97% of people lie 97% of the time

But 100% of landlords lie 100% of the time:

LIE: “That pipe isn’t leaking.”
TRUTH: It IS leaking but since landlord/owner doesn’t pay the water bill, landlord will lie about it to save his own penny or his five minutes of time to properly repair it. Not until pressed for months, costing me a lot of money on my water bill, would landlord admit that it was leaking and then made attempt to fix it.

LIE: “Somebody broke that.”
TRUTH: Landlord broke it but is too prideful and cowardly to admit it; plus, it’s easier just to blame tenant or a phantom repairman from six years ago. (Article forthcoming.)

LIE: “The refrigerator came with the house.”
TRUTH: See article: The Brotherhood of the Traveling Refrigerator

LIE: “I’ll replace the refrigerator with the same model.”
TRUTH: See article: The Brotherhood of the Traveling Refrigerator

LIE: “The washer’s only a few years old. It works great; you just have to jiggle it occasionally. It works best on permanent press cycle.”
TRUTH: The washer won’t spin or empty the water, even if you “jiggle” it constantly. And it only will wash occasionally on permanent press cycle, and not at all on any other cycle. Oh, and a “few years” translates from “lying-landlord-speak” to factual “discontinued about 15+ years ago.” (Article forthcoming.)

More to come — I can only withstand a rehash of all this negativity in small chunks. So why rehash it, you may ask? The next unsuspecting tenant, or heaven forbid, person looking to purchase this owner-created MONEY PIT needs to be aware of the lies and coverups from owner’s attempt to “FLIP THIS FLOP” because owner certainly will LIE about it before he opens his moth-infested coin purse to HIRE someone to fix it right.

And, apparently from all of the positive comments received regarding these articles, many people are well past being tired of the rampant lying that is considered normal operating practice in any level of business and personal relationship.

Too many people remain silent today, coerced by the tyrants to “just get along,” “don’t sweat the small stuff,” etc., while the tyrants take over.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. – Thomas Jefferson

“Tyranny comes in all forms. And it usually starts with a LIE.” – me

Dear Mr. Villa: How often should one water his house?

As long as tenant is paying for the water, take full advantage of them and water your house frequently at their expense, most especially when it is raining.

~ Only through humor shall I not cry again. ~

Strangle a Penny

A chain of pool supply/repair stores in Florida is called “Pinch a Penny.” Owner of this house should open his own pool DIS-repair establishment called “Strangle a Penny.” His modus operandi is to meddle, interfere, delay and in any way negatively impact until his “penny wise, pound foolish” methodology turns his penny backwards, forwards, upside down and inside out, making someone spend quite a penny for his negligence.

I engaged several professionals, all of whom, after trying to stop from laughing, gave great insight into the many problems. Aside from the pump leaking, and tape of some sort holding the apparatus together, the meter reading between 50-60 instead of between 10-15, all professionals agreed that the owner had no knowledge or ability to appropriately repair the pump. One serviceman relayed, “The part to fix this is actually inexpensive. It’s a real shame, but I see this all the time with cheap landlords who think they can do it themselves.”

I don’t have a problem if someone is incapable of doing repairs. I don’t even have a problem if someone is more than parsimonious. But I do have a problem when that person makes me pay, and pay much, much more than should be, due to his lying and negligence.

After eight weeks of lies, delays, and his being unable to fix it, he finally admits partial responsibility that he didn’t seal it properly and that he broke something on it. But that did not stop him during or even thereafter from badgering me to have costly pool maintenance done, now that the pool is a swamp, while he continues to delay and play. In his attempt to still cover up his mistakes, landlord took it upon himself to padlock the pool timer box and run the pool filter 24 hours a day on my electricity dollars.

One man’s journey from miser to liar to thief.

A House with a Pool

I recall my parents looking at new homes, and their dreams of buying one with a built-in pool.  But it was never meant to be then.

When an opportunity arose for my husband and I to rent a Florida house with an in-ground pool, it was exciting.  That must have overshadowed our judgment when we entered into a lease with the house owner.

The pool was a dream when we first saw it.  After signing the lease, we brought our daughters to look at the house to find that the pool was filled with paint chips from the owner and his friend trying to repair the deck and porch surface.

As part of the lease, owner was responsible for the pool maintenance.  For the first year, the pool was barely useable.  Owner had left the state and had engaged from afar some of the worst, and cheapest, pool maintenance people available in the Hunters Creek, Orlando area.  The pump did not operate properly.  The filter was never cleaned.  One service put in so many chemicals, my daughters were nearly hospitalized from skin rashes.  Another service put in hardly any chemicals so the pool was either green from algae or cloudy from dead algae.

Finally, we told owner we were going to engage our own service.  For the first time in over a year, we had a beautiful, crystal clear pool where no one got rashes and even our little dog could swim without getting abscesses on her little paws!

Then in January 2012, owner relocated back to Florida, after two other of his businesses and several of his personal relationships failed.

On February 11, 2012, I told owner there was a problem with the pool pump.  Wrong move on my part.  Owner, as usual, decided to try to fix it himself.  To make a long and painful story short, pump was broken for weeks, due to owner’s lack of knowledge in not only operating but in fixing pool pumps.  But that did not stop him from blaming all but himself and holding me responsible for having it cleaned due to his gross negligence.

This painful story will be dealt with in more details in other posts, but as of the date of this post, April 22, 2012, this is what the pool looks like after owner’s meddling and failure.  It should be noted that the pool pump is still not operating properly.  I have had several professional pool services assess the problems, of which owner has refused to acknowledge their expert remedies.