Crazy Landlady - Why Me?

[captain53]

I am open to any kind of soothing comments or similar war stories. I rented my cabin in the Ozarks while up here on a 2 year work project. I rented it from a really nice real estate guy but right after the deal was all done the widow woman owner wanted to fire him saying he cheated her.... long story short he said she did not have to fire him he wanted nothing else to do with her and quickly proved with cancelled checks to the board of realtors and the real estate commission auditors that he had not only paid her but she owed him money.

Anyway she owns a place across the road and used to never come down here (she lives in St Louis these are camps) but now she has started staying down here a lot and bugging the crap out of me about her problems. Quickly realized she is totally crazy and her grown children came down and last one leaving told don't call him till she gets some professional counseling. She calls me all the time wanting to know if her son has been down here and last trip said her son had been in her house and stole her butcher knife, now he lives in St Louis 3 hours away and I have not seen him anywhere since he told her to get some help. Long drive for a butcher knife, and last visit he told me he was sorry I was stuck here putting up with her.

Recently I discovered she had used a key to get into my place while I was out of town so I changed the locks to simplify that as my lease was up the end of April but she wanted me to re-lease so I paid her May rent figuring I would look for another place. Tonight she came over here at 9:30 beating on my door yelling and screaming to get out of her house and she could come in any damn time she wanted to because it was her property.......... a maniac!!!!

I told her to go call the police if she wanted to but she was not getting her crazy arse in this house. Man, thanks for listening and what did I do to deserve this?

When I was younger I rented my first apartment. It was a basement apartment and the wife would come down whenever she pleased. She would go through my stuff when I was gone. I would make the bed when I left and come home to the sheets obviously being sat on. When she went to work her husband would stay home as he had a back injury. I started finding a few of my beers missing and a bottle of wine being watered down to the point where it was more water than wine. They fought like crazy all the time. I lasted 2 months and packed my stuff. Almost had to fight the husband to get my deposit back.

[TXRebel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8

[mosesbotbol]

Good to call the police on her and the best you can usually do as a tennant is withhold rent by putting into escrow. "Miss landlady, I am withholding rent in escrow until this matter is settled in court. This process could take a year. If you would like your rent before then, please leave me alone." Lines like that usually scare landlords like her.

[68TriShield]

Dang Dave,that sucks.

[alwayslit]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

Good to call the police on her and the best you can usually do as a tennant is withhold rent by putting into escrow. "Miss landlady, I am withholding rent in escrow until this matter is settled in court. This process could take a year. If you would like your rent before then, please leave me alone." Lines like that usually scare landlords like her.

.......x2. Money talks in these cases.

[Volt]

I love escrow

Rented an apartment like all young sailors do. The 3 single ones next door partied hard till all hours of the night - all days of the week. And to top it off, one had a "lassie" type screamer (watch Porky's for the reference) on the oppisite wall to me. Way too many complaints to the office and the deputies. Finally I set up an escrow account that I could not draw money out of, only the management company. It required both of our sigs to get it. It is illegal not to pay your rent, nothing says they have to be able to get at it though.

After 2 months the big guy came around looking for his $$$. Explained his office manager was not enforcing the agreements of the lease, calls to the cops, etc. Told him his rent was being paid, but he would not get access to it until they meet the requirements of the lease, no LOUD noise. She got fired, they got evicted and I released in the end 4 months worth of rent.

I will live in Newport News city park campground before I ever share a wall with other renters/owners again. Just not worth it. GI Joes sells Army surplus tents.

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

Good to call the police on her and the best you can usually do as a tennant is withhold rent by putting into escrow. "Miss landlady, I am withholding rent in escrow until this matter is settled in court. This process could take a year. If you would like your rent before then, please leave me alone." Lines like that usually scare landlords like her.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by Volt

I will live in Newport News city park campground before I ever share a wall with other renters/owners again.

I actually camped there when I was a kid.

My mother and dad bought some property in Miss. when I was a young man, and they lived outside of NO. There was no direct road access to the property, it used a road easment on this other man's property. All was fine when my Dad was alive. Once he died, and it was me and mostly my mother going out there, he started being a d(*^ all the time. But we were stuck cause the road to the property crossed his land. In the end my mother GAVE it to the neighbor on the other side for 10 bucks. 12 acres. Pissed the guy off. I am sure he cut his own road and fenced off the Ahole's access. He used to hunt turkey, deer and rabbits on our property when we wern't there, cause he had done so since he was a kid. He was one of those part time deputies that litter that state. Used tough guy BS to intimidate people.

My current landlady lives below me in a two story duplex. I went to NC to see my mother once and
came home and my 'foolproof intrusion detector' had been tripped. I padlock the front door on the outside when I leave. The backstairs access is "hooked" from the inside. You either have to cut the front lock to get in that way, or push a screwdriver through the door gap and flip the hook in back. But once you are IN the house, you can't get out the front, and you can't RE-hook the hook when you go out the back. So I can easily tell if someone went up. I get back from Charlotte one day and the back hook is tripped. In casual conversation, I asked her who had been upstairs when I was gone. She never admitted going in, but got on my nerves 'trying to figure out who could have done it' for half an hour. Never happened again. Best landlord I ever had lived in Houston when I lived in Miss. He couldn't drop in on me.

[Volt]

Most states actually outlaw "land locked" property. A quick trip to a lawyer might have saved the property. It's definitly not leagal in AL and VA. The court can force a road easement if need be.

[replicant_argent]

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74/...-panther-mckay
(slightly NSFW)

If that doesn't make you laugh, you are dead, or beyond help.

[357]

Rent or Netflix the movie Pacific Heights. It'll scare the crap out of anyone who is a landlord. Michael Keaton is in it. Interesting story, check it out.

[captain53]

Originally Posted by replicant_argent

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74/...-panther-mckay
(slightly NSFW)

If that doesn't make you laugh, you are dead, or beyond help.

Thanks, I needed that and I am laughing my A$$ OFF! If you can imagine that kid being 60 years old and the subject was her wanting to come in her house as opposed to rent you have seen it just as it was!