February 1, 2005
So..
Yesterday gave birth to the worst news i’ve ever recieved in my life. I owe the apartment complex 1000 dollars because i did not give them written notice thirty days in advance that i was leaving when my lease was up. It makes me cry when i think about it long term.
I have the money to pay it off but it is going to cripple any kind of graduation excersise i had planned. Shit i need to get a cap and gown..
oh yeah did i mention my hard drive failed in my computer? so i can’t really connect to the internet…
its bad.
February 2nd, 2005 at 4:26 am
After the initial shock wears off, just try to look at it with a little perspective. It’s an artificial debt that only exists on paper. What are they going to do? Sue you for a thousand bucks? Unlikely. Send over a couple of goons to beat it out of you? Nope. Call you incessantly? Send you ugly, threatening letters? Probably. If you’re really worried about paying, you may be able to make payment arangements, which is probably more than anyone else that has skipped would bother to do. I know I wouldn’t bother. Worst case scenario, you ignore them until they turn it over to some collection agency (IF they turn it over to some collection agency). Then you ignore the collection agency until they trun it over to some other collection agency. Each iteration, the amount you “owe” gets smaller. Rinse and repeat for 5-7 years, probably less. It may hamper your ability to rent another place for a while, if thats the case find another place to live (there are also other ways around this). Point is, it’s not the worst thing in the world. Not even close. Now the hard drive failure, I feel your pain…
February 2nd, 2005 at 2:54 pm
When is your lease up? End of February? If so, you have a little more than three weeks. If you can find someone to lease the appartment when you leave, then your don’t have to pay the fee.
February 2nd, 2005 at 6:44 pm
didn’t think about either of those options… here i was thinking i was going to pay the fee and then start a grassroots campaign to find out just how many residents of the bayou shadows apartment complex actually know their lease automatically renews and that the only way to stop it from renewing itself is 30 days before the termination of the old lease…. i felt that if there was anything that could be done, maybe i could prove that their argument of “emphasizing the importance of the renewable lease” is BS and that it appears to be a corporate ploy to get more money from their customers. My intention is that if i find out that a substantial amount of leasing clients from their apartments actually are not knowledgable about this “hitch” in the lease they signed then i could turn it over to a lawyer who could file a subpena (sp?) to get their records for how high the ratio is of people who break their lease compared to people who don’t break their lease and compar that ratio to other apartment complexes and we could find out if they have taken enough steps to explain their contract to their customers. If they have not, it could be argued that they are liabel for their customer’s ignorance of the situation. This all hinges on how strange renewable leases are. Trey and Mary both told me they have never seen it used before. In the end this is just my fancy.
February 2nd, 2005 at 6:45 pm
Nice to see you on here HL-F…
February 2nd, 2005 at 7:37 pm
snaars’ idea might be a good one. you could ask them if, if you found someone to rent for you, if you’d still have to pay to break the lease. my instinct is that the likelihood of getting the corporate jackals to agree to that is low, but it is a thought. another thought would be a sub-let, but i think that’s illegal without paperwork in louisiana. as for the other idea, PLEASE DON’T DO THAT! letting it go to a collection agency could totally screw up your credit rating and affect your ability to get jobs, apartments, car and house loans, etc. for up to seven years.
February 3rd, 2005 at 1:52 am
Sorry, not trying to give bad advice here or get anyone into trouble. Just a long-winded way of saying “Cheer up”. When you think about it, has your life really changed after finding out the bad news? Is the day after finding out the bad news fundamentally different from the day before. It’s all in how you think about things. It depends on your outlook really; you can beat yourself up over this or you can cut yourself some slack. Talk to them, offer them a hundred bucks a month or something till you pay them off. I guarantee it’s more than they see from anyone else who’s broken a lease. …having a hard time thinking of a lease[i:1794c06d7e] I [/i:1794c06d7e]haven’t broken in the last 10 years… Ron. Addendum: Speaking of adventures in contemporary leasing. I just redid my lease for the new year and they have a newly added provision: If I move out without 30 days notice, I am responsible for 80% of the rent per month[i:1794c06d7e] that the apartment goes unrented[/i:1794c06d7e]. Of course, where I live can be used as a text-book example of how to run a dirty business. Addendum(2): After the Harpers Ferry fiasco (I’m sure you remember that), we could have gone about our business without paying what we owed and they wouldn’t have been able to report us to any collection agencies. However, when Stan(*) tried to get another place, he hit a roadblock. He could not rent the new place without resolving the lease from the earlier place. In this case, resolving meant we all would have to fill out paperwork declaring we had indeed skipped out on our final month’s rent (the forms were aptly titled “skip papers”). Stan gets to move into new place and we all live happily ever after… Addendum(3): Credit’s a very funny thing. Your ability to get it has more to do with businesses desperation and desire to give it to you than your actual qualifications. You may not ever qualify for thos 0.1% APRs you see on new car ads. But then again, neither will 99% of the population, and you din’t need to buy a new car anyway. (*)Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
February 3rd, 2005 at 1:56 am
[i:df8dd4a572]Nice to see you on here HL-F[/i:df8dd4a572] Thanks. Nice to finally drop in. Just came around trying to hunt down Wilbur, and I can see from his Journal entries he is [i:df8dd4a572]very[/i:df8dd4a572] busy (of course, I already knew that). Got an email from him too. I saw your plight and thought I’d offer my 2 cents, for good or ill. Ron.
