My best friend has dealt with the mother of all deranged landlords for the past 8 and a half years. My friend moved into a ten family, landlord occupied building. When he moved in, he was told that men were not welcome or preferred. Bad omen one. After the first year lease ended, the landlord's presented my friend with an updated lease that had a page of unreasonable rules (such as he could never own an a/c while in apt) He refused to sign it and has been livign month to month ever since then. Over the years he couldnt get the landlords to make simple repairs. At one time his kitchen ceiling fell in and dust/dirt landed all over his apt. The landlords refused to pay for clean up and he had to take them to court to get the money back. As I said the landlord's live in my friend's building. On his original lease it says he's to pay his rent to them at their address. Well over time he was told he couldnt pay it to their address and would have to mail it to their daughters in another town. My friend complied and ever since then they complain that they receive it late. The thing is is that i KNOW my friend has always paid on time. (i usually help him out by mailing his bills for him since he has diagnosed health problems) In addition to his landlord's ignoring to make needed repairs, (for one winter he went without heat because his heater died in his bedroom and the landlords said they coudlnt find one to replace it [ which was later found out to be a lie by the actual heater manufactuer) and complaining that the rent was constantly paid late, my friends' landlord's also constantly have harassed me and other firends who visit his apt. And lastly his landlord's have mentally unstable son who lives with them. Im a polite person and always tried to be cordial with their nutty son when he tried to talk at me when I was coming up or down the building stairs. Apparently the guy started to become increasingly obsessed with me and talking to me. he would try and talk to me whenever he saw me on the street and would complain to me that i never gave him any of my time. Clearly not a well individual. My friend and I were both freaked out a little by this. When the landlord's nut son tried to stop me on the street again, he was actually with his father, my friend's landlord. I tried to keep walking and he hollered after me and started walkign after me. I turned on my heel and told him firnly but politely to please leave me alone and not talk to me further. Since I did this, my friend's landlords have started having their lawyer write my friend letters telling him he is habitually late at paying rent. Seems they want to evict him instead of dealing with their son. And although the 'official' landlords are elderly, the mother herself is sharp as a tack but will slip into 'innocent little ole lady' when it suits her. She hates me (and of course my friend) for no good reason (i never said anything but niceties to her and just gave up saying hello finally when she wouldnt even smile back at me. She and I came to blows last year on september 14th. My nerves were beyond raw from what had just happened in front of my own eyes a few days before and i was in no mood to be messed with. I was bringing laundry down my friends stairs in a soft duffel bag and alhtough it was soft is still made a clicking sound on the stairs... This woman stood blocking the stairs on started screaming her head off at me. I broke in to tears and asked her toplease move and lower her voice an dthat i had just been thru hell. Instead she kept yelling and wouldnt move....so I pushed passed her and called her the B word. She then called me one too and I told her to never bother me again. Hell when she dies Im going to jump on her grave after treating me that way when I was already beyond traumatized. I might add she and her middle aged unmarried daughters are the ones who handle all the rent issues and makes their fragile 87 year old father maintain the entire apartment building himself. (he always complains that they overwork him) And when he doesnt do maintenence they ask their crazy son to handle repair work. Which means everything gets more screwed up. Anyhow, I thought that after I told their son to not talk to me he woudl leave me alone..Not so he followed /bothered /talked at me in the building and in public 3-4 times after that. On the fourth time , I was at a post office, standing at the post office window in the middle of talking to the clerk there when I suddenly felt someone grab at my arm. I looked over my shoulder and jerked my arm away and it was the freak talking at me interupting the business i was conducting. He started saying soemthign about hello and he had found me and i whipped my head back to the clerk and ignored him. The P.O. office clerk asked if i was okay and who was bothering me. As I finished conducting my transaction, the landlord's son came back and stood 2 inched a way form me and started talkign at me again. I looked at the post office guy who asked th elandlord's son what he wnated . I took off from the post office and he followed me outside. i was waiting for a cab next to some stranger and he satrted talking to the stranger asking if she knew me! so insane. So when my friend heard about this he flipped out and wrote a letter telling his landlord's to stop writing him about him paying his rent late and to tell their son to leave me alone.
Well this was three weeks ago and the freak still keeps bothering me and the landlords still keep bothering my friend about paying his rent late (even though he/i now send his rent early via certified return receipt mail !),,,,,
On September 11th , of all days (i used to work on 103 floor of WTC2 for AON a couple years ago and lost friends, so i REALLY didnt need any B.S like this to deal with on the 1st anniversary of everything) , both the landlord's insane son wrote my friend a threatening letter and their lawyer wrote a letter to him too. The lawyer's letter was more of the same (cept this letter said my friend has to pay his rent before the first of the month and have it received by the 1st with no grace period [is this even legal btw ?]), but the son's letter to him was delusional and filled with insane threats. the guy said that angels would harm my firned and that my friend must start paying this kook 100.00 a week or they would be set after him to destory him.... (wait it gets better)....on the backside of the letter, were xeroxed copies of envelopes and messages that this guy had sent addressed to martha stewart, george w bush, the secret service, samatha runyon and serveral other famour, political names. Just insane gibberish, but very scary nonetheless. So what advice does anyone have regarding all this lunacy ? About the accusations of late rent. about the lawyer saying the grace period isnt applicable anymore. about this dernaged nut on the loose... HELP ! (P.S- my friend isn't the first person to have ongoing problems with these landlords, other former tenants have left because harassing reasons. Such as racial bias (a white woman had biracial baby )and the landlords had to reach a reduced rent settlemnt with her as part of a lawsuit.
<small>[ September 13, 2002, 03:15 AM: Message edited by: aceweb ]</small>