Dear Diary,
I was sharing with my former boss my agony in paying rent for a living space not worth it. And not worth it by 800 dollars. Actually how the Cleveland Health Department, shit, the health and public safety for the public associations have not burnt the place down 20 years ago is beyond me. Usually when I hear a story like one where someone is paying bribes I have my doubts but when hearing the owner pays bribes and they are accepted so they can keep operating... I know it to be 100 percent true otherwise the dump we lived at would be closed.
So....the woman my husband and I formerly worked for invited us to lunch, saying she could help us with one of her 19 properties. I shared with her that my husband and I wanted to pay rent somwhere but did not have much money for it, at the most, able to spend 400. While we could probably afford more, at this time, while we are unsure of our plans, and want to buy rather than rent, I dont want to sink a lot of money into paying a person for something I will never own. Also, we are unsure of exactly where we want to live and dont want to sink roots again, staying in each place we move about 6 months.
So, when our next weekly rental payment was due (220 dollars, they want so much money they wont accept monthly rent anymore, too cheap at 650) she picked us up and took us to one of her properties we had stayed in previously. At the time, we were in the back house and payed no rent because it was completely unfinished. And that had been our job, finishing it. At the time, instead of writing stories, I should have been journaling. Then I would have had references to the beast and burden this woman became. I didnt remember til now, plus I figured since we had chnaged in the past few years she might have, How very wrong I was.
This time we were given the front house. My husband and I had tossed the idea back and forth with her of turning it into a boarding house because she is (as she has stated, which may be a lie, she is a MAJOR liar) in danger of lsing all 19 of her properties (I cannot confirm much, if any, of that information online with property searches other than the fact that of the 2 properties in Cleveland she owns she has never once paid the property taxes after the intial payment she had to make in her promises to the court when she recieved the properties for free AND they are in foreclosure now for over half a year).
Of course thou, when we talked more about this idea and all the work involved: 1. Fixing up the duplex (major job with windows missing and broken, plumbing issues, no ceiling in the bathroom, tiles missing so the interior of the house is exposed, door issues from people breaking in so much, cabinets fixed and maybe new installed, new stoves, and that is just our unit).
2. Aquiring furniture for all the rooms because boarding houses have beds and bedroom type installations for each renter soas they dont bring in their own things, plus rent is paid for this factor and it makes moving easier for the renter
3. Finding renters, setting up leases
4. Getting rent, Maintaing the rooms, property, boarders and taking care of all their issues
And after all that work, and for continuning to do all that work she offered us two weeks of free rent while we put all that together AND then, as we maintained all that we could still get nothing and pay rent, but still live here. When I shared this fact with her it was in the midst of a conversation that made little to no sense. Just her angry that I would not pay her 827.oo to live here, for a completely unfinished property that no one in their right mind would ever rent, though she claims she could rent it to Section 8. Impossible! Id give her a million dollars if that were really true, with no silly stuff. I cant even turn the ga on because if I did, the broken and missing window in the bathroom and the lack of most of the tiles in the ceiling which exposes and leads to the interior of the house, would cause the heat to kick on constantly and the bill would be unpayable, so high.
So now she has dumped us here and wont accept a fair rent for what the house is worth. Which, since it is unrentable to anyone who doesnt have a death wish (my husband and I cant afford to not have one) really nothing. But, I had offered her a 100 a week which she turned her nose at and that i actually much more than it is worth!! And since she turned her