We're back with another Horror Story for our competition that begins today at 2pm. Polls will stay open for twenty-four hours.
My horror story begins with a love affair with a seemingly amazing townhouse on a beautiful block in a highly questionable area north of Chinatown. The landlord didn't show up to our first scheduled tour. I should have known then that this would not end well.
I also probably should have known something was amiss when my roommates and I received bizarrely worded emails from the new landlord. For someone who speaks English as his first language, emails like this one were perplexing at best:
"Let's quickly discuss any sticking points.-- I assume you have no bike-fleet storage plans. You'd be surprised how disastrous a typical living room bike storage heap can become. Generally I hope you have no grave concerns. I can affirm only one parking space for Dec. 1st. It the deeper space front-to-back --but it'll take ambitious jockeying to shoehorn 2 vehicles on a regular basis. Parking is competitive downtown. It'll be good to speak."
Overall, we (I) still had concerns about the safety of the neighborhood for four twenty-something women. Landlord kindly forgot to remove the former tenants' names from the lease document he gave us, so I got my sleuth on and found one of the guys on Facebook and sent him a message. He said that four people were mugged outside the house during their stay, but thought that the mugger had been arrested eventually. This didn't exactly reassure me, but my roommates were in love with the place and we didn't have any other options at that point.
So we moved in. Day 1: I spent the first night awake the whole night due to a door to the roof opening and slamming repeatedly in the wind (it couldn't be shut completely). Day 2: Emailed the landlord to inform him that neither the 3rd floor toilet nor the shower worked (no one had lived on the 3rd floor previously). Landlord assures us he will fix the problem. Day 3: Toilet still does not flush. 3rd floor shower has no pressure either.
Exchanges about the toilet and shower continued for weeks. Every day, Landlord assured us he (himself – not a plumber) had fixed the problem. When we returned home to a toilet that didn't flush and followed up with him, Landlord asked if we "were flushing sweaters down the toilet." For weeks, four girls shared the same shower on the 2nd floor. One day, mercifully, the toilet flushed and seemed to be fixed (FINALLY).
The next day, we had a group of people over for a housewarming/holiday party. It wasn't a particularly large or rowdy bunch. Around midnight, I was sitting on the stairs chatting with guests when my roommate appeared, white in the face. The whole third floor was covered in water from a clogged toilet. We ran down the stairs frantically looking for the place to turn off the water. But it was too late. We halted when we heard a scream as we reached the first floor. We were too late. Toilet water was streaming from the light fixtures onto our party guests. If anyone ever needs a way to clear out a party and FAST, just pour toilet water on their heads.
Upon calling the Landlord, he told us we would have to pay for all of the damages. It should be noted that the boiler also broke, leaving us without heat, for a week in December, and that mice crawled out of the kitchen sink on multiple occasions. The 3rd floor shower was never fixed either. Needless to say, I opted to move out as soon as I found a one-bedroom, despite paying double rent for months.