All Forum Posts by: Tracie Van

Sorry for the very long post. 
After a few years of trying to even talk with the post master to get a clusterbox approved, I finally did it. At least so I thought.

After a constant run around of no returned or calls or getting through to the post master, a woman answered the phone and I asked to speak with the post master. She said I’m the assistant post master, I can help you. I explained about wanting to put a clusterbox up and why. Elderly residents with walkers having to get their mail from the side of a bust highway. She said no problem, took the address down and said they would go look at the site and see if its possible.

A few days later my resident manager called and said she saw a postal service vehicle on the property and they placed a flag in the ground and left. 
I called the post office back, spoke to the same clerk who usually answers and told him what happened and asked what it meant. Oh, of course post master not available. Anyways, he said that means that is the location the clusterbox would go. I asked, does that mean its approved? He said yes, that would be the reason the put the flag there.

I purchased the clusterbox. We put in the concrete pad. Then waited nearly a month for the clusterbox because they were having trouble getting the material to make them.

It finally arrived 3 weeks ago. We installed it. Called the post office back, again, no post master available OR assistant. I told the clerk we had it installed and we were ready for them to install the locks. he takes down the address again and says it will likely be by the end of the week.

I call the following week. Clerk doesn’t know why its not been installed. Said will call back. Of course no call back.

I keep calling. A woman answers and I ask her if there is something else I need to do to get the locks installed. She is irritated and says she doesn’t know what I’m talking about but will have the post master call me back. Great. Well, to my surprise, he called back immediately. he was beyond rude and condescending and told me he never approves clusterboxes and that there is no assistant post master working there. He spoke to me as if I just made it all up and went out and bought a $1800K cluster box and just threw it up on my property. 
After a long talk and few calls back and forth, he started to piece somethings together. The assistant was a girl who briefly worked there. She has since been promoted to a post master elsewhere. He also eluded to the delivery girl and the assistant being friends and that the carrier gets more money when they have to drive further off the main road, and get out of their vehicle. he made it sound as though the assistant was trying to help her friend out before taking off for her new position. We lett off that he doesn’t have it in his budget to pay the carrier, but he was sending this all to his boss and he would call me back on the 21st.

Of course no call. No one is returning calls at either number I was given.

I am now convinced they are going to try and ignore this and just hope it goes away.

I am livid. Spent close to $2K between the clusterbox, and the concrete pad install and my time.

What would you do?

We use roof heaters, or sometimes called heat tape. If an ice damn builds up, it can do a lot of damage once things start to thaw. Learned that the hard way. lol

I am in a similar situation right now. Kitchen countertop is laminate and it appears they used it as a cutting board. My problem is this turn around needs to happen in less than a weeks time and well, I am out of time. Could not get a quote quick enough. Not sure what to do. I will say the countertop is about 10 years old, but was in excellent condition upon move-in. I guess I could get a quote myself by measuring and pricing it out from the orange box store and charge a % of the total to replace as Scott Mac suggests? 

Question. I would like to update my rental rules to reflect the 8 days/30 days verbiage in my lease but I am unsure if I can do this for existing tenants as well or do I have to wait for each new tenant? I can't seem to find anything that states if I can or can not. I am in WI. 

@Account Closed

She is an okay tenant, but she does have a little boy. So if I could avoid it, I'd really like to just get rid of him. I will be calling tomorrow to discuss the situation and if she wants to be a butthead about it, then I will need to be one as well. 

@Brandon Rush

Thank you! Going forward I am going to use the 8 days/30 days verbiage in my lease. That is great. Much better than what I currently have.

I’ve actually thought about putting a camera up in the parking lot to capture how often the car is there.

I’ll start with the written letter first reminding the tenant of the lease.

In my lease I have anything longer than 2 weeks stay they need to be on the lease or get permission from me. I also include no keys given out to anyone not on the lease. 

I know this guy is living in the unit based on other tenants accounts, his car is there day and night, he takes garbage to the dumpster, he does laundry, etc. I have seen this myself as I live very close to the building. But of course, I can't really prove it. I feel like the two week section of my lease is kind of worthless in most cases  unless the tenant is willing to follow the rules. Which luckily for me, most do.

I know his name and looked him up in the court system and this is someone I do not want in my building. Eviction on file, drug charges, money owed out the butt. No job either. He also walks around the building just pacing around and its creepy because it all one-level. He is walking and pacing around people's windows. 

I'm at a loss as to what to do to get this guy out. I guess I could tell him he needs to apply, which of course would be denied as he doesn't meet the criteria, but then what? My gut tells me he will still continue to reside there. 

I just saw a listing where one of the requirements for rental is to be vaccinated for covid. Its a single family home. Personally, I would not do this but wondered if they can even have that as a requirement? 

I am currently renting to family and I would not advise it