Housing Woes

[Summerspeaker]

Our lease terminated this morning. Today both the landlord (technically POA) and a former housemate decided to shit all over me. The landlord expected me to clean up a bunch of messes I didn't make, to completely clear out everything from a house that was full of random stuff when I arrived. Ey demands tribute in both currency and labor, essentially. The housemate didn't remove all eir gear earlier, so ey became irate in the afternoon when ey learned that it was spread in front yard and that we'd given away few items because it was all heading to the dump. Ey twice called, cursed at me, threaten me with a lawyer/police, and hung up on me. This is someone I'd considered a friend.

Ey had calmed down by the time he actually came by the house to collect his stuff, only a handful of which had disappeared. Ey regarded me coldly as I did what I could to help em recover or track down eir things. Ey wasn't remotely apologetic for leaving such a tremendous mess, staying out of touch, or being so nasty over the phone. Ey didn't thank me for doing so much cleaning ey should have done or for doing what I felt I could to defend eir interests under the constraint of the power the landlord has over me.

In sum, landlord and housemate alike treat me as some sort of less-than-human object. I only matter inasmuch as I service their desires. The relationships I've tried to build with them mean nothing because I'm not a person. I spent twelve hours working at the house today for a total of perhaps twenty this week. I'll be back there in the early morning tomorrow.

I've already left the place in better condition than when I arrived. I've been maintaining the house continually for three years. The landlord is never there except for maybe a couple times per year. Ey has no legitimate right to exercise any control over the space. Nobody else will even deal with him. I should have just stayed there and skipped out on July's rent. Playing the boss's game simply enables additional abuse. I'm sure ey still won't give me my deposit back without a fight despite all the work I'm doing.

It's going to be ugly. :(

[praxis1966]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get around to responding here, Summer, I've been doing super important admin stuff. :rolleyes:

Anyhow, I've had my own rental difficulties (the partner and I had to sue our last landlord after getting forced out of our place on less than three weeks notice) but it doesn't sound like it really compares to what you're going through. All I can do is express my deepest sympathies... No good deed goes unpunished I suppose. What's the sitch looking like now? You got someplace to stay?

As an aside, I dunno what NM law is like, but out here in Cali if your landlord doesn't refund your deposit in full within 30 days, (s)he has to provide an itemized list of deductions and a cheque for the remainder which you can still contest in court if you feel they're unjust. A lot of places also have a stipulation that if the landlord hasn't had the carpets professionally cleaned in the last 12 months, they can't hold any of that damage against you. Maybe those are some things you wanna investigate; there should be some non-profit tenant advocacy organizations in your area that'll help you with that sort of thing.