My Landlord Became My Next Door Neighbor
This is my story of when my landlord became my neighbor. You’ve been warned
When I turned 27-years-old I was anxious to get out of my parent’s house and get my first apartment. I looked and looked but most apartments I came across were too expensive or in the bad part of town.
By the 3rd month of apartment hunting, I came across a “For rent” sign while on my morning run. The sign also had written the monthly rent and security. It was an amount that was within my budget. The apartment building looked pretty nice from the outside and had a big parking area for tenants. The only thing I was missing was to take a look inside and it would be a wrap.
The next morning I decided to give the number on the “for rent” sign a call. A fellow by the name of, Jose answered the telephone. I told him “I was very interested in the apartment and I would like to look at it as soon as possible”. He told me to be there in 30 minutes and so I was.
My Landlord is My Nextdoor Neighbor
I fell in love with the apartment right away; it was a spacious 750-sq foot 1-bedroom up-stair apartment. The entire apartment complex has over 40 apartments across 2-3 city blocks.
When I gave Jose my first months rent and my security deposit he said,
“from now on you will be paying with money orders on the 2nd of each month and you will be taking the money orders to apartment #37, that’s where the landlord lives”
I said, ok and went on with my business.
Living on my own was one of the best experiences I’ve ever experienced. My friends came over at all times of the day (and night), we partied, I played my music as loud as I wanted and the best thing of it all was that there wasn’t anyone to tell me what to do.
Even though I lived on the second floor the unit on the first floor was vacant so I could run and dance as loud as I wanted.
5-6 months into my “apartment freedom experience ” I noticed that someone was moving into the vacant unit undermines. I didn’t think much of it. The next morning when I was taking my garbage out I seen the new neighbors. I thought to myself “he looks familiar” but didn’t put two-and-two together at that moment.
Little did I know it was the apartment complex ‘landlord’. Word around the building was that he was tired of his old apartment and wanted one of the units that had recently been renovated.
After realizing that my landlord is my downstairs neighbor my sunny thoughts of freedom started fading into a gloomy nightmare. The first few months I took it easy but my birthday was coming up in a few weeks.
I wanted to celebrate by grilling on my porch and having a few people over.
The First Warning Given To Me By My Landlord
My birthday weekend finally arrived and I decided to go with my first idea and celebrate in my apartment. Little did I know this was going to cost me my apartment. Keeping in mind that my landlord lives right under me I told my guests to ‘keep it down’.
After a few drinks, my company started getting loud and rowdy. 3-hours into my birthday party my close friend Marco pulled me to the side and said: “there’s an older man at your front door and he’s looking for you”. I knew right away who it was, the landlord.
When I opened the front door he stood there mad as could be. My landlord said, “you need to keep it down before I call the police” while he stormed off.
The Second Warning Given To Me By My Landlord
Each year around summer time my older sister usually takes a 1 to 2 weeks vacation. While she’s gone I take care of her 7-year old cocker spaniel “Baxter”. Baxter is blind from one eye and has a skin condition that has him scratching every 5 to 10 minutes. When Baxter scratches himself he makes so much noise. He moves his entire body and things around him start to raddle.
My sister calls me and tells me that she’ll be going on her yearly vacation that following week. She asks me if I could take care of Baxter. I say “yes”, she brings Baxter over, keep in mind he has a skin condition and he scratches constantly. Thinking I could keep Baxter thumping noise by putting down an old carpet I had in my closet to keep the noise down. I was wrong.
The next day I go to work and the landlord calls me around noon. He tells me “there are loud noises coming from my apartment to keep it down”. At this moment is when I realize that my lease says “no pets are allowed” I rush home on my lunch break, I pull up to my apartment and there is “the landlord” knocking on my front door while Baxter is barking at him through the window. Just my luck!
Later that week I received an eviction letter on my front door. The main causes of my eviction were:
- • Lease violation
- • Property damages
- • And of course, pets
I ended up moving out later that month. This is my story of when my landlord moved next-door.