Busy

by Bryan

9 comments

1 Kryten42 { 03.24.15 at 11:47 pm }

Don’t let it get to you m8. It isn’t worth it. But you know that, just sayin! 😉 😀

Hope it all calms down for you soon. Stay well my friend. 🙂

2 Badtux { 03.25.15 at 11:05 am }

One of my friends was once a major slumlord in a declining Southern industrial city. But he came to a realization about ten years ago: “You know, this is more trouble than it’s worth.” Dealing with collections, evictions, tenants who trashed apartments, renovations, etc., all took a toll on his sanity and when a gambling casino offered a large sum of money to buy a couple of city blocks of his buildings, he took it, and followed up by selling the rest of his buildings too. I don’t know what he did with the money but in the end I don’t think it mattered to him, he had his sanity back and that’s what counted.

3 Bryan { 03.25.15 at 12:31 pm }

My Mother used to take this crap seriously, but I just find it annoying. There is nothing like dealing with stupid people who think they are clever to make you appreciate the possibilities of climate change. In 50 or 100 years this area will be under the Gulf of Mexico, so there is really no point in owning any of it.

The court system is a bureaucracy and requires a massive amount of paperwork to cross Ts and dot Is before it is satisfied and throws deadbeats out. There is less paperwork in criminal trials.

4 Badtux { 03.26.15 at 11:31 am }

One straw that almost made him snap was when vagrants broke into one of his empty apartments that he was in the midst of renovating and he called the cops about the breakin. The cops demanded that he go to court to evict them. To evict vagrants who had never had any right to live in the apartment, who had simply smashed in the door one night and threw down their sleeping bags in one corner of the place and stole a bunch of his tools that had been locked up in the place overnight. Completely and totally nuts.

5 Bryan { 03.26.15 at 12:21 pm }

That’s pretty much what happens if they bring in sleeping bags and act like they’ve been there a while. It happens to vacation homes in Florida all the time. ‘Squatters’ are considered a civil matter, and it is time for filing fees and service costs, about $300 for the first notice to vacate the property.

6 Badtux { 03.26.15 at 11:25 pm }

He was ready to squat there himself with his shotgun to find out who had stole his tools. He isn’t in prison, so apparently he decided against it.

7 Bryan { 03.26.15 at 11:53 pm }

Well, in Florida he might have gotten away it under the ‘Stand your ground’ law. If you discover them quickly the Sheriff with issue an ‘official notice of trespass’, but won’t do anything unless they come back. Even then they will get a ticket at most unless they annoy the deputy.

I put up a no trespassing sign on vacant apartments, which seems to help the deputies ‘do something’, but it also identifies apartments as vacant. It is pretty much lose-lose.

8 oldwhitelady { 03.29.15 at 11:31 am }

Good gravy! I never realized being an apartment manager could be so frustrating. I always thought the problem would be to make sure they were always rented. Ouch!

9 Bryan { 03.29.15 at 5:00 pm }

I have a list of people who want that apartment, which makes it even more frustrating. These places are never advertized as available, people stop by regularly to check on the status. They are inexpensive for this area, and you can walk to stores, so minimum wage workers can afford them.