for an hour and then finally before hangin up…he says…oh i forgot to ask..did u deposit the rent?…..
A funny take on LOLs.
Thankfully… I have never had to experience this type/tribe 🙂
we had many tenants over the last few years and most of them are like a part of our family….one family is leaving today and we are shy to ask them the unpaid rent for the past two months …its like tum bolo…nahin tum bolo.Heeee.
Non-veg food…i have heard a lot of funny stories .I liked the picture you have used here.Fun post Shilpa.
Have never faced this .. yet ! 🙂
Written beautifully! Had me smiling throughout. Although I know they are far from fun experiences for you.
Hope the nightmare ends soon. One day when you are LOL, it would be pay-back time !!! :-)))
Ohh but I know you’re too nice to be an ‘lol’ like them!
@ lostworld : Am glad to bring smiles for you early morning!!
The nightmares wont stop, coz we keep moving frequently!! Got to go where ever the Bread Butter and Jam providers ask us to go!! 😀
And we ARE LOLs too!! We have our place in the Pink City!!
And you bet, we are the BESTEST LOLs!!
Of course, the story about us as LOLs can be a new blog post!! 😀
A ‘Lol’ filled affair I should mention.
I haven’t experienced this yet, but I do know some tenants who harass their landlords, just the opposite you have mentioned, you didn’t cover them tho 😛
Another different topic, God, I envy you 🙂
Insane!Its like they are doing a favour-like paying you for living there so you should toe the line.And I detest the curfew,veg only thingies more than anything-we are all grownups,five your olds don’t rent houses to play house.sheesh.LOL at using the bones for treasure hunt 🙂
Lol post … well you know I have been on both sides …actually it was my father who was the Lol and we did have our share of woes with the tenants and now I myself am a tenant but my Lol(for last 3 yrs) is a ‘Gentleman’ yes he doesn’t care for the rent comes whenever he feels he short of money, never asked for yearly increment I had to increase it on my own(he was grateful I guess!) and never ‘dares’ to enter ‘our’ home … I mean too good right !!! But a request for a letter box and a water tap is pending for 3 yrs …no complaints… 😀
My lol is nothing less than a female Hitler, nagging all the time.”Don’t dry your clothes in the back yard, it spoils the look of house…” i mean, if i sun dry my clothes in front portion of the house, even then she would complain the same. And she doesn’t even live in that building herself. And my cousin’s landlord is such an eccentric fellow, one he knocked their door in the middle of the night coz he was not being able to sleep properly because the ‘tick-tock’ sound of their wall clock, so he ‘suggested’ them to take the batteries off from the clock.And he can hear the sound of tick-tock coming from 1st floor(he lives on ground floor) when the ones that are living in the room cannot hear it. I wonder next time he will come and say,” I am not being able to sleep properly because the sound of your heartbeat is too loud, can you please die…”
*sigh* i should stop now,its a never ending story….
shilpa
I never met the landlady all thru my stay in her house. the only dealings we had was thru the bank:)
uprooting a plant from the garden is ridiculous! When will they learn. I know a LOL who asked two architect tenants not to bring thier tools (Scales, set squares n boards in the house)…it would scratch the floor!!
Fun read Shilpa. Loved it:))
@ Rohit Dassani : Wow! What a blessing to have a LOL like that! Touch wood! 😀
@ narendra : OMG!! That’s ridiculous!
Oh, there are 2 sides of a coin! Just as we see Nightmarish LOLs, there are Nightmarish Tenants too!
Hmm…good idea! Why don’t you write one too and that way will give us more food for thought!
@ Shahid : Hey, your LOL is a good one!! Poor guy (actually must be a rich guy!) is embarrassed to ask the Q directly, and it takes 1 hour of casual banter to finally tell the reason behind the call! 😀
@ Roshmi Sinha : Am glad you found in funny! 😀
@ kavita : That’s a great thing! I mean a family kind of atmosphere. But guess, because of this, you have inhibitions in asking them the rent!!
Thanks, happy that this made fun reading! 🙂
@ pawan : I know. That will be a post for some other time!!
Thanks :p
@ Miss_Nobody : I know! It’s truly maddening! But what to do…??
@ Dhiman : Wow! You are a model tenant!! Suggesting the LOL to increase the rent!! Very Gentlemanly action!! 🙂 Hmm…after all that, guess a missing letter box and tap is not a problem!! 🙂
@ Shilpa :Oh, I can understand! I had a lady Hitler as landlady when I was staying as a PG during my MBA days!! She has exactly like your current one!
LOL at “…can you please die!!” Gsh, must be a freak! 😛
Why don’t you continue this never ending story on your blog, as it would make some fun and interesting reading!
Go on and share, you will feel better and we will have a good time too! 🙂
@ PNA : Wow, that’s the best arrangement, one could have! Same with us, we never met our last 2 tenants. We gave our home for rent through a broker (of course my father was there to oversee the things) while we stayed in another city. So bank was the only means of communication!! 😀
That’s truly weird…tools spoiling the floor!! Gosh!!
Am glad you had a good time reading this! 🙂
Such actions or lack of those is for only two reasons.
They want a higher rent.
Or
they want you to vacate the house soonest possible.
Reasons could be any,but intentions are made clear.
Ask me Shilpa! still can’t assimilate such a huge sum of money that I’ve lost (nearly INR 90k) without even staying in the room that I’ve rented in one of the emirates; I was left with no options when I found out that I can’t get shifted to that room. It was too late when I realised that the house broker has gulped down his charges and the LOL has made up his mind not to return my PDC’s without getting his first month rent..
May be I’m a very bad negotiator but still strugging hard to forget the financial loss. There was slight relief as atleast I’ve used the closet to urinate (phew! room was owing me much more than that)..
LOL. This is so true for us as well:
Their car should be the first to go out of the garage, at any given point of time. So, whatever the hour of the day (or night), you park your car in the given preference! (You know the drill…ring their bell, take their car keys, take their car out, park your car in and then park their car behind your car, hand over their keys!! Always!)
Even though we own our flat, we end up doing this all the time. Pushy neighbours !
Shilpaaaa… me is now dreading how our new LOL’s gonna be like!
This is the first time I have heard how bad it can get ….
Just pray we get a good, non-interfering types …:)
So far, we have been lucky … but not much of an experience so to say!
Very enlightening, must say … !!!