It's tough being the landlord

[scarletamethyst]

I think there must be something in the air to make people such as my neighbors, act like idiots.  Here's why I believe this:

1.)  The family who lives in the house behind me is apparently proclaiming to all and sundry that we, their landlords, are backstabbing SOBs who are out to get them.  They believe this because I, the landlord's 22 year old daughter, politely asked their 16 year old daughter to shorten her dog's  long  chain or at least tie it somewhere else because it tried to bite me several times as I was on my way to the laundry room.  They like to chain their dogs (two dogs that bark at everyone they see, including me) to their front porch, which so happens to be right next to my laundry room entrance and my mom's garden.  I might have kept silent about the matter except that it tried to bite my dad days earlier, and just yesterday my mom, who was on her way to cut some fresh lemon grass from her garden, almost dropped a knife on it when it suddenly attempted to bite her.  The father is in high dudgeon, and has been occasionally yelling profanities about us bullying them and doing their damned best to annoy us by playing music at extremely high volumes, glaring at us through his window, and telling his family to avoid our family. 

    -Okay, in the first place, me asking them to shorten the chain is a matter of safety and consideration for the other people who live on the property, which happens to be us, their landlords.  I don't think my personal safety should be an issue about unjustified bullying.
    -Secondly, they're not even legally supposed to have dogs at all, because our insurance doesn't cover them if their dogs bite someone and they don't have a yard, considering all areas around the driveway is cemented........thus the dogs do their dirty business on the driveway and since they don't clean up after their pets, I sometimes unknowingly drive over dog shit.
    -Thirdly, what right do they have to complain when they pay a mere $700 per month for a 3 bedroom house located minutes from schools, freeways, and downtown, with utilities and gated parking included.  Hell, we even paid for them to have a new refrigerator, washing and drying machine two years ago, because they wanted newer and bigger appliances, which they never paid us a single cent back for.
    -Fourth, we are very accommodating, considering we're not here during most of the day due to work, school, etc., so we've never restricted anything they've done, including loud parties and strange cars in our driveway, so I should think asking them to be equally accommodating for such a small matter isn't too much to ask for.
    -Fifth, the only reason they think they can do whatever they want is because they were "friends" of my parents, who have a reputation for being easy-going.  We've treated them more as friends than tenants, never shoving into their face the fact that we're their landlords as well. There isn't even a written lease or deposit; it's all been an oral rental agreement, which is lucky for them since they've been late with their rent quite a few times, sometimes weeks late.

2.)  Whenever my parents come home from work, the father turns on his music system to its highest setting for hours on end in an effort to block us out and irritate us at the same time, sometimes competing with my neighbor on the side, who works as a DJ and sometimes hosts REALLY loud parties......sighs, I can't even hear myself think when I'm home sometimes.......I liked living in the quieter suburbs better.  Sadly our family is one of the quietest in our neighborhood not just because everybody else is so loud, but also because we rarely if ever have parties and we spend most of our time at home on the computer or watching TV in the bedroom.

3.)  I am on the top of the father's hit list because he thinks I'm trying to boss him around via his daughter.  Apparently I am now a coward for not saying my request to his face, but to his daughter who is closer in age to me than him and who is the one that actually takes care of the dogs, which is idiotic since he's not even home half the time I'm around. 

4.)  At this point I'm all for kicking them out and renting the place to some decent looking strangers as long as they sign an official written contract and aren't prone to being loud.  Even if my parents are willing to stand for this insanity, I'm not, so unless they become somewhat reasonable soon, I'm going to have to resort to drastic measures.


Sorry to anyone reading this, it's just this has been pissing me off all morning and I needed to get it out.