The Bitter Law Student

My Surreal Life: Part I (aka The Voice)

I picked up my mail last Friday. Normally, this is NOT a blog-worthy event. I get the same type of mail that everyone else does; bills, advertisements, and the occasional eviction letter. Yeah. You read that right. I got an official "Notice to Vacate" my apartment last Friday. For a person who has rented apartments for almost ten years without a problem, this came as quite a shock. I initially thought that the letter was sent to me because my lease was going to expire at the end of this month and they were trying to strong-arm me into signing a new lease. So I called them. The conversation went something like this:

Evil Property Management Company: Hello, EPMC. May I help you?
The BLS: Yeah, this is The BLS. I'm calling in regards to a letter to vacate that was sent to me. Is there a reason for this?
Evil Property Management Company: (pause) No. There's no reason. The renters have just elected not to renew your lease. It has nothing to do with you.
The BLS: What? That doesn't make any sense. So this is an eviction?
Evil Property Management Company: (pause) No. This is not an eviction. It's very different. It has nothing to do with you. The renters have just elected not to renew your lease.
The BLS: Yeah, you said that already. I guess I just don't understand why you would choose not to renew a lease from a tenant who has rented from you for two and a half years without a problem.
Evil Property Management Company: It happens.
The BLS: O-kay.....

I hung up shortly thereafter. You get the drift, though. EPMC didn't really answer any of my questions. (At this time, I should add that EMPC had "evicted" the women who lived below me in a similar manner about six months ago.) I know a bit about Landlord-Tenant Acts, and I know that what EPMC is doing is legal. Unfortunately. But it's still completely shady. All I needed from them was a reason for their refusal to renew my lease. It could have been something as inane as, "You sing Kelly Clarkson in the shower too much and we're looking for a more musically diverse tenant." I would have been pissed, but at least there would have been a reason.

I was sitting in my car, holding the "eviction" letter and trying not to freak out (and failing) when I heard it. Very clearly, as if it were right next to me. It was my father's voice, and he said, "It's going to be okay," which brought tears to my eyes because that's what my dad used to say to me whenever I was freaking out about life. He would simply smile and say, "It's going to be okay, because it has to be." And he was always right, but that didn't change the fact that I was going to be homeless in approximately 27 days in a place where good and reasonably priced housing is next to impossible to find.

I started looking with a passion. It wasn't necessary, though. The first apartment I circled in the newspaper is the one I ended up renting. It's a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath townhouse in a safer dog-friendly neighborhood, where I have a bigger bedroom and kitchen and The Pug has a backyard to play in. It comes with a dishwasher and washer/dryer hookups (which I didn't have before), all for a total cost of about $60 more each month. All in all? It's a freakin' steal. (I should add that I got the apartment without having to apply for it due to the fact that the landlord's daughter was Brian's debate partner in high school and I was briefly in a sorority with her daughter as well. Landlord is also very active in the legal community (she's a judge's wife) and was excited to hear that I was a law student.)

It IS going to be okay, because it has to be.

Thanks, Dad.

posted by The BLS @ 3/13/2006 08:36:00 AM