Rented accommodation and property basic maintenance skills

JaneyMacker

I have a part time job with an estate agent.
Basically Im a handyman for them in the evenings and at weekends.
It suits me as I can do my normal job during the day and they give me an apartment rent free in one of the complexes they manage apartments in. Then I am on call for anything that comes up and i get paid a call out charge.

Last night just pushed me over the edge and I called the tenant thick and useless. This is the second time with this particular person that i have gone out for the same problem. They have a baby in the apartment so it needed to be done right away. Only for the poor baby might freeze overnight with such thick parents i wouldnt have bothered going out.

The call was about a tripped switch. No electricity. Do you think they could deal with it themselves after being show last week what the problem was - not on your nelly. I had go out and reset the trip switch for them.

Last week they called me out at 11pm. No electricity. I tripped the switch back and it tripped again. I found a hairdryer in bad repair was causing it. Plugged out the hair dryer and plugged it into a socket in the kitchen it tripped again. Told them to dump that hair dryer before they get killed. Guess what the problem was last night. The same hair dryer. The same tripped switch. The idiots couldnt even do what I showed them. Get rid of the hair dryer and flick the switch.

Now they arent the only example of thick useless tenants. I'll give you a few examples of things that happen over and over. Any normal person knows and would fix these things easily themselves. And most do.

1 - The tripped switch. Can people not figure out how to untrip it? Should be taught in school.

2 - Shower hose on electric shower. The amount of calls I get by the same people every couple of months to replace these. These seem to last years with me or most people I know and when they fail we just go to woodies and get a new hose for a fiver and screw it on. Its not rocket science.

3 - Washing machine not working. Its nearly always the filter. Unscrew it and take out whats stuck in it. Nothing could be easier.

4 - Light bulbs. Yes, i kid you not. A lot of people call their landlords when a light bulb blows.

5 - Fuses in plugs - See light bulbs.

6 - Mold. Big one this. Ive seen this a lot and only ever seen one case where it wasnt caused by the tenant. You go up about mold and then you see things like. --Windows that have never been opened. You know by the dust on the handle thats never been touched.
-Clothes being dried on radiators or clothes horses making the place like a sauna.
-Blocked up air vents
-Even toothbrushes jammed into bathroom extractor fans to stop them because they dont like the noise.

And thats what I see when I walk in. God knows what they had going before i went in.

Ive even come across the same tenant who moved out of one moldy apartment into another and caused mold there where there was never a problem before.

I know the guy from the damp proofing so well know he offered me a job.
He reckons landlords should charge the tenants for most 99% of mold issues.
He says there are moisture detectors that you can get now, like smoke alarms but for moisture. They go off like a smoke alarm when moisture gets too high. So you have to stop drying clothes inside and blocking vents. He says all landlords should get them fitted. People wont be long then learning that you have to control moisture yourself instad of waiting weeks and then getting mold.

7 - Water wont heat. Learn how to work a timer.

8 - Heating doesnt work. Learn how a thermostat works before calling someone.

9 - No gas. Pay your bill.

10 - Phone not working. Did you call the phone company about your account. I dont hve one.

11 - I nearly forgot this one. Spiders. Yes, there are people who call and want pest control because there are a couple of spiders in their house.

The list goes on and on.

Are people just lazy?
Or is it that they are just a bit thick and should not be let out in the world on their own. It doesnt take much to go and get a shower hose or a light bulb or trip a switch, change a fuse etc.
People want to be waited on.
I dont mind as I get paid for it, but it really saddens me to see how useless a lot of people are when they are supposed to be looking after themselves and their families.

A lot of problems are genuine and require something done, but over 50% now are just laziness and stupidity.

Desireandhell

Presumably you mean rented and not tented?

While you're undoubtedly right about the maddening encounters you face on a regular basis, your conclusion is as lazy and shortsighted as me asking:

can all handymen not ****ing spell?

blah

Thanks for the laughs, I have no problem changing a lightbulb/fuse, resetting a trip switch myself, but I would believe that others are so lazy that they wouldn't be bothered even trying themselves.

On the flip side, as a tenant, I had an issue with a letting agency. The extractor fan in the bathroom was so old and ineffective that we had a mould issue, as well as the moisture even damaging the lighting in the bathroom. So I rang the letting agents, they said they couldn't do anything about it (I explained the issue was the fan), they said they would send someone out to clean the mould (they didn't) and as for the lights, they said "we don't change light bulbs" (I explained that the light sockets were literally rusting over due to moisture, they didn't listen).

