Friday, January 27, 2006

My Arctic Apartment

After another weary day filled with turmoil, I return to my apartment only to find that it's only slightly warmer than an igloo in winter.

Poop.

So for the fourth, (yes fourth!) time this winter our heater has kicked the dust. In my pleasant state which has consumed me for the past few days, I pick up the
phone to leave a cheery message on their voice mail. My roomie was gone, so I gave myself the liberty to free speech.

I kept my tone stern without sounding snotty or belligerent, but I stated my
case. My message consisted of reminding them that it has been the fourth time our heat has been fixed this winter, including emergency maintenance, and someone was just in our apartment twice this week. I then proceeded to say that if they had no intention of fixing the heating problem that they should let us know immediately so we can start looking elsewhere. I then thanked them and asked them to get back to us as soon as possible. I think that's a reasonable message under the circumstances. After I hung up, I high-tailed it out of our ice box.

I got a call this morning from my roomie. Apparently, the manager of our little complex came over personally this morning at 7:45 am. (My roomie isn't on a morning schedule.) There were two of them, and they walked around our apartment and apologized that it wasn't fixed. They also made reference to the fact that our thermostat was probably broken... I'm sorry friends, but when you have to sit around in a
parka and Uggs, it's not because you're under the impression that it's 58 degrees, it's because it really is 58 degrees.

While management was talking to my roomie, it came up that I sounded irate in my message (hmmm imagine that). So, my roomie undercuts me and says that I get upset a lot and that I was just really worked up. Then he goes on to say that it's not such a big deal, it's just a bit uncomfortable. There goes our leverage! This is the first time that management has personally intervened with our heating problem, and then my roomie goes and says that it's just a bit uncomfortable?! Maybe it's just a little uncomfortable for a
Tauntaun, but for those of us without arctic fur, it's unbearable.

Strike two with the roomie. One more and....

3 comments:

Al said...

Oh, sweetie, I COMPLETELY understand... Makes me remember the apartment Ditto & I lived in last year, when our heater kicked it in mid-January, FOR THREE WEEKS, and it was an average of 44 degrees (although I think that's the lowest temperature my space heater can register), and I had a HEATED, 15-minute argument with our landlord, who claimed he had just visited our apartment and that the heat was working just fine. Um, yeah. Fine. Fine for a polar bear, maybe? Fine for an ice cube? Fine for who? Needless to say, I IMMEDIATELY contacted Hennepin County, and for a $55 fee took legal action! Our heater was magically fixed the day before we were supposed to all appear in court :) Until it stopped working again in April.

Which is why I didn't feel so bad telling my rental company that A) they sucked, B) they take advantage of poor college students, and C) to shove it up their asses, when they asked me why we weren't choosing to renew our lease :)

SUCK IT, UPi RENTAL! ASS CLOWNS!

Obviously, this all is still a very tender subject for me.

Quite honestly, I would:
1. Submit something IN WRITING to your landlord/rental company that your heating is broken and that if it's not fixed in X days you'll contact the city, and document every time you talk to them about heat in the meantime or that you've talked to them in the past about heat,
2. Contact the county or the city office to see what sort of tenant rights you have (because heat in winter is a Minnesota statute),
3. Move out when your lease is up, because if they F you over once, they're sure to do it again!

Sorry for the rant, but I hope this gets better for you!

Rachel Irene said...

I think that it will get fixed. They don't like suck at life THAT much. I'm more ticked at the fact that my roomie undercut my demand for heat by passing off as an angry-girl-ranting. Grrr.

Al said...

always the boys blaming the PMS. <*sigh*>