Living on one’s own, things don’t always go as planned. Might as well just plan on that, actually. But, there are smart ways to plan — like making sure that your landlord is the kind that takes care of business.
When I first met my landlord, I took note of how on-the-ball he was and it made me feel really good about my choice of apartments. This past week, I saw just how right my judgement was.
Recently, the tenant above me has started making a tremendous amount of noise at all hours of the night…a la 4AM, 2:15AM, 5:30AM. Adios, Sleep.
When I went upstairs to try to talk with my neighbor, it turned out to be a very sad situation. The woman has Dementia and Alzheimer’s and when her meds aren’t working right, she gets upset and bangs on her dining room table which happens to be above my bedroom. She didn’t tell me this, of course; one of her six rotating nurses did. While the nurse I spoke with was sympathetic, she didn’t seem to think there was much she’d be able to do. Oy.
Since I’ve only been in my apartment one month, I hesitated to get my landlord involved, as I didn’t want to seem like a trouble tenant. But, in the end, I didn’t have much of a choice. I’m not sure what I expected, but I definitely didn’t expect him say that he’d be over later that afternoon to talk with the nurses or for him to say that if I woke up again to give him a call no matter the hour of night. Finally, I certainly didn’t expect him to knock on my door a few hours later to say that he was installing carpeting on his own dime.
It really was something, especially, as he installed carpeting the next day.
At the other end of the spectrum, a friend’s pilot light broke in her oven last week and she’s had a gas leak ever since. It shouldn’t be dangerous, but she’s been sleeping with all her windows open since it happened. Yeah, her landlord hasn’t done squat even after repeated calls.
Most of the time, life is peachy and you shouldn’t need to contact your landlord at all. It’s on those rare occasions, though, when a great landlord makes all the difference. Do yourself a favor — when you’re checking out her your next potential apartment, see if the landlord’s someone you think you can depend on. Decide on that apartment accordingly.
