Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Armchair Anonymous: Bad Landlord

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us about a bad landlord experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trip Planner by Expedia. You were made to have strong opinions about sand. We were made to help you and your friends find a place on a beach with a pool and a marina and a waterfall and a soaking tub. Expedia. Made to travel. Order up for Damien. Hey, how did your doctor's appointment go, by the way? Did you ask about Rebelsis? Actually, I'm seeing my doctor later today. Did you say Rebelsis? My dad's been talking about Rebelsis. Rebelsis? Really? Yeah'm seeing my doctor later today. Did you say Rebelsis? My dad's been

talking about Rebelsis. Rebelsis? Really? Yeah, he says it's a pill that... That's right! Did you know it's also covered by most private insurance plans? Well, I'll definitely be asking my doctor if Rebelsis is right for me. Rebelsis. Ask your doctor or visit Rebelsis.ca. Order up for Rebelsys. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Anonymous. I'm Dick Harrington. I'm joined by Kylie Bado. Hi, Kylie. What's the weather like out in Santa Monica today?

42 and windy. Unseasonably cold. That must be a record. I wish our prompt was unseasonable temperatures. That would have been a really great segue. That would. Tell us about a time where your hometown was unseasonably cold or hot. Let's see if we can get there, if we can make a connection.

Yes. Have you ever been in bad weather and been so uncomfortable in your apartment, and then when reached out to your landlord, you were told to fuck yourself? That's right. Ding, ding, ding. Bad landlord experiences. That's right. Ding, ding, ding. Bad landlord experiences. That's what this is.

Yeah, so we're going to hear from some people that had some undesirable landlord. One in particular, I still wouldn't mind going over to MacArthur Park and just seeing if I can spot them. I'd like to pop in and just give them a, hey, I see you. Don't do it. All right. Please enjoy Bad Landlords. Hello? Hello? Hi. one thing you gotta know i'ma keep on shining hello hello hi is this molly it is can you hear me okay oh beautifully and you have an assistant i see you have a second parties here my uh technical and emotional support wonderful he's making sure everything is turned on because I'm not going to touch anything. Well, he's done an incredible job.

You sound gangbusters. Great. And look at this little environment you're in. It looks like there's some softness behind you. That's really going to make for good sound. We landed in London this morning. Oh, you're in London. Are you all fucked up from the weird time change?

That and this. I don't know where I'm at or what's happening. Is it for vacation? Two week vacation with my husband. Oh, heaven. Heaven, heaven. Okay. So you're in London on vacation. So thank you for taking a minute of your vacation. Although as we just discussed, this is that weird day where you can't decide if you're going to stay up until nine or go to sleep at 4 p.m. But you have a great bad landlord story for us. I have a landlord story for you. So this is in 2012.

I was in my fourth year of optometry school and we go on four three-month rotations where short-term housing was a must. And so it was a scrapped together situation where my first rotation was in Austin. They can deploy you anywhere. You have some choice. You have to kind of fill certain requirements and there's certain options and it's a lottery system and it's this whole shebang.

But you really kind of have to figure out your own housing and you're not getting paid. You're still paying for school. Yeah, right. You're an intern, basically. So my first one was in Austin. My first person canceled on me. The second one, they moved out and took all of the furniture with them when I was there. I had to move three times during that rotation.

So my next one was in Daytona. I was like, we're going to do better. It has to go better. Sure. My sister lived 40 minutes away, So I had her vet the place that I found. And she's like, yeah, it's you know, it's a studio. It's small, but it's off the beach. I think it has everything you need. So my husband flew in and we drove from Austin to Daytona. We get there, the landlords drive up. It's like this nice looking middle-aged couple in a bright yellow Hummer. Oh, perfect.

Yes. And this is historic Tudor home, beautiful. And they're like, oh yeah, come around. It's a gravel lot. And we park and the place is actually in the back house, not in like the main house. And it had three units in it, two side-by-side and one on top. And mine was in the one that didn't have one on top. So I was like, well, that's good. Like, it looks quiet. We unlock the door. We walk inside and we look at each other and we're like roaches. So for anybody natural, they might not know that roaches have a smell.

