Time for my weekly vent!

[dreamintwilight]

Well, we got a text message from our landlord a little while ago telling us he wants to bring some people by the house this Sunday who are interested in possibly buying the house (we're moving out in July, or possibly earlier since he's been dropping hints they want us to leave earlier).

Well, we have 3 cats that get really freaked out by strangers and end up running around the house. In the past when our landlord has come over to look at some things that needed fixing around the house he's left doors and stuff open to places the cats shouldn't be allowed to get to (ie basement and outside). So, needless to say we don't feel comfortable having people in the house who aren't going to be paying attention to our cats since they'll be busy looking around the house.

So, we texted him back letting him know we have to leave to go somewhere at 5 pm (and getting home late), so if it could be done before then it'd be nice to be around (so we can watch the cats).

Well, we get a response back saying he preferred for us to not be there because the less people the better. He thinks the prospective people will be uncomfortable with us there. I like how he never mentioned before that we would be required to leave whenever he wanted to show the house.

The only other option is to close the cats into a room with the litter box and that room just won't be able to be showed (there is only one room in the house besides the bathrooms that has a door that actually closes). I always feel bad doing this as one of the cats tends to bully the others. AND the one room that has a door that closes has a futon mattress in it that a cat peed on that we have yet to throw out because it's so heavy to move. Not to mention our landlord's idea of time is drastically different than normal people's. He is ALWAYS running late and 30 minutes = at least 60 minutes.

Ok, so after our landlord's response my husband tells him that our concern is not necessarily that we even need to be there to follow them around, but to keep an eye on our cats. He said "We'll sit in the garage with the cats if we need to." We didn't get a response from the landlord, so Alan tried to call him and big surprise no answer.

I just feel totally inconvenienced by our landlords. I understand they want to show the house, but expecting us to just scram whenever he wants us to is kind of annoying. Especially if his reason is that less people would be better. If that's the case then why can't they just wait another month and a half until we're out of here?

I'm just annoyed. There's no way they're going to sell this house for the price they want either. Before we signed with them the house was on the market for like 2 years for like 450K and it is OLD and things don't work properly and the basement floods and doors don't fit into the door frame!


Ok...end of rant.

 

[katiesue1506]

Hmm... I think you should be able to be around when they come through.. BUT I also think you have been super lucky to get that much notice about the showing. My landlord contacted me today at 5 pm about showing the apartment tomorrow morning at 10.

I definitely think you should be able to be there though, especially since your valuables are in there.

 

[dreamintwilight]

Yeah, a month ago when he mentioned he wanted to start showing the house to some people who've expressed interest in it we told him we needed plenty of notice so we could tidy up the house a bit. I'm actually surprised he told us this early, to be honest. Well, since he apparently is kicking us out for viewings SCREW the cleaning! Haha.

I agree about us being able to stay. I mean...my husband and I have gone to look at some new places to rent and the current renters were there and it wasn't a problem.

 

[ChefShazzy]

Hey Marisa, I think I will join you in a good vent... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGgHHHHHHHHHHHH! Ahh, much better.

That does stink, at least it's just temporary and hopefully someone will rent the place soon. You are definitely lucky for getting a bit of a warning! When I was renting, and moving out soon, the landlord could show our apartment with NO notice... Apparently it was a detail in the original signed rental agreement... Well, she happened to show up at a VERY inopportune time (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)... and well... I don't know how the prospective renters felt, but was I ever uncomfortable!

 

[dreamintwilight]

Yeah...honestly I would not mind if we didn't have the cats to worry about. But we do. Grr...he still hasn't responded back to us even after Alan called and left him a voicemail saying it would be easier to talk about it over the phone. This is a grown man with a family. He's not a very good landlord. Haha

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Do you have a crate or cat carrier or something like that, that you could put the cats in for a short time? When I have visitors over, I always lock my cat into "her" room (the spare bedroom that has her food dish, water dish, and litter box) so she doesn't get outside or into the basement, and she's still got all her "amenities" in case she gets hungry or whatever. She's a very sneaky cat and has managed to get into the basement several times lately - the most recent time, she got near something hot (furnace or hot water heater I think) and singed some of the fur on her back! So I know I have to be really careful with where my cat goes, even when I'm home. It's hard enough to keep one cat out of the basement, sounds like you have your hands full with 3 kitties!

Good luck, and it sounds like the sooner you move out of there, the better - for you and the cats!

 

[dreamintwilight]

Yeah, we don't have crates. Just tiny carriers for when we take them to the vet. Nothing we could fit food in though. Hopefully they'll just hide and not sneak into the basement!

We finally got a response text (this guy really has a problem with talking on the phone!) this morning at 7:40 am letting us know his wife would be coming over on Sunday with the prospective buyers at 3 and should be out by 4. They said we'd be allowed to stay.

The husband and I decided once they arrive we'll just tell them to make sure they close doors and we'll stand outside the house until they're done and guard the doors, haha.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

That's good that you're allowed to be there, even if you have to wait around outside, at least you'll be able to round up the kitties if they do escape. Although your cats still might end up in the basement. My cat never cared about going into our basement, until a few months ago when she discovered that we've got mice in the basement - now she's obsessed with going downstairs to hunt mice! The funny thing is, she's declawed and has always been a housecat, so I did not realize she'd be such a good mouser. I wish she weren't, because now she sometimes leaves me "gifts" of dead mice. Once she put a dead mouse in my purse, and it was a purse I don't use every day, so by the time I found the mouse, it was really stinky and so disgusting. Yuck! So I hope your cats' reason for wanting to go downstairs has nothing to do with mice or "gifts".

 

[dreamintwilight]

Yeah, I think our landlords realized that they had no legal right to tell us we couldn't be there, especially since all of your stuff is inside. But, we can compromise enough and stand outside. Yeah, they might end up in the basement, but I suppose that's better than outside. I am not really sure why they like the basement as there is nothing special down there and it's unfinished. Some of the walls aren't closed in, so that's the only reason I worry about them being down there. Squeezing into tiny spaces they shouldn't be and getting stuck or something like that. Anytime they've accidentally been down there because we didn't notice them, they come back up the stairs and scratch on the door and meow. I think they just want to go down there because we are down there and when we're not they're ready to come back in, haha. OR it's just the mystery of the closed door that intrigues them!

Thankfully we've never had to worry about presents. Although, when we lived in Florida it is very common to get roaches in the house and our cats would always try and eat them. This one time I chased our cat, Chloe, all over the place trying to get her to put the roach down and she jumped on our bed with it. Nasty! She's usually so shy and timid, ut when she gets a roach she guards it from everyone and growls at the other cats, haha!

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

My cat eats bugs too. We don't have roaches, fortunately, but any other bug that gets into the house soon becomes cat food. Including BIG bugs like cicadas and beetles! We have a pet hedgehog too, and he eats mealworms and cat food. So we always joke that the hedgehog and the cat both eat the exact same diet - cat food and bugs!