All Forum Posts by: Karen Phinney

AMEN to that. As if we don't have enough to worry about with the recent rains...I get a call this morning from a former tenant who I haven't heard from in over a month...(let me give you all a little background here.) This young couple rented from us for almost 2 years. They would occasionally be late with rent, but not too late, and I would always tell them to call us and let us know. Well, of course they took advantage of that, and rent got later, and we got no phone calls to speak of. Finally , quite a few months ago, I laid down the law...pay on time, or get out. That resulted in several months of timely payments. Then, the inevitable happened...the young couple decided to split up, with a month and a half left on their lease. Soooo, the girl told me that her "half" of the rent would be late, and she's not sure when the guy was sending his "half"...UMMM, I don't think so! I told her I need payment in full, or he/she/they/whoever was still living there needs to go. The apartment got vacated, I'm out a month and a half's rent according to their lease, and when we got into the vacant apartment, it REEKED of cigarette smoke! (we are VERY clear in our lease that smoking in the apt. is a deal breaker.)...AND we couldn't start the work we wanted to do, as the power was shut off due to the tenant's non payment. ...Well, this phone call today (mind you, this girl would never want to call us back to face a situation and deal with ANYTHING)....is the girl, WONDERING WHERE HER SECURITY DEPOSIT IS!!! I almost swallowed my tongue. I actually had to explain why it's not being returned, and some how, some way, she said that she thought from the last time I talked to her, if she got out of the apt. right away, that it would be returned to her...Yeah, right. As if things couldnt get any weirder, her MOM is in the background, wondering why as well, so she gets on the phone. (last time I checked, her mom wasn't mentioned in the lease.) Of course, mom had no clue that rent wasn't received, phone calls, emails , and letters went unanswered, that the place reeks like smoke, and that the electric was shut off (the "not my kid" syndrome). Then, with mom acting the age of daughter , seemingly, she's trying to blatantly convince me that no one smoked in there. Whatever. And, of course, I'm supposed to know if husband and wife are communicating with one another about the situation, who's taking care of (or not taking care of )what, etc.
Thanks for letting me vent about the nerve of some people.

Thanks guys....I'll have to look again, but I'm quite sure all of the downspouts have extensions on them. God, I hope this is an isolated incident...

There are things that my husband and I can handle that a pro or a contractor would charge an awful lot of money to do...Our kitchen rehabs, for one...buy attractive, functional appliances at a discount at the "scratch and dent" outlet. Another example...replacing old, dated counter tops with the in-stock counters at menards...I think we paid something like 5 bucks a foot for the countertops we needed. You can't beat 40 dollars for a new counter top. Yes, doing the work ourselves can get old, but I believe we really save quite a bit of money that way.

Hi all,
My husband and I own a 4-unit building...2 units on the second floor, and 2 on the lower level...I guess you could call them "garden" apartments. Due to the record rainfall over the past few days in Illinois, there has been some seepage into the lower level. It appars as though it comes from where the wall meets the floor, I guess it's the cove joint. It looks as though it started in the kitchen or bedroom on one side of one of the apartments, and kind of spread out from there (the other downstairs apt. barely got any .) I know the rainfall has broken records, and the tenant in the wet apartment says this is the first time this has happened in the two years she has been there. I guess I have a few questions here. Considering there has been this episode of seepage, are future episodes more likely to happen more often? Also...if a sump pump were to be put in, would it absolutely need to be installed right where the problem seemed to originate (in the kitchen or bedroom...ugh) or could it be put in a less conspicuous area like the small common laundry room between the two apartments? My husband always tells me I worry too much, but I certainly don't want to have a much bigger problem on my hands should this happen repeatedly...any advice, help, or encouragement would be greatly appreciated! Thanks,
Karen