And that was the smell. Oh, it was furnished, but it was just a single bed, two armchairs, and then there's like a small kitchen and a bathroom. So it wasn't a lot of furniture. And so I was trying to figure out how it's going to work with the bed. So I had luckily or unluckily, I don't know, had an air mattress from the time I was living in the empty apartment. I like had it deflated and put it over top of the bed. Okay. Oh, smart. Thinking that would kind of protect my body a little bit. Didn't use the armchairs at all and

just like had a folding chair and made it work. And so there was all kinds of problems. So I kept texting the landlords. I'm like, look, there is a roach problem. You know, the fire alarm is chirping. There's only three light bulbs in the whole place, but two of them are burnt out. I need some help. And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, we'll get Terminix out. And so for the first time in my entire life, I took up running. And so I would go to work. I would run on the beach until the sunset. I would come home. I would cook dinner. And then I would have a battle in the kitchen of who were the bravest roaches that night, kill them all, clean up and put everything in the outside trash, thinking like I would minimize my risk while sleeping. So finally, after like pleading with

them, they're like, OK, we're going to send somebody out. They're going to treat the place. That weekend, I went and stayed at my sister's. I come home and I'm like carrying my bags. I'm unlocking the door and I'm kind of clocking in my periphery that there are roaches in the gravel right outside of the apartment. Alive or dead? Combination. Like they seem to be kind of moving through the gravel away from the unit. And I open the door and they fall from the doorframe.

No! Running out of the place. It was a bugpocalypse. There were roaches in all states of dying across every single surface. Oh my God. A wave of smoke comes out. So I look and they had set off three bug bombs in a couple hundred square foot unit.

And all of the windows were sealed shut. So there was no way to air it out. All of my belongings are inside. And I call them. I'm like, this was not Terminix. Like you guys just set off bug bombs in. All of my belongings are inside. And I call them. I'm like, this was not Terminex. Like you guys just set up bug bombs in here with all my belongings. You didn't tell me. I had to clean up everything.

Had to wash everything. And I was like, this is just disgusting. I don't think I can stay here. And they're like, oh, it's fine. I honestly just cleaned everything up. I continued on my business. And not long later, I was using like the laundry, which was outside.

And a huge thunderstorm comes through, which is pretty typical for like Florida summers. And I'm going in and out and in and out. And I look up and over the bed, there's a huge sag forming in the ceiling. Oh, my boy. And I i was like we have a problem so i give them a call goes to voicemail i was like look it's raining there's a water leak it's right over the bed we need to get somebody out here immediately i'm like texting pictures

nobody is answering like the phone calls are kind of disintegr disintegrating into panic. I come back in one more time and the ceiling has caved in on the bed. Decades of roach debris. Mold. Garbage has fallen from the ceiling. And at this point, I call Venom and I'm just laughing. I'm like, the worst has happened. It's on my bed. I don't know what else to say.

And so they finally come out and they're like, oh, wow. Yeah, I guess that's going to take a little bit to fix. And I was like, yeah, like you're going to have to compensate me to stay at a hotel. And they're like, actually, now they have another unit available in the big house. And even though it would be more expensive, they'll graciously let me stay there at the same cost. Oh my gosh. Do you take them up on that offer? Of course.

Shake off my air mattress. I feel that bad boy up. And then once again, living in another empty apartment on an air mattress for the remainder of the time. Oh, was the big house inundated also with cockroaches or was it better? It obviously didn't have the same water leaks. It didn't have the same mold and you couldn't smell the cockroaches in the same way.

I mean, there were still bugs. Wow. But it wasn't like a battle to the death every night. This is bringing back some PTSD from my 10 years in the apartment in Santa Monica, where we fought the cockroaches, a.k.a. grumblies. We fought the grumblies valiantly daily for 10 years. And you couldn't do anything about it because we had neighbors that were below us. You couldn't control what was happening there or across the hall. And we would let those bug bombs off occasionally.

Like, if we knew we were going to be out of town, we'd put one under the sink. And as I told Monica, which grossed her throughout, you start killing them with your hands. Did you get to that point? Well, they're so big. Yeah. My hands are so small that proportionally I couldn't do it. Shoes and stuff. I've done shoes.

You ever put, like, a paper towel over your hand and just start smashing? I'm surprised. Like, I mean, I'm not, because you have strong hands. But you have to have a surfeit. Like, my hand also wouldn't be too squishy. No, you could do it. You just pop. They die pretty easy.

They kind of just pop up. Shoes are good. I'm more of a stomp or a smack with the flip out, but they're resilient. I mean, you really have to mean it when you kill them. They got their reputation for a reason.

Georgia has a fair share as well. Those southern states, yeah. Cockroach, La Cucaracha. No bueno. Anyway, wow. Wow, what a disgusting story. I loved it. Yeah, the icing on the cake was

they never gave me my security deposit back. They said that I had actually owed them like $60 or something. That's why they couldn't send me my $500 back. Oh, my God. This is kind of slumlordy. This could also be a slumlordy prompt. And a bully. You know, maybe these two, they're like, we're going to be in the management business, but they're just ill-equipped.