Eventually they sent someone out who took one look at the fan and said "that's not doing anything at all" and he replaced it with "the most powerful fan he could find" which sounded like a jet engine (in a one bedroom apartment), complete overkill, the neighbours even asked about the noise of it, but at least the mould problem was gone.

blah

Desireandhell wrote: »

Presumably you mean rented and not tented?

First glance I thought it was about Occupy Wall Street.

UDP

Are things that bad that people have moved into tents?

On a more serious note is it not good for you that people are "lazy/thick" since it creates more employment for you. I assume you get the call out charge whether there is an actual problem or not.

Also it is being an a$$hole to call someone thick and useless to their face. Highly unprofessional.

Also thick and lazy are relative words. Should an scientist call you thick if you do not know any of the rules of quantum mechanics?

You say you dont mind but obviously you do when you called a tenant thick and useless. Get off your high horse.

D3PO

well if these people werent so lazy you would be out of a job and free accomadation. you should be happy :rolleyes:

whilst they should probably teach how to trip a switch in school like you suggest they should probably also teach customer relations.

if anybody providing a service called me thick and useless id make sure they were on the dole queue so fast their feet wouldnt touch the ground.

JaneyMacker

Desireandhell wrote: »

Presumably you mean rented and not tented?

While you're undoubtedly right about the maddening encounters you face on a regular basis, your conclusion is as lazy and shortsighted as me asking:

can all handymen not ****ing spell?

I did mean rented.

Sorry. Slip of the finger. Much like your slip of the finger in your post.

JaneyMacker

D3PO wrote: »

well if these people werent so lazy you would be out of a job and free accomadation. you should be happy :rolleyes:

whilst they should probably teach how to trip a switch in school like you suggest they should probably also teach customer relations.

if anybody providing a service called me thick and useless id make sure they were on the dole queue so fast their feet wouldnt touch the ground.

Well im glad they are thick and useless apart from the act that they are responsible for the well being of their baby. It doesnt change the fact that they are thick and useless though. Id be surprised if this particular couple make it through to next year without being killed from a hairdryer injury.

robd

JaneyMacker wrote: »

Are people just lazy?
Or is it that they are just a bit thick and should not be let out in the world on their own. It doesnt take much to go and get a shower hose or a light bulb or trip a switch, change a fuse etc.
People want to be waited on.
I dont mind as I get paid for it, but it really saddens me to see how useless a lot of people are when they are supposed to be looking after themselves and their families.

A lot of problems are genuine and require something done, but over 50% now are just laziness and stupidity.

The problem here is simple. There is no cost to the tenant in having you called out. If this is the system then that's what they'll do as it's easy. If there was a penalty (a disincentive) then they'd think twice.

A disincentive is simple. €50 call out charge, refundable to tenant if it requires something to be genuinely fixed.

In your case you make money on the callouts so really what's the problem? You're both incentivised here. If you moved to the above system you'd still be incentivised so no harm in you pushing agent.

JaneyMacker

robd wrote: »

The problem here is simple. There is no cost to the tenant in having you called out. If this is the system then that's what they'll do as it's easy. If there was a penalty (a disincentive) then they'd think twice.

A disincentive is simple. €50 call out charge, refundable to tenant if it requires something to be genuinely fixed.

In your case you make money on the callouts so really what's the problem? You're both incentivised here. If you moved to the above system you'd still be incentivised so no harm in you pushing agent.

I dont care about being called out at all.
The call out charge is small, but I get a salary so its my job anyway.

Im just pointing out how dumb some people are.
Its frightening actually how helpless people seem to be getting.

The problem is that people think a new light bulb or changing a fuse or working a thermostat are actually things that are "broken".

tbh landlords would be better off saying "You want something fixed? Ok, no problem i'll have someone out in 2 weeks". Then in that two weeks i bet people miraculously learn how to change their light bulbs or check their washing machine filters for that tissue they left in their pocket.

It was the couple with the baby that sent me over the edge though.
If noone had come out would that baby have been left cold all night instead of the parents learning the first time. What if the mother was holding the baby will touching the hair dryer when she got a shock off it? She was told it was faulty. Have people no cop on.

UDP

JaneyMacker wrote: »

I dont care about being called out at all.
The call out charge is small, but I get a salary so its my job anyway.

Then why did you call one of your clients thick and useless? You should be fired for such unprofessional behaviour.

matrim

Just a quick "from the other side" on a couple of these

JaneyMacker wrote: »

2 - Shower hose on electric shower. The amount of calls I get by the same people every couple of months to replace these. These seem to last years with me or most people I know and when they fail we just go to woodies and get a new hose for a fiver and screw it on. Its not rocket science.

