Dear Ms. Rowan,
Please be advised that there wa a court ruling against you this morning. The court has given you 7 days to vacate your apartment. On May 14th, the constable will come out and set your belongings on the street if you have not turned the apartment over to us. Please clean your apartment and turn the keys back to the office. Thank you and good luck.
I had planned to actually thank the leasing office staff for their patience during the post-layoff struggles I've had paying my rent. I opened the door fully expecting to find a lifeless court order tacked onto it. After reading this on the bright green paper, I went on over and talked to Nancy, the director. She was very nice. I explained that I had just found out that the layoff was permanent and that I didn't think it was fair to them or her to prolong things by continuing being late, that I have a job interview tomorrow, and that I was grateful for the time (I actually have until the 14th; I thought I'd have to be out the 12th). She said that once I got settled to get back with her and they would work out a payment plan with the back rent owed/termination fee, etc. so I can pay that rather than be turned over to a collection agency. Granted, she can afford to be gracious, because they'll be able to hopefully rent my apartment to a tenant who can pay on time, but really, they've worked with me repeatedly and could have thrown me out months ago. I do really believe they wish me well. And after all, despite everything, I've been here three and a half years and have been a quiet tenant who until the layoff generally paid my rent on time and even when I did start having problems, always paid, even the late fees and in a few cases court fees to avert eviction. So in the end, I was probably a more stable tenant than many.
I would definitely recommend Heritage/Canterbury Apartments in Lexington. to anyone looking for an apartment, especially if they have pets or children; there are courtyards within each group of buildings and lots of greenspace. They made an exception for me when I had more than the two-pet maximum, although I did have to pay separate deposits and pet fees for each. But most places wouldn't have even considered it. And for me, it was imperative that I be near work, since I had a car that was slowly dying a terrible death. I wound up a block from the hospital and able to walk to work and to a pharmacy across the street for necessities, and then take the bus for everything else. At that time in my life, they were a godsend. I only hope now that my luck with cars has improved and that I will be able to find somewhere else. And of course, there is the job interview tomorrow, which despite all that's going on, I feel confident about.
Speaking of which, I heard back from the apartments I applied for. As I expected, my credit is (in her words and mine) 'a train wreck'. Despite that, they are willing to rent to me if I can get a co-signer for the lease, so I'm going to call my mom and see if that's a possibility. I do believe if I can get in to a place that's cheaper, and with the bigger cheque next week, I can start from scratch and do well in a lease.
You know, in retrospect, I've rented five apartments in my life. The first had a landlord who literally hauled a new refrigerator several blocks from another apartment on a dolly. It was a temporary sublease, and we got along fine. The second was in a complex, no problems; I left during a divorce but actually had someone take over the lease, so I left in good graces. The third was an alcoholic student ghetto slumlord with a rat-infested house who hadn't even bothered to repaint the place after someone blew their brains out in the living room, so that was probably the worst--it was like pulling teeth to get anything fixed, and he was cantankerous, but until the end we generally did okay, the fourth was an overpriced apartment that I convinced myself was 'charming' where the landlords tried to make me a party to bank fraud and turned my gas on and off when I didn't comply, but even we got along fairly well otherwise and bonded over fallen tries and birthday cakes, and then this place. One thing's for sure, I may sometimes have problems sticking up for myself, and goodness knows I've had my share of problems in the past, but I think I could probably get along with a serial killer at least on a few points--not just in terms of my response, but theirs as well. Surely that must be a marketable skill? :)
Okay, enough musing. Back to boxing.
No comments:
Post a Comment