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in other news
Aug. 1st, 2011 10:24 amThe median household income in my county is high enough that although I make a decent living, I qualify for a housing subsidy under a moderate-income program my building participates in. (Most affordable housing is "low income"; my building has "moderate" and "very low", which works out nicely for me.) This costs me (a) the opportunity to sign a two-year lease, since I have to re-qualify every year, and (b) some annual running-around to get things signed and notarized in the process of that re-qualification.
This year, the notice of re-qualification and the new rent and so on arrived in, like, the middle of April. I got everything signed and brought it back to them some time toward the end of May, I think. What normally happens is, one brings them all this paperwork, they do paperworky things with it, they call and say "Hooray, you've re-qualified", I go in and sign a new lease, everything is groovy. My lease is August 1 - July 31, so the end of May is plenty of time for all this to happen. (Last year I didn't even get the packet with the notice etc. until the middle of May.)
Along about the end of June, beginning of July, the office called me to say "Hey, your lease is up at the end of July, and we see that you haven't renewed it, but you also haven't given us 60 days' notice to vacate, what's up?" I, of course, said "That's a good question; what is up? I brought in my recert paperwork weeks ago and haven't heard a thing." And they said Oh!, right, the program, I see, sorry to disturb, it's the property manager who handles that, so he'll be in touch.
Guess what never happened?
So today is the first of the month and I am lease-less. I just called the office to say HI WHAT IS GOING ON, and to point out that if I haven't paid my rent by next Wednesday (the end of the ten-day grace period) because they haven't told me how much rent I owe, I'm going to be pretty angry if I'm the one who gets in trouble for it. Property manager was In A Meeting when I called, and the dude I spoke to couldn't estimate when I should expect to hear back from him. He said I should call back if he hasn't called me by the end of the day, but I expect there will be at least one intermediate phone call as well.
Of course all this blithely assumes that they haven't changed the terms and I will not be abruptly disqualified from this thing. It blithely assumes that the next thing that will happen is that I will sign a lease. If I somehow don't re-qualify, my choices will be to stay in the apartment at the normal (extortionate) rate, or move. I don't like either of these options. I look at real-estate listings now.
This year, the notice of re-qualification and the new rent and so on arrived in, like, the middle of April. I got everything signed and brought it back to them some time toward the end of May, I think. What normally happens is, one brings them all this paperwork, they do paperworky things with it, they call and say "Hooray, you've re-qualified", I go in and sign a new lease, everything is groovy. My lease is August 1 - July 31, so the end of May is plenty of time for all this to happen. (Last year I didn't even get the packet with the notice etc. until the middle of May.)
Along about the end of June, beginning of July, the office called me to say "Hey, your lease is up at the end of July, and we see that you haven't renewed it, but you also haven't given us 60 days' notice to vacate, what's up?" I, of course, said "That's a good question; what is up? I brought in my recert paperwork weeks ago and haven't heard a thing." And they said Oh!, right, the program, I see, sorry to disturb, it's the property manager who handles that, so he'll be in touch.
Guess what never happened?
So today is the first of the month and I am lease-less. I just called the office to say HI WHAT IS GOING ON, and to point out that if I haven't paid my rent by next Wednesday (the end of the ten-day grace period) because they haven't told me how much rent I owe, I'm going to be pretty angry if I'm the one who gets in trouble for it. Property manager was In A Meeting when I called, and the dude I spoke to couldn't estimate when I should expect to hear back from him. He said I should call back if he hasn't called me by the end of the day, but I expect there will be at least one intermediate phone call as well.
Of course all this blithely assumes that they haven't changed the terms and I will not be abruptly disqualified from this thing. It blithely assumes that the next thing that will happen is that I will sign a lease. If I somehow don't re-qualify, my choices will be to stay in the apartment at the normal (extortionate) rate, or move. I don't like either of these options. I look at real-estate listings now.
