WWTBAM Bored

OK, OK, I don't think my landlord's lawyer child is reading this board, but if they are its probably curtains for me anyway.

Story:

Piles of sawdust have been appearing in a corner in the basement, in my storage bin. I am not down there in a sleepwalking state sawing on beams & such. I know because I don't own a saw.


This fall, when one of the few great fix-it people the landlord still retains was at the house to make some repairs (the most major of which never got made, because repair-person was entering the hospital for cancer surgery the next week), I took them to the basement to look for scraps of wood they needed for needed but minor repairs, but also to look at the sawdust pile. "Looks like carpenter ants to me" they said. "You should tell the landlord." Which I did, but nothing came of it.


We had a horrible winter, & I was happy I had at least got the landlord to get the roof repairer to fix the roof before it. As you may recall (or not, but I do) I posted here about the saga of that repair: Tiny leak. Landlord sends roof-person to look at roof. Landlord's lawyer child tells me "roof person says its no big deal & they'll get to it when they get to it. Maybe in the spring.". A week later a ton of water plops into cat box but it's not from cat. Its from roof. I call landlord, they arrange for roof person to actually fix roof leak. There was talk of new roof this spring, but that didn't happen.


The fix-it carpenter was actually at house to repair ceiling from my side of roof when I had them do the carpenter ant assessment. Ceiling repair remains to be done, because they've been out of commission. I'm told they're finally recovering. Which is good, they're a great person as well as a carpenter who actually knows their stuff.


At any rate, this spring I brought up the ants again. Possibly because we see real ants at the level of my apartment, 3rd floor, every year in the spring, but then they go a way. So landlord's lawyer child goes to basement, looks in my bin & says "I swept up a pile of sawdust. You need to clean up your bin, because we have surprise insurance inspections.". 1st I'd ever heard of surprise insurance inspections, & I've been here 30 years or so. I also got rid of a lot of stuff on landlord's child's insistence 5 years ago, & no new stuff has gone in. Sad to say, I ignored this.


Landlord's child was in building yesterday to escort a person who cleans the clothes dryer cleaning vent once a year. This is not the vent that you clean out every "dry", but the pipe behind it. Or something like that.


I get angry letter about how bad my bin is, that it has stuff from an old housemate that landlord's child looked at (it does; they never sent money to have it sent to them) & I need to clean up bin or "we will consider it at lease time". I write back that I will clean up bin (even there is no new stuff in it), but could they at least check on those ants.


I prefer to deal with people by talking. Landlord's lawyer child apparently prefers increasingly threatening letters. I used to deal with landlord, who I get along with, by talking. Sometimes you need a few conversations, but eventually stuff gets done.


I went down into basement to start throwing out everything I could stand to throw out. Landlord's lawyer child had complained about furniture in there. I hope it can stay; it is to replace furniture in my apt as it wears out. I sweep up sawdust, thinking "I'd really like a pest expert to examine this, but I'm not allowed to call them, & can't pay for it anyway".


I get back upstairs, check my tablet for stuff, find e-mail telling me not to sweep sawdust, that pest expert has been called.


I write back explaining that I had already swept up sawdust, per their instruction, but there were piles of caked-on old sawdust I hadn't gotten to yet for the expert to examine. And I thanked them for calling the expert.


I get e-mail back yelling at me for having swept the sawdust. I write back to say I had missed that message because I'd been down in basement, sweeping up sawdust.


Landlord's lawyer child now insists that I should have told them there was more sawdust after they had swept up the earlier sawdust & told me conclusively that "it wasn't carpenter ants, just sawdust". I should have bugged them after they told me explicitly not to bug them.


I actually should have taken the tack of gently bugging landlord themself about this. Eventually, as with roof, something would have gotten done.


Landlord's lawyer child is now working themselves into a tizzy about how I have kept important apartment information from them, "but you don't usually do that". No, I don't. A leak of tons of water resulted from them ignoring my 1st warnings about roof leak. I hope nothing collapses because they ignored my warnings about carpenter ants.


I can't move right now. I am in horrible shape for reasons I'm not going into. I emphatically don't need this. Right now landlord's lawyer child is apparently mollified, but still let loose the zingers about "you don't usually keep info from us".



And oh, yeah, when I told them about that outer wall being where water comes in at snow melts & after heavy rains, they said "this is the 1st you have told me of this". I have been telling landlord this for 30 years. House is on slope of Spring Hill in Somerville, stone foundation wall goes a little above level of ground in basement; its one of those basements with little above-ground windows. Windows on the leak-in side are boarded shut.

Keep your requests in writing - email, snailmail, handwritten note handed to landlord, that way they can't say it's the first time they've heard of the problem. A little bit of trouble, but it may help.

Good luck!

kay

What a snaggled mess. Hope it straightens out.

They were in fact carpenter ants.


Landlord's lawyer child is upset that basement smells musty (its a basement! with water leaking in) & somehow thinks me putting stuff in plastic cartons instead of very dry cardboard boxes & throwing sheets of plastic over any wooden furniture I am allowed to keep will reverse this. I of course think it has to do with somehow porous outer stone foundation.


I will nevertheless do whatever they say, as that's the "lord" in landlord.


They were last heard telling their parent, still the real landlord, that all the storage bins were "not tidy enough" & that no tenant should be allowed storage.

While having a lot of stuff stored in a basement can lead to damage to the stored stuff if there is moisture present, the contents of a basement have ZERO % effect on moisture content. If there is moisture in the basement it's coming in via the foundation and/or slab - usually caused by some poor drainage on the exterior.

The only complications that can be caused by your stuff being stored in the basement:

1. Your stuff could get ruined either by moisture or by the critters it attracts
2. Your stuff may need to be moved in order to dry and waterproof the basement from the inside.
3. Any wood stuff in contact with the basement floor or walls cold become an attraction of things like carpenter ants (They like damp wood)

But if there is any moisture in the basement, it makes no difference if the basement is full or empty as to the cause of the moisture. This is a house problem to fix not your problem to get blamed for.

Your landlord(s) are cheap. Possibly idiots. Possibly both.

I've been telling the landlord about the prob w/ the foundation wall for about 30 years. Landlord's lawyer child says I never told them about it. Well, I didn't tell things to lawyer child, I told them to actual landlord.


Now I am getting lawyer child telling me that their parent paid to clean out my bin 10 or 15 years ago. They did not. As I told lawyer child, there had been tires in there (only 4 of them mine; my snow tires) which landlord wanted out, so I drove them to the field Somerville has for tires & electronics. Not also for random pieces of wood the recycling crew refused to take this morning, sadly.

City when I called says I am supposed to saw those into 3-ft lengths for the trash crews next week. Apparently wood is only considered recyclable in the form of paper. Since I don't have a saw (yet) & have seen much larger stuff than I put out magically disappear on trash day, I will put the stuff out next week early enough for trash crew. If they still don't take it I look for rental saw.


Lawyer child fixedly believes their insurance keeps going up because the basement looks untidy & smells of water damage. My mentioning that my car insurance goes up every year, even though my car is a year older (& the insurers have never cared to smell or even see it) got me nothing.

*I* know that the only threat is from the house (water, ants in basement) to my stuff, not the other way 'round. But lawyer child can't see this.