Landlord Visit Brings Me To Tears PART 1

Our Landlord uses a property rental group called LJ Hooker and they manage our place.  The Landlord lives up the street from us. When we first moved in his wife came over to drop off keys and said just let us know of anything that happens or that needs to be done since we are so close to you you don't need to bother with the property managers. She seemed so nice and very normal and we wondered what her husband was like.
There were quite a few things that hadn't been finished or needed to be fixed, but we were ok with that since it was newly remodeled and they promised to fix anything that needed it. The window guy came out and fixed the windows that wouldn't open and close, the air conditioner guy came out and fixed the air conditioning that didn't work, the guy who always hung around here (contractor/yard guy) was always the one to come with them and chew them out for not doing this or that right. He doesn't speak or understand English very well and so it was sometimes a challenge for me and for those who came to get things done. He would always get upset at whoever was here and was highly excitable. I just took him with a grain of salt.

Well we got a letter from LJ Hooker saying it was time for their visit to check out the property. The day of when I called to confirm she asked if it was ok for the landlord to come. I said sure no problem. They came that night and when I opened the door I was totally shocked to see the that the landlord was in fact the crazy guy we took for the contractor or lawn maintenance guy. I greeted them warmly and told them to come in but the man was fuming and I was confused. He started getting angry at me and was upset that there were remnants of the baby powder I put out on the front porch to keep the ants out. I tried to explain what it was and why it had been there and he just put his hands above his head and spoke loudly in another language. Then he walked inside and walked directly to every scratch on the floor and started yelling again. I couldn't understand most of what he said but I knew it was all directed at me. I was starting to feel upset inside and very confused. It was like he had been in here before and knew already there were scratches on the wood floor in front of the fridge and by the couch. I explained the best I could that the floor was very soft wood and although the fridge was on rollers and there were pads on the couch legs the floor was still denting/scratching.

e went through every square inch of the house complaining about my children. He yelled at me and told me that he had other places with soft floors and people with two children and they didn't do what my kids did. He said it was all my kids fault that there were marks on the floors. I tried to explain that it was the furniture and wasn't the kids. The fridge had left the marks in the kitchen not my kids but he wouldn't listen at all. He just kept yelling and shaking his head.

Let me tell you my house was spotless, not a rug or an article of clothing was out of place. The entire house looked beautiful, but none of that mattered. He was angry about the floor and tried to tell me that things that were broken were not broken and didn't need to be fixed. He couldn't understand that our bedroom door lock doesn't really work and that the boys bedroom door handle was locking us out so we had to remove it to get in to my children in the middle of the night. He said we shouldn't have taken off the handle to the door we should have called him immediately to fix it. I tried to explain that it was 4am in the morning when my son went to the bathroom and was then locked out by the door knob. We were just going to let him sleep on the couch but felt it was dangerous for the other son to be locked in the bedroom when we couldn't get to him. If there was an emergency we wouldn't be able to get him. so we had to take off the handle. The landlord wouldn't even let me get the story out. He yelled at me and shook his head and mumbled the whole time I was talking. He kept saying over and over "You should have called me. Your husband shouldn't take off the handle". I was so flustered and shocked at his treating me so horribly I hardly knew what to do or say. I finally yelled over his yell "IT WAS 4 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING" and he shut up. He still shook his head and threw up his arms though and was mad.

The property manager kept apologizing to me and saying "I'm so sorry I had no idea he was going to act like this." And "I am so sorry, he is crazy".  She told me not to worry that the place was really clean and tidy and I had nothing to worry about. I felt so abused though and upset at being treated so rudely and so unprofessionally. That guy was a TOTAL JERK.  I barely made it until they left before I started to cry. He had abused me and my children over and over and all because we took a door handle off a door that was locking us out and because of the dents/scratches on the floor. Ethne had been sleeping and his yelling woke her up. I got her out of bed and she was upset by the way he was acting. She clung to me. I put her at the table with a snack so she wouldn't be around him in the rest of the house but she could feel the tension and hear him anyway. Poor thing. She just wanted to be held for a while after he left.

I have had some bad landlords in my time but no one who treated me that disrespectfully. That visit was a month ago and he still hasn't fixed anything on the list that needed his attention. We were desperate for the phone to be fixed so we could have Internet, so we called the property manager who took care of it leading to offense #2 from the landlord. That is for another post.