What can we say? Can we make any excuses? No, they're just running slums. They drive Hum slums and they're like we want to make some money if they had arrived in a rusted out honda prelude that makes it different right a little bit you're like oh they just couldn't afford to maintain these places yeah full-size yellow hummer wow well molly that was fantastic. I'm so sorry you went through that. But I imagine now that you're a sorted out optometrist, you're probably doing okay.

It's all part of the story now. Two weeks in London. You're doing pretty good. I'm in Europe and talking to you guys. I can't complain too much. The hassle got me this. So it all comes around, right? Yes.

Well, thank your husband for us for doing such a great job technically. Thank you so much. Do you mind if he says hello really quick? Oh, we would love to say hello. Hello. Hello. Maybe give him one earbud. Maybe one of the two. See, I know how nothing works. I try to be IT support as I can. You did a stellar job. Thank

you. Everything ran perfectly. We appreciate your efforts. For this to kind of kick off our 10-year anniversary, it's really exciting. Oh, we have the best tip for you. You're in London. Absolutely go eat immediately at Lina Stores. There's three or four locations. It's the best Italian I've had outside of Italy.

It's insane. All right. I was trying to Instastock Manica when she was in London recently. You should definitely go to Brat. B-R-A-T. I was trying to Instastock Manika when she was in London recently. You should definitely go to Brat, B-R-A-T. It's in Shoreditch, and you have to get the fish. You get, like, this whole fish, and it's unreal. Just take my word for it. If you eat fish, go there.

We love fish. Okay, Brat, you got to go. Fish, my favorite dish, but without no money, it's still a wish. Oh, my God. Well, great meeting you guys. Have, my favorite dish. But without no money, it's still a wish. Oh, my God. Well, great meeting you guys. Have a spectacular two weeks. We're both jealous that we're not also in London. Thanks so much.

Great to meet you. Thank you. All right, take care. Oh, my God, how cute. I think this tour is a place Lizzie Kaplan really likes, right? Yeah, that's the place she hated. She's fucked up. She got my head.

She got my head. Oh, my God, you decided you didn't like it this time? No, I liked it, but it got in my head. It wasn't as good as what we wanted. Oh, fuck that. I know. I know. I got my head. Oh my God, you decided you didn't like it this time? No, I liked it, but it got in my head. Like, it wasn't as good as what we wanted. I know. I know. I hate her guts. Hello.

Oh, look at, you're on a sure DB7 as well, aren't you? I know. I thought I'd be all matchy, but you guys got these fancy ones now. Well, these are brand new and they were a gift from the kind folks at Sure. That's right. You might notice it's got our signature yellow around the outside. Oh, that's nice. Yeah.

Tim, where are you at? You seem to be in a mid-century modern something. Yeah, I'm in Minneapolis. Are you a music producer? I am not a music producer. I'm a musician. But my day job is building drums, actually. Oh, cool.

Manufacturing them? I own a drum company with a couple other guys. Oh, wow. Amazing. Yeah. You start with what, maple plywood? What do you start with? So we get our shells made locally here and we have two different variations, maple and mahogany and then poplar. What's poplar? It's just softer. It's kind of what a lot of the old vintage drums had. So we're kind of doing the vintage inspired thing. It's called of what a lot of the old vintage drums had. So we're kind of doing the vintage inspired thing. It's called Franklin Drum Company. Franklin Drum Company.

Wonderful. Make sure to order a full kit from Franklin Drum Company. Okay, so Tim, you had a bad landlord experience. I sure did. This was 2017. Actually took place in Detroit. Oh, I can't say I'm shocked to hear this, but please proceed. So my wife and I were living in Chicago at the time,

planning to move to Detroit, had some friends and family there. So I went out about a month before we were going to move, and I did the whole apartment shopping, struck out the whole morning. And then the afternoon, I met up with this guy. I'll call him Dave so I don't get him in trouble in any way. So Dave rolls up in brand new Ram 1500, gets out. 5'5", 5'6", stocky dude. Doesn't really make eye contact.

You can tell he's really nice, but pretty difficult to have a conversation with. Okay. But he tells me that he's got a handful of houses in this one neighborhood. Were you looking in like Royal Oak or something? Where were you looking? No, I was actually in Bagley, seven mile in Livernois. Oh, okay. Real Detroit.

In the thick. So he shows me a couple of places and he says they'll renovate them as they get rented. Seems like a great option. We're moving in a month. Is it going to be ready? He's like, for sure. No problem. I was like, great.

