Still Evil

We finally got the inspection report from Evil Landlandy and at first glance it looked not bad until I realized that she wasn't telling us she was deducting $148 she was telling us that she's deducting $988 so we owe her $148!

First of all that's not going to happen, second of all that's illegal, she can't charge us more than our damage deposit and thirdly it's just so ridiculous it's laughable. So we'll add this to our court case which we can now proceed on.

Oh yeah, she also plans on charging us 1% interest for every month she doesn't get her money (also not legal). Oh the joys of renting from awful people.
L

Small Claims Court Here We Come

Evil Landlady strikes again, our walkthrough did not go well and we'll now be fighting for our damage deposit back as well as the rent abatement. I guess adding a little more money is no big deal.

Sigh... here's hoping this gets cleared up quickly.
L

The Leg I Stand On

There have been some comments about our landlady and people wondering what our rights are and so I thought I'd clarify by posting the letter that we've submitted to her. It clearly outlines what our rights are and that we're well within them and that she doesn't have a leg to stand on. It's in her best interest to just let us go with our damage deposit.


Subject: Breach of Contract

Dear Susan*:

For some time now we've been without a proper source of heat in our apartment and our frequent requests for a solution have been ignored. We discovered that this year we have zero heat and with the extreme cold of the past week our apartment has become unlivable. Concerned about your pipes freezing we've been running an electric heater and using our oven to provide some sort of warmth. Both are additional costs to us and we've decided it's in our best interest to find a new place to live.

As you have not complied with the Landlord Obligations as outlined in the Alberta Residential Tenancies Act we are submitting 14 days notice and will vacate the apartment by 12:00 noon on January 1st. We have listed the obligations below as well as the actions we are legally allowed to take.

Landlord's obligations

• Make the premises available for the tenant on the agreed move-in date.
• Not to disturb the tenant's possession or peaceful enjoyment of the premises. This means that the landlord is not to bother the tenant beyond what is necessary to do the landlord's business.
• Make sure the premises meet the minimum requirements set out in the Housing Regulation and the Minimum Housing and Health Standards under Alberta's Public Health Act at the beginning and during the tenancy. The Minimum Housing and Health Standards can be found on the Service Alberta website.
• Complete move in-and move-out inspection reports and provide copies to the tenant.

Below is an excerpt from the Public Health Act http://www.servicealberta.ca/pdf/consumers/housing99.pdf

8. Heating Facilities
(a) All heating facilities within a housing premises are to be properly installed and maintained in good working condition, and be capable of safely and adequately heating all habitable rooms, bathrooms, and toilet rooms within the building to a temperature of ;
(i) at least 22°C(710F), or
(ii) maintained at a temperature of at least 22°C(710F) when the control of the supplied heat in a dwelling is the responsibility of a person other than the occupant.

(b) When the outside temperature is colder than the winter design temperature as referenced in the Alberta Building Code(97) Section 2.2.1.1 and Appendix C, then the Executive Officer may permit an indoor temperature of less than 22°C(710F) but greater than 16°C (600F). (Without the use of extra heaters our temperature sits below 10°C)
(c) Cooking appliances and portable space heaters shall not be used as the primary source for the required heat to a habitable room.
(d) Every owner of a housing premises shall ensure a continuous supply of electricity, water and heat unless the rental agreement stipulates that such utility services are the sole responsibility of the occupant.

Voluntary Code of Practice - Alberta's Residential Tenancies Act
http://www.servicealberta.ca

Termination for substantial breach by landlord
28 (1) A tenant may apply to a court to terminate the tenancy or may terminate the tenancy by serving the landlord with a notice at least 14 days before the day that the tenancy is to terminate where
(a) the landlord commits a substantial breach of the residential tenancy agreement, and
(b) an executive officer has issued an order under section 62 of the Public Health Act in respect of the circumstances that constitute the substantial breach, and the tenant believes on reasonable grounds that the landlord has failed to comply with the order.
(2) The notice must
(a) be in writing,
(b) be signed by the tenant,
(c) set out the reasons for the termination, and
(d) set out the termination date.

We expect our full damage deposit back and we are prepared to follow the necessary steps to ensure it is received in a timely manner. We have put a stop-payment on all remaining cheques and would like them returned. We're happy to give access to our apartment for viewing with potential renters as long as 24 hour notice is given.

We respectfully request that all further communication be conducted in writing, either as a letter or an email and we've included all necessary contact information. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Brad & Laura Wiebe

*Names have been changes to protect the identity of our really crappy landlady.
L

Cold Hands, Cold Heart

So the hoped for basement suite had some serious flaws. We're about to be homeless and we're depressed.