I've moved into a new place and noticed that the shower head wasn't working. I knew it was a cheap fix but as I just moved in didn't want to fork out myself for a new shower head. I called the landlord and offered to buy the new head (for €10), if they would pay me back when I presented the receipt. Instead of this he called someone out to do it :rolleyes: and probably cost himself €50

3 - Washing machine not working. Its nearly always the filter. Unscrew it and take out whats stuck in it. Nothing could be easier.

I had a problem before and no matter what I tried to do I couldn't open the filter. I didn't want to break it and be charged so called the LL. He sent someone out and it even took him about 15 minutes to open it.

Although anytime after that I did it myself.

7 - Water wont heat. Learn how to work a timer.

8 - Heating doesnt work. Learn how a thermostat works before calling someone.

99% of the times it's easy but once every now and again the heating system can be a bastard and you get called out because if you call the landlord they don't even know themselves so can't even give a basic explanation over the phone

Paparazzo

D3PO wrote: »

well if these people werent so lazy you would be out of a job and free accomadation. you should be happy :rolleyes:

whilst they should probably teach how to trip a switch in school like you suggest they should probably also teach customer relations.

if anybody providing a service called me thick and useless id make sure they were on the dole queue so fast their feet wouldnt touch the ground.

In fairness to the OP, if someone insisted on using a faulty hairdryer that kept tripping the switch, they probably deserve it.

old_aussie

OP, without these thick and lazy people you'd be out of a job and out of your "free" apartment.

So what is your real problem OP?

tara73

op, yes, many many people are not as we would wish they should be, call it thick and useless, but
1. it hasn't anything to do that they rent, it's just that you get in contact with them whilst in your job.
2. you won't change them or can get rid of them even irresponsible parents exist.

and often people are overly anxious when it comes to anything to do with electricity or electrical devices. they don't have any understanding of it and won't even consider changing a lightbulb. it's just fear. don't take it personal.

don't know exactly what is the intention of your post, but as a good meant advice, could it be you' ve too much on your plate? you write you have a normal full time job and this one. do you ever have time off then?

maybe you should cancel this job, or you'll become more and more frustrated and angry and that's no good:)

JaneyMacker

UDP wrote: »

Then why did you call one of your clients thick and useless? You should be fired for such unprofessional behaviour.

Because they are thick and useless.
And I would add dangerous to that list too.
I wont be fired. So please dont be hurt on their behave.

JaneyMacker

matrim wrote: »

Just a quick "from the other side" on a couple of these


I've moved into a new place and noticed that the shower head wasn't working. I knew it was a cheap fix but as I just moved in didn't want to fork out myself for a new shower head. I called the landlord and offered to buy the new head (for €10), if they would pay me back when I presented the receipt. Instead of this he called someone out to do it :rolleyes: and probably cost himself €50



I had a problem before and no matter what I tried to do I couldn't open the filter. I didn't want to break it and be charged so called the LL. He sent someone out and it even took him about 15 minutes to open it.

Although anytime after that I did it myself.


99% of the times it's easy but once every now and again the heating system can be a bastard and you get called out because if you call the landlord they don't even know themselves so can't even give a basic explanation over the phone

There can be, and most of the time are genuine problems. At least you had the common sense to try and solve the problems yourself.
Most people nowadays dont have the foggiest clue how to look after themselves. Mammy and Daddy have done everything for them all their lives.
Now at 35 years old they leave home and dont know what a trip switch is.

Desireandhell

JaneyMacker wrote: »

I did mean rented.

Sorry. Slip of the finger. Much like your slip of the finger in your post.

Haha nah man didn't anything by it

I sold my houses in 2008 so I'm a renter.

I don't think I'm lazy or thick though - honestly!

Anyway, I enjoyed your rant - I'm sure all of it's true. It's just the blanket conclusion I was getting at!

Take it handy

JaneyMacker

tara73 wrote: »

op, yes, many many people are not as we would wish they should be, call it thick and useless, but
1. it hasn't anything to do that they rent, it's just that you get in contact with them whilst in your job.
2. you won't change them or can get rid of them even irresponsible parents exist.

and often people are overly anxious when it comes to anything to do with electricity or electrical devices. they don't have any understanding of it and won't even consider changing a lightbulb. it's just fear. don't take it personal.

don't know exactly what is the intention of your post, but as a good meant advice, could it be you' ve too much on your plate? you write you have a normal full time job and this one. do you ever have time off then?

maybe you should cancel this job, or you'll become more and more frustrated and angry and that's no good:)

Thanks for the psycho exam.
Dont worry about me. Worry about people who refuse to help themselves.

odds_on

old_aussie wrote: »

OP, without these thick and lazy people you'd be out of a job and out of your "free" apartment.

