Life at home

What does your contract say about this? (Mine has a pretty detailed list of what is whose responsibility.) If it's your contractual responsibility to keep the garbage disposal unclogged, and if your evidence isn't quite good enough to prove to a judge which unit in the house did the clogging, you may not have much of an enforceable claim.

Actually I'm not paying half...just 1/4. There's three of them. I live upstairs from them. And I don't use that kitchen at all...

I have to go look at the lease I use....should have done that to begin with.

F**k 'em.

The lease basically leaves me responsible for reasonable wear and tear and casualty by the unexpected only. They're responsible for maintaining and keeping equipment in good condition.

Then it seems CJ was right, and you're generous to pick up half the tab. This was not an unexpected casualty, it was negligence on their part to keep the equipment in good condition. Send them a bill, and write an accompanying letter referring to the right clause in the contract.

Their only way to mess with you after that is by saying "we don't know whose rice and eggshells these are. We're not paying for other people's rice and eggshells. We're not paying then." Not sure what happens then. Do they bear the burden of proof, or do you? If you bear it, is your evidence strong enough? Here we reach a point where I can't help you. But if you're a member of a homeowners' association , they almost certainly can. Cases like these are a staple for them.

But you can worry about this after trying to just send them a bill and a reminder of their contractual obligations.

I'm meeting with them tonight. It's a 3 bedroom apartment, they're the only three who use that sink/disposal. They can't say it wasn't them...

Good. Best wishes for a quick resolution then!

So what did they say, Slappy?

I've known the eggshell no-no for about forever, but these dolts may not have. However this comes out, perhaps a copy of How to Run Your Washing Machine/Garbage Disposal type stuff would be useful for new tenants. Though I agree that they agreed to the good use thereof.

In Nigeria, when they need to extract money from people (even taxes), they have guys walking about with a pack of hyenas or orangutans on leash:




but be careful not to be too charismatic and successful...

Applied conflict resolution at its best!

26 years of continuous education allows me to be most helpful in such complex life situations.

Adds.. good learning experience for them.

There's two girls and a guy. They all wanted to meet tonight at 7, but a few hours earlier I heard the two girls downstairs, so I went down(the stairs, not on them).

They had two main issues: 1) they had to pay for 3/4 of it, and 2) it was more expensive then they thought it should be.

1) I didn't even let them get too many words in before telling them it was in the lease, there's nothing wrong with the disposal, and there's not much to argue it was clogged from misuse. I told them eggshells are a no-no, and there was simply a ton of food down there. The princess tried telling me how she's used disposals her whole life and never had a problem...so I explained they're not designed to handle a lot of food, and that splitting the bill "is what it is." It wasn't a confrontational meeting, I get along with them fine anyway. The dude that lives here wasn't home, I was supposed to go tell him what I told them when he got home, but never heard from him.

2) As far as being expensive....they told me it was clogged wednesday, thursday I asked them to draino it, which didn't work. I tried that night myself again, didn't work. Friday morning tried snaking it, didn't work. I was leaving for Maine at 3pm for the weekend, and wanted it fixed. Called roto-rooter, they were able to send someone right out, so there really was no time to price shop. From what someone told me, it's usually $300 or so for a plumber visit for clogged drains anyway, even if it is a ripoff.

Memories of a twitchy oaf-y plumber who had sympathy for me and my old house, back in north north. I don't remember the prices, probably lowish re some other plumbers' high prices, but not stupidly low. Just that he tended to wave some stuff he fixed. Not an infatuation situation, trust me. He was very good at solving plumbing problems, and I recommended him to others, something I'm professionally chary of, thus I didn't do the recs in a work situation.

So go downstairs to pick up the rent checks this morning...they didn't pay for the repair, and left a printed letter basically stating they didn't feel they should pay it.

I was pissed, put together an email saying they should take responsibility, ect., and if they didn't want to pay it, let me know so I could take the next step. (in my mind, booting them out, or just raising the rent some ridiculous number).

Then I realized, out of the three, the guy is moving out the end of this month(they have seperate leases, the two girls are just on month to month after their leases ran out), so I have to bring in prospective roommates for them/tenants for me. Doing so while they're pissed off because I stood my ground on this wouldn't probably work out well, and I didn't want the two just leaving on me, leaving the place empty.

So a while after emailing them, I sent them all a text saying they're good tenants, I want to move on, so don't worry about the plumbing bill.

I decided to advertise the room opening up for $25 higher than the other two are paying....once I get a new person in, the two existing girls will get a notice from me the end of this month that rent is going up $25/month starting October 1st. So either way I'll get paid back for this, and then some. And hopefully they'll be nice and happy while I look to fill the third room and meet prospective roommates.

"So go downstairs to pick up the rent checks this morning...they didn't pay for the repair, and left a printed letter basically stating they didn't feel they should pay it."


Fzzzzzz. I guess I'd blow them off but tighten the lease. I'm irritated on your behalf.

Very professional reaction, Slappy. I probably would have been too mad to pull that off.

So, Dasha has left the building. The new girl has moved in (today). She has a cute (but very young) cousin living in the area.

Hopefully, there won't be any ranting to be done this year.

I have two housemates here in The Hague. Nice guys, one is almost 10 years younger than me. A bit too young perhaps, but is responsible enough and both are clean enough. This younger one, L., has a tendency to use my stuff though. Milk here, apple there, my cups (I have two...shipped from the U.S. - Boston U. and Harvard U.)....

...or, I should say I HAD two. Often one of the cups disappears for days. I told him I don't like that, and that he can use them but return them. He got the message. But my Harvard U. cup was missing for a week, so I asked today if he has it. He broke it. I know it's a silly cup, but I was rather miffed about it. He didn't bother telling me for a week. As if I shipped the damned thing for his enjoyment. He also used my toothbrush at least twice, by mistake I believe - he often comes home very very late (4-6 am) and likely drunk (he is young, and Norwegian...so that's kinda a given). I used the same toothpaste for 5 years, so naturally I notice when it smells different. And that REALLY pisses me off. Apples, cups, milk, yogurt, whatever.... but a toothbrush? Too much. Surely it's not on purpose, but it looks like I'm gonna have to start hiding my stuff out of sight. Grumble. He IS a nice guy otherwise though, just kinda careless in some ways. Meh.