February 3rd, 2005 at 3:35 am
Don’t take offense to Mary’s response… she is on the lease too so my actions have direct response to her life also… you are not the first person to tell me what you told me. In fact your the third… And in a lot of respects you are accurate. It all depends on how you view necessity. Everything you said is accurate in such that i could very well ignore this debt and the probability of their chasing me down to pay is close to nil. I could also, as advised by someone else, declare bankruptcy. I agree that these are adequate solutions for someone who wasn’t either considering or legally bound to someone (i.e. contractually bound as i am contractually bound with Mary on this lease) who was considering a housing purchase in the next ten years. That would screw up my chances of buying a house and it would screw her chances of buying a house also. So that unfortunatly isn’t an option. I actually like the fact that you told me this though because this is coming from someone who has broken many a lease (As you’ve mentioned) so it has so much more legitimacy coming from you. I actually was leary of it when Trey told me the exact same thing you said on here. Ronnie, i really am glad to hear from you. It seems like i see you out of the blue and find out your living and surviving and then you vanish again. hehe… hope you stick around.
February 3rd, 2005 at 4:28 am
[quote:76989b785a]… she is on the lease too so my actions have direct response to her life also…[/quote:76989b785a] Of course, having someone else involved does change things a bit, but I’m sticking with my underlying advice: Breathe. Relax. Don’t change any plans because of this. If you were planning to go to the movies tomorrow, then by all means go… Don’t lose sleep over this. The human mind/body is capable of dealing with a great degree of stress. [quote:76989b785a]I could also, as advised by someone else, declare bankruptcy. [/quote:76989b785a] Way, way to early to be using the “B” word here . That’s only for when your debt has exceeded your ability to repay. If [i:76989b785a]I[/i:76989b785a] haven’t declared bankruptcy by now, no one should. [quote:76989b785a]…screw up my chances of buying a house…[/quote:76989b785a] Not trying to sound flip here, but do you actually plan on buying a house in the next 5-7 years? And there are going to be so many other factors involved when you try to buy a home; like how you handle your other debt, your down-payment, your income when the time comes. This won’t be a scar on your credit record, maybe more like a pimple that didn’t heal properly for a while. [quote:76989b785a]…coming from someone who has broken many a lease (As you’ve mentioned) so it has so much more legitimacy coming from you.[/quote:76989b785a] Um… Thanks? [quote:76989b785a]It seems like i see you out of the blue and find out your living and surviving and then you vanish again.[/quote:76989b785a] Yeah, that seems to be my m.o. There are things going on in my life at the moment, and I need some non-hostile interaction and a little intellectual stimulation.
February 4th, 2005 at 4:21 am
hello. it is nice to meet you. you are amusing.
sorry to spazz like that in response to your original post, but, well, i wasn’t even thinking about the fact that my name was on the lease. i was actually thinking about me and david trying to get an apartment together later on… possibly even in the nyc area* where the rental market is incredibly tight. i am thinking of buying a house, perhaps even as soon as 3 years from now. i’ve owned a home before and ever since, i’ve been against the idea of throwing money away on rent. it was great to be able to sell my home and get the money i spent on my living situation back. i also enjoy painting walls and such and home improvement. also, i wasn’t concerned about david being too upset… the news put him in a terrible mood on the first day but the next he woke up fine.** money doesn’t get under his skin, really. he understands its insignificance… perhaps more than i’d like! i was raised by hippies, but i grew up in suburbia and somewhere along the way (perhaps due to the materialism of my ex-husband) i developed an affinity for nice things. anyway, it was nice meeting you. (*) my current residence (**) i think he had already gotten them to agree to a promissory note before he posted this entry. i think he told them he didn’t have the money and they suggested it.
February 4th, 2005 at 11:36 am
Pleased to meet you as well, Mary/Sophia(?); although we may have met before…maybe…I think. David, have I met Mary? When good advice goes bad…or is that when bad advice goes worse? I was just concerned with the line “[i:2575d664f8]the worst news i’ve ever recieved in my life[/i:2575d664f8]”. And it’s easy to dispense some drive-by wisdom when my ass isn’t on the line. But it seems that David has enough people looking out for him. New York City, huh? Wow… A promisory note sounds like a good idea. An unexpected benefit is that it can actually strengthen your credit. If you pay regularly enough, the apartment company can report it as a debt that you “pay as agreed”, which is about all you can hope for. But I think we’re all overlooking the major tragedy here. Wasn’t there a hard drive failure somewhere? How’d that turn out?
February 4th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
horribly… hehe.. see today’s post..
