Wow.. 5 months just passed by like that. It seems time flew by so fast yet on some days, it gets so tough on me that it seems forever. Like these 2 weeks. Our rental contract ended end of May. The agent refused to rent to us for another few months. Presumably because she wants to charge more agent commission. Might as well since we could hardly afford to pay the rental ourselves. Now I had to rent a HDB room nearby til we finally get our new place in at least 3months time.
For the past few months, a friend(or so I thought) had to renovate her family home and were looking to rent a place for her family and 6 dogs. Thinking it was more difficult to rent with so many dogs, I decided to ask my only tenant to leave the master room and we take over the master room while they take over the rest of the house. Greatest mistake. I charge them way below market rate rental. Second mistake. Silly me still say utilities included cos I thought everyone are environmentally conscious like us.
When she came by to view the house before moving in. She took a look at the toilet and said that the apartment's toilet is so basic and lousy even her maid would laugh. Wow. Zw and I grew up poor. Our families still are. So we could not understand her mentality and certainly don't think her maid would really look down on the place like her since she is from a poor state in Indonesia. And then went on and say the place is very dirty because I never clean up regularly. I felt like telling her to try taking care of so many dogs, cleaning the house everyday by herself without a maid to slave around. Instead I kept quiet and thought that maybe I really need to buck up on my cleaning.
The moment they came in, several things shock us. The 2 schnauzers they have are very barkish. One of whom are aggressive to other dogs. As a result, whenever we had to walk our dogs, we had to make sure he is confined. Their beagle on the other hand, bark whenever the family is out or when the Mum is cooking or whenever he can smell food. Those who knows beagles, surely know that how deep and loud their barking can be. And you know what, my this 'friend' never ever discipline her dogs. She is irrationally treating them. And can even quarrel with the brother who wants to discipline the dog whenever he is barking. So all their dogs bark whenever they like. They are so many times I got headache from all the barking.
And then there is their attitude towards their maid. Almost every single day I was home, the poor maid got screamed at for being slow/useless/nonsense/crazy etc. I felt sorry for the poor girl. We saw her scrub and wash the toilet(which the dogs use as their toilet) more that 5times a day. Wipe the floors of the house on her knee with a towel 3 times a day. The family's clothes has to be scrub before putting in the washer, their bedsheets, blankets and dogs beds are washed very frequently. Almost everyday the washer is ON. 5 male and a female dogs' pee and poo is no joke. Especially since they NEVER walk their dogs at all. I really cant understand how people who keep beagles and retrievers can choose not to exercise them regularly. Their dogs as a result are all very fat especially the retriever which could hardly walk more than a few steps without panting. Other than these endless chores, she still have to clean after their very sick and old dog who kept drooling from his mouth wound. All these and she and her Mum can often complain to us their maid is lazy and useless. I really don't know what to say.
Needless to say, instead of our usual $200 plus utilities bill a month( take note, we normally had 2 of the 3rooms occupied with 4 persons and average 3 - 4 boarding dogs at a time), the very first month, it shot up to $450. I inform her the bill and told her that I actually thought it would be $350 and below and requested she pay the excess. Instead she said and I quote "Can we cap future bills at $400 instead" but she will contribute $80 this month. She went home and scolded her maid for using too much water. I was thinking, "Really?? you guys want the toilet sparking clean at all times, all clothes scrub and soak first before washing". Second month was still manageable at $350 but Zw inform me that it was just a estimate and the next month will be the actual bill. And..... guess what, May's bill was at $584!!! I told the Mum and she paid me back $180 3 days later.
At finally, the last week before end May they started moving but only move their dogs on the night of the very last day. As a result, Zw and I had to stay til 2am scrubbing the walls and floor. Because she sleeps with 5 of her dogs every night, her room reeks of urine and pee stains on the wall. We scrub and scrub but still...
The next day was a nightmare. The agent came and say we have to repaint that very room. Service all the AC again despite us servicing just a few days earlier because she said we need to chemical wash too. Change all the faulty window latch, clean the hood. And because of her dogs constant scratching of her door, marking of the toilet doors, we may have to change too. The full quotation is not back yet so the agent refused to return our deposit. It could be more or less $500 which is still a huge amt to us now. I told her about this, just hoping she might contribute a little because she feel thankful/sorry she had troubled us or something. Instead she told me, she will only pay for the 2 rooms ac servicing w/o chemical wash. Her room door and wall are already VERY DIRTY when she move in. And I should be THANKFUL that her mum and maid help me to wash all the windows and kitchen when they move in because it was in EXTREME dirtiness. Never had I thought that helping a friend would result in this. I told her to forget about it.
The agent is too much but it is expected they would resort to this because of money. We are very pissed and stressed about her demands. But what made me even more angry and disappointed is that I offered a place to a friend and her family for a low rental out of goodwill and had to chase out a good tenant for them. What we expected was consideration of noise, helping to clean the house and offering to pay the utilities when I said is TOO MUCH! In return, all we got was a stressful 3.5mths, tons of cleaning and a "YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL WE CLEAN THE HOUSE FOR YOU"sms.
So, again we got to be like idiots again. Always doing things for others because we are stupidly kind and gullible. We really really have to be more smart and selfish for our own good in future. It is just too difficult for us to understand that most people out there ARE unkind, inconsiderate, selfish. Scary humans. No wonder I choose animal companions over humans.
