Lesson Learned: Never, Ever Rent a Place Where The Landlord Lives on Site

Oy, where to even begin. We’ve been in our new house for about 5 months now, and until recently we hadn’t had many problems with our landlady living beneath us. Alas, times have changed. Last week our landlady came upstairs and informed us that she will be refinishing the fence and then repainting the exterior of the house. Which is cool, classing things up a bit would be nice. What wasn’t cool was the fact that it was 7pm on a weekday, and she wanted all of my container plants moved away from the fence by the next day so they could begin work on the fence. So we moved them that night, in the dark, to the center of the back patio. And then…

Nothing. They sanded part of the fence along the driveway but never made it to the backyard area. Aaaaand now they appear to have given up completely? I’m not exactly pleased about having everything in disarray, especially for no reason, especially because the landlady has had so much attitude with us lately. I’ve posted before and after pics of the container moving sitch.

Then last night we came home to a note on our door, from the landlady, informing us that the house painting will be happening first and all of the plants in the alley and against the house need to be moved by tomorrow to the “right side of the property” whatever that means without any context.

Now, the fact that she misinformed us last time and now I will be moving all of the plants twice (some of which require at least 2 people to move) would, alone, probably be just an annoyance. But she has also stipulated that during the two weeks of work, we are not allowed to be on our front stoop ever, any plants not immediately moved to a satisfactory (yet unclear) place will be thrown out and that we should be prepared for noisy construction from 7am-7pm until at least 9/15.
Oh, and she wants to do a monthly inspection of our apartment “to assess needed repairs”. Which is total BS. And no. Not gonna fucking happen. We are not children, or in transitional housing. Aaaand I’m pretty sure that’s illegal in California.

We pay our rent in full and on time, and honestly we’re pretty lame. We hardly ever party or get rowdy, and rarely have people over. Honestly, we’ve had one gathering, a housewarming party over a long weekend, that was over at 11pm. If she had said “I’d like to set up a time and date to walk through the property to see what needs to be fixed,” that would have been one thing. But she is demanding full access to a space in which she doesn't live, threatening to throw out any plants not moved to whatever location she has in her head, and demanding we don't sit or smoke on our own front porch and instead use the back yard. Which would be weird even if the backyard wasn't totally fucked right now. Seriously. Check out these before and after pics from the plant move, and then try to tell me that's where we have to hang out.

Before: tidy & organized 

After: A total clusterfuck of plants and furniture

Doesn't this look inviting?

We were really hoping this would be a long term living situation, but it’s looking like that won’t be the case. I’m not sure why she has her knickers in a twist, but if this is what we have to look forward to from here on out, we’re going to have to start looking into other options. This is ridiculous. And it makes me sad. I wish she would just tell her what she's pissed about so we could fix it. But alas, she won't return voicemails or phone calls and her only communication setting seems to be attitude.