Well, let's go with this one. Is this cute little brick ready? He's like, for sure. No problem. I was like, great. Well, let's go with this one. Is this cute little brick bungalow? The upstairs was unfinished. She said, we'll throw a primary bedroom with a bathroom up there for you. It'll be great. Talking back and forth as I'm back in Chicago, like, hey, can you paint it all white? She's like, why not? Sure. She sends me pictures. The whole interior is white. It's like, this might be pretty good. So we pull up with our U-Haul and it is not habitable yet. And there's people staying there. It's just not livable. So I call him right away. I'm like, hey, so it's not done and we're here. What's going on? He's like, I guess they haven't finished up yet. I'll prorate the rent. And we were able to just stay with our family. I was like, okay. He's like, yeah. And I've got guys staying there at night. So nothing gets stolen. Oh, sure. Cool. Sounds good. Well,

just keep me posted on when we can move in. About a week and a half goes by. He's like, we have the main level done. The upstairs still needs to be finished. I'm like, okay, we'll move in. So we get there and there's just construction trash all in the backyard. Half sheets of plywood. The back porch was covered in soot from like a bonfire that somebody had. There's bugs everywhere. I'm just making a list.

I'm just like, okay, Dave, this is what we've got going on here. They finally finished the upstairs after a couple weeks. The door to the bathroom was too short, so somebody pulled a piece of trim off the floor and stuck three drywall screws in it to make it the right height. Okay. Stuff like that all the time. Oh, wow.

He had the best intentions, but it's like, this guy might be in over his head. Yeah, yeah. The first rain had a hole in the roof. Not even just like a drip, just a stream of water. Took about a month to get that one fixed. Can I ask how much the rent is? This is 16, you said? 17, and it was $11.50.

Okay. And it sounds like it shouldn't be above $400 for what you got so far. We were paying the same amount for that place as we did in Chicago. Oh, wow. So I thought maybe that price would get us a little better situation. Yeah. Yeah, an improvement. So we went through four refrigerators in four months.

Oh, boy. He kept getting used ones that would freeze our food or our food would go bad. And I was probably texting him once a week at least. Every time we talked on the phone, he was so apologetic. He seemed really earnest about it. So I'm like, OK, I guess I'll keep giving him benefit of the doubt. We'll get this sorted. And he starts trying to become friends with me, I think, too, because maybe I was just so nice. Understanding. At one point, he sent me a selfie of him and some videos at like a Metallica concert. Oh, no context.

Just, hey, dude, check it out. Oh, God. Sick, dude. Yeah, you should be worrying about my roof right now, maybe. Or at least pretending to be worrying about my roof. He also had this battle going on with a thief stealing tools and stuff from his storage facility. So he's sending me CCTV videos and like, hey, if you know anything, I'm like, I don't know anything about that. And then a little while later, he just texts me a picture and he goes, I got him. And Rob actually has a picture for you to look at.

Oh, oh, my God. And Rob printed it a picture for you to look at. Oh, oh my God. And Rob printed it. Let's see. Wait. Oh. What is going on? First of all, I feel like I'm going to know these people, but let's see. Wait, describe the picture.

Okay, but there's so much. So Detroit versus everybody. This is the shirt the man's wearing. He's standing above somebody who's on the ground sitting crisscross applesauce with their hands behind their back. He's tied up with an extension cord. Oh, right. I can see the extension cord. And he's pointing angrily.

That's the dude, though, from the truck, huh? That's my landlord. Oh, God. Because he looks kind of taller there than 5'5". Angles. The landlord is pointing somewhere. It's as if he's telling him to get out but he's but he's roped up you're not welcome i got you man get out okay so i was like okay good job yeah and

six months in we're like we just gotta get out of this yeah so we break our lease and don't have to pay anything he was really amicable we thought was that. And then about six months later, I get calls and letters from collections agencies. What? At first I was like, oh my gosh, I had my tax info mailed to the old house or something. Someone got ahold of my information somehow. And I'm digging through the accounts

and one of them is AT&T Home Services. One of them's Brinks Home Security. One's a Lowe's credit card. And all the addresses are homes that were managed by Dave. No. And so I'm like, did he steal my identity? Yes. So I try calling him a bunch because I still have his number.

No answer. I call the property management company and I say, did Dave get a new number? I can't get a hold of him. They're like, we don't have contact with him. He never existed. I don't know who you're talking about. And so as I'm given the police report. Oh, you file a police report in Detroit, which I've done. What an encouraging experience. You really get a sense they're going to follow up. encouraging experience. You really get a sense they're going to follow up. Talking to the detective and I say, okay, I don't have official proof, but I think I know who it was. I think it was my old landlord, Dave, whatever. And she goes, oh, I know that name. He was Mr. Vigilante last summer.