The cold has made us unproductive... laundry hasn't been done (I'm wearing Brad's socks today because I'm out of clean ones), house cleaning is being ignored, breakfast has been skipped every day this week. If it can't be done while I'm under the warmth of a blanket it's probably not going to get done. I dread that moment where it's time to take off the pajamas and put on real clothes; it must be done as quickly as possible.

Although she's clearly in the wrong I'm sure there's going to be a fight with our landlady and I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what's going to happen to us.

It seems like this past 6 months have been nothing but a string of bad luck. Hoping for a change and happier, warmer days.
L

A Way Out

I have this knot in my stomach that never loosens. My hands are a little shaky… I'm really nervous.

I was trying to be tough and managed to not complain at all on my blog about the temperature in our apartment. Last year we had really horrible heat so we expected it to be cold but we weren't prepared for the entire lack of heat that we've been experiencing. We get not a single bit of heat from our pipes and our landlady has done nothing to fix it. It's no way to live when it's minus 45 degrees outside.

So we've decided to move. We don't know where we're going but we're giving notice tomorrow and we're not giving 30 days and we're going to try our darndest to get our entire damage deposit back. I'm sure it's going to be an unpleasant fight where reason is thrown out the window on her end and we do our best to stay calm but the law is on our side.

So think about us and send support our way, we need it to deal with the worst woman you've ever met and wish us luck tonight as we go look at a place that seems like it'll be much better than where we are now. To end on a happy note I'm including pictures of the hoped for basement suite. The windows are small I know but it's bigger and a little cheaper than what we have now.
L

Filler

Not the most entertaining I know, but it will have to do.

Last Movie I Saw In A Movie Theater? I think maybe it was Batman, that's the only one I can recall anyway. I'm not a big Theater person, I'd rather skip the lines and the ticket price watch in my living room.

What Book Are You Reading? “The Observations” by Jane Harris. I picked it up because it's by the same author as Chocolat and I liked that book a lot, this one is proving to have kind of a strange plot and I have no idea where the story is going to go.
– Funny story, I just went to look up how to spell Chocolat and apparently it was written by Joanne Harris, not Jane. So I just grabbed this book randomly then.

Favorite Board Game? Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, they're a pretty even tie. Really though, I like any of those German games that win the Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year) award.

Favorite Magazine? Martha Stewart Living though lately Maclean's has been read more frequently and is close to over taking Martha. I like that it makes me smarter.

Favorite Smells? 8 by Abercrombie and Fitch, dinner in the oven.

Favorite Sounds? Anything from my iPod, Christmas Music. Our apartment building is on the fourth floor and we're right by the stairwell, so there's a door at the top of the stairs. When the door closes it makes a little thump noise that I only seem to hear when Brad's coming home from work, that's probably my favorite sound.

Worst Feeling In The World? Losing a friend

First Thing You Think of When You Wake? Can't I stay here for a little bit longer? I'm not ready yet.

Fast Food Place? I guess Taco del Mar, I'm not much of a fast food person but I do really like their black bean burritos.

Future Child’s Name? I really like the name Cossette, though I would never actually name a child that. We have a list of them on Brad's palm so when the time comes we'll have some ideas at least.

Finish This Statement—“If I Had a Lot of Money,” I would immediately fly to Hawaii with Brad (he's never been there) and then when we got back we'd buy a house, skipping out of our apartment and forgetting about our damage deposit so we don't have to deal with awful land lady. I'd also buy Brad an iPhone so he'd stop mentioning it.

Do You Drive Fast? When I first got my car I wanted to go fast all the time, it just felt good but now I've relaxed and I drive so seldom that I'm usually pretty responsible.

Favorite place you have visited? London, I saw Les Miserable, The Lion King, The Producers and Stomp all within the week and I've never eaten anything better than the Kensington Crêperie.

Storms—cool or scary? Cool. A couple times Brad and I sat on our balcony, shielded from the rain and bundled up in blankets and watched the lightning and rain.

What Was Your First Car? A red Honda Civic, I can't remember what year but it was definitely from the 80's. It ran great and had a sun roof, I think it made me far cooler in high school.

Favorite Drink? Water. I know it sounds lame but I used to drink a lot of apple juice (it's free at work). Then I did the South Beach, the only lasting effect being that I decided I didn't want to drink those calories anymore so now I stick with water.

Finish This Statement—“If I Had the Time, I Would…” bake a lot more than I do. I'd also be a scrapbooker.

