Hi there everybody. I've a delightful situation which I think calls for older and wiser heads to chime in on.
Well, for starters, I'm starting at a law school in Queens in less than a month. I met two people from the roommate list provided by the school. They seemed alright. A broker found us a place and we signed for it, put down the money, etc.
A few days before the scheduled move in I went down with my parents to measure out rooms and whatnot. Baby roaches in almost all the closets. The placed was bombed and remodled, I figure they are coming in through the walls of the place next door, so nothing they are willing to do with out place is going to get rid of them (also, its an old building with illegal immigrant style renovations about 3 layers thick).
While waiting for my house-mates outside the duplex today I discovered that the gardening service shreds tree branches twice a week about 20 yards from our building, making such noice that one must shout to the person standing next to them on the stoop.
What makes that worse is that the garden service trucks (the landlords people) drive their trucks over the curb and across our front and side lawn. It was raining hard today so they went through mud and now the sidewalk is completely buried.
Finally I discovered that my house-mates had locked themselves out of the building. Apparently with the keys they were given they could only get the rear door open and 'someone' had gone inside and used the chain lock. This was the reason I waited out in the rain for over an hour, upon discovering they locked themselves out, they went home (forgetting the meeting they scheduled with me for 1 PM). Nothing like driving 3 hours and then standing around for another.
The two house-mates had actually gotten the keys early. The same afternoon I was told I couldn't get them till the next day after 3pm. Imagine just having driven down there, driven back, and then before you can even get the crimp out of your back hearing that.
What makes that worse is then discovering that one of the house-mates is a lying conniving weasel. This prompted my going down today to meet with them, being stuck in the rain, discovering the gardening service and door situation. Sordid details of his lying, cheating, and conniving need not be mentioned. I figure knowing him to be a cheat should enable me to avoid any future trouble with him. I don't have to actually like house-mates, just think of them as rent reducers and whatnot, think positive thoughts.
Soooo that much of the story related, what do you think I should do?
My current thought is to raise as much heck with the broker and landlord as I can, try to get a rent reduction or some such (roaches, mud, heavy machinery every few days for extended periods (think 3-4 hours) giving keys early to some and not others (they figured they would move in and take their choice of rooms... they still have a college dorm/frat house type view).
I've got a lot more rant in me, feel free to elicit it.