Right. So he apparently didn't have a great connection with the police because they were all upset that he held this dude in the house waiting for the cops to come and he like citizens arrest this old guy and the whole thing oh my god they knew of him but also couldn't get a hold of him and i went through the whole process of fixing everything and all the affidavits. It then happens again the exact same time of year, the next year. And it's like a Kohl's card. Oh, my God. A DTE account, which is the energy company in Detroit.

What a fucking nightmare. Oh, my God. And then that was it. That was the last round of it? TBD. Did you have to get a new social security number or anything like that? I didn't. No, I just was able to set up all the fraud alert stuff. So is it a pain in the neck when you want to do something now? Yeah, there's a couple extra

steps I have to do. Wow. So Dave was a vigilante, a landlord, an entrepreneur, a thief, wore a lot of hats. He wore a hat in this picture. He is wearing a hat backwards. The shirt Detroit versus everyone really says it all. Detroit won. They beat me. Detroit won. Tim zero. Yeah.

Well, I'm very sorry that was your experience in Detroit. I can't seem terribly shocked, but that's a bummer. Hey, it got me here. So great to meet you guys. Thanks for having me. Yes, of course. Take care. Bye.

There's a lot of sweet people just in America. I wish some people would call us from other countries. Well, they have, but they're always American. Yeah, I mean. You want a Russian? Yeah. Can you imagine the bad landlord stories that exist in Russia? Oh, no, you're right.

Sasha hated sand, the way it stuck to things for weeks. So when Maddie shared a surf trip on Expedia Trip Planner, he hesitated. Then he added a hotel with a cliffside pool to the plan. And they both spent the week in the water. You were made to follow your whims. We were made to help find a place on the beach with a pool and a waterfall and a soaking tub and, of course, a great shower. Expedia. Made to travel. Hey, I just got us a new Coca-Cola spice.

Nice. What's it taste like? It's like barefoot water skiing while dolphins click with glee. Whoa, let me try. Nah, it's like gliding on a gondola through waving waters as a mermaid sings. Nah, it's like Coca-Cola with a refreshing burst of raspberry and spiced flavors. Yeah. Try new Coca-Cola with a refreshing burst of raspberry and spiced flavors. Yeah. Try new Coca-Cola Spiced today.

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Hello. Hi. Caitlin? Yeah, that's me. How are you? And do you have a picture of your family on your shirt? No, is that NKTOB? What is that?

Is it NSYNC? This is No Doubt. No Doubt. Oh, nice. Of course it is. She looks like a little child from our angle. She was at that time. Yes, this is Big Sister's Hot Topic Tea from like 1990 something. Oh, love it. Anyways, you have a bad landlord

experience. Oh, do I? And it was when I lived in Los Angeles. I was there for four years. I came home during the pandemic. And the reason why I came home right when it started was because of my super fun landlord experience. His real name is Ryan, but he made us call him Attila. Okay. Can I ask what part of the city this is in? It was in MacArthur Park. Oh, okay. And he was technically the property manager.

He lived on site. It was like an old Victorian, really close to the red line. And his mom owned it. But it soon became evident that she just didn't really know what to do with him. And so she gave him this job and he wreaked havoc. He renamed himself after Attila the Hun, and that's what he made us call him. He didn't have any East Asian ethnicity to warrant the Hun distinction, or did he? He was Korean.

Oh, okay. I think the Huns are up in Mongolia, but okay. So he's going by Attila the Hun. I'd already been warned about him. So I moved into a room in a house that was full of people I knew. in mongolia but okay so he's going by a tale of the hunt i'd already been warned about him so i moved into a room in a house that was full of people i knew but literally the first day i move in he had to come in to our apartment to take care of some pigeons that were in the attic and literally an hour later he leaves and i see one dead in my roommate's bathroom skylight oh

he had killed them by spraying them in the face with like poison and Windex or something. Oh, God. And then left it there for like a week. Ew. You know, clearly he's struggling. People would often think that he was like a homeless man that wandered onto our property.

And I'm like, oh no, that's Attila. I give him money every month. He would be like always shirtless. He had a missing front tooth. Did he spend any time across the street in MacArthur Park scoring? No, because his drug dealer came to him. Oh. It was a white Mercedes with tinted windows.

