We've just been served notice. It's official... we're moving out of the Ghetto Apartment. The Ghetto Apartment is what I would kindly call the staging ground for J and my life together in Seattle. He moved into Ghetto Apartment "A" just before I came back from Japan, and that was before we deemed the place officially "ghetto." It has a low rent for Seattle and massive square footage for a 1-bedroom. The location is a bit out of the way, but it's on the edge of a really nice area. All-around what I would have rated a B- to begin with. But then we realized that the wear and tear around the edges of the place was more than what one would qualify as "lived in" and that the management didn't give a shit.
Also, and this is a MAJOR turn-off for me (figuratively and literally), some moron designer placed the main walkway and parking area directly outside the ground-floor units' bedroom window. NO PRIVACY and huge amounts of noise. BAD.
This spring, J got notice that he was being evicted. No, not because he was a bad tenant, but because the new management had, in fact, bought the place to turn it into... *gasp*... CONDOS! I was still in Oregon and couldn't exactly apartment and job hunt from Eugene, so what were we to do? As it turns out, not much, because the management was only turning building B into condos-- building A was still "occupiable," basically lived-in by all the sucker tenants who were too destitute to leave or actually liked the place. Building A, I guess, was their way of socking away rent money while they started the construction on building B-- construction that would essentially make "A" tenants' lives miserable.
( Continue...)
So what did we do? We moved into Building A. Not because we're masochists but because rent is cheap (read: I don't have to pay Justin any money as I'm unemployed) and it's a month-to-month lease. We can, should we choose to, leave at any time. But we had incentive to wait. One of the "B" tenants, probably an anal-retentive asshole, was righteously pissed off about being kicked out and meanwhile abused during the 3-months after notice and before final mandatory vacation. He got a lawyer. And the lawyer unearthed the juicy tidbit that by city law, tenants evicted from a condo-conversion can get a $500 "relocation stipend" if they make less that 80% of the area's median income. And we do. Since we knew we were in for a little dough very shortly, we stuck it out.
Like I said, they've been doing an unpleasant amount of construction. With unpleasant results. Aside from the noise, there is debris everywhere. And several weeks ago, they began roofing. Supposedly a two week process but it's still going on. A few days after they started, one unlucky Friday night, it began to rain... into the living room. I guess the roofers, unusually unskilled, forgot what might happen when they removed the gutters and didn't replace them. We're not even the top floor. The rain came down the walls of the balcony above us, pooled on the floor, and seeped through the poorly sealed walls into our ceiling. I guess another sad bastard had one of the roofers actually stick his FOOT through his ceiling. Oy vey.
Ironically, we just found a place to live, and were putting in application to move next month, hoping we'd get notice in the mean time. And today, it came in the mail. We have an apartment secured by a friend's recommendation (he's senior tenant in the 4-unit house). It's huge, bright, and in a great, kitchy part of Seattle. Not the yuppie wet dream I've been having, but homey and very liveable. With a really nice owner, not the faceless management of this dump. I'll tell you more about where we'll be living soon, but I wanted to break the news and share the background first.
I bet they can't even try to withhold our money after the last guy sicced the city on them. Yay!
Posted on October 18, 2005 @ 11:01 PM | 1 comments
Also, and this is a MAJOR turn-off for me (figuratively and literally), some moron designer placed the main walkway and parking area directly outside the ground-floor units' bedroom window. NO PRIVACY and huge amounts of noise. BAD.
This spring, J got notice that he was being evicted. No, not because he was a bad tenant, but because the new management had, in fact, bought the place to turn it into... *gasp*... CONDOS! I was still in Oregon and couldn't exactly apartment and job hunt from Eugene, so what were we to do? As it turns out, not much, because the management was only turning building B into condos-- building A was still "occupiable," basically lived-in by all the sucker tenants who were too destitute to leave or actually liked the place. Building A, I guess, was their way of socking away rent money while they started the construction on building B-- construction that would essentially make "A" tenants' lives miserable.
( Continue...)
So what did we do? We moved into Building A. Not because we're masochists but because rent is cheap (read: I don't have to pay Justin any money as I'm unemployed) and it's a month-to-month lease. We can, should we choose to, leave at any time. But we had incentive to wait. One of the "B" tenants, probably an anal-retentive asshole, was righteously pissed off about being kicked out and meanwhile abused during the 3-months after notice and before final mandatory vacation. He got a lawyer. And the lawyer unearthed the juicy tidbit that by city law, tenants evicted from a condo-conversion can get a $500 "relocation stipend" if they make less that 80% of the area's median income. And we do. Since we knew we were in for a little dough very shortly, we stuck it out.
Like I said, they've been doing an unpleasant amount of construction. With unpleasant results. Aside from the noise, there is debris everywhere. And several weeks ago, they began roofing. Supposedly a two week process but it's still going on. A few days after they started, one unlucky Friday night, it began to rain... into the living room. I guess the roofers, unusually unskilled, forgot what might happen when they removed the gutters and didn't replace them. We're not even the top floor. The rain came down the walls of the balcony above us, pooled on the floor, and seeped through the poorly sealed walls into our ceiling. I guess another sad bastard had one of the roofers actually stick his FOOT through his ceiling. Oy vey.
Ironically, we just found a place to live, and were putting in application to move next month, hoping we'd get notice in the mean time. And today, it came in the mail. We have an apartment secured by a friend's recommendation (he's senior tenant in the 4-unit house). It's huge, bright, and in a great, kitchy part of Seattle. Not the yuppie wet dream I've been having, but homey and very liveable. With a really nice owner, not the faceless management of this dump. I'll tell you more about where we'll be living soon, but I wanted to break the news and share the background first.
I bet they can't even try to withhold our money after the last guy sicced the city on them. Yay!
Posted on October 18, 2005 @ 11:01 PM | 1 comments
Comments:
good-bye Ghetto apartments!
By 
Rachel, at
2:31 PM, October 19, 2005