February 4th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
mary, sophia, either is fine. mary’s the name, sophia_de_philo is the inverse of philosophy written to sound like venus de milo… just a silly handle… david tells me we have in fact met before. on the phone last night he said we ran into you once at the video store. i do remember running into you, but the dots didn’t connect in my head. sorry about that, but it is difficult for me to remember someone by their first name and a single brief, chance meeting some time ago… there are also other ronnies in david’s life and that confuses me too. 😐 the major tragedy is in fact the hard drive! i’ll answer since i don’t know if david will be online for a while. i think he has work today but i’m not sure, and then class, and then he’s got to high tail it to new orleans to catch a plane to come up here to see me.
so, the hard drive. it failed. it’s been on the verge of failing for a long time. for months the voice of the hard drive (female) has been saying “system failed cpu test” over and over at random moments while we listen to music or watch movies… and now she appears to have died. and so, he has decided to pillage one of the hard drives from an old computer which i inherited from my late father (which i gave him several months ago to format and do with as he pleased, when i decided to purchase a laptop, after a ridiculous move on my part caused that computer to get infected with the mydoom virus). and so, even the hard drive failure crisis has passed… [quote:d6a238830b]But it seems that David has enough people looking out for him.[/quote:d6a238830b] one can never have to many people looking out for oneself, if you ask me. [quote:d6a238830b]New York City, huh? Wow…[/quote:d6a238830b] i moved in the fall to attend NYU.
February 4th, 2005 at 10:14 pm
[quote:eb630cefcf=”Arglor”]horribly… hehe.. see today’s post..[/quote:eb630cefcf] oops! look! we were writing at the same time…
February 5th, 2005 at 9:41 am
[quote:7a9cd72b6b]we ran into you once at the video store[/quote:7a9cd72b6b] Yup, I was pretty sure that we had met at Blockbuster, I just didn’t wan’t to assume in case it was someone else. And no, there’s no way I would have expected you to remember me from a brief meeting. Did you guys ever get a hold of Cowboy Bebop? (See, I remember everything). Pleased to be meeting you again. So anyhow, let me see if I have my scorecard in order… You (Mary) go to school at NYU. David is graduating/has graduated and will be joining you in New York. The two of you will most likely set up residence and stay there. Trey is still teaching/going to school/working on thesis. He is in Bancker but wants to go to Japan, or New York, or somewhere. I get to stay in Lafayette, LA. D’oh!
February 5th, 2005 at 7:17 pm
i’m not staying in NY. There is one major personal reason i want to live in NY and it is to see if i can survive in this kind of environment. I also doubt i would have even attempted had the means not been available. I graduate in May also. I do not want to live in NY long term. In fact a year is longer then i “want” to live here, but i’m going to try and push it to two years. There are just so many reasons i hate this place. I will more then likely move either A) back to lafayette and find a longterm job and just exist there, or more preferably B) move to seattle or somewhere near there and setup a longterm job heh i act like i have plans and all but this is very much in the air. I could just as easily sign up for a program that allows me to teach English in foreign countries like the Czech republic or France to high school kids. What i do know is when i graduate i’m moving up here for a year or two to see if mary and i will enjoy being with each other. BTW… when i move up here we will have an extra room so you will definitly have to schedule time to come up here and see NY… not sure you’ve ever been here or not…
February 6th, 2005 at 11:43 am
[quote:45d5240314]BTW… when i move up here we will have an extra room so you will definitly have to schedule time to come up here and see NY… not sure you’ve ever been here or not…[/quote:45d5240314] Nope, never been. Would [i:45d5240314]love[/i:45d5240314] to go, but never been. Ironically enough, my daughter’s been there though. But then again, she’s more well-travelled than I am. And as for a visit…my first reaction is to say that it would be near impossible for me to go to NYC; but on the other hand, maybe it’s not all that impossible. Never say never and all that jazz. As for you, by all means…get the hell out of Louisiana. And don’t look back. One year, two years, ten years… the longer the better. The only argument I can see for you staying in LA is that we need more blue people to live in more red states. Another argument against NY, one that’s been drilled in my head over and over, is the cost of living is astronomical. But hey, millions of people live there and they can’t all be wealthy. I mean there’s gotta be people living there to cook for the wealthy people and clean thier homes, right? Still wondering: have you graduated yet? Or are you graduating at the end of this sememster? Bachelor’s, I assume? Are you done with school, or maybe planning to go to school in NY? And was it English? Or Philosophy? I’m so lost…
February 7th, 2005 at 5:38 pm
nope i haven’t graduated yet.. i gruduate at the end of the semester… bachelor’s in philosophy… i have to big plans setup… one is i get my masters from CUNY, which i’m learning is a lot more difficult then previously imagined. second i’m going to teach for a program like teach america… where they pay me a teaching salary and i don’t need to have a certificate… some of the programs even help me get a masters in education (which is not what i really want but with this masters i can get a more money for teaching high school)… thats all of it..