OUR JOURNEY LEADING UP TO THE JOYS OF HOUSE HUNTING FOR TENANTS - PART 1

So yeah, despite the fact that we have been good tenants for the past 4 years, the owner of the property has decided it will be easier to perform the much needed repairs to the house without us in it!  You see, the house has been on the market for sale for almost a year now and he finally got an offer a few weeks ago, but alas, it did not pass property inspection....funny that!  Nope, we were not surprised.

You see, Peter and I have made the property management agent aware of several issues that needed tending to by the owner, but our requests seem to land in the "we'll get around to it" pile.  So, there are roof leak issues in several areas of the house and yep, I've got pictures (must look funny when prospective buyers take a walk through the property and see the dining room light fixture on the living room floor).  Now, it is not that I wouldn't like to put the light fixture back up, but I run the risk of it falling from the ceiling as it did once in the middle of the night and I can be thankful that it actually didn't break away from the electrical cords or the clasps and shatter into a gazillion pieces from the impact onto ceramic tile -  you get the picture I am sure.


The pergola....well, it looked nice when we viewed the house from the inside prior to us leasing it.  We couldn't actually walk outside at our property viewing because the tenants were not home and they had outdoor pets and the property management agent was nervous to go out because the dogs did not know her  Fair enough, but property hunters, beware.....make an appointment to view the place when the entire place inside and out can be viewed......you will thank yourself later!  So, it is like the saying "You can't judge a book by its cover!"  The pergola leaks all the way around, not to mention that the roof doesn't really go out far enough, so when it rains, it splashes back onto the patio; hence, my puppies have virtually no dry area and condition of lease....my pets must live outside!!!  But hey, don't get me started - that's another blog entry!!!

We have not received the "formal" notification to vacate yet, but when we do, the 60 day clock will start to tick.






Oh, and there are more property issues - the gate entrance to the backyard is so bad now, that I can barely open it.  Better if I am outside and trying to push the gate in because then I have a better chance of pushing it hard to open once the clasp is open.  Because of rain and moisture, the wood has expanded and it no longer fits into the gate frame.  The quick fix (on several previous occasions) was to sand the wood down so that it would fit; but it is beyond quick fixes now - the whole gate will need to be replaced because there is no more wood to sand down - they have sanded all the way down to the metal structure.  If you are a builder, you probably understand; but yeah, the gate is so out of alignment now, I won't even attempt to open from the inside and yes, I've mentioned this on property inspection reports several times because I believe this to be a fire hazard; e.g. if there was ever a fire and I needed to get puppies out through the yard because the house was engulfed in smoke or flames, I would be hard pressed to get them out!

But wait, there's more. the flower bed at the back of the house is falling down.  The wood has rotted and hence, the structure is no longer sound and as a result, the wall is starting to give way.  One day we'll come home from work and the wall will have fallen down!

We know that something better is out there for us and we started looking today and I'll write my follow-up blog article maybe tomorrow afternoon - I might call it "tenant lookers beware".

In preparation for today's first look, I prepared the list!  You know, the one you create that has the 1) must have's, 2) might be able to live without, 3) I'm really not sure yet, 4) What am I forgetting and more.

Well, for me, living in drought conditions has made me appreciate water so much more than I ever did in the past and so I am really hopeful that the new house we rent has a water tank!  Check out our yard before the drought:

Pretty happy with our yard here - we were trying to take good care of it.

But check out a current picture (remembering that I am no longer able to water my yard and haven't been able to for probably 2 years now because of water restrictions and the owner has not installed a water tank:

Hard to believe it is the same yard!

So, as I already mentioned, hopefully tomorrow I'll pick up where I left off and tackle the article "tenant lookers beware".  Have a good night or day depending on which time zone you read this in!  It is late here, but silly me, I went to bed too early, then woke up and couldn't go back to sleep!  Got to love it!
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