It'd come like on the dot every two weeks. Oh. Okay, great. And this little pipe would always be on like the front porch or something. So he was smoking meth, I'd imagine. I think so. I originally started off feeling very bad for him because I was like,, I'd imagine. I think so. I originally started off feeling very bad for him because I was like, this person clearly has a lot of issues. And my

roommates at the time had been there for over a year already would just dig into him all the time. And at first I'd be like, you guys, but things progressed just more and more. And then I'd learned that he was quite vindictive. Things really became problematic when I became the person of the house who like turned in the rent check. Because other people had moved out and you were moving up the responsibility ladder there. Yeah. So he got my number and that's where things got pretty weird. He was already kind of a character. When I'd give the rent check, he would reenact fights he'd been in for me. You know, he'd be like, and I did this and then I did this. And I would be like, dude, just please take this rent check. Like I go my roommate greg he had to move

back home to new york and atilla got extremely mad about that because he didn't ask him first that was like i quote like in a text message and he just flipped out on us we started getting notices on our door for like he could enter in 24 hours i think in like two weeks he put up 22 notices on our door oh Oh my God. Making up reasons to come in and trying to use fear and intimidation to get us out of there. He was very sensitive about his manhood. So like someone didn't ask me. So he just went off. I had seen him do this to two young women that lived below us. One day they just looked so scared and were out in like a week. It was kind of crazy. So I started contacting my tenants unions because he was trying to evict us, even though he technically didn't have a right, which I learned.

And then COVID hits. He's on the property with us. And that's where we were like, oh, no, because things had just started getting weirder. One day I woke up at like 1 a.m. to him screaming my name and calling me every name in the book, saying that he's going to burn our apartment oh my god oh he's on one yes that time i did call the police yes and it's always so funny when they would interact with me and then like be like okay yeah we'll go check him out and then they go talk to him they come back to me and they're like you weren't lying like he's got probs and i'm like yeah my bedroom had the back door to our parking and his back doors through his bathroom and they shared the same stoop oh no i would hear all this him going in and out

it was wild so yeah covid hits and so we were like we're leaving we're not paying this last month's rent that could be our security deposit and we're getting out of here tried calling the police on us from january to march things had gotten so bad I counted I stopped texting him in January he had texted me over 200 times I'd wake up to like 30 texts him just rambling about himself and back to like us what kind of things was he updating you on about himself he like entered a karate tournament or something sometimes it was stuff like that it was everything from what he wants to do to how he's feeling and back to like insulting me it was clearly some kind of bender and it was just train of thought yeah oh boy it got really really bad

we all got out of there so fast i think by the time i left my roommates both left like two days after too it got so bad like he said he was gonna find me and that he was a freemason and that him and his brothers were gonna like track me down down. With the powers of the Illuminati. Pretty much. But I ultimately got granted a restraining order against him because he wouldn't leave me alone. He wouldn't stop calling, texting, emailing. And it was all through Zoom because it was the start of COVID. And during the hearing, he sat in my old room, in my old chair and like showed me the room.

Ew. Ew. I want to go meet him. No. We're close. No, you are not to do that. no yeah we're two stops away on the red line he's a character actually because i had filed a police report from the time he had gone to our back door and i had the report that he'd text all these times they actually took a case on my behalf against him and they represented me and i believe i technically won but they said that because he'd

been sent to court so many times that they didn't want to do anything but like counseling for him and thought that was just a waste of time. So they just dismissed it. He probably needs a treatment center. Yeah. Probably first and foremost. Maybe a couple. Yeah. Nice long term inpatient.

Did he ever try to fight any of the boys in the apartment? He didn't, but he always would say that he could. And like would describe like I could to fight any of the boys in the apartment? He didn't, but he always would say that he could and like would describe like I could punch you in the jaw and in the head.

Oh, like he's eight years old. He was 100% like a man-child. Wow. I'm glad you got away from Attila the Hun. Wasn't false advertising as it turns out.

No, no. Well, it was wonderful meeting you. Thanks for telling us that story and I'm really hoping I bump into him. I would love to chat with him.

I want to know what's going on. I would love your take. I'll start cruising MacArthur Park. I got a good enough description. You're not allowed to go there. I think I can figure it out. All right. Well, Caitlin, thank you so much.

It was really great meeting you. It was nice to meet you guys, too. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Take care. Oh, my Lord. You're like held hostage in your own apartment.

This makes your sitch a little more palatable. You had a nosy. Yes. Now you can't even say anything about it. I mean, I guess I'll say he passed away a couple weeks ago, and it is really sad. Yeah. It's one of those weird things because he was a bit cranky and nosy and eye-rolly. But now that he's passed, you feel it in the building it's a

bummer it really is then just it goes to remind you be patient yeah just like take it easy on people a little bit all right let's talk to mara kate mara kate mara oh the way her sister says it though not her it's not mara it's mar Mara, it's Mara. Right. Hello. Is this Mara? It is Mara. Oh, wonderful. And was there a third party in the room? It's my friend, Jill.

