NOTE: This post originally appeared in my Patreon account on January 18th, 2023
Hello all!
Sorry to vent here, but I absolutely feel the need to. This is long. TLDR at the bottom.
For the past few months, I've been having problems with my landlord. She's, for all intents and purposes, a narcissistic old woman with crippling hypochondria and an overinflated sense of entitlement.
And the reason why I'm having to leave my apartment is simply because things between us have degenerated to a point where I cannot stand this person.
There are many more problems as well, of course. And I'll be listing them out here.
Let's start with me, then I'll move on to the Landlord.
I need to be clear about something on my end: I'm no saint. I haven't been able to keep up with rent due to Covid and inflation. As a result, I have only been able to pay a portion of my rent for a few months. To make things right, I offered to help with gardening and landscaping around the house where I'm renting at.
This was something that the Landlord herself suggested and agreed to.
I was happily doing this work to square debts. I cleaned up a major portion of the yard. Namely, one corner was absolutely overgrown with ivy. The ivy's roots were so ingrained that they weren't just toppling the fence itself - they were coming through the cracks on the concrete.
The mounds of soil that I dug up were probably 50% root. Not even a hyperbole - I had multiple wheelbarrows full of ivy roots. And I didn't even dig as far down as I could. Maybe only a foot or two at most. There was definitely more to dig out.
My part in cleaning it up was to dig up that corner, kill the roots, even the soil, and refill the corner. This took a couple months to complete.
And then, of course, winter came quickly along with what meteorologists call an 'atmospheric river'. I'll get back to that in a minute.
Although our weather doesn't really fall that far down in terms of temperature, it did this year. Things got to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit in December. Not quite freezing, but cold and wet and shitty.
The Landlord (who will heretofore be referred to as the 'Witch') demanded that I work in December to square some rent debt. Which was obviously and plainly impossible.
I noted that doing that would make me sick. And being sick would mean that my actual work (updating the novel) would be hindered. That would result in a cascading lessening of income over time.
Instead of understanding and rescheduling any debt work to be made in the springtime, which is the only logical and obvious concession that anyone could make, the Witch instead threatened to evict me. Wtf, right?
Already, you're seeing the problems.
But you see, this is just scratching the surface. Over the past 6 years that I've stayed here, the Witch has unjustly accused me of all sorts of things. All without proof, of course. Things I've never done while living here, and things I would never do.
Here are some of the accusations that have been levied against me: smoking cigarettes, hammering at 3am, having my WiFi on at 11pm, me throwing dog poop along the side of the house, clogging up the laundry with dirt & soil, etc.
For my part, I can confidently say that I: don't smoke cigarettes, have never hammered once since staying here, don't use WiFi, don't throw poop, don't roll around in dirt, etc.
I have refuted the Witch's accusations each and every single time politely but firmly. And most importantly, with my own proof.
Now I need to point out that I'm a POC. While I won't say the Witch is overtly racist, she does some incredibly racist things. Accusing me of all these "crimes" without any proof, and coming down hard on me each time as though I need remediation.
Not once has she ever come to me with a shred of an apology or acknowledgement of fault.
This is not anything new to any POC. In fact, this treatment is pretty standard. I didn't really expect any from her. This type of person never really apologizes because they never really think or believe they've done anything wrong.
Allow me to add to the Witch's temperament.
Over these same 6 years, I have personally witnessed how this person has absolutely and completely emotionally abused her husband.
There have been countless days and nights when she curses him out at the top of her lungs, fighting over nothing important at all. Literally 2am screaming matches, calling him a Loser, an Idiot, an Asshole, you name it, she called him that.
Usually it's about money. Which is something many couples argue about.
Sometimes it's because of something he might have forgot or did incorrectly or, more likely, accusations of things he didn't do. I don't have the details, but the general gist of their fights is that she wanted something done exactly, but he wasn't able to do it or fulfil it.
Keep in mind both of these people are in their 70s and aging. White hair, wrinkles, etc. So yeah, these two are retired. Or, actually, he is retired. She has never worked a day in her life.
Her husband is blue collar all the way, and his line of work from when he was younger absolutely has broken his body.
The husband is tough and gentle and soft spoken. And of course, he weathers all her abuse relatively gracefully, though not perfectly. He certainly shouts back, because clearly she hits whatever limit he has quickly.
I'm sure all the childish name calling doesn't help.
I did mention that she has never worked a day in her life, right? It's because she appears to be a hypochondriac. She claims to get ill over all sorts of things, which results in her deteriorating health.
She told me (back in December when she was trying to get me to work out in the crap weather) that she couldn't come out in the daytime because the daylight does something to her skin.
Or whatever. Her skin has always been dry and cracking so she over-moisturizes it. And she blames a myriad of problems on that.
Mold and mildew. Toxic air. Humidity.
She had her husband rip up all their flooring to get rid of any mold and mildew that was underneath it. This took him months of back-breaking work to do. Of course, she screamed at him almost every night while it was happening.
At one point he got wounded or actually sick and had to stop for a few days. She was loving at that point. But once that had passed, the screaming and accusations resumed.
He later confessed to me that he found very little or no mold and mildew under the flooring.
Despite the fact that he stays by her side, she insists that he continually do back-breaking work on the house. Such as replacing the roof, or the flooring, or the decking. Again, 70 years old, forced to work by an entitled old Witch.
Oh! And that part about the WiFi? She was yelling and screaming at me at 11 at night because she believed that my wifi signals were giving her cancer. They don't. And I don't use wifi. My PC is connected through cat5 directly. More to the point, television sets and radio signals give more cancer than wifi signals.
So yeah, I've more than had it with this Witch.
I told her with no uncertain terms that I will be leaving the premises on the 31st of January due to her insufferable behavior. And I will not be paying her rent because the only way to leave is to stiff her for January.
Not only am I super broke now, but being forced to move will make me indebted by thousands of dollars when it's all said and done.
Let me get back to the atmospheric river.
It has been raining since December, and even into January. There are people who have died in SoCal. Streets in NorCal cities have been flooded.
My own basement apartment got flooded.
Oh, I should mention the fact: the underside of this house, along with my basement room is a breeding ground for mold and mildew. This is thanks to the intense moisture in the air where I live.
Remember the part where she made her husband slave for months over mold and mildew that didn't exist? Well I'm the one suffering this house's mold and mildew, not her.
I've been able to mostly keep it at bay thus far. This atmospheric river made this a thousand times worse.
It has gotten to the point where the carpeting around the edges of the room has been soaked in water. My dog's bed got soaked to the point where its now growing mildew.
Of course, I go to wash my dog's beddings and this Witch gets up all in my face about not paying her and refuses to give me access to wash the beddings.
I'm incredibly irritated at the injustice of this, but fine. I didn't pay, so I don't get to use the washing machine. Fine. We can call this 'fair'.
But then get this: she blames ME for the room getting "ruined", for it getting flooded! Can you believe this absolute POS?! Still the same entitled, self-absorbed bullshit since day one.
Not an acknowledgement of her behavior, or any apology. Just more accusations and blaming and demands for things to go her way and only hers. What a truly horrible human being.
I told her that I can't wait until she keels over and dies, and that I'll drink in celebration when that day comes.
Thanks for allowing me to vent.
And, uh, if you wanna help me get the fuck outta here via cheers or even a donation or two, then you have my eternal gratitude.
TL;DR My entitled, narcissistic, borderline racist landlord is a POS and I need to get away from this place as fast as possible.