Do You Eat the Stems on Broccoli? I like the stems peeled but I know others don't so if I'm not the only one eating whatever I'm making then I normally don’t'.

If You could Dye your Hair Any Other Color, What Would It Be? Dark brown. I really liked the dark brown but I can't be bothered with the upkeep.

Favorite Sport to Watch? Baseball. Football is the worst and Hockey is close behind which is unfortunate since Brad loves it.

What’s Under Your Bed? Christmas decorations, a wrapping paper rolly bin, luggage. It's really our only storage.

Morning Person or Night Owl? I guess morning person since I don't like to stay up but I don't really like getting up early either. Can I be a mid-day person?

Over Easy or Sunny Side Up? Anyway I can get them. I love eggs but I prefer a little bit of a soft yolk.

Favorite Place to Relax? Bed on Saturday morning.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor? Birthday Cake from Lics but sadly they discontinued it. It was vanilla ice cream with swirls of frosting and chunks of cake.

Hope you're having a good Wednesday, enjoy the first snowfall.
L

Last Night

What'd you do last night?
Brad and I spent the evening plunging our kitchen sink.

On Tuesday we noticed that our sink was running slowly so we picked up some drano to fix the problem, only it made the problem worse. Now it wasn't draining at all.

Found out from our resident fix-it guy that plumbing is our responsibility, so we plunged. And then plunged some more. And when all hope was lost we plunged a little more and to our surprise the sink runs just fine now.

I was getting tired of eating on paper plates but I admit I'm a little disappointed we won't be ordering the pizza like we'd planned for tonight.

Lessons Learned from plunging the sink?
I'm a terrible plunger
It's a very gross job

L

Fight! Fight! Fight!

I don't have the heart to add details but the fight with the landlord continues. I think we're dangerously close to having our rent raised which will result in a move.

I felt slightly satisfied when I mentioned her name to a friend in the mailroom at work and he knew who I was talking about and has heard stories about this woman.

Wishing she was more reasonable and less fly off the handle crazy.
L

Moving?

This is a bit of a long story… hope you have some time.

The other day I was heading downstairs to do some laundry and the people across the hall happened to be leaving at the same time. They're a nice couple that we've spoken to on a few occasions so we said hi. The conversation then went something like this,
Her - "So you two are moving?"
Me - "Moving? No… we plan on staying here for a while."
"Oh, about a week ago I saw them showing your apartment"

That means that they illegally, without our knowledge came into our apartment and showed it to someone else… for whatever reason. They're required to give us 48 hours notice before they can enter our apartment.

Needless to say we're not very happy about this.
We found out that info on Saturday and didn’t have a chance to do anything about it that day or on Sunday so yesterday was the day. Brad picked up the phone to make the call to our landlady…

I haven't mentioned this yet but we have an AWFUL landlady! She's loses her temper extremely easily and is very difficult to deal with. We've had a few run-ins with her and prefer to keep our contact as minimal as possible, we've heard from quite a few others that they feel the same. This situation was something we weren't willing to drop though.

So Brad very calmly explains to Susan* how we heard that they'd showed our apartment. She immediately and very sweetly apologizes saying they were supposed to show one on the third floor but accidentally showed ours on the fourth. She states that mistakes happen and she's sorry. Brad agreed that mistakes happen and said he appreciated her apology. He stated that we were most unhappy that we weren't told about the situation from her and that we had to find out from a neighbor. I guess that was her breaking point because she's suddenly screaming at Brad (I was sitting beside him and could hear her shrill voice). She screams that she apologized, what does Brad want.. Blood? She's sorry she's not perfect like we are… this whole time Brad is trying (still very calmly) to explain that all we want is a written apology with confirmation that it won't happen again. He doesn't get that far though as she hang up on him.

So we start to draft a letter thinking it's a better approach than the phone call. I've enclosed it below.

Dear Susan,

After our phone call on Monday night I was unhappy with the way the situation was left and the direction the conversation went.

I understand that a mistake was made and that mistakes happen. The problem I have is that I wasn’t informed. A simple phone call would have appeased me but hearing about it from our neighbour was surprising.

I’m disappointed that you were unwilling to speak with me long enough for me to calmly explain what I’d like from you. I was surprised at how easily you were upset; that was not my intention. I tried to apologize multiple times.

What I would like is a letter of apology stating that a mistake was made and confirmation that it will not happen again. This would completely resolve the situation in my eyes. I have no intention of pursuing this further assuming you grant my request.