She's a huge fan. So she really wanted to say hi. Picking her head in there. Peeking it in out. She came for moral support. Oh, okay. Wonderful. Was she involved in this landlord debacle? She was around for all of it.

She wasn't there for the actual landlord debacle. So we'll keep her quiet as much as possible. Okay. Good luck. Where are you at in the country? I live right outside of Hershey, Pennsylvania. Oh, of course. I went there as a child. Okay. So tell us when and where this happened. It happened in Palmyra is the name of the town that we live in. Then town over from Hershey. I guess it all started when we found out that we were pregnant with our second child, which was in 2017. And we decided that we needed a bigger place.

We spent months looking, finally found a place on Craigslist, which probably should have been my first red flag. But we went and looked at it and it seemed great. So in April of 2017, I was six months pregnant and we also had a four-year-old. Anne's fault. Oh yeah.

So we move in. Everything seems OK at first. So in August, we start to have some electrical issues and we contacted the landlord. Landlord says, I think it's just like an issue with the electric company. It's not in the house. And we're like, maybe. Yeah, sure. So we contact the electric company.

They come out, they look at it and they're like, we think it might be on our end, but we also aren't convinced that it's not an issue with the house because no other house on the street is having issues. Fast forward to August 30th. I give birth. He six weeks after that gets sick. He's in the hospital with RSV. Oh no. Yeah. It was a rough time. We get home from the hospital after a week of staying there 24-7 with our infant. My parents had come to help us take care of our other son. And my mom is making dinner the day we get home from the hospital. And she's like, your stove isn't working. And I was like, well, that's weird. Then I went up to use the bathroom and our upstairs,

turned on the light and all the lights in the downstairs start strobing. We contact the landlord and he's like, I'll send over an electrician. It might be tomorrow. And we were like, no, it really needs to be as soon as possible. So he sends over the electrician. Electrician is drunk. Oh, smells of booze, slurring words. It's kind of a mess. So the landlord gets there and we were like, this man can absolutely not do any electrical work on our house. He sends him away and he says, we need to replace the electrical panel in the house, which is a pretty hefty project. So he ends up begrudgingly replacing the panel himself. This man is not an electrician.

Oh, boy. Oh, boy. So also, I must add, this is a four bedroom duplex. We don't have access to the basement. He has it padlocked from the outside and nailed shut from the inside. So we were like, all right, that's kind of weird. But we were just in baby world and kind of let it go. He fixes the electric panel.

Things seem like they're OK. So now we fast forward to the week of Christmas. So 2017 going into 2018. Two days after Christmas, we start to lose heat in our downstairs. We contacted the landlord once again, and he's like, you know, I'm away. You have heat in the upstairs. So just kind of deal with it. Just live in the upstairs. So New Year's Day, January 1st of 2018, he comes to our house and he's like, when I lived here, we did all of the plumbing and all of the work ourselves. He's like, and a pipe for the heat runs outside of the house. Now, mind you, it's like between

zero and 10 degrees this whole week. He's like, I'm going to have to thaw the pipe. I was angry and had zero faith in this man. My husband says, go to work. Let's have some faith in him. Let's get you out of the house so you don't quarrel with him. Yeah. And it was like bound to happen. So go to work, which is about two minutes away. And I was there for maybe about half an hour to 45 minutes. I didn't have my phone on me. I was doing stuff. And one of my employees comes up to me and says, hey, your husband's on the phone. He seems like really upset. I thought it was weird because he never called me at work. And he's the house is on fire i don't even remember driving i like appear back at our house and i walk up on the front porch because i'm just seeing red

i also knew that at that point they were in a neighbor's house and they were warm and safe so i see my landlord first person standing there I said, what the fuck happened? Right. And he puts his head down and walks away. Says nothing to me. Oh. Doesn't even address it. Come to find that the landlord was sawing the pipe for the heat with a blowtorch.

He lit all of the insulation and the floorboards in our living room on fire. And it went up through the walls and it was a mess. We also found out that in this locked and nailed shut basement, he had drywall and other insulation and all kinds of stuff. So he let all of that on fire. So in the melee, after everyone is safe and we kind of get settled, my husband and him have some words and my husband says we are moving out as soon as possible before the fire trucks had even left the house we get a text message from the landlord to me and my husband saying i acknowledge your moving out and as long as you have all of your property out by january

20th then i will return your security deposit after he lit our house on fire with my husband and my two children oh my god so we immediately know we need a lawyer because at this point, it's like he's evicting us for lighting our house on fire. Yeah, we had nothing to do with this. We contact a lawyer. We had renter's insurance, but he's like, we're going to make a claim on his homeowner's insurance because he's at complete liability for this whole situation. The lawyer contacts the homeowner's insurance.

