Slumlords

My landlord is this 23 year old kid who just (he claims anyhow) graduated from the Univ with a degree in Business. His landlord is an oriental who will remain nameless, and they claim to be buddies. The kid started asking for something in writing that said I'd be gone by July 1, back in May. Excuse me? Turns out the lease had a clause that said that if I left before the end, I owed 2 extra months rent, so that would have been 10 months housing for 14 months rent. No wonder he wanted it, only an extra $1400.00 for nothing.

So, June 15th rolls around, and now the oriental and the kid are showing up on the weekends and leaning on me to leave. The oriental is getting rather ugly about the whole thing. I'm telling them I'm going to get this place condemned, and I do believe I have the way to do it all worked out. The kid laughs and says I can't get it condemned. It's amazing, I'd forgotten how childish children are. The kid goes through this big taunting routine, like he's going to piss me off bad enough that I'd take a swing at him. Yeah, right, no way. I've seen this played before, and I guess there are people in prison who are dumb and impulsive enough to do it.

June 26, and the hot water magically stops working. Kid had made a glib comment about hot water heater thermocouples in the past. So I'm thinking, kid disabled the hot water heater, and I tell him my thoughts. He laughs, he's so arrogant. It's just a little too close to July first for me to believe otherwise. China man is back, screaming for me to get off his property in 24 hours. Excuse me? I have a lease, Asshole. Now you get off my property, no he doesn't have to, he's the kids room mate all of a sudden. Ah................... But I found out why he's so buddy buddy with the kid all of a sudden and why the pressure. The weed police!

Kid has idiot China man convinced he'll make the property a garden. Not!! Kid is going around trying to convince everyone he's ever met that gardening is such fun, come and do his gardening for him, he'll supervise. Cute twist to free labor, I've never seen that one before, are there really chumps out there who would go for that? China man knows that he can be cited for having noxious weeds on this property any day after June 15 that they're not cut, and if he is, they'll contract with a 3rd party to cut the weeds and send him the bill. Kid doesn't know this I don't think, and thinks his daddy's job in the state Assembly will protect him. NOT!!

So, I don't nibble on any of the bait. What bait? Well, last time China man is here I tell him I want hot water fixed. He wants to know why he should fix it, I'm not his friend, and he'd only fix it for a friend. Ok pal, I'm your friend, now how about fixing it? Oh, I've hurt poor Chen Su, I insulted him, he'll be scarred for life. I called him a slum lord. Well, gentle reader, what would you call this ass hole? He won't fix the hot water heater unless I'm his friend, GET OUT he says, I think he qualifies as a slum lord. So, following day, Sunday, he shows up again, and I say, I'll try being nice, I'm your friend, I tell kid I'll be nice to him.

So............ the bait: He says, ok, we should be friends, he wants to take me into town to buy me a drink. A soda. I say no thank you. And truthfully, I don't drink soda, haven't for many years. He goes into a minor rage, that I'm not his friend because he can't buy me a soda. Both he and kid are NOT smiling. I'll bet he had 3 or 4 friends staged at someplace like Culver's, and had it all staged for a public confrontation that could get me tossed into jail because his witness's all knew what to say. Geeee, too bad, I wasn't enough of a chump to take the bait.

Now, the political issue.......... Well audience, should I go to my democrat Assemblyman with all this? Kid's mother was pretty arrogant when I asked her what he and did for a living and she said I should ask him. So I did. He says he's the first assistant to a republican state Assemblyman, the one from their district, which is where the kid really lives, at mommy and daddy's house. They have hot water. Man is a terribly nice fellow, I like the guy. He's telling me that because it's an election year, he has to get his guy re-elected to keep his job intact.

Fast forward to Thursday, July 8th. A friend is helping me move some stuff, futon, futon frame, and so on, big stuff. Why? Well, if I get this place condemned, they will give me until midnight to be out, and anything left is lost. Kid shows up and says he has this lease termination agreement he wants me to sign, and if I sign it he'll fix the hot water. He says this in front of a witness, my helper. According to my attorney, this is extortion. Normally we think of extortion as a thug saying he'll let you go for a price, well the law doesn't read that way, this is extortion too.

I will be mostly out of here by Sunday night (7/11/10). The only valuable things that won't be out will be the washer/dryer, and freezer. They go next weekend I think.

After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that no matter how nice a guy the fellow is, I have no choice but to go to my Assemblyman, and the media. The media guy I went to is Bill Lueders of Isthmus magazine, in Madison, Wisconsin. Hope to hear from you sir. Any of you readers want to ask him to stick his nose in it, leuders@isthmus.com and thanks everyone for caring about me, and caring about right and wrong.