Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Recently, we drove by the Eagles Crossing property.

Had our eyes deceived us?

Parts of the lawn were as high as an elephant’s eye, and other parts were dried to a tumbleweed. Now that landlord has to pay for the water to keep the lawn green, this is what has happened.

Landlord required my husband to cut the grass TWICE A WEEK in the summer. Yet, here I am staring at a pasture that would take a flock of sheep a month to eat enough grass to be in compliance with the Hunters Creek Homeogres Association.

While we resided here, my husband, daughters and I spent hours weekly cutting the grass, pulling weeds, gathering fallen palm tree leaves, raking, etc., on top of manually watering the lawn with our hose. The lawn watering system didn’t work upon move-in 2007. Many, many, many months later, when it was replaced by landlord’s friend who was not proficient in doing such work, the system stopped working again, and landlord never had it repaired. Though we bought a sprinkler to move around the lawn to get it watered in all of the dry spots, often times my husband or I would be standing around with the hoses we purchased to water the lawn.

And here, parts of the lawn — dead in large pockets! While we resided here, he was tyrannical about HIS cost and forcing us to pay for his negligence on all levels. Landlord was relentless in using the water we paid to water the lawn, let leaky pipes go without repair, adding water every week to the green swamp of a pool he created, or he would just stand with a hose and let the water run against the house in more of his despicable ways.

In 2007, landlord/owner promised he would be back every quarter, at least three or four times a year, to do landscaping, take care of the gutters, etc. Except for one time around 2010, when he brought the woman he was currently living with to show off his “Florida estate,” he never did any of the tree maintenance, nor sent any lawn care maintenance from February 2007 through June 2011.

Over the years, we did the lawn care and tree maintenance, from climbing tall palm trees, to cutting down a tree that was struck by lightning; from my husband having to climb onto the roof to clean the gutters, to trimming dead trees that landlord planted because he liked the look of them in a shopping mall!

Landlord/owner does have an arsenal of excuses for not cutting his own lawn I am certain, though any excuse from us would have been completely unacceptable.

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