He says to us, I need a detailed list, all of this stuff. Long story short, he says, leave all of the damaged property in the home. Take none of your personal belongings that were damaged. Leave it all there. We're like, okay. So we moved everything out. We found a place luckily within a week to move into. We successfully had an actual home that wasn't on fire and had heat and electric that functioned correctly. We get a certified letter from the landlord telling us that he would be keeping our security deposit of $1,300 and also charging us another $700 on top of that for nail holes and paint for the home that he lit on fire. Oh, my God. Wow, wow, wow.

Contacted a lawyer again. Luckily, it all worked out. And he, with a strongly worded letter, contacted the landlord and said, absolutely not. Oh, and it was $50 an hour for his labor as well. Oh, my God. Which clearly would be himself since he's doing everything. Yeah, his own labor. We were going to pay him $50 an hour to repaint.

Oh, boy. What a disaster. All while you have a brand new baby? It was too much. It was pretty awful. But, I mean, it all worked out in the end. And luckily, we had a village. So they really helped us kind of rally.

I'd be curious who moved in there. I'd want to, like, drive by and see who's living there and just chit-chat. Like, how's it going in there? We had a rough go of it there. Are you doing any better? I had said on numerous occasions, I was like, I just want to write a letter and leave it in the mailbox yeah my husband's like let's just let it go i'm afraid i'm the you in my relationship well after listening to your podcast for a very long time i would probably agree with that i'm so sorry that all happened to you but of course i appreciate you

telling us that story shame on that dude i hope he's minimally hiring some skilled laborers. Well, last I had seen him, he I don't think is renting anymore. He works at our local Lowe's. Oh, okay. Well, he's getting more familiar with like hammers. Hopefully not giving anybody advice on thawing pipes. Oh, true. I probably would have used the same method.

Really? Yeah. Blow torch on a frozen pipe, true. I probably would have used the same method. Really? Yeah. Blow torch on a frozen pipe, maybe. I guess I would have been a little more mindful of what I was also blasting, I hope, but who knows. At least a knot around insulation and, you know, wood. Yeah, and a family inside, maybe. Maybe ask them to go over to Sizzler or something for a couple hours while you work on this. I mean, anything would have been better than his method, so.

Thank you so much for telling us that story. Please wave to your friend for us. Yeah, thank you. Okay, take care. Bye. Oh, okay. Well, we've had some moments of gratitude. Yeah, yeah.

And I want to dedicate this to Steven. Okay. Steven is my landlord that passed and he was a good man. You know, I had an apartment for 10 years, but there was no landlord. I have the owners live in the building, and then there's also a landlord. That's so curious. So actually, the nice man who passed was an owner. When I'm hearing these stories, I will say it was telling about who I was.

I never called to complain about the cockroaches. Right. I just kind of like knew this is never going to get solved. Well, you also knew the building. Like it didn't seem like the type of building where they were going to come help. Not all the people living below me, unless they were to get rid of them, which I didn't want. I had versions of all those landlords in Chicago. You did?

Pretty much. I've had some fiery landlords as well. I think LA in general, though, is a little more on the up and up. There's renters' rights here. No, my bad ones have been here. We had one where I'm pretty sure the landlord's brother was living in the garage. Okay. Sometimes we'd see him in his jam jams.

Oh, in his Jimmy Jamies? Yeah, walking in the backyard. I was like, does he live here? Right. It was uncomf does he live here? Right. It was uncomf. Or is he doing some painting in there and wanted to wear his jam jams? We had one of those in a van in the parking lot behind our apartment in Chicago. Oh, he was living in the van and managing the place.

He was doing drugs in the van. Yeah. It sounds like drugs are a good companion piece if you're a landlord. Because really, you don't have to go anywhere. You're at work. Yeah, that's true. All right, well, I love you. Love you.

And I wish everyone out there with a bad landlord some reprieve. Sounds terrible. Do you want to sing a tune or something? Or a theme song? Oh. Okay, great. We don't have a theme song for this new show, so here I go, go, go. a theme song for this new show.

So here I go, go, go. We're gonna ask some random questions and with the help of our cherries, we'll get some suggestions. On the Flyer Rhyme Dish. On the Flyer Rhyme Dish. Enjoy.