This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 24 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 24 years here in a weekly blog post.
My neighbor was yelling at someone down the street. Before I started recording, she went back into her apartment and brought out a bat and was swinging it around. She has it in her hand and you can hear it drop on the ground at one point. Nothing else happened and she went back inside soon after I stopped recording. But she sure was mad about something. I couldn't really understand what she was saying but if you turn your sound up you can hear her yelling and cussing. The sound goes in and out a little because the wind was blowing. The weird bright line is because I was facing the sun and it was reflecting off of the metal part of my window frame. There was nothing I could do about it.
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Rental costs have gone through the rook here lately. I looked around at apartments to see if there are any in my price range but the prices have jumped pretty high. They are asking $800-$900 for a studio and 1 bdrm apartments are even more. That's even in bad neighborhoods. The prices are even higher right now because so many renters didn't pay their rent last year because of Covid and the eviction moratorium so when the moratorium was lifted, people just moved out and didn't pay their back owed rent and landlords are trying to recoup all those costs by raising everyone else's rent. My rent just increased from $625 a month to $890 a month. Thankfully I can still pay it but that's a huge jump and rental prices are high everywhere I look. It's kinda mean spirited to punish those of us who paid their rent each month last year by increasing it so much. But that's just my opinion.
*This was just one news headline this week. Rents soared here*
I would move after this increase but it's still hard for find an apartment cheaper than this one and I would just be moving into another bad neighborhood for rent around the same amount. So I am signing another 1 year lease.
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On Tuesday I received a notice and a warning on my door from management that my satellite dish was going to be removed. I've never had a satellite dish so I called the office and she fixed the warning on my account. I worried about it because after 3 warnings for breaking the lease rules they evict you. Just more BS to deal with. But next week all of the satellite dishes are being removed from the property because they are damaging the roofs. It's in our leases that we are not allowed to have satellite dishes so they can't do anything about them being removed.
The high this week was 90F/32C
So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.
The whole rent thing just makes me sick. How are families supposed to survive?
ReplyDeleteAs for your crazy neighbors, I don't think there's any way to escape the crazy... it's everywhere. Please stay safe.
I don't know. Rent is so high right now.
DeleteYou are right about the mean spirited punishment of those who did pay their rent. Huge sigh.
ReplyDeleteIt's so ridiculous.
DeleteHi, Mary!
ReplyDeleteSeems the only good thing that happened in your vicinity this week was the drop in temperature. I couldn't understand a thing that neighbor woman was ranting about, but something really set her off.
It makes me sad to learn what you and millions of other renters are going through. Seems no good deed goes unpunished. People who behave, follow the rules and pay their rent on time shouldn't have their rent increased to cover losses brought about by those who defaulted.
Maybe the office placed a warning about satellite dishes on every tenant's door because they didn't have time to check and see who actually had them. You were wise to follow-up and make sure you didn't get a strike against you. I believe you are also wise for staying where you are for another year. The last thing you need is for your situation to go from bad to worse.
I wish you a safe and sane week ahead, dear friend Mary!
The notices were only on a few doors. She said she had to guess who owned the dishes.
DeleteI don't know how people are paying their rent.
Oh she was super mad.
How typical that the landlord is using the excuse of covid and unpaid rent to jack up rents generally. No doubt the landlord has plenty of cash and doesn't need to impose such huge increases, but that's capitalism for you.
ReplyDeleteSatellite dishes here are put on the brickwork not on the roof. So no possibility of damaging the roof.
Landlords and owners are jacking the prices sky high.
DeleteWe don't have brick work around here so they always put them on the roof.
Between losing money from people not paying rent and inflation through the roof thanks to the government, rent is going up everywhere. That is a huge jump though. It's stupid expensive here as well. My mortgage is less than half what it would take to rent a tiny two-bedroom apartment.
ReplyDeleteYeah, rents are stupid expensive.
DeleteThat is a ridiculous jump in rent, Mary. I’m sorry that you shopped around and couldn’t find anything better. Part of the issue is that there’s a shortage of houses, so many people that would be moving out of apartments are stuck there. Supply demand issue. My son and DIL pay $1100 for a one bedroom and that’s the cheapest one they can find in a safe area. They’d love to be putting that in a house, but prices are astronomical and they keep getting outbidded.
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy for a one bedroom.
DeleteFrom $625 to $890 is criminal. I'm glad you can still pay it, but plenty will not be able to. Every time I see someone on TV talking about finding a solution to the homeless population, I yell DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE HIGH COST OF RENT! The way things are going, all of us on limited incomes are going to end up, what they call, house poor. We'll be able to pay rent, not much left over for anything else.
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly. Owners and landlords don't care.
DeleteI don't want anyone swinging a bat unless it's my son practicing t-ball. There's been a lot of violence in St. Paul and I kinda wish people get their anger under control. Maybe they need to offer pieces of cake or something.
ReplyDeletelol Cake would make me happy.
