More Tales
Hello Everyone,
Thanks so much for the birthday wishes!
I bet Kay is glad that day is over. This is definitely a tale that is much more fun to tell when it is way behind you. While you are going through this, it is awful. It does not sound like much fun but boy have I been there. In fact just last week, I did something similar. I am sure Kay will enjoy the comraderie. I went to Trader Joe's - pulled up to the parking lot. I had a million things to do and was rushing as I usually am. I parked and long and behold I left my car keys in the car and had already pushed the lock from inside and closed the door. Of course to make it super interesting, it was during the time that our home phone was out of order, so I could not even call Sid to come and pick me up in his fancy Porsche.
which gets taken out on special occassions, and this would have certainly been one of them.
So I had to walk to the trolley and take it home to pick up the extra set of keys. Luckily, Sid was home so he was able to drive me back to Trader Joe's. Needless to say I wasted about three hours with all this. So my plans to get a lot done that day surely vanished.
But the real highlight was yesterday in terms of "disasters." This is somewhat of a long story, so I hope I don't put you to sleep reading this. We received an e-mail from our neighbor downstairs. She said she finally is getting around to taking care of things at home so she had her ceiling assessed and the insurance company will pay for about $350.00 of the repair needed. The other $500.00 has to be covered by her. So she asked if we would be willing to split the $500 and we pay $250.00 of it and she covers the rest.
We thought that was very fair. You need a little of the history to understand this situation. In about February, our wash machine was leaking into our downstairs neighbor's ceiling and tore it up. Our neighbor called in her own plumber and sent him up to our condo. The leak was fixed and we never heard anything more about it, after paying him $250 We knew the neighbor had a large hole in her ceiling, so we assumed responsibility for it and asked our Manager of Maintenance to go to her place, assess the damages and repair the ceiling. He had very recently repaired a bathroom ceiling hole we had that was created from leaks. He was very nice and he was also cheap. He did repairs for various people as side jobs, it wasn't related to the work for the Condo Association.
He proceeded to tell us that he had assessed the damages and said it would cost $300. We paid him and told him to do it as quickly as he could so that we can keep the peace with our neighbor. Of course, he let us know that he would handle everything, not to worry. We never heard another word about it. In not having the most congenial relationship with this neighbor, we just thought we would wait for her to let us know how the repair was going. We figured no news was good news.
When we recevied the e-mail from our neighbor saying that she is now addressing the issue with her ceiling after months, I was stunned. I then knew we had been bamboozled. He got $300 from us and did not repair anything. Meanwhile we were thinking it had all been taken care of. Wow were we blind to this one. And to think this is someone who talked about his family, his wife. Always seemed concerned with being at home with family, going to church on Sunday with his wife. He completely fooled us and many others. When I called the management company to find out what happened to him, I was told that he did this to many of our neighbors. He also inappropriately used the condo association Home Depot card. He stole items, petty cash, etc.. the list goes on.
I am sure the first question that comes to mind is why would you pay him before the job is done. But we just thought since he was the Manager of Maintenance, where would he be going. He seemed completely trustworthy. So in sum, this neighbor's ceiling is costing us quite a bit. Months later I can't believe we are still dealing with it.
Definitely a some what entertaining story when it is all behind you. So do you have such quality people out on the West Coast, or are we especially blessed with these types here in the NE. Well old buildings might have a lot of character and be beautiful but are they ever a headache.
Thanks so much for the birthday wishes!
I bet Kay is glad that day is over. This is definitely a tale that is much more fun to tell when it is way behind you. While you are going through this, it is awful. It does not sound like much fun but boy have I been there. In fact just last week, I did something similar. I am sure Kay will enjoy the comraderie. I went to Trader Joe's - pulled up to the parking lot. I had a million things to do and was rushing as I usually am. I parked and long and behold I left my car keys in the car and had already pushed the lock from inside and closed the door. Of course to make it super interesting, it was during the time that our home phone was out of order, so I could not even call Sid to come and pick me up in his fancy Porsche.
which gets taken out on special occassions, and this would have certainly been one of them.So I had to walk to the trolley and take it home to pick up the extra set of keys. Luckily, Sid was home so he was able to drive me back to Trader Joe's. Needless to say I wasted about three hours with all this. So my plans to get a lot done that day surely vanished.
But the real highlight was yesterday in terms of "disasters." This is somewhat of a long story, so I hope I don't put you to sleep reading this. We received an e-mail from our neighbor downstairs. She said she finally is getting around to taking care of things at home so she had her ceiling assessed and the insurance company will pay for about $350.00 of the repair needed. The other $500.00 has to be covered by her. So she asked if we would be willing to split the $500 and we pay $250.00 of it and she covers the rest.
We thought that was very fair. You need a little of the history to understand this situation. In about February, our wash machine was leaking into our downstairs neighbor's ceiling and tore it up. Our neighbor called in her own plumber and sent him up to our condo. The leak was fixed and we never heard anything more about it, after paying him $250 We knew the neighbor had a large hole in her ceiling, so we assumed responsibility for it and asked our Manager of Maintenance to go to her place, assess the damages and repair the ceiling. He had very recently repaired a bathroom ceiling hole we had that was created from leaks. He was very nice and he was also cheap. He did repairs for various people as side jobs, it wasn't related to the work for the Condo Association.
He proceeded to tell us that he had assessed the damages and said it would cost $300. We paid him and told him to do it as quickly as he could so that we can keep the peace with our neighbor. Of course, he let us know that he would handle everything, not to worry. We never heard another word about it. In not having the most congenial relationship with this neighbor, we just thought we would wait for her to let us know how the repair was going. We figured no news was good news.
When we recevied the e-mail from our neighbor saying that she is now addressing the issue with her ceiling after months, I was stunned. I then knew we had been bamboozled. He got $300 from us and did not repair anything. Meanwhile we were thinking it had all been taken care of. Wow were we blind to this one. And to think this is someone who talked about his family, his wife. Always seemed concerned with being at home with family, going to church on Sunday with his wife. He completely fooled us and many others. When I called the management company to find out what happened to him, I was told that he did this to many of our neighbors. He also inappropriately used the condo association Home Depot card. He stole items, petty cash, etc.. the list goes on.
I am sure the first question that comes to mind is why would you pay him before the job is done. But we just thought since he was the Manager of Maintenance, where would he be going. He seemed completely trustworthy. So in sum, this neighbor's ceiling is costing us quite a bit. Months later I can't believe we are still dealing with it.
Definitely a some what entertaining story when it is all behind you. So do you have such quality people out on the West Coast, or are we especially blessed with these types here in the NE. Well old buildings might have a lot of character and be beautiful but are they ever a headache.
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