I hope this misunderstanding doesn’t negatively affect our business relationship.

Sincerely,
Bradley Wiebe

Just as we finished the phone rings and Brad doesn't recognize the number. It's Bill*, Susan's husband; the one who was actually in the apartment. He again apologizes saying that Susan told him the wrong apartment number, again Brad says he appreciates it and we understand. He tells him we would appreciate a written apology and Bill says that's not a problem, they'll write one up and slip it under our door.

There… was that so difficult? We like Bill and would prefer to deal with him in the future. We've also decided phone calls may not be our best course of action when we need to talk to Susan. We think we'll send letters from now on.

L
*Names have been changes to protect the identity of our really crappy landlady.

A Life of Crime

This weekend I added some flower pots to my balcony and I'm so pleased with the outcome! One box is full of colourful Begonias and the other has some fresh herbs in it. They make such a difference to the look of the balcony and I'm excited to add a cute bistro table and chairs. I want to add some lighting a throw-rug and I'm pretty sure that will cement my balcony as the cutest in the building.



I may have got the rocks for the bottom of the planters from a questionable, less than legal place.
L

Clean house

The Floor is mopped, the bathroom sparkly. I vacuumed and dusted and did all the dishes, working on my third load of laundry and made the bed. the garbage has been taken out the cupboards wiped. I'm about to shower and then fix Brad's hoodie.

It's been a good Saturday and if feels nice to finally have a clean house again.
Let's see how long we can keep it this way.
L

12 Degrees

Picture it... -46 degrees outside, 12 degrees inside.

The oven is on, the door wide open, a big pot of water boils on the stove. The shower is running scaldingly hot as steam pours out of the bathroom. We’re quite proud of ourselves as we watch the temperature rise from 12 to 15, all the way up to 20! Success! Comfortable heat success.

The ice on the inside of our windows starts to drip and melt and us, feeling very proud of ourselves head to our cozy bed that we’ve made with two quilts and cranked the heated mattress pad.

It took about 15 minutes to be back down to 12.
Please make the cold spell end soon. I wasn’t built for this.
L

Home sweet... Meat Locker?

A few months after moving into our apartment we discovered that our baseboard heaters weren’t working properly. After a few weeks, numerous phone calls and random stop-ins by our landlord the problem was finally fixed and we were proud of ourselves.

Well fixed seems to have been a pretty loose term. While yes, we do now get heat, the amount generated is NOT enough to actually keep me warm. 15 degrees when it’s -28 out is not warm enough. So you can generally find me on the couch wearing pajamas and covered in a blanket, carefully tucked so no air gets in. It makes me really unproductive though as doing those dishes would required me to venture out of my heated cove.

I’m sure starting to appreciate the case of hot chocolate I got at a wedding shower.
Here’s to more cold nights than I care to think about.
L

Entertaining Overload

I just can’t seem to help myself, I keep inviting people for dinner! It’s an addiction really...

So far we’ve had two of Brad’s siblings with their spouses
Dave and Naomi
Janine and Chris
(I held off inviting Dave over for tonight)
I’ve already extended an invite to Al and Janae
I want to invite Ian and Jenn
I tried to invite Nathan and Jenn but they couldn’t make it
Ryan was suppose to come over last night but that fell through

There’s still a whole list of others in my head just waiting to be invited. I love having a home with Brad that we can invite into and the new BBQ and the Wii have only made matters worse. If I didn’t mention you on that list, don’t worry... I’m sure your invite will come though I’m trying to pace myself.
L

Learning Something New Every Day

It seems like lately every entry has been long and wedding related so here's a quicky for you...

Things I've discovered about the new apartment

• It has really random plastic hooks on the inside of the closet door (they make no sense, trust me)
• There's a pull out cutting board (gross)
• The location of the top secret, high security laundry room
• There's only 1 phone jack... for the whole apartment
• Our neighbors seem to have a drinking problem, or so the bottles on their balcony have led us to believe
• There's not enough space

Good thing love knows no limits, cause I sure am in love with this place :)
L

Words Can't Express...

So it’s official, I’ve moved.

I now live in this great little apartment almost overlooking downtown. There are tons of trees in the area and beautiful big houses, a park just up the street and Eau Clair Market just down the hill. My favorite breakfast place, Diner Deluxe, is a couple blocks up and I can walk to work. Love it.

Getting to this point was neither easy nor fun.

