Remember how in that last post I mentioned we tossed things into the dumpster? And by "things" I mean trash. Did I mention the gallon ziplock bag full of burnt matches that was found, by the way? No? Well, anyway:
We're in trou-ble! (say it in a sing-songy voice)
We had been told numerous times by the little old lady that she was leaving everything on the back porch for us. Everything. Including three sets of table legs that were missing their tops, ratty, brittle broken plastic furniture up the wazoo, and a chaise lounge missing most of it's plastic strips. Someone who seemed in charge said go for it, toss that junk out! I didn't need to be told twice.
So into the dumpster with them! We were all feeling pretty good about cleaning up the back porch. It looked...halfway decent with all the junk gone.
But. Then. I spied our agent walking back up the driveway with the aforementioned chaise. "I got caught! We've got to put the stuff back!" Crud. So we spread what remained out on the porch, to try to fill in the gaps.
"It doesn't matter," said the seller's agent. "She knows all the pieces."
We left soon thereafter.
The next day the phone calls began. "She's really upset! She's made an itemized list of everything that's missing!" "DON'T GO OVER THERE!" Yikes.
She required an apology from our agent. When he called, she demanded ones from us, too. He put his foot down and said absolutely not. She proceeded to yell at him for the next 20 minutes. She referred to the garbage on the porch as "a gift", and that it was horrible that we threw out her gifts. Because clearly, you should never ever throw out a gift. Or anything else for that matter. Then she wanted to know when we'd be back to help pack.
Let that sink in for a moment.
We came to help twice now, one time with disastrous consequences. And now she wants us back?
Um, no.
In other news, professional movers came over to give her a quote. They said there was no way they could have her out of there by Saturday. With a full crew of guys it would take seven days. (And an awful lot of money.) The selling agent's boyfriend offered to do the job for less. She turned him down.
I have a feeling this is not going to end well. Or on Saturday.
9 comments:
This may be a bit brutal, but you've done more than your fair share of trying to get this woman sorted out. She has dragged her feet on this one, and unfortunately now time has caught up with her. If it were in your shoes I'd be done with helping out, this is her junk and her responsibility. Leave the details of her getting out to her agent and family and stick to your deadline of being in there for Saturday. (And if it takes the police being called to get her out for trespassing so be it!)
Best thing she could do at this point would be to rent a sea container and load her stuff in there for her to figure it out later.
You must be eating big bowls of Patience-O's for breakfast to be able to put up with this!
That was great! I remember renovating many houses and close encounters of the third kind with people of this "nature". Best of luck to you!!
ZenHen
omg! can you call the police on saturday and say there's some crazy woman trespassing in your house???
oye vey!
Wow. I've been reading your past blogs (saw the link on Twitter) and I must say...you have the patience of the ages to deal with this!
Hope things go more smoothly from here on out!
Wow! I just had to go back and read some of your previous posts because I thought, "Is helping the former tenant pack really a requirement when buying a house??" You went above and beyond - I would have told that old lady to shove it! I hope you got a really really good deal on the house! Good luck and enjoy your gifts! haha.
Wow.... man... just wow.
Thank you all for your supportive comments! They're definitely helping me to keep some perspective on this...nightmare. ^-^
This is your property, right? You bought the house?
Inform her that she has five minutes to leave before you have her arrested for trespassing.
Harsh, but what else can you do?
Yeah, it's really ours. Looks like it won't come to that though, thank goodness! I'm no good at confrontation.
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