So what is your real problem OP?

That's a bit like saying that it's not a problem to throw litter in the street as it keeps street cleaners or road sweepers in work.

Tefral

Op, I think you might be underselling yourself or over estimating people.
Personally I can do anything with my hands, I can do anything with diy, from something as simple as changing a lock to mixing concrete and laying blocks.

I learned this as my father was building our house as I grew up and was exposed to this. You were obviously thought how to do these things and what you and I take for granted is in fact a skill..

My brother in law, has a Masters degree, is also a qualified lecturer and couldn’t even hang a shelf until my Dad showed him how to one day. The reason – nobody showed him how to.

You might think.. ah its only a shelf, but there’s the wall plugs to think of, the size of the screws, the depth of the hole in the wall, then there’s the fact you might not even own a drill.. Again all the things we take for granted.

Frank Black

Maybe they're incredible successful in life and don't want to bogged down carrying out trivial household tasks, especially when there's someone (you know bit lacking in social graces, but good with a trip switch) that they can call up to do it for them.

Seems like very sensible behaviour to me.

John Mason

have to say, i agree with you totally.

i spend a lot of time in work looking like this :eek:

i am shocked at the level of stupidity out there.

anndub

JaneyMacker wrote: »

6 - Mold. Big one this.
-Clothes being dried on radiators or clothes horses making the place like a sauna

Where else would you suggest someone living in an apartment dries their clothes?

JaneyMacker

anndub wrote: »

Where else would you suggest someone living in an apartment dries their clothes?

You probably have three choices.
1 - Live in an apartment full of mold.
2 - Dry your clothes in a dryer.
3 - Dry your clothes inside but keep all the windows open all the time.

If you dont have a dryer tell your landlord he has two choices.

Its up to you how you want to live. If you get mold after drying clothes in an enclosed space and expect not to have any problems - Get in the thick queue.

anndub

JaneyMacker wrote: »

Its up to you how you want to live. If you get mold after drying clothes in an enclosed space and expect not to have any problems - Get in the thick queue.

So you're telling me you, as an apartment dweller, dry all your clothes in the dryer?

This could go a long way toward explaining why you need to work two jobs.

No need to resort to insults to make your point by the way.

JaneyMacker

anndub wrote: »

So you're telling me you, as an apartment dweller, dry all your clothes in the dryer?

This could go a long way toward explaining why you need to work two jobs.

No need to resort to insults to make your point by the way.

Dont take my word for it.
You dry your clothes how you like, but dont complain that its anyone else problem if you get mold in your apartment from moisture in the air.

The_Conductor

Guys- please read the forum charter, if you want to continue posting in this forum. Any more snide remarks or attacking of other posters- will result in bannings.

Regards,

SMcCarrick

anndub

JaneyMacker wrote: »

Dont take my word for it.
You dry your clothes how you like, but dont complain that its anyone else problem if you get mold in your apartment from moisture in the air.

Thank you. I will continue to dry my clothes how I like.

I don't have mould in my apartment. I've used the dryer twice in three and a half years, and I don't leave the windows open during the day in winter as they allow a lot of water in should it rain.

Moisture evaporating from drying a normal sized clothes wash should never build to such a level as to cause a mould problem, the only exception being if the standard way of drying every load was to have the heating on full blast all day with clothes lying directly on the radiators. Normally, the window/wall vents are capable of removing the minimal moisture that comes from drying clothes.

odds_on

anndub wrote: »

Where else would you suggest someone living in an apartment dries their clothes?

Under the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008 and as amended in 2009, states under section8, Food Preparation and Storage and Laundry

(g) Washing machine, or access to a communal washing machine facility within the curtilage of the building, and
(h) Where the house does not contain a garden or yard for the exclusive use of that house, a dryer (vented or recirculation type) or access to a communal dryer facility.

In this text where it states house, apartment is also included.

Of course, if the tenant wishes to save money by not using the required dryer facilities then there will probably be mould in the apartment, for which the tenant will be liable as damages above general wear and tear.

UDP

JaneyMacker wrote: »

You probably have three choices.
1 - Live in an apartment full of mold.
2 - Dry your clothes in a dryer.
3 - Dry your clothes inside but keep all the windows open all the time.

If you dont have a dryer tell your landlord he has two choices.

Its up to you how you want to live. If you get mold after drying clothes in an enclosed space and expect not to have any problems - Get in the thick queue.

Many apartment blocks dont allow drying clothes on balconies and drying clothes in a dryer would cost an absolute fortune. I dry them outside despite it being against the rules as I have no choice but when it is windy and rainy then I also have no choice but to dry them inside.