Wednesday was designated as moving day so I took the day off work and Brad arranged to have his Dad’s trailblazer and a flatbed trailer (with sides) to help. Tuesday night we packed up the kitchen, I’d already packed up the living room. With some help from our friends we packed the trailblazer full of boxes. Wednesday morning I did some more packing and Brad and I loaded up the flatbed. We then headed to the new place. Brad had a dentist appointment we didn’t want to reschedule so he was subbed out by Barb (his Mom). Her and I unloaded the rest of the Trailer and the Trailblazer. We even had time to unpack most of the kitchen by the time Brad came back. We took a break for lunch and then Brad and I went back to the old house to resume packing.

We had some really fantastic helpers that came by later to load and unload the furniture. Here’s my question of the day... how do you properly thank someone so they know just how much their help meant? Remember, this apartment is on the 4th floor and there’s no elevator, Brad, Barb and I had already made a ton of trips up those stairs so the fresh legs were more helpful than they can imagine. Byron, Brent, Al, Amber, Jared, thank you so much! I was almost ready to give up and just wait for Brad to come back from the dentist cause it was too overwhelming when Barb showed up. I don’t think she could have been a more welcome sight. She really came through and gave me the energy to keep doing those stairs, best Mother-in-law I’ve ever had :)

So to those who helped, a Thank you doesn’t cut it, your help made all the difference. Thank you for not making me lift the couch, chair, bed or entertainment unit. When the place is ready we’ll have you over for dinner (in small groups) in an attempt to repay you. Let me know when you move, Brad and I are there.
L

Move

Things I will not miss about the duplex

1. Roommates (don’t get me wrong, I love them, just ready to have one eternal one)
2. Collecting rent money
3. The clothes dryer that leaves little burn marks on my unmentionables
4. The spider problem that appears in my room every spring
5. The Really tiny bedroom
6. Paying to heat the house - we wore a lot of sweaters
7. Having specific cupboards in the kitchen for each girl... having all the cupboards will be such a dream

Things I will miss

1. Doing laundry for free, coin operated is going to be an unwelcome change
2. The storage space
3. The hard wood floor upstairs
4. The regular size oven (as opposed to the apartment size I’m about to have)
5. The summer coolness of my basement bedroom
6. Dave for a neighbor

The Apartment that Almost Wasn't

So remember the great little place we found, the one with the ugly green carpet? Boy what a drama it’s been.

So we go see the place with the owner Brenda, she tells us it’s ours and all is good. We’re supposed to go give our damage deposit to Jennifer the resident manager on Monday.
So Monday comes and we head over to see Jennifer. She has no idea we were coming, doesn’t know who we are and has us fill out an application! Application? But we were told it was our apartment! Jennifer calls Brenda who does not clear things up and has Jennifer complete the application with us.

It’s official, we’re concerned.

So we wait the next day hoping for a phone call but not surprisingly neither of them get back to us. It’s now Wednesday, and we don’t know where we’re going to live, we’ve missed out on a week looking if we don’t get this place and the cherry on top... we put that address on 500 wedding invitations!

So Brad calls Brenda on Wednesday, she tells us that we postdated our cheque and she doesn’t want that and we need to go see Jennifer to fix that and “a few other things” whatever that means. So we go see Jennifer. Once again, she has no idea we’re coming and as it turns out doesn’t even have our cheque, Brenda still has it. So she calls Brenda... ha, Brenda thought Brad was someone else when he called... our cheque looks fine but no decision is made. She has our application. So we wasted our time going over this apartment to come up with no results! Argg!

So we go home and call Brenda... starting to feel pretty nervous and stressed at this point.Up until now we’ve felt pretty sure that Brenda hasn’t ever remembered who we were so Brad walked her through the entire encounter we had with her. Reminding her that we’d asked for the apartment number so we could put it on our wedding invitations. She finally remembered us but wasn’t at our office so she told us to call her tomorrow morning. She does tell us that it’s 99.44% sure that the apartment is ours so we’re feeling a little relieved.

Brad calls her this morning, after numerous phone calls she finally makes time for him and tells us that she wants Jennifer to redo our application... What?! Why!At this point Brad’s slightly frustrated and asks why were weren’t told that last night when we were there?!

She got a bit defensive saying she wasn't in her office last night and they already have another application for that suite. Then she realized that Jennifer and herself are to blame for our situation, not ourselves and she's "putting it through". Brad asked when we'd find out if we have place to live, and she replied "I just said I'm putting it through, you have it."

So finally, after some stress and ridiculous management we have a place to live!
L

I made up a really simple floor plan so you have an idea of what our apartment is like, the area I left plain is filled with the awesome carpet :)