Landlords suck.

To give you a little background, the duplex we live in was previously rented by two good friends of ours. They bought a house at the same time we were moving to Eau Claire, so we got in touch with their landlord and signed a lease. They didn't really have too many complaints about the landlord, so we figured it would be okay.

The day we moved in, the landlord asked us for a copy of the key as he didn't have one. We thought that was kind of strange, but it didn't seem like that big of a deal, so we just wrote it off.

Anyway, last night our air conditioning broke. If you read my last post you know that I love my air conditioning. We call the landlord this morning. He came over to look at it. He called Miles later and said...

"I don't know what you're talking about. It was plenty cool in the house. I also hosed off the unit outside."

Miles says, "Mike, it's not the outside unit that needs cleaning. It doesn't work because no air is coming up through the vents. "

Landlord: "Well I just spent $200 on it last winter, so I don't want to spend that kind of money again!"

Time for more background...Last winter, on the coldest night of the year, the furnace broke. The air conditioner and the furnace run off the same fan. When we called the landlord about the broken heat, we assumed he would call someone right away as it was very cold, probably 10 below, and we have a small child. That conversation went like this...

Landlord: "Do you have a space heater?"

Miles: "Yes, why?"

Landlord: "Use that tonight and tomorrow I will call someone.

Moral of the story is, the motor that was "replaced" last winter is crap, it has smelled like burnt motor ever since it was replaced, and he is just going to have to spend more money to replace it again. That's the burden you take when you rent out property.

I cannot wait to move and stop feeding his bottom line, without getting anything in return.