I am evicting my tenant from Hell.  It has been a year and a half of one headache after another, and I am

Here's the story.  Grab a drink and get comfy...

 

DECEMBER 2003 - I had just moved in, and my stepfather was getting the basement ready to rent out - LOTS of work!!!  I was going to need the rental income in order to afford to live in the house.  As Christmas was rapidly approaching, there wasn't much of a response to the ads we had posted in the local newspaper.  I was starting to panic.  Then one day there was a response from a young girl who said she was in a desperate situation.  She said she was currently living with her deadbeat boyfriend and his father, and was supporting them.  My stepfather took pity on her and we offered her the apartment for a measly $600 per month inclusive.  It took us awhile to get the place ready for her and her just-turned-two-year-old son, because at first it wasn't child-friendly.  We finally got them in at the end of February.

 

It turned out that her sob story wasn't completely accurate: the boyfriend's father we found out later was still living in Nova Scotia!  I had told her during our conversations before she moved in that I didn't want her boyfriend coming around here all things considered.  She led me to believe that he was taking advantage of her, and possibly abusing her.  She signed a rental agreement to not have anyone staying over for extended periods, because she wasn't contributing to utilities, and I wanted to keep costs down.  Well it wasn't long before this boyfriend (the baby-daddy) started coming around and spending time at the apartment.  The place she had been sharing with him before was just two blocks away, so it was very convenient for him to just come over and get a piece whenever he felt like it.  She knew I had a problem with it, but didn't give a rat's ass.  She then started asking for reductions in rent.  She would come up with excuses like, my stepfather left some drywall dust behind after doing a repair, and she had to clean up after him, or that all the outlets in the apartment weren't functional.  She thought she should get $100 off her rent the first month, and then had the gall to ask for another reduction the next month.  I told her there would be no more reductions.

 

Then the complaints started...everything from the noise level (which was rivalled by hers!), to the hour at which I chose to do my laundry.  She was knocking on my door constantly.  Next it was the guys.  It seemed there was a new one every month.  They would come and stay overnight often despite the agreement she signed.  I found out later that the agreement was basically useless because it contradicted the Tenant Protection Act.  She can move as many people into the unit that she wants (up to 1 adult per 100sqft), and there is NOTHING I can do about it.

 

The typical tenant inconsiderateness ensued.  The laundry loads flowed constantly; she would leave the house for the day and leave things on like the gas fireplace (which we promptly disconnected), the lights, her electric heater, the TV, etc.  She would talk to my stepfather and I with blatant rudeness and disrespect, and demonstrated complete unwillingness to cooperate or accept responsibility for things she did like leaving the garbage bags outside overnight so the animals could tear it apart.  My stepdad usually ended up cleaning up the mess she left.  During a moment of hopelessness one day I announced to her that I was seriously considering taking my basement back because this was getting ridiculous.

 

So much for the young, abused mother's tale of woe.

 

When the first year rolled around I increased the rent.  I had to put in a new 200-amp service so that we could both use our stoves.  I had gone six months without a stove so that she could have one, which she later told me she rarely used.  This new service cost me a bundle.  I told her I needed to raise the rent, and got her to agree to an extra $20 per month.  She offered to pay the hydro bill for her meter, or that I could just put her name on the hydro bill.  I looked into the latter option, but the power company wanted to do a credit check on her in order to have a bill in her name.  When I told her about this she said that unfortunately her credit was terrible.  So much for that idea!!!  I tried giving her copies of the hydro bills and asking for her to contribute, but to this day she has yet to offer one red cent towards it.  If not for raising the rent the small amount I could I would still be taking it up the tailpipe.

 

AUGUST 2005 - I had to fork out $3000 for a new roof and chimney, and the tenant's fridge died.  After some deliberation I decided to buy her a new fridge.  I am not sure if I was required to or not, but I didn't want to be a bitch, because she had a young son and needed a fridge.

 

Did she thank me for it?  Are you kidding???

 

Then one day she asked me if I was still going to take my basement back, because she had been looking and found another apartment that she was prepared to move into.  I told her that I had just sunk a lot of money into the house, and she was also benefitting from it.  If there was some way she could cooperate with me in trying to curb water/power usage and watching that her PC was turned off every day, etc., that I would be willing to keep her on.  She left me with the impression that she would do this.  Well things got worse instead of better after this.  A new boyfriend started coming around and spending the weekends in the apartment.  Laundry usage went up: she did a super large load almost every day for a week!  Showers were minimum 20 minutes in length.  She would also run the water the whole time she was brushing her teeth.  How do I know this???  My bedroom is right over top of her bathroom, and the floors are VERY thin (in my living room, which is right above her computer I could hear her MSN Messenger pinging constantly).  The last water bill I got was almost $300.

 

 

So last Saturday I went out to my shed and found that a garbage bag she had deposited in there had been ravaged by animals.  She was not home, so I left a note on her door asking her to please take care of it.  She later spoke with me and said she would do it.  Two days later on the night before garbage collection I went out to gather the bins and lo and behold if the rotten mess wasn't still there!!!  It was about nine o'clock at night.  I went downstairs and knocked on her apartment door.

"That garbage is still all over the floor of the shed," I said.  "It needs to be taken care of."

"Ok," she said. "Well my kid's asleep so I can't go out and do it now." (??? Worst case scenario he would have woken up and called for his mother who would have been back in less than five minutes!)

"It has to be dealt with immediately...it is really disgusting."

Then she gave me this look like she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do, and became very belligerent.

"Cathy, enough."  She said with a stupid smirk on her face.

"Excuse me?"

 She then began this tirade about how I bang on her door and harass her constantly about stupid little things.  Regarding hydro usage, she said she pays rent that is supposed to include all utilities, and if it was such a financial burden I should have put her name on the hydro bill from the start.

"We tried that...don't you remember?  We couldn't do it because you said you couldn't pass a credit check!"

"My credit is fine," she retorted.

So it seems she is also a chronic liar.

She continued to rant on and argue with me on every single point I tried to make.  I was so incensed I finally just said 'whatever' and walked away before I said something I would regret.  Thursday night when I got home I went down and knocked on her door one last time.

"Sorry to disturb you, but I'll be brief: I want you to move out of the apartment as soon as possible.  This is your notice.  How soon can you be out?"

She was surprisingly blasé about it, and reminded me that by law I must give her sixty days' notice, which is correct.  She said if she had found a place by November 30th she would move out.  It sounded like she had been looking around, so I'm hoping she is motivated.  I can't imagine wanting to stay somewhere you weren't wanted, but she can legally drag her feet for as long as she wants, and there is nothing I can do about it.

 

...but on the upside, I do get $620 each month towards my mortgage, which makes it all worthwhile if you're a whore for money.