DeleteOoh she's pissed. :) I love how she comes back for more too. And oh wow that's a HUGE increase. Total bullshit. I can't believe how high rents are. Almost $1000 for studios and one bedrooms? It's outrageous.
ReplyDeleteThat's a bummer about the satellite dishes. Geez people can't even have cable anymore? This country sucks lol
She was so mad. It made me laugh that she was out there with a bat.
DeleteThe increase is ridiculous.
Cable is too darn expensive anyway. I got rid of it last year because they started charging $300 a month for just cable, not even the premium channels.
Ouch...having your rent go up that much isn't fun. Housing prices are really high right now here in Salt Lake City, too. Just finding some place to rent is tricky, let alone being able to afford it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am seeing that prices are crazy everywhere.
DeleteThe price of rent is high here too but not as high as yours. I can't see many people to be able to afford those high increases. Landlords are greedy people.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how people are being able to pay their rent with it being so high.
DeleteIf I yelled I don't think many would of hear me. If we have shelter of some type I think we're lucky. No way could I afford some rent or mortgage prices. Not what I will be retiring on.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
It would be nice to be away from all these people.
DeleteThe bad news is that everywhere prices are on the rise; everywhere there are crazy people who can make one's life miserable.
ReplyDeleteWhat has the world come to?
That's true.
DeleteIt seems like the rent hike is happening everywhere right now. We have a friend staying with us because her rent just shot through the roof. Wishing you all the best!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm realizing. It's crazy.
DeleteIts crazy how rent is going up, its been rising crazy here too. But this does happen with inflation which will all of our govt spending, no surprise there, we are just paying the price for it now.
ReplyDeleteYeah we sure are.
DeleteI would imagine an apartment complex would have the wherewithal to file for federal subsidies to make up for lost revenue. I’m sorry your rent was raised so much.
ReplyDeleteI live in the country and I got a difficult neighbor. There is no escape. Even here apartments are quite expensive.
Seems like rents have gone up all over.
DeleteDang, that's a heck of a rent increase and I'm sorry you are dealing with that and crazy warnings too.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I was shocked when I received the notice.
DeleteI can't even imagine paying rent these days. It is so expensive. My mom was looking for an apartment outside of Atlanta (and this was 10 years ago), and she couldn't find one that was less than a mortgage payment. She was lucky enough to be able to go that route, but not everyone can. And mortgage prices right now are just as insane. At least here in Ohio. You have to offer over the asking price to get a house bought because so many offers are made the day the house is on the market.
ReplyDeleteMelanie @ Books of My Heart
Wow, that's kinda crazy.
DeleteAlways sucks to see rent increases shoot up so much, especially now. I know they're trying to make up lost revenue from tenants not paying, but a lot of people have had income hits in the pandemic so it's just going to bleed them out more. Everything in life is just getting more and more expensive while incomes stagnate and something is going to have to give out eventually.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. Making it harder for people to have a roof over their heads is just mean.
DeleteThat sucks that you get your rent jacked up when others just didn't even pay. I wonder if another state would have better prices? I'm sorry you're having to deal with that, Mary. Glad to hear you got the satellite issue sorted out.
ReplyDeleteThank you. From what I'm hearing rent prices have gone through the roof everywhere.
DeleteFrom $625 a month to $890? That's criminal. And they know you're not going to sue them either, which everybody should. Sigh. Wish I could snap my fingers and do something about that, Mary.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could too.
DeleteThe high prices do suck. It's high to rent by me too. Costs of everything is going up.
ReplyDeleteSure seems that way.
DeleteThis is a really big jump. Do you think you could get them to negotiate with you at all? I had an apartment once try to do a big increase like that because of the updates they were doing in the complex (they hadn't done anything to the building I was living in) and I was able to get them to go back down a bit.
ReplyDeleteI emailed them and already tried to negotiate. They want everyone's rent to be the same so the answer is no.
DeleteWOw, that is quite the jump! Not cool
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's crazy.
Delete"It's kinda mean spirited to punish those of us who paid their rent each month last year by increasing it so much."
ReplyDeleteIt is! For goodness' sake! Also, taking the the neighbourhood into account, you should maybe pay a quarter of that...I hope you'll find a better place (or at least a cheaper one) eventually. One where people don't swing baseball bats maybe...
I know. It's completely ridiculous the prices of apartments right now.
DeleteHave you considered moving to a cheaper city, or a cheaper state?
ReplyDeleteThe landlords were getting supplimented by the government for a good portion the eviction moratorium, an old college buddy of mine owns several rental units in Massachusetts, and said the landlords who were complaining were either too lazy to fill out the supplement applications, or they are trying to double line their pockets. 😐
I hope you can figure out something in the future. 😕
I have thought of that but my daughter and grandson wouldn't move away from my grandson's father and he isn't moving because of his job so there's that. I know this place was getting that income from the government because they kept sending out emails for people